The morning was designed to bring Bath Rugby ’ s diverse partner network together , including The Business Exchange , providing an opportunity to network and share best practice . It had a growth theme and was focused on barriers to business growth , particularly in the current climate , and how those obstacles could be turned into opportunities .

The guest speaker was Dr Graham Abbey , Chief Executive of Farleigh Performance which works with organisations to encourage purposeful working .

Attendees discussed current challenges and hypothesised what might happen next in terms of the UK economy and how it could affect growth ambitions .

Dr Abbey shared his thoughts with The Business Exchange on how to turn barriers to business growth into springboards .

It currently feels as if the business headwinds are stronger than ever . World events , pandemics , wars , political instability , have disrupted customers buying habits and

supply chain reliability , leaving many stuck in the middle of a seemingly endless stream of problems . The barriers to growth seem insurmountable , in fact survival , not growth is the order of the day for many .

What would it take to turn these very challenges into a competitive advantage ? How could we approach them so that we are not just surviving , but thriving ? Essayist , Nassim Taleb coined the phrase ‘ anti-fragile ’ for businesses that could thrive in uncertainty . Change-resilient or robust is not the opposite of fragile in his view . Our immune system is a perfect example - getting stronger through the challenge of fighting a virus .

The idea of using today ’ s problems to build tomorrow ’ s capabilities is at the heart of our approach to organisational performance . We know that the solutions we find for today will contain the seeds for tomorrow ’ s challenges , so the opportunity is in growing our capability and capacity as we go . This is how we evolve to respond to more complex contexts as they emerge . That ’ s how we thrive .

This is not about ‘ sugar-coating ’ the issues we face right now . They are real . They need to be addressed and there is no magic wand to make them disappear . In fact , it is the struggle that is important . It is the opportunity to learn in adversity that holds the promise for the future .

Bottom-line , we need to focus on how we fix things , not just what we fix . So how do we thrive in this kind of world ? We have found the following acronym a useful memory jogger for conditions for antifragile organisations – HARD .

Higher Purpose - when the future is so uncertain this provides a guiding direction , without narrowing possibilities with specific goals .

Agency - with problems needing to be resolved quickly , people close to the source need to act . They need the freedom and willingness to take responsibility , to be able to experiment .

Relationships - the connectedness of everything necessitates effective working

relationship between all those involved . Teams need to form , act , and disband . Then reform and so on .

Disruption - what brought success becomes the habits that get us stuck in our ways . We have to be able to disrupt ourselves to take on new thinking and fresh perspectives .

Using the HARD acronym helps identify questions that can be explored that will not only solve today ’ s burning question - how do we improve our customer experience - but also build the capabilities and culture that will move toward thriving in the uncertainty to come .

This is what it means to become anti-fragile and how barriers to growth right now can be used as springboard for future performance .

To find out more about partnership and networking opportunities with Bath Rugby email : partnerships @ bathrugby . com and to find out more about Farleigh Performance visit : www . farleighperformance . com