Be Comfortable with the Chaos

As you may know, in May, Hewlett-Packard announced plans to acquire EDS, the huge technology services company. On August 26, after months of planning, the deal went through. EDS is now part of HP. Just as a company needs to communicate externally to the press and to Wall Street, it also needs to communicate with its own employees, so that they know what's going on, what they can expect, and what's expected of them. As one of HP's employee communication managers, I've been really busy in recent weeks. At times, things have been bordering on chaotic.

Which brings me to the title of this blog, which is a great bit of advice told to me by Katie Nutter early on in my career with HP. She had been the speech writer for former HP CEO John Young. I had been given a speech to write for the head of HP's consulting business. I'd gotten my inputs from the executive, and my head was spinning. I was new to that area of the business and really felt in over my head. The result: total writer's block. So I went to Katie and asked her if she'd ever felt this way when tackling one of Young's speeches, and she said, "All the time." "How did you handle it?" I asked. She told me, "You have to be comfortable with the chaos."

By that she meant that you have to not let yourself be overwhelmed when everything is swirling around you. Just get comfortable with it. The human mind is amazingly resourceful and will seek to make order out of chaos, if given the space to do so. I followed Katie's advice, and sure enough, pretty soon, all of the swirling ideas began to align and a structure emerged. I finished the speech on time and it seemed to hit the mark.

I've drawn on this bit of wisdom throughout the years. This week in particular, I've needed to remind myself several times to be comfortable with the chaos. And you know what? Things are working out.

Have a great week, everyone!