Dancing at the Edge of Chaos: Finding Opportunity in the Unexpected
Strategic Planning | 
5 comments On Sunday evening, about an hour after sunset, I celebrated the first night of Chanukah. I set my menorah in the window, lit the candles and chanted the blessings. And, for the first time in many years, I spent it alone. I hadn’t planned it that way. I had planned to celebrate the beginning of the season of light – and the winter solstice – with a fabulous group of women in NE Portland. But the roads were covered with snow and ice and far too treacherous to travel, even with chains. So, the gathering was canceled.
My paternal grandmother, may her memory be a blessing, would have chuckled and said, “We make plans and G-d laughs.” Whether or not you believe in Divine intervention, you have to acknowledge that something – Mother Nature, Old Man Winter, global warming – has turned most of our plans upside down this month.
Power outages, flights canceled, roads, businesses and schools closed. We are all finding other ways to get where we need to go and do what we need to do… or not. Parents had to come up with creative ways to entertain their children last week. Retailers are adjusting their hours to accommodate holiday shoppers and offering special “snow sales” and other incentives. People are working from home or taking public transportation to the office. Holiday travelers are flying out of San Francisco instead of Portland.
Let’s face it… stuff happens. And when the unexpected happens it’s time to get out your dancin’ shoes. The unexpected forces us to release our expectations, to reflect on our mission, to rethink our goals and revise our strategies. There is opportunity for positive change and, yes, even growth at the edge of chaos.
I see this unusual weather as the latest ring in a cosmic wakeup call. We cannot continue to do business the way we have for the past year, much less for the past decade. We have to redefine who we are, what we do, how we share our story, and how we deliver our products and services. As the folks at Disney would say, we have to do some Imagineering… to decide where we go from here and to do it in a new way.
Dee Ward Hock, creator of the principles of chaordic organization, said, “Success follows those adept at preserving the substance of the past by clothing it in the forms of the future.”
It’s time for us to employ a new-fangled strategic planning process. One that acknowledges the past while looking to the future. One that embraces the reality of the times in which we live. One that encourages innovation, collaboration and bravery.
Wear your dancin’ shoes.
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Zappos.com just delivered my first pair of dance-able shoes. How timely given your blog! Technically they came last week before the road went white. I agree, Deborah; we are confronting a grand opportunity for change. And as Thomas Friedman writes in Hot, Flat and Crowded when he quotes Paul Romer, a Stanford economist, “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.”
‘Tis a snowy Christmas morn, and we’ve all met the chaos these past two weeks with our heads held high and our whining to a minimum. We emerge warm and happy, wistfully bidding farewell to the snow and gratefully welcoming the thaw.
I enjoyed the visual of “dancin’ shoes” — the less I hang onto “business as usual” the more creativity and inspiration come into my life. 2009 will be a good year to dance!
I had plans–big ones–and weather pushed us to re-evaluate and become hometowners for the holidays. My husband , Ed, and I spent time together, donning our metaphorical dancin’ shoes to take walks and move about as we chose. I felt like the planets were lining up one by one and in this serendipitous alignment amid the chaos, I resonate with your thoughts!
I left for Southern California, for my annual sojourn with my rather small immediate and large extended family. I left on Thursday the 18th, just a few hours shy of the storm of the century. I arrived with little fanfare, and therefore little stress and proceeded to glide my way through the most stress-free family holiday that I can remember celebrating since I was nine years old. Because at nine you are so much more adept at letting things just happen as they happen. There is very little resistance to change. The unexpected is an adventure. And cousins are just more play buddies to have around. And this year, having narrowly missed being trapped in Portland without my family. I appreciate the ease with which everything else just seemed to fall into place, this holiday season. Sure I missed the Winter Solstice with amazing women. And the sparkle of 14 inches of snow. But I eased my way out of 2008 – a difficult year, to say the least; and one where we finally saw change coming just around the corner. And so when the new year dawned bright and overcast, I was ready for some tapping and leaping, leading the way into a glorious new day, new year and new era. Thanks Deb, for reminding us all to re-think, release, reflect, re-think and revise.