Chaos: A state of utter confusion or disorder, a total lack of organization.
From the Latin for the chasm, yawn or gape.
“I would love to have greater control over my marketing activities, but I seemed to be living in chaos. What can I do? How can I manage the chaos versus control what I need to do my marketing job?”
During the last month, several coaching clients reached out to me with a similar question wondering how to handle the chaos in their marketing team when you would love to see things more organized and planned. It’s a great question and is not unique to the marketing world.
Most marketers I know tend to be planners. They are very disciplined, organized and prefer to have their projects and activities lined up in perfect project management formats. Unfortunately reality comes in and deadlines change, stakeholder’s opinions change and things keep shifting. How can you manage through this mess?
Let me offer a few thoughts and suggestion to help you reposition the chaos:
EMBRACE THE CHAOS: Sometimes we fight and push back against work being so disorganized. The more we struggle, the worse it gets – sort of like quicksand. My approach is to step back, take a deep breath and recognize that you aren’t going to get all the pencils in a row. It’s okay. Strive to get some order in place but accept that 100% isn’t going to happen. Let go of that vision of perfection and work at the MOST important task at hand. Controlling the chaos isn’t the goal, being effective in your work is core to your job.
WHERE IS THE CHAOS EMANATING FROM? It helps when you can see who or what is the source of most of the chaos. Often it will come from one person or team. You may need to manage or work with that team a little differently than other teams. The same organizational structure might not fit everywhere. That’s okay too. Perhaps one team member can handle things better than another. When one size doesn’t fit all, look for an alternative option.
CHAOS HAS SOME LESSONS: I struggle when things aren’t well-organized but I also recognize that there can be learning in those discordant spaces when things don’t fit well together. Like flailing your arms about in a swimming pool, you’ll probably just go under if you don’t relax. Ask yourself; is there something in the chaos that can teach you something? Maybe you have a system in place that works for some projects but is wrong for others. Maybe a little experiment with a special approach for the source of the chaos will might help put a little more order in place. Learn something when things appear scattered and confused. That state of being can open doors and windows you may have shut out in the past.
CHAOS BECOMES OPPORTUNITY: A chaotic activity can become an opportunity for you and your organization to grow and expand. Try seeing past the emotional fray of the chaos and see if you can extract a few gems that might lead in a new direction. Breakthroughs often come from chaotic periods if you can stay out of the energy drain coming at you. Like many things in life, how you approach the chaos can determine how you respond to it. Realize that order and systems might disguise your ability to find fresh approaches. Chaos might be a gift you need to notice.
EXAMPLE OF REPOSITIONING CHAOS: I remember a time in my entrepreneurial days when my marketing efforts were best described as out of control. With best intentions, I kept having our bakery’s distributors pushing back on the ideas and efforts I brought to them. They resisted. They rejected my ideas. They created chaos.
My business coach (AKA my Dad), told me that instead of fighting what seemed so out of control, why not step back and see if you can map out the situation on a white board – without words. He was urging me to try and see the chaos visually – as a drawing or illustration. It completely shifted the issue to me because the emotions were stripped out and I was looking at squares and triangles and circles. But from the chaos of the distributor’s commentary, I started to impose some structure to the problem. When the written word or verbal conversation couldn’t help, pictures did. Suddenly I saw the root cause because I used a new lens to see the disorder. Maybe it is time for you to draw a picture of your chaos to help you find some order.
Chaos in your marketing world can be a teacher, a friend and a guide. Instead of resisting and fighting it, give it a little space to breath. Maybe you will find an incentive to boast your efforts to a new level.
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