A Change Question - How Do I Face Change When It Feels Chaotic?

Welcome to A Change Question — a special mini-series from The Inner Game of Change.
In each short, solo episode, I bring you one question worth sitting with — the kind that can spark both personal and professional shifts. 

In this episode, I explore what it means to face change when everything feels chaotic. From buffalo walking into storms to Lou Gerstner steering IBM through crisis, to Shakespeare’s King Lear and Viktor Frankl’s quiet wisdom — we’ll look at how clarity can exist even without calm.

I’ll share four small, practical steps that help turn overwhelm into movement and uncertainty into agency — because sometimes, having control means embracing the chaos rather than fighting it.

Ali Juma
@The Inner Game of Change podcast

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Chapters

• 0:00 The Buffalo Mindset
• 0:23 Workplace Storms Defined
• 0:45 A Question About Chaos
• 1:20 Brain Shortcuts And Naming Feelings
• 2:24 IBM’s Choice Inside Chaos
• 3:03 Netflix And The Power Of Letting Go
• 3:38 Shakespeare And Viktor Frankl On Agency
• 4:30 Four Practical Moves For Change
• 6:11 Closing Reflection And Invitation

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

There's a story I really like about buffalo. When storms roll across the plains, most animals turn and run. Buffalo do the opposite. They face the storm and walk straight into it. And by doing that, they actually spend less time in their chaos. I've always found that curious, not just as a behavior, but as a mindset. Now think of a workplace storm. A restructure, a new boss, maybe a new system that changes how you do everything. Some people wait for clearer skies, others turn towards it, ask questions, try to make sense of what's happening. Same storm, different stance. This episode is part of my I Have a Question Series. Short solo reflections on change. It is not therapy and it is not advice. It is simply an invitation to pause, to think, and to notice the questions that quietly shape how we live and work. I am Ali Jama and I have a change question. When everything around me is shifting, how do I face change when it feels chaotic? Chaos is part of change none of us get to skip. It is the messy middle between what was and what isn't yet clear, the uncomfortable gap between letting go and landing. But I've come to believe that's also where the real learning hides. Neuroscientist Lisa Feldman-Barrett calls the brain a prediction machine. When patterns break, our brains sound the alarm, heart rate up, focus down, tunnel vision on what feels safe. Daniel Kahneman used to say uncertainty makes the mind crave shortcuts. So the trick I think is to slow the shortcut. Name what you are feeling, this is confusion, this is loss, this is fear. Each time you do, the amygdala eases off and you regain just enough calm to think again. That small pause, I really like that moment. It is where courage sneaks back in. In 1993, IBM was collapsing under its own weight. Everyone told the new CEO, Lo Getzner, split the company, escaped the storm, but he didn't. He faced it, kept IBM whole, recentered everything on the customer. That decision didn't come from calm conditions, it came inside the chaos. I find that incredibly reassuring that clarity can exist even when calm doesn't. And sometimes facing chaos isn't about adding control, it is about subtraction. In 2011, Netflix tried to separate the DVD's business from streaming and nearly lost its audience overnight. Reed Hastings could have doubled down in pride, but instead he apologized publicly, simplified the model, and went all in on streaming. That move, the act of letting go, became the foundation of their growth. Sometimes the bravest change isn't holding on tighter, it is taking one thing off the plate. Literature reminds us of this pattern too. In King Lear, Shakespeare throws his king into a literal storm. Stripped of his crown, his comforts, his illusions, Leia finally sees truth. The storm doesn't destroy him, it removes what was false shelter. I've always loved that image because it feels so human. We only start to see clearly when the noise around us is gone. And then there is Viktor Frankel. In Man's Search for Meaning, he writes that our last freedom is to choose our attitude in any circumstance. When everything else is gone, that choice, the stance, is where agency lives. I think about that a lot in my work. We can't stop the organizational storm or the personal one, but we can decide how we meet it. That to me is leadership in its own simplest form. Sometimes the way to find control isn't by tightening your grip, it is by softening it. To have a measure of control, you might first need to embrace the chaos. I've learned that small deliberate moves make all the difference. Here are a few that help me and maybe they'll help you too. First, name it to frame it. Write down what's changing, what's uncertain and what is still steady. When you give chaos boundaries, it starts to feel less like fog and more like a map. Second, shorten the horizon. Instead of trying to control the next six months, focus on the next six hours. That's how your nervous system resets. One small winnable window at a time. Third, find microcertainties. Keep one routine steady, your morning coffee, a daily walk, a short check-in with someone who grounds you. That ritual isn't trivial. It is your nervous system's reminder that something familiar remains. And fourth, embrace movement, not mastery. In chaos, progress looks like small imperfect steps. Every tiny action tells your brain we are adapting, and adaptation is control in motion. Because sometimes the best way to face chaos isn't to fix it, it is to flow with it long enough to understand its rhythm. So when change feels chaotic, maybe start small, name the storm, find one thing that grounds you, subtract something that no longer serves you, and notice what happens next. Often the ground steadies a little. Because chaos isn't pure disorder, it is just complex order waiting to be recognized. You will see it once you stop running. So here's my question for you this week. What's one storm you've been running from that you could face instead? And what's one thing you could let go of to move through it faster? Because facing chaos doesn't mean fighting everything, it means meeting change with agency, choosing your ground and remembering that storms end, but how you face them shapes who you become. Until next time.