Does the genius really find his way around chaos?

It is an old commonplace that only those with weaker abilities need order, a genius can control chaos. The second half of the sentence may be true. But no matter how big a genius, he will only be able to control what he himself created.

Dealing with colleagues who qualify as exceptionally great minds but keep hiding behind a tsunami-stricken desk may be a real challenge for a manager. Should we allow disorder? Should we force a major cleaning? Should we sometimes tidy up ourselves? If we think that there is a good solution, we are wrong.

There is a personality type (37 profiles all in all) who is reluctant to deal with such earthly things as getting rid of several day-old slices of pizza or the prospect of a panoramic view from behind the desk. For him it’s OK if some papers cover others - actually, the number of layers doesn’t matter either.

His surroundings reflect his inner world. If we take a look at his desk, for instance, we can imagine the information dead-ends layering up in his mind. He is full of tangled experiences, pictures and impressions. Everything is the symbol of an impression, a mood or an attitude. Everything is coming and going inside. An order freak would get a headache within minutes if he only got a tiny glimpse into this rhapsodic and random universe. Those with more delicate nerves had better not even try to imagine. Not that they can, anyway…

As what is outside is inside, our genius is most likely to find his way around the chaos that he created with his own hands. But only until we intervene. Should anything tip either in the inner or the outer “order”, our friend would pull up short and get confused. The point is that we should keep the similarity of the inside and the outside. With a major cleaning we would only launch a non-functioning working mode including some staring into nothing and looking for grips.

It is also funny when two fellow chaos fans visit each other’s respective dens. Not only would get they lost in the other’s chaos but they would also feel it frustrating. In the midst of their entourage taken absolutely aback, sometimes they would ask each other: “Doesn’t this mess disturb you?”

From the point of view of management it is of course annoying that an important quote or a coffee-stained project documentation long past its deadline may lie under the four week-old (already decomposing) banana skin. Invoices, certificates and details of IT developments lie around in chaotic piles of papers. We don’t even know how to handle this situation. Without the great brains we cannot cope, we don’t want to send them away or lose them. At the same time every manager prefers foreseeable, predictable, plannable, sure, etc. things. Well, we can forget all these in the presence of a genius.

The good news in the bad is that out of the 37 disorganised-genius personality profiles only 12 are hopeless. In their case there is really nothing else to do but watch their every move with eagle eyes. Of course in a way that the “monitored” doesn’t notice anything.

The other 25 profiles, however, hold out some hope to us. By conscious personality and skills development we can somewhat improve the preference of order which is alien to them. Of course we don’t have to worry about the “conversion” going too far…