#104 - When organised meets chaos!

1 Apr 26

You can be the most organised person in the room. You can have a world-class personal system, tight routines and immaculate discipline. But your effectiveness is ultimately shaped by your ability to operate within, and around, the disorganisation of others.

Chaos is not just an obstacle, it is data, patterns and signals you can observe, interpret and use strategically.

And when your boss leads in a chaotic, reactive or overwhelmed manner, those patterns become even more important. They reveal exactly how to influence outcomes, get what you need, and maintain your system without friction.

This edition examines how to integrate others’ chaos into your system and how to exploit behavioural patterns ethically and intelligently to increase your impact.

What?

Your personal organisation is only part of the equation. Other people’s behaviour, especially disorganised behaviour, will shape your reality. Chaos shows up in many forms:

• A boss with an overflowing inbox,
• Stakeholders who never plan ahead,
• Teams who react instead of prepare,
• Colleagues who habitually drop last-minute work,
• Leaders who shift priorities constantly.

If your system can’t integrate these behaviours, it becomes brittle.

A strong system isn’t just neat, it is adaptive able to absorb disorder without losing stability.

And once you understand the patterns behind that disorder, you can start influencing the environment rather than fighting it.

Why?

Three reasons make it essential to observe and use behavioural patterns to your advantage.

People behave in predictable ways even when they appear chaotic

Chaotic people are not random, their habits follow patterns:

• They check email at certain times,
• They respond fastest under certain conditions,
• They make decisions in certain emotional states,
• They procrastinate in predictable ways,
• They create urgency on a schedule they don’t recognise.

Once you see the pattern, you can position your requests at the exact moment they are most likely to succeed.

Pattern awareness gives you leverage

If your boss never sees emails sent mid-day, you can exploit that. If they only make quick decisions early in the week, you can time your asks. If meetings fill their calendar, you can book slots months in advance before the chaos hits.

This is not manipulation, it is strategic alignment based on observable behaviour.

It stabilises your system and raises your influence

When you act with precision in a chaotic environment, you stand out.
You become the organised person who:

• Gets replies,
• Secures decisions,
• Manages workloads effectively,
• Protects the team,
• Reduces friction.

Your system begins to lead, not merely react.

How?

Here’s how to integrate chaos, decode patterns and exploit them intelligently.

1. Study the behavioural patterns of key people

Create a mental map (or literal notes) on:

• When they check email,
• When they are most decisive,
• What triggers their urgency,
• When they are most distracted,
• How they prefer to communicate,
• When they usually cancel meetings,
• What they respond to fastest,
• Which topics make them reactive vs thoughtful.

This turns chaos into predictability.

2. Time your actions based on these patterns

Once you know their rhythms, you can work with them.

Examples:

• Boss with an overflowing inbox?
  Send your email late in the evening so it’s at the top when they start work the next day. Mid-day emails will sink without a trace.
• Leader who reacts fastest first thing in the morning?
  Book all time-critical conversations before 10am.
• A manager overwhelmed late in the week?
  Ask for decisions on Monday or Tuesday, not Friday.
• Someone who works reactively to whatever is in front of them?
  Put your request in front of them at the time they’re most likely to look.

This is rhythm exploitation and is one of the most effective leadership tools.

3. Shape their routine by booking diary time early

Chaotic leaders often have calendars that fill themselves.

Solution:

Book your meetings far ahead.

• Monthly one-to-ones,
• Quarterly reviews,
• Decision gates,
• Project updates,
• Resource discussions.

Once these become habitual anchors in their diary, your structure becomes part of their routine.

They start planning around you and that is influence at its most subtle!

4. Build 'chaos buffers' into their schedule

Expect the unexpected:

• Reserve time blocks for sudden work,
• Keep margin in project plans,
• Prepare template responses and decision options,
• Maintain short feedback loops.

Your system becomes shock-absorbent.

5. Convert chaos into clarity

This is the leadership multiplier.

Turn:

Vague requests → actionable tasks
Confusion → structured options
Last-minute changes → controlled adjustments
Chaotic decisions → documented plans

You become the translator between chaos and order.

In Summary

Being organised is useful, being adaptively organised is powerful. Being strategically organised to allow exploiting the predictable patterns of others’ chaos is elite-level leadership.

Your system should not collapse when others are disorganised. It should anticipate, interpret, and influence the environment around it. Especially when your boss leads in a chaotic manner.

Chaos is not something to resist, it is something to read, analyse and to integrate.

And ultimately...to use!

The leaders who master this don’t just survive chaotic environments, they quietly shape them.

Whenever you're ready, here's how I can help you:

1. Resources - Reading is an essential component to developing your own authentic leadership style. Check out my resources page for really inspiring books which I have found invaluable within my own leadership journey,
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