I remember in 2nd year in campus, I got a job in Fortune Sacco.
It was my first ever job.
Let's just say that I was very excited.
I worked overtime for free.
Wanted to prove that I was an amazing worker.
After a few months working there, my manager began seeing potential in me.
He asked me if I wanted to learn how to close the sacco.
'Close' pretty much meant staying at the sacco branch till 7 pm & doing a few balancing tasks for the next morning.
I immediately agreed.
The next few days, I learned the art of closing the sacco.
How to count the money, put the receipts away & set the alarms etc.
After learning, I was now on my own.
The next few months, I ended up closing the sacco branch.
I worked the final 3 hours of the day completely by myself.
'Did you notice anything unique?'
Now that you bring it up.....
Yes.
I noticed that there would be long periods when the entire Sacco branch was empty or it was very slow.
But then out of nowhere, I had pockets of moments when it was VERY busy.
I mean multiple people coming non stop.
'Did these people know each other?'
No!
They were random people who all ended up coming to the branch around the same exact time.
I kid you not.
This happened every time I closed.
Long periods when not a single soul was in sight.
Then pockets of busyness.
I remember telling a few of my friends about this experience.
And they looked back at me wide eyed.
'Why?'
Because the SAME thing happened at their jobs as well.
And if you're reading this article & worked in the banking industry, then you may find it spooky how you can relate.
'No lie bro, I had the same experience in Co-operative Bank! What's the reason for this?'
It stems from the chaos theory.
During my time as a co-operative manager, we had to learn about the chaos theory & how it can be applied to co-operative business.
This was a very compelling subject.
Not going to confuse you.
But in a nutshell:
It's when patterns emerge from chaotic scenarios.
Chaotic can be viewed as a state of disorder.
Very minimal structure.
In my example with Fortune Sacco, it's the random humans.
Random humans who were showing up without any sort of coordination with one another.
But after evaluating the humans from a large data set (working an 8 hour shift), patterns began to emerge.
Order from disorder.
The chaos theory is ALL around you.
One of the most significant examples I can give you is history.
If you are someone who takes the effort to study history, you become a little spooked out at times.
'Why?'
Because a lot of times, you see patterns from the past happening in today's era.
That's where the term 'history repeating itself' comes from.
Anything that you do for long enough exhibits pockets of chaos theory.
And if you haven't noticed it yet, that means you haven't collected enough data.
During my masters degree for business management, we had to work with big data.
And we had to find patterns behind that big data.
Well, I did a project on Air BnBs in Chicago.
I got a bunch of random data from Air BnB owners in Chicago & plugged it into Tableau (data visualization tool).
After doing some analysis, I noticed a pattern emerge.
There were multiple people who went to the same 2 places at a specific time, in a mile radius.
And no, they did not know each other.
Not everyone went to the restaurants. But enough to notice a significant pattern.
So from Fortune Sacco, to history, to big data, the chaos theory holds true.
It's mother nature's way of speaking to us.
It's her way of saying there is order behind disorder.
I call myself the artistic co-operative capitalist due to to a break down of 2 parts.
Artistic - Creativity - Disorder
Co-operative - Logic - Order
But it doesn't stop with me.
You should aim to adopt this line of thinking as well.
Be more curious about the patterns behind the chaos that you see.
Being able to spot patterns is huge when it comes to dealing with humans.
That's when you are able to distinguish isolated acts from character traits.
A key component of communications skills.
The chaos theory is street smarts at its finest.
It's not something you were taught in school because I don't think it's easy to teach.
Too many people would have been starting at the teacher with a confused look, drooling on their dirty desk.
But not you.
You can still look for the patterns behind the chaos.
Find the order in the disorder.
This is a staple of communication skills.
Get a head start & begin realizing everything is connected.
Only then will you begin to realize the patterns you were initially overlooking were staring at you all along...
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