I am addicted to order, and at the same time fascinated by chaos.

In ancient Greek, chaos referred to the state before order existed – a gaping void, a primordial space without form. Cosmos , in contrast, is the term for order. The one is where everything moves, the other where things run smoothly.

Organizations need order to be efficient and effective, to produce outcomes in order to survive. But the environment around them never holds still. What worked in the past becomes obsolete, and nobody announces the moment it happens.

In truly chaotic systems, cause and effect become impossible to trace because nothing holds long enough to build on.

But by observing chaos, something else happens, and this is where the fascination begins. Elements start to relate to each other. Patterns emerge where there was only noise and complete disorder. The system organizes itself, and what comes out the other side barely resembles what went in.

Chaos isn't the enemy it appears to be. It’s the source of innovation. 

Most organizations I work with aren’t actually in chaos. They’re holding onto an order that no longer matches the requirements of their environment. If meetings keep getting rescheduled, priorities shift weekly, and everyone is busy but nothing quite gets done, that's not chaos. It's an old design straining under new conditions. Calling it friction is easier than admitting the design no longer fits.

Real chaos is rare. When it does show up, it’s not the end of the system. It’s the beginning of a new chapter.

Where in your organization is the order you're protecting no longer the order you actually need?

This insight originally appeared on LinkedIn.