Here are the three main causes of chaos in your company: Changing priorities, mixing topics, and incompetence

A mathematician and an entrepreneur meet at the bar and discuss chaos.

Here is what the mathematician says:

“Chaos is defined as the present determining the future, but the approximate present does not approximately determine the future.”

The entrepreneur frowns. The mathematician tries to be more practical and says:

“Chaotic behavior exists in many natural systems, including fluid flow, heartbeat irregularities, weather and climate.”

Now the entrepreneur understands. His habitat is his own company, and he immediately understands that chaos is a natural thing.

Here are some examples from my experience as Founder & CEO of Yonder.

1. Changing Priorities

The more customers you have, the more different priorities rain down on you. New feature requests. Overdue service requests. Their internal IT changed something, and your system doesn’t work anymore.

Now add your own company’s priorities: Board meeting. ISO 27001 audit. Townhall meeting. An employee falling seriously ill.

Superimpose your customers’ priorities with your own, and you’re in for a chaotic day. No matter how well you prepare the day, it will be different than you thought.

Don’t apologize and don’t get upset when the day didn’t unfold the way you planned it. It’s normal. It’s natural.

2. Mixing Topics

Have you ever come across an email trail with five different colors of text, ten replies, and 20 different topics in the conversation? Of course you have.

Mixing topics is a common cause of chaos. Business people discussing IT topics, alongside five more people in CC who misunderstand or interpret what’s going on or not going on. Such situations are common and can spiral out of control quite easily — leading to chaotic reactions and short-notice calls to calm the situation.

And that’s the key message here: Stop the emails and pick up the phone if you want to avoid chaos.

3. Incompetence

Calling people incompetent is by no means arrogant, it’s just honest.

Let’s start with myself. I am pretty incompetent at opera singing, building a brick wall, or brain surgery.

Let’s look at our customers. Some of our counterparts are business people, and some of our counterparts are IT people. As soon as business people start talking about IT topics without full competence but claiming to know the solution, things become difficult and chaotic.

Have the courage to step in and ask to discuss each topic with a competent person, and your day will be less chaotic.

Conclusion

As a leader, it’s easy to despair with the daily dose of chaos of entrepreneurial life. Remember the mathematician: Chaos is natural, and order is at best temporary.

So don’t end the day with ordering chaos and expecting to meet order again the next morning — you’ll meet another chaos, and that’s natural.