The Importance of Chaos
One of the most under-appreciated soft skills is also terrifying to most people. Yet, a capability I believe is essential to embrace to accelerate transformation.
Many of us have kept one eye on the saga of Twitter. Despite the news today, I am in the camp that thinks Elon knows what he is doing despite not seeing the full end game. I posit that innovators like Elon have learned the value of levering chaos.
The sentiment regarding chaos is negative, and undoubtedly it has discerning outcomes that affect many people.
But the positive is that creating a cloud of turbulence acts as a catalyst that can save years of incrementalism.
For example, Elon lays off half the Twitter workforce. No doubt this activity is strenuous and sucks for laid-off workers. And, on the surface, the news is Twitter is in shambles, and Elon wasted $Billions without a grasp of the social media space — ultimately leading to resignation.
But I do see some method to the madness. IMO, the owner creates cataclysmic events that generate a rapid variance in the system to identify the critical Xs that move the most vital Ys.
Or, by laying off half the workforce and seeing what breaks, Elon quickly figured out which 100 positions matter and acted to resolve swiftly.
How long would that take otherwise?
I’ll shift gears as the timing of my Elon example is lousy.
I prefer to take clients through an ambiguous stage in my business transformation work. The team generates huge silos of information and analyses in the diagnostic phase. Then, the content is curated in one space, either a war room or a virtual whiteboard space.
The effect is disorder and information overload, followed by client coaching to work the ambiguity with the confidence that positive outcomes will come from the process.
Next, we test hypotheses, find connections within the analyses, build consensus around what success looks like, and begin to stitch together a story that connects the key outcomes that need to play out to meet that success. Finally, the puzzle pieces slowly become ordered, and a strategic path emerges.
This thinking supports a common theme in my posts, the benefits of suffering. In this case, grinding through ambiguity is a form of discomfort that leads to more hardened outcomes.
Injecting light chaos is not the right tool for every situation. Incremental planning should be more structured if a business runs well and has a strong foundation.
Instead, I’m referring to transformational needs within a dysfunctioning organization or one experiencing rapid change.
I am speculating using Elon/Twitter as an example to offer a thesis on the positive effects of chaos in business transformation.
The main takeaway is to find comfort in chaos and see where it takes you.
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