Navigating Chaos: How to Find Certainty in Uncertain Situations

by Jeff Boss

Southwest Airlines (SWA) is consistently considered one of the top five employers in the US by Fortune, Forbes, and Business Insider magazines, and one of the top companies in Jim Collins’ Great By Choice due to its sustained superior performance in a complex environment. By complex, I am referring to uncontrollable, unpredictable, and rapidly changing circumstances that cause you or your organization to change. The difference between complex and complicated is this: complicated is solvable, whereas complex is ever changing, continually morphing, and therefore unsolvable. Complexity perpetually raises the bar every time you try to meet it, forcing you to either adapt or become obsolete. The only “solution” in a complex environment is to adapt—to implement a short-term pivot upon which future effectiveness can be built. Here’s how Southwest did (and continues to do) it through the eyes of the OODA loop: