The Secrets of Decision-Making Amid Chaos

*Originally published in May 2020 in Chief Executive Magazine

How do you define chaos? How do you recognize when you’re in the middle of it? More significantly, as a leader, what do you do about it? How do you continue to move your organization forward and drive to the outcome that you want?

Although you may have a definition of chaos and can visualize what chaos looks like, no two chaotic circumstances are the same. Chaos follows bad news as well as good and usually involves some form of randomness—people running around directionless or simply frozen in place. For example, the award of a contract requires delivery for which you may not be fully prepared (people running around) not unlike the loss of a contract that requires a contraction (people frozen in place), waiting for the next shoe to drop.

How about a global Black Swan pandemic to define chaos? The coronavirus is stretching our public health system to a breaking point. Our economy is in a free fall. Industries are being shuttered. Over 20 million Americans have applied for unemployment. We are experiencing unprecedented chaos.

Read more at: https://chiefexecutive.net/decision-making-in-chaos/