The ravens in my barn taught me something about leadership and thriving in chaos. And yes, they are leaders of the most amazing variety. I didn’t know that when I moved here, but I’ve learned through watching them in the past 2 years.
These ravens are all business. Especially when it comes to their young. I was blown away last year by their TLC as they protected their eggs from any and all potential threats. Never ever was that nest left alone. When the babies where born, they attended them with the attention that every parent should show. Watching them teach their babies to fly over a period of a month was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. And I’ve been on Everest, dived with white sharks, kayaked with whales and more. These ravens are smart!!
This year, I was really looking forward to watching them again. I was so excited when the ravens moved their nest in my barn to a platform that was lower, so they could enlarge it. You see, two of their children stayed last year so now a family of four was using in the nest.
It took a ton of work but they build a HUGE nest. Amazing structure, lined with only the finest and softest tidbits of fur, hair and even a piece of silk scarf they found. It took at least two months for them to get it right. And then, one-by-one, eight powder blue eggs appeared. Once again, they were so fearless in their protection.
But then, disaster struck. Something destroyed the nest and ate all the eggs! I was devastated, and so worried about my ravens’ reactions.
Silly me.
They might not get to teach their kids this year, but they taught me a thing or two about thriving in chaos.
Thriving in Chaos
Here are the three things I learned from my ravens about thriving in chaos….
1) Let It Go! How often do we spend time gnashing teeth and talking about all the negative impacts and loss when we have a chaotic event? Our launch fails, our customers don’t like the new features or services, our competition beat us. The more we focus on the event, the less momentum we create to keep going. We weigh down the team and our peers, perhaps the entire organization as we focus on the Woe is Me side of the equation.
Not my ravens! They accepted the loss and went right back to business as usual. I don’t know if they mourned, but I can tell you they kept hunting and eating, flying and playing with the same vibe for life as always. At first I kinda thought they were disrespectful. Didn’t they need to “get over it?” Nope. Because to them, that it was a done deal and they were simply focused on business again. The business of life.
What would happen if as leaders we did the same? Fixed what need to be fixed, let go of the chaos and moved right back to business as usual. Our teams would follow…
2) Expect Better. Urban legends are often created in businesses about the Big Bad Thing that happened. Those legends become part of the culture and our expectations. Passed down to everyone who comes along. Sometimes forever. I’ve walked into clients years after a chaotic event. The first thing I hear? All about said event. That focuses the expectations of the organization on a failure. No wonder they experience less than what they want.
The ravens expected better. They began to work on their nest again. They cleaned up the mess from the attack, putting their nest back into perfect working order for next year’s eggs. They even went out and found new bedding for their eggs. Yep, they knew they would be back again with success.
As leaders, it’s our job to hold our teams’ attention on the future and positive prospects. Sure, we need to acknowledge issues and learn from them. But we also need to focus on better things, thinking out of the box (and away from the Big Thing) to bring more innovation and new ideas into our business. We can’t do that if we’re continuing to propagate the story of the Big Bad Thing as our expectation.
3) Bring it Back to the Now. Our human brains are wired in a way that we literally depend on our past to define what we see today and expect in the future. Something along the lines of, “Chaos happened so it can happen again. Be wary and never ever try that again.” We dwell and dwell, to the point that if another and different chaotic Big Bad Thing happened, we wouldn’t even see it coming.
Not long after they lost their eggs, I heard the ravens having a flap in the barn as I was walking after dark. When I went in, I found a coyote had dug its way into the hay area, which is where the ravens live. That coyote was not very smart. He (or she) was losing in a big way to the birds. All 4 of them were attacking with a vengeance. When I opened the door, that coyote ran like a bandit, with 4 badass ravens right on his behind.
What if we did what we could about the Big Bad Thing and then quickly focused on the present moment in our business? Focusing on what we need to do right now to be successful? How do we need to motivate and communicate with our teams so that they get focused on their job, and the needs of our business, right now? Our teams would refocus and the Big Bad Thing would fade away into the past. Where it belongs.
The Bottom Line
I’m grateful for my ravens’ insights. Especially since I work with so many companies who want to be thriving in chaos. They helped me realize that I can get just as stuck in the Big Bad Thing as my clients.
Guess what? The Big Bad Thing is over and done. It’s time to lead in the now, and focus on the success in the future.
What other insights do you have for thriving in chaos?
Next Steps
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