Order and chaos. What we know and what we don’t know. No material successful output is accomplished alone. The most spectacular achievements require a team, a company, an organization.

Prior to a team, prior to an organization, there is chaos. There is no order. Defining and planning an organization brings order. The design is an analysis of what we know, or what we think we know translated into thoughts. This is thinking and the most important part of every CEOs role.

Fielding the organization, hiring people, introduces more chaos, uncertainty, ambiguity, because real people do not follow the perfect design. This is the bane of every startup.

People must be adapted to the organizational design, but there is no motivation to do so. The founder first tries to be the parent, with impatient instruction, repetition and increasing volume. “If I told you once, I told you a thousand times.”

After some time, the founder realizes that motivation will only come by enrollment of the people into the purpose of the enterprise. Next to the perfect organization design emerges the perfect purpose in the form of mission. And the founder has to talk about it. Without people, the founder only had to think. Now, the founder has to communicate, but the thoughts are ill-formed and people have questions. A discussion ensues and, if successful, a company is born. This is the constant struggle of order out of chaos.