Out of chaos comes order. I sometimes wonder if the reverse is true too. That in the pursuit of order, health and safety, ticking boxes and ensuring everyone runs to the same hours, the same lunch breaks, the same commuter corridors, whether we have eliminated any space for chaos, and for the switch in mental or physical reactions that this requires.
I wonder if we’ve all got our comfy slippers on. I wonder if those Councils who have flexi time, who have discounted gym memberships to the Council run gyms, who enourage people to leave the office not when they are told to, but when they feel they need a break – I wonder if they are the Councils which are more innovative, more chaotic, but also cumulatively achieve more. I wonder if we expect our working day to look the way it does because we are told to, and whether if we could scrap it and go back to the drawing board, how many of us would choose to work the way we do.
Sometimes, not knowing immediately where people are is hard. Sometimes it requires people to step up. The stepping up jolts people out of their comfort zones, momentarily. Sometimes, going to the gym for an hour in your lunch break can give the mental space to allow you to think, truly think, about the problems you left lying on your desk.
Chaos is not always negative. Chaos can sometimes have some very positive effects. I think I’d like to lobby for something in the middle for all Council cultures. I think we need a bit of a jolt.
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