Yuval Noah Harari once said,

“In a world deluged by irrelevant information, clarity is power.”

This will be the basis to close my 3-part chaotic series, and box up 2023 for storage. Thanks to those who messaged me from the first two write-ups and shared a common theme: we need to acknowledge that chaos is a way of life; an element we can’t live with or without. Recognizing and acknowledging its existence is half the battle; so we can move pass the “what to manage” and right into the “how to manage.”

Have you heard of VUCA? The analysis originated by L’Oreal; and the acronym stands for: volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity. These are the very conditions that incubate chaos. However, dwelling on those conditions will only strong-arm us to fixate on what they are, and impede our ability to be creative of what those conditions could be. An example that Simon Sinek illustrated using skiers is to focus on the path, not the tree!

So, I suggest flipping the VUCA as one way to manage and communicate chaos to get transformative results, underscoring Vision, Understanding, Clarity, Agility. In doing this, my approaches are:

1. Know the difference between noise and chaos. Chaos needs your full attention and action to influence the outcome. Noise is (sometimes distracted) information that does not change the outcome.
2. Look for high performing team that direct the company in a certain direction, bring them together, drive towards the objective while allow them the flexibility and adaptability at the local level within that frame, within that skeleton.
3. Identify stakeholders to classify different chaos drivers. This is when I exercise Know-Feel-Do, an approach I learned from World Strategy Day. Before taking any action, before any communication, before any decisions, I would look at the company, identify cluster of groups and ask myself: What do I want them to Know, to Feel, and to Do?
4. Then go build a chaos communication strategy focusing on the human aspect of the business.

What do transformative results post-chaos look like?

From bird-eye view, when in chaotic condition, large companies tend to centralize some of the decision making, and this is proven ineffective way to manage chaos. The rationale is when in chaotic space, people feel that it will impact them negatively and are often not in the state of mind to make informed decision. Also culturally, when you are in turbulence, you cannot change everything all of a sudden, too fast, too rash. Rather, prepare the team for trying time, to test their endurance, resilience and persistence. This team will stand the test of time, with or without chaos! That is the most desired transformative result that will outlast the company itself.

From local observation within groups or departments, if there is a clear struggling with alignment because of the unflipped VUCA, identify the team who does not respond well, but most importantly why they are not responding well; why they are not with you in the chaotic environment. This involves more people clued up in the business as a whole, not as a functional unit or a department. You will need to know what your colleagues are facing, their goals, their barriers to the objectives, before you can decide if you are able to help. Transformation from the local level will positively manifest itself if scaled well.

Lastly, encourage bottom-up decisions; respect the persons who are closer to the fact, the data, the insights. It is not enough to enable people with just the vision that you are striving for; but also to enable the values that they will bring to you through their recommendations in turbulence times. These people are the ones who bask in ambiguity and complexity; who know that chaos is part of life, and they operate with that assumption morning, noon, ’till night. Transformation happens first from within and in micro-environment.

Sending off my year 2023 with lots of self-learning and character-building amidst the chaos. My hope for you, the chaos managers, is to embrace it! every thorn it comes with, walk through it and notice your feelings towards it. The last question I would like for you to exert into 2024 is: Why do leaders burn the boats after the troops land on the beach? Because with the flipped VUCA, then retreat (from chaos) is no longer an option.

“The only way out is through. And the only good way through is together.” ~ Robert Frost