“I left other people alone.” Some days, the ability to make this claim can be a manager’s highest achievement. The task has always been challenging, as I’m naturally inclined to jump in and organize. However, I’ve learned to appreciate the advantages of letting a little chaos reign.
Chaos, in this context, refers to a situation’s inherent unpredictability. It can be uncomfortable, especially for people with order-creating jobs, such as managers, MOps and technical specialists. Order is often necessary, as it improves control, consistency and efficiency. But at times, you are better off tolerating chaos and amplifying it.
Enable chaos where employees meet customers
The customer world is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA). While you can estimate the probability of customer behavior, the outcome remains unpredictable. Employees must be ready to think on their feet and adapt to a constantly changing situation.
When things get complex, employees’ entrepreneurial spirit, creativity and problem-solving are an enormous advantage.
People at the top and center of the company can’t act as quickly or accurately as someone who works at the point of action. If you fill management ranks with order-givers you end up with employees who are order-takers.
At times of uncertainty, employees will look up to see if someone else will step in to solve problems rather than acting. If you want people to be entrepreneurial, you need to give them some rope, which requires living with some chaos.
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Encourage chaos where you need new ideas and solutions
Chaos brings both destruction and opportunity, yet we often focus only on the negative. Hurricanes, for example, cause damage and replenish oceans with oxygen and nutrients. Just as life thrives on unpredictability, companies need it to avoid stagnation.
Employees who have space will innovate and can come up with marvels. Consider the Starbucks barista who first decided to write customer names on cups. Or the original Southwest flight attendant who interjected her humor into boring flight announcements. A field marketing leader told me about secretly hiring a consultant to analyze sales in a new way. The central ops group was upset but quickly got on board when they saw how effective this was.
Innovation requires more freedom (and subsequent chaos) than most companies provide. Over managing destroys people’s willingness to color outside the lines. However, it is a surefire way to get creative, innovative people to leave.
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Disrupt equilibrium if you need the organization to change
Organizations don’t evolve voluntarily. They change when the environment imposes a compelling reason why things can’t stay the same. These can be technological advances, market shifts altering revenue patterns, or the arrival of a new executive.
Other times, change requires leaders to generate chaos. The sweet spot is enough to shake things up but not so much that the organization erupts in pandemonium or freezes up. One CMO I worked with sent his team into the field to witness what real customers do. Updated strategies followed that experience quickly.
The seeds of agitation may already be present. Marketers may be unhappy about the current situation and desire something better. In any case, to kickstart change, leaders must either create a bit of chaos or turn the dial on urgency.
Becoming a catalyst for chaos
Balancing order and freedom is a constant struggle. In “Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered,” E.F. Schumacher argues that this tension lies at the heart of all human conflict.
His book explores how technology replaces human tasks and the challenges that come with it. Similarly, long-established organizations often become too rigid. In these cases, leaders must act as catalysts of chaos. Here are three ways to restore balance:
Take the blinders off
Assume your organization is overly bureaucratic. If you think it’s not, assume people are hiding it from you or you are so much a part of the system that you don’t see it. I’ve talked to CMOs who confidently relayed their team’s progress.
When I interviewed the senior executives at the next level down, it was clear they didn’t understand the bureaucracy and resistance in the middle tiers of their organizations.
Make a rule, kill a rule
Making new stuff is fun, and weeding old stuff isn’t. Smart, capable order-makers often assume that instituting new processes and rules is how they make a difference.
Over time, bureaucracy gets shockingly out of hand. Direct some of your brilliant order-makers to the task of reducing bureaucracy. With some imagination, I’ll bet AI could be a helpful assistant housekeeper for this task.
Think MVB
Minimum viable bureaucracy (MVB), inspired by Agile’s Minimum Viable Product concept, keeps an organization’s central functions lean, focusing only on essential coordination. Give tasks to the people closest to the issue. Doing this reguires getting comfortable with less centralized control and more initial mistakes. When employees seek detailed guidance, resist the urge to provide it — let them figure it out.
Leading through chaos
Neither order nor chaos are adversaries. Both allies offer benefits, and we must maintain balance. Order safeguards what is essential. Chaos reveals opportunity, enlivens our world and sparks creativity. We all benefit from embracing some unpredictability.
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