Seven Ways to Find Order in Chaos
Photo by William Warby
If duress, stress, and pressure represent the dark side of opportunity, today’s world offers great opportunity. Dr. Justin Menkes said of today’s business environment, “strategies are only contingencies.”
How can leaders bring out the best in themselves and others when the world’s in constant flux? Dr. Menkes’ book, Better Under Pressure, explains three capacities every leader needs to thrive in a world of contingencies.
Realistic Optimism: an awareness of actual circumstances coupled with a sense of urgency.
Subservience to Purpose: people with this trait see their professional goal as so profound in importance that their lives become measured in value by how much they contribute to furthering that goal. What is more, they must be pursuing a professional goal in order to feel a purpose for living.
During our conversation Dr. Menkes said, “If you have firewalls to control your people and time card to keep track of time, you’ve already lost the battle.”
You need higher purpose to control behaviors and energize efforts.
Finding order in chaos: people with this ability find taking on multidimensional problems invigorating. Their ability to bring clarity to quandaries makes their contribution invaluable.
How to find order in chaos:
- Maintain clarity of thought by handling fear. Anxiety chokes clear thinking. “Any smart person can be rendered stupid under the right circumstances.”
- Use stress to intensify your focus.
- Find mentors who have handled pressure.
- Believe in your ability to work through complexity even if you don’t see how in the moment.
- Stop pretending you have all the answers – admit you need help.
- Organize problems in order to create solutions.
- Be passionate to solve puzzles and intimidating challenges.
What strategies and/or capacities enable leaders to face the challenges of leading in a constantly changing world?
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This is the last post based on my conversation with Justin Menkes and his book, Better Under Pressure. Read the post on realistic optimism: “Peter Drucker: Stop Focusing on What’s Wrong”
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This a really pertinent topic, Dan, and typically you don’t shy away from the hard questions. Thanks again for challenging us.
I think leaders dampen the stress and enable themselves if they recognize that constant change is the steady state of the new environment we find ourselves in. Instead of looking at it as something to get through, or a disadvantage peculiar to your organization, realize that the playing field is level. You’re just as good as anyone else at navigating change, and with a little practice you’ll get better. So don’t stress over it; it’s part of the environment, like the weather.
Also, make sure you have a good baseline of standard practices for everything normal, and a plan for anything outside the norm. Those two things give you the platform to quickly react to change.
I think leaders are able to view puzzles/challenges/problems from multiple points of view. Additionally they intentionally try to develop their arsenal of tools. This allows them to bring different tools to bear on the issue.
As Maslow said, “It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.”
Another thing that can help is having an inspirational or “character strengthening” source to draw from on a daily basis. I refer to scripture from the Bible, but for others that source could be different. The important thing is to get a message in our minds and hearts that call us to rise above our circumstances.
HI Dan, arguably one of my recent favorite posts and so linked to our present dynamic healthcare environment. I love the comment regarding firewalls and time clocks. The challenge for a lot of leaders is how to persuade the old guard to what Dr. Menke and you are proposing. With 1200 employees convincing HR to do away with the time clock will be almost impossible although very innovative and disruptive indeed. Providing front line staff with creative “time off” to redesign and improve their functionality presents yet another challenge. The entire C suite and the Board has to fully buy in before the managers will engage and we can get as Joe Tye says the architectural attitude adjusted and changed. Perseverance and resilience will have to be the progressive and visionary leader’s tools to journey towards Dr. Menke’s realm. Great Post and yet another book for my reading list. Have a great day.
Get outta my head Al! I too had a visceral reaction to the ‘firewalls and time clocks’, perhaps seeing things from my pragmatic lens rather than my optimistic lens. Acknowledging the reality that some people are subservient to the dollar rather than purpose may be of value as well.
And considering that there is always a chaos factor and always a human factor (not necessarily exclusive), patience, pace and perseverance come to mind as capacities to culture.
So, at the same time, recognizing that each of us are cycling through the stages of change o’ vision, the battle is not lost with the walls and clocks, rather they are the baseline of the current state and can provide perspective and direction for the journey’s next steps. There will be those who drag their feet,however those that jump in with both feet will find that they have the most fun.
I hear you Doc. I have found that when I don’t jump with both feet I usually get hurt! 🙂 I am not good at balancing plus like you said it is more fun and models the action for others. It takes a long time but when we can get the front line staff to do it not for the clock or the dollar, nor for the Board or the organization but for themselves then we have the impassioned who feel compelled and who will proceed amidst the chaos regardless. I know that sounds a “little” fanatical but to flourish in this environment that zeal is what we want and need to have. I know it must be the Kool Aid. 🙂
Worth quite a bit of $$$ if there is a consistent method to elicit passionate engagement that hooks 99% o’ the peeps.
Guys,
I completely understand your time clock points….recently I have had to make a difficult transition from no time clock and purpose to a time clock and ball and chain…..certainly a de-motivator and eliminator of passionate drive….
But there is a purpose in all this it has driven me with more energy to learn and Better Under Pressure is already in my Kindle!!
Hi Dan,
Great leaders know how to breathe consciously in moments of stress or when making important decisions. The challenge is REMEMBERING to consciously breathe during these moments of need. Our Dolly Lammy with the phrase ‘just breathe’ on its sleeve is the perfect visual aide for any office setting. We provide many companies with our breathing buddy and you be amazed at how effective such a simple tool can be.
Love the post, Dan. I. Just wrote a book on this being released this September by Jossey-Bass – called The Anywhere Leader. Our research identified three traits for leaders who succeed thru uncertainty:
A drive for progress
Sensationally curiosity
Vastly resourceful
These leaders put progress over politics. They ask more of the right questions than giving the right answer. And they can do a lot with a little.
Dear Dan,
I agree that realistic optimism is the key element, a leader should have. I have seen leaders pretending to know everything. Before you finish your discussion, they will say, I know it. It is so prevalent and common practice those leaders try to show that they are more knowledgeable than others. I believe accepting change, believing in change and struggling to change is the key to survive and sustain, let it be in the past, present or in future. We must embrace change. But simply embracing in not enough. There are people who do not make effort. For them embracing change is their weakness. So one has to make full effort before embracing change. Our beliefs and approach towards life can change the world. If we think, we are human first then most of our drawbacks will be removed. Leaders should try to be known by their works rather than by names.
What strategies and/or capacities enable leaders to face the challenges of leading in a constantly changing world?
You know, it is tremendously basic to say this but the one constant in a constantly changing world is the ability to communicate. I believe, ultimately, a leader’s ability to listen, to process information, and to transmit his/her message and instructions in a way that motivates and provides clarity is fundamental.
Love the book Dan, you did a great job summarizing the key themes. One supporting strategy to subservience to purpose is clarifying what is NOT changing amidst constant change. For instance, knowing your core values as a leader, as well as the organization’s values, can simplify and speed up decision making when stress and pressure mounts.
Speaking as a Healer:
When the body is under stress, it produces three hormones, epinephrine (flight), norepinephrine (attack), and hydrocortisone. All this happens so ‘you’ can concentrate more strongly on the fight and better survive it. Stress as a defense mechanism can be a natural, useful trait. But, when we are not able to discharge the fixed energy, that’s when it can lead to disease. The person who functions out of stress creates a vicious cycle in themselves, and that becomes their ‘program’. Then performance stress becomes conflict stress. This begins to destroy the body. Therefore, I caution about #2, and to use it wisely. Otherwise, that conflict stress will flow into your employees, and will become counterproductive.
Love it! You examine from a humanistic point of view the same type of things I deal with on a ‘here is the problem, here is what I found works’ style in my writing. More power to you!