Navigation notes #2 Hurricane

Another buzzword. Last week we explored headwinds. This week another word I keep hearing in transition and management circles: hurricane. Generally used to mean overwhelming complexity, everything hitting at once.

But a hurricane is not chaos. It is an organised system. Violent, for sure, but with structure, logic, sequence. And like any systems, it can be read. And navigated.

From above, a hurricane is a perfect spiral. Circles of weather rotating around a centre of absolute stillness. The eye.

So what does it actually take to navigate one?

1. Find the eye: at the centre of the most violent system on earth there is stillness. Not safety, stillness. In coaching we call this presence. The discipline of remaining calm and clear precisely when everything around you demands reaction. It can be developed.

2. Read all the circles, not just the one hitting you. Leaders under pressure tempt to focus only on the most urgent thing. But the next circle is already forming. Zoom out. Read the whole spiral and be prepared for the whole thing.

3. Hold the tension. The temptation is to resolve uncertainty prematurely. But rushing to a conclusion means losing the information the tension contains. Stay with it a little longer.

4. Stay on course but remain agile. Keep your overall heading but hold it lightly. Rigidity in a hurricane is as dangerous as having no course at all.

5. Know which circle you are in. Each one demands something different. Where are you in the system right now? That changes everything about what is needed.

These are not just navigation skills. They are human capacities too. And they can be built.

The eye is where you see clearly enough to lead.

If you wish to build and develop those capacities, I am only a message away!
Happy weekend