It’s no fun when you’re dealing with chaos at work.
But… lots of people and organisations put up with it all the time.
I don’t think it needs to be this way.
Yes, there will always be a little chaos, like urgent issues or unexpected events.
But for the most part, you don’t want your people feeling like they’re working somewhere which is out of control.
What is Chaos at Work?
Chaos means a sense of disorder and confusion, or randomness.
In other words, stuff happens that seemingly isn’t planned or structured and it may be hard to understand the logic behind it.
When translating this into the workplace, you might see signs such as:
- People running around “fire-fighting” problems regularly
- Last-minute “urgent” work popping up frequently
- Senior leaders making a “Captain’s Call” which derails a project (a Captain’s Call is when leaders ignore normal decision-making processes and just make a decision by themselves)
- A sense of confusion about who is doing what
- People who are stressed and failing to think clearly, resulting in rework or a lack of attention to detail.
You probably have your own signs that you’re seeing too.
In this post, I’m going to provide some ideas that you can use to try to reduce the chaos… at least in your team.
Chaos as Culture
The problem with chaos at work is that sometimes it becomes part of the way the whole business operates.
In other words, chaos is “the way we do things around here.”
In my experience, this is due to the behaviour of senior leaders in the organisation who:
- Have a personal style that enjoys chaos (and finds structure annoying or too slow); and
- Are rarely told “No” by others in the organisation.
Unfortunately, these leaders become role models to others. And even if others don’t like it, they feel as if it’s easier to go along with what’s happening than to resist it.
But I absolutely hate “Oh, that’s just how it is here”.
Why?
Because it’s defeatist, victim-minded and implies that you have no control over your own circumstances.
Which is never true – you do have some sort of control or influence over your situation.
We can’t necessarily change the world all by ourselves, but we can do *something* about every situation, whether it’s changing your mindset or taking small actions to make progress.
Learn More: Do You Have a Victim Leadership Mentality?
First, Recognise the Differences in People
It would be a mistake to demonise the other people in your workplace for putting up with chaos.
Some people actually enjoy the fast-paced, chaotic nature of urgent work.
It gives them an adrenaline rush, and keeps things interesting.
So if you prefer a bit of structure (like me), you need to acknowledge that other people are not so structured.
It’s not that structure = good and unstructured = bad. There is a happy medium to be found.
Too much structure and planning and you might find your workplace to be inflexible, and unable to quickly act on opportunities that arise.
Too little structure and chaos will be the result.
We need to find a good balance.
The Real Problem With Too Much Chaos at Work
Obviously too much chaos at work can cause stress, mistakes to be made and a feeling like things are out of control.
However, there is another issue that I think is more subtle and less often spoken about.
And that is when there is too much chaos for too long, people lose the ability to think and act strategically.
Consider this situation (which is based on what a real coaching client is currently going through):
You’re always working on last-minute, urgent things.
Emergencies happen and you need to drop everything.
Then there are meetings all day, so you can’t do any real work.
When you do get time to yourself, you spend it completing simple, straightforward administrative tasks that are easy to tick off your list.
And sometimes, when you are faced with a calm day, with few meetings, you’ve got lots of time to yourself.
Then you find yourself asking “What am I supposed to do now?”
People become accustomed to the rush, the urgency and the back-to-back meetings.
Over time, they never think about improving things, or thinking strategically about how their team could get better, or offer new services.
They simply wait for the next urgenwt thing.
When you’re at that point, chaos at work has become the norm, and that’s not good.
Chaos trains you and your team to be more reactive, and less proactive.
Learn More: Proactive vs Reactive Team Members: Make the Switch.
Simple Steps to Reduce Chaos at Work (at Least in Your Team)
OK, we need to acknowledge that you can’t change your whole organisation by yourself.
But what you can do is take small, simple actions to start to role model the right behaviours and develop a sense of structure for your team.
1. Identify your sources of chaos
Let’s start simple.
Chaos is rarely completely random – a lot of chaos comes from reliable sources.
A good starting point is to identify what your common sources of chaos are.
For example, your common sources of chaos might be things like:
- Your boss changing their mind at the last minute
- Urgent requests for assistance from colleagues
- People doing the same work in different ways each time
- Suppliers delivering things to the wrong location; or
- People dropping past your desk unexpectedly.
You get the idea. These are common workplace events that disrupt our flow and can cause confusion.
Write your main sources of chaos down, and estimate how much time is spent on each in a normal week.
You will need to set aside some time (away from firefighting) to do this, but it’s important!
Once you’ve done this, you’ll have a list of your sources of chaos at work. A good start.
2. Look for patterns
When you’re trying to reduce chaos at work, you need to get bang for your buck.
You want to spend your time improving the things that will make the most difference.
Otherwise you’ll focus on improving everything, and actually improve nothing and get nowhere.
For your top sources of chaos, see if you can identify patterns in your:
- Stakeholders: the people or teams who cause the chaos
- Systems: the technology (or lack of it) that contribute to the chaos; and
- Processes: the steps that are used to get work done, that cause confusion or inefficiency.
If you’ve spotted any patterns here, these become your focus areas.
These are the areas where you will focus your effort to improve the situation and reduce the chaos.
Now let’s look at the next step.
3. Implement solutions to reduce chaos at work
Once you have identified your target areas, it’s time to put some solutions in place.
Depending on the situation there might be lots of different solutions, so it isn’t possible to cover every scenario.
However, here are some of the more common options that might be relevant for your situation.
Solution #1: Education
Sometimes chaos results because your stakeholders don’t understand the impact they’re having.
This means you need to educate your stakeholders to raise awareness of the issue, and help them work better with your team.
This could include:
- Letting them know about the process they should follow
- Helping them understand why that process is important (and what the impact is, if it isn’t followed)
- Learning more about why they are doing the things that cause chaos in the first place!
It may sound simple, but education is often the first step in reducing the chaos in your workplace.
Solution #2: Create a Process for the Chaos
Chaos can also result from emergencies or unexpected events.
But once again, you can probably identify patterns of what these events are – you just might not know when they’ll happen.
That’s why it’s important to have a process in place for when unexpected things do happen.
For example, if there’s a customer dropping in unexpectedly at your office, you need to know who handles the interaction, how it’s recorded and be able to provide the customer with some options of what to do next (other than come unexpectedly to the office again).
Over time, you’ll build up the skill and knowledge to be able to handle chaotic events, in a more standard way. This reduces the confusion and makes things more efficient.
Solution #3: Relationship building
Workplaces are built on relationships.
And guess who is more likely to cause chaos for you and your team?
That’s right, it’s people that don’t care about you and your team.
One way to help them care is to spend time building a relationship with them. Go out for coffee, have a chat, help them with something they’re struggling with.
Over time you might find that you cut down the chaos when they start to become a little more respectful of your situation.
Learn More: Difficult Colleague? Let’s Improve the Work Relationship.
Solution #4: Consequences
Why would disruptive chaos be happening again and again in a workplace?
Usually, it’s because there are no consequences for it happening.
Nobody gets in trouble, people just shrug their shoulders and move on.
Saying “No” to people is a form of consequence.
Warning people that there will be delays is a consequence.
Failing to act on an “urgent” request is a consequence.
This takes courage, but unless there is some sort of circuit-breaker that can stop the cycle of chaos, change is unlikely.
Learn More: People Not Doing What You Want? Ask This Leadership Question.
Always Have Strategic Initiatives on Hand
I mentioned earlier in this article that too much chaos at work can train people to be more reactive and less strategic.
One of the reasons this happens is because people stop thinking strategically. They simply become accustomed to waiting for the next urgent thing.
Strategic work is what helps your team improve and find new opportunities.
So guess what? If all you do is react to what’s going on, you’re not forging your own path and your team may stagnate.
One way to avoid this is to always have a strategic project on hand for your team.
This might be some sort of improvement you need to make, or a new way of handling a certain type of customer, or a new product or service you want to deliver.
It’ll take time to develop these ideas, but this is a great opportunity to enlist the help of your team, to provide input on what’s needed.
If you don’t know what strategic work you would do, then when you do get the opportunity to do it you might find yourself sitting idle.
The next part of this is to break down your strategic work into bite-sized chunks.
That way, when you have time to yourself, you’ll be ready to jump on an achievable piece of work, rather than procrastinating because the task seems too huge!
Now It’s Over to You to Cut the Chaos at Work
The steps above are simple, but never easy.
You’ll need courage, motivation and resilience to cut the chaos and get to a better place.
And if you need help with that, feel free to check out my coaching page to see how we can work together on it.
What are your thoughts on chaos at work? Let me and all the thoughtful leaders know in the comments below!
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