Invest in People, Not Perfection

Repair work on Mishima ware hakeme-type tea bowl with kintsugi gold lacquer, 16th century. Photo © By Daderot - Own work, CC0

A recent essay from Naval Institute Proceedings eloquently captures what I’ve been exploring in my Antifragile Leaders series: thriving through imperfection. Lieutenant Logan Barber of the US Navy reminds us that a zerodefect mindset clashes with emotional intelligence—and that lasting strength lies in growing resilient, adaptive, human-centered teams, not in some misguided search for perfection.

My husband served as a career Navy linguist and cryptologist in submarines and surface vessels, that’s why we still read Naval Proceedings. I am grateful for and somewhat awed by his service. Knowing my passion for resilience, he frequently shares articles regarding the Navy’s efforts towards and thinking on the anti-fragility so essential for our armed forces. They demonstrate what he’s always said: the Navy strives to stay ahead of the leadership curve—a center of excellence and cutting-edge practices. 

Our job as leaders isn’t to chase flawless execution—it doesn’t exist.  That’s the classic error pointed out by Thaler and Kahneman, one ubiquitous flavor of the Humans vs. Econs duality I’ve talked about. Our task is instead to build working environments where experimentation, vulnerability, and learning are not tolerated—but celebrated. You can think of it as a moment-to-moment win-learn protocol rather than the pervasive hidden decision architecture of win-lose. Read on to see why investing in people—not perfection—might just be the most antifragile move of all.