(2018-11-12) Cutler Self-inflicted Chaos

John Cutler: Self-Inflicted Chaos. A certain amount of chaos suggests growth and learning. I’ve yet to experience a thriving startup environment that wasn’t a bit chaotic

But then there is self-inflicted chaos. By “self” I mean chaos we inflict on ourselves AND chaos we inflict on our teams and broader organization. It’s chaos that we could most certainly do without — all pain, no gain

The classic example is trying to do too much at once, and ending up doing nothing particularly well (in addition to paying a high tax on multitasking).

Another example is misjudging the blast radius of task or project, and the non-linear impacts that misjudgment will have on the whole organization. If my good idea involves even a small amount of my coworker’s attention...

Here’s something I’ve noticed. That when a startup team is “killing it”, there tends to be an almost eery sense of focus. It is almost anticlimactic — knocking stuff off the list, doing the work, and showing up.

“No” (Say No) is the self-inflicted chaos killer.