Order & Chaos
Capt. A. Nagaraj Subbarao, PhD
Author | Professor of Strategy & Leadership | Dean | Case Study Evangelist | Navigator & Sea Captain | Entrepreneur | Food Blogger | Amateur Historian | Intrepid Walker
The continuum between order and chaos is the purpose of life, and most of us end up somewhere in the middle while striving for order. We all know that chaos is the setting for a descent into meaninglessness.?
What does this mean? Former Harvard Professor Dr Jordan Peterson says that many of us strive for order only to realize that it is staid, dull and oppressive relatively late in the day after achieving some fraction of it. We have achieved a level of comfort but at what cost? When we look to achieve meaning in life it is the path along this continuum.
Leaders look to maintain a healthy balance between the two. Leaders are looking to change the status quo and park themselves in a zone of controlled chaos and then strive for order. Good leaders provide a motivating challenge and push the team outside their comfort zone, developing new knowledge, skills and competencies institutionally.
Great leaders look to work outside of their comfort zone to test themselves, build resilience, fail, and then achieve. The cycle builds strength. Staying in a comfort zone and not challenging the incumbent is an anathema for great leaders and a recipe for disaster. Testing new frontiers, new methods and ideas are recommended. Will this lead to failure? The answer is a resounding yes, but not changing and trying is worse than failure.
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The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of cutting-edge technologies. Automation is fundamentally transforming, rather than merely touching, every aspect of daily life. This prospect may well please consumers, but it affects the job market. The pandemic dropped us into chaos, but remedies were found to a large extent to restore order. Only those impoverished in thought, action, and ideas believe that a party will extend endlessly.
In The Book of Five Rings, Miyamoto Musashi succinctly says, "It is better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war."
The Book of Five Rings (五輪の書 Go Rin No Sho), a book on strategy, tactics, and philosophy from the 17 Century, is still studied today. Building strength, character and muscle and then learning to use it wisely, only when required is a far better alternative than parking oneself in a zone of helplessness and defencelessness or turning into a tyrant.
Direction and balance,??leadership is like walking a tightrope. 2020 has shown us what social psychologists have known for years - that "people are demonstrably undone by too much uncertainty". Leadership is about finding the spot between order and chaos and always learning and striving for the next peak, and too much order breeds weakness and apathy.
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1 年The Mumbai dabbawalas look like a complete chaos to some whereas it is the epitome of orderliness to some. Chandni chowk is a complete chaos to westerners and a complete order to the locals. Its gallis can put up the latest haute couture of Paris or anywhere in just a few hours for a fraction of cost. The success of these lies in its chaos.
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1 年The concept of 'controlled chaos' being revisited by modern management leaders is interesting. Induced Crisis and Chaos management in fact are some of the features of older military and international relations (practiced even today covertly in considerable measure). Your articles do have that inherent 'tickle the brains ' element which makes them worth a second visit.
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1 年Nice article Prof. Arakalgud Nagaraj Subbarao sir. "zone of controlled chaos" & "finding the spot between order and chaos and always learning and striving for the next peak" are my strong takeaways
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1 年I like the quote of Miyamoto Musashi "It is better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war."
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1 年Another nice one Prof. Arakalgud Nagaraj Subbarao. The example of - pandemic brought chaos and remedies restored order to a large extent - is a great one. In my view, order is kind of synonymous to a stable, comfortable, predictable state. The chaos on the other hand represents experimentation, change, innovation. Both should exist in a cyclic form with order consuming close to 80% share and chaos to 20%. That should give a good balance like you suggested in the write up.