Moving Between Structured and Unstructured

Here’s something that seems to matter:
Life seems to be more juicy and alive when we know when to switch between structured and unstructured.

There is a time to get your ducks in a row and a time to let them have feathers and a cranky bite.

There is a time for a database, but not if you don’t know when to switch back to a blank whiteboard.

There is a time to get everyone on the same page and then a time to burn that page while sitting around the same campfire (so stories know they are welcome too!)

My sense is that ‘structure’ has taken over the world, it has the upper hand and the last call, but I think it should be the other way around.

Our lists and linear plans can never hold reality, they can only maybe hold us while we face the real reality - which is always more messy and complex and demanding.

So, how do you know it’s time to switch?

When the structured starts to feel rigid, it’s time to grab a blank sheet of paper and start drawing.

Equally, if all you are doing is sketching out the next big idea (this is what I’m way more likely to get stuck in - thus this experiment of writing for 15 mins and hitting send) then it’s time to add structure.

Here is the pit you want to avoid, the reason for so many systemic tangles. Never try to resolve problems emerging from your current structure by adding more. If you project plan isn’t getting you moving, adding another layer of documentation or a domain expert isn’t going to help. More money and more meetings isn’t what you need.

What you need is to realise that what you are dealing with isn’t a machine - it’s alive. So there is only one thing to do - dial up your curiosity as high as it will go and watch. Drop what you think is happening and noticed the deeper patterns.

Maybe it’s like breathing, in and out. Or like effort and recovery, like metabolism. Trouble is, I think we’re breathing out so often that we’ve forgotten how to pause and take things in as they actually are again.

This experiment of writing is a bit of both - I have fixed rules, but them I'm just letting the chaos pour out. Obviously the next step would be to return to structure and actually edit these things - probably delete most of it - but hey, I’ll get there.