To Ponder: Can You Predict Chaos?
Well it’s December.
The countdown to the Christmas break begins and work both simultaneously speeds up and slows down. Here in Aus there are two months of the year that are particularly susceptible to this ‘predictable chaos’. December and June (our end of Fin Yr).
Predictable Chaos is what happens when, in the face of a multitude of individual actions, common patterns occurs at scale time and time again. Or as Sir Francis Galton put it:
“Whenever a large sample of chaotic elements are taken in hand and marshalled in the order of their magnitude, an unsuspected and most beautiful form of regularity proves to have been latent all along.” - Sir Francis Galton
Predictable Chaos is wonderfully represented by the Galton Board (in the GIF below).
As I’m sure you could attest - December is a month of individual chaos. A multitude of parties, pre-emptive holidays, shopping, last minute rushes & late night crunch time …And everyone has their own agendas!
It really is chaos on an individual level.
And yet, there are clear patterns that emerge. Long-haul congestion typically increases. Consumer stores see massive upticks in foot traffic. Mental health wards are often at their busiest.
So this week - ponder - what trends are you seeing emerge from the chaos that is our change efforts? And how can you prepare for them in the new year?
To Action: Patterns of Success: Stacking The Story
Let’s stay with this idea of micro and macro for a little bit longer. In previous weeks, and in my books, I’ve talked of the power of learning through story. For those that aren’t across the concept yet - here’s the two second summary:
Successful organisations, and successful people, are ones that actively learn. To do this you should not ask “What did we learn?” - as that question is often hard to answer, and inspiration rarely comes to mind when forced. Instead ask a simpler question: “What happened?” and tell the story. You then ask “And what led to that?". Through the story there tends to emerge common themes, which form your takeaways. Repeatable actions and strategies that worked (and avoidable ones that didn’t).
But here’s my own ‘ah-ha’ moment for the week: those themes - the patterns of success - they are fractal! Not only will you will you find themes for success in each individual or group storyline, but you will find a whole new layer of themes when you ‘stack the stories’.
Take Tolkien’s classic Lord of The Rings for example. (Spoiler Alert) At the individual level, you have Aragorn’s ascension to king and Frodo’s descension to madness. But when you pull back and stack all the the individual stories you find a strong common thread of courage in the face of overwhelming odds.
Again, the micro and the macro.
So in a quiet moment later this month, I suggest finding the time to do two things.
First, create small, shorter plotlines for each of your own successes this year. What happened? - And what led to that?
Then, take those plotlines and ‘stack the stories’ to find those macro themes of your own personal success.
I plan to do the same.
To Reflect: Stagnation Through Overwhelm
“There is no lull.”
“We’re completely flat out.”
I’ve heard both of these from people in my circles over the last week or so. And these are just two examples of a common theme I’m seeing fall out of this unusual and challenging year.
Change Leaders, and their teams, are struggling to find the time or space for improvement.
But we all know the hard truth. When you’re saying “I’m too busy for improvement”, what you’re really saying is “The present is more of a priority than the future.” Time, money, resources - they are always scarce and limited.
In fact, I’d suggest that the busier you are, the more crucial making time for ongoing improvement is. …It’s either that or risk falling prey to stagnation through overwhelm.
How are you embedding improvement into your day to day?
Extreme Early-Bird Special: Leading Valuable Change
I’m offering recipients of The Change Leader Weekly an extreme early-bird special for my early-2022 workshops.
If you’re a change leader looking to drive even greater value from your efforts (and strip out unnecessary complexity in the process) - Join me for one and a half days on Leading Valuable Change. You will learn how to:
Create and protect organisational momentum
Unlock meaningful continuous improvement through story-driven learning
Lead the deep complex areas of project, change and benefits management - with needing to be an expert in any of them
Rescue those teams and staff stuck in Despair
Level up your high performers into Fanatics
Find the hidden Internal-Influencers© across your organisation
Answer the 3 most important questions that underpin every successful change
Stack the Value-Equation© in your favour to minimise resistance and maximise adoption.
These sessions are not yet advertised anywhere, and the price will increase when they are. The extreme early-bird special price for the one and a half days is $1,599 per person. The locations and times are still TBC, but the planned schedule is looking as follows:
Canberra - Feb-Mar 2022
Sydney - Mar-Apr 2022
Melbourne - Apr-May 2022
To make use of this extreme early-bird offer, just hit reply to this email and we will get you booked in.
2022 is going to continue to be a year of immense opportunity and change.
Make sure you’re optimally placed to make it valuable.
As always, I hope you have a great weekend. You deserve it.
If anything you read this week resonated with you, or even just had you take a moment to reflect - then please do share the love.
See you next week.
BB