This is Johanna Rothman’s April 2025 Create an Adaptable Life Newsletter. The Unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this newsletter.
The world is in chaos. In the past, I’ve tried some small probes to find a transforming idea and then see if that idea will work. Those probes are one way of gathering more information.
Those probes show that I have a bias for action. (You might, too.) But with this much pervasive chaos? I am not even sure where to gather more data.
What should we do? Here are some options:
- Wait for a while and see if the chaos settles down. (Based on recent history, I do not think this will happen.)
- Act anyway. (Again, based on recent history, I do not think this is wise for me. But maybe it is for you.)
- Build a network, a community, that can help gather disparate information.
We know that a community can help us change or help us change our reactions to inevitable change. But there are several specific pieces of this community I want to highlight. First, that it’s a small world network. Second, that the disparate information can help us learn more faster. (That faster feedback loop idea.)
Let me start with the value of small-world networks.
Small World Networks Offer More Value than Solo Work
In Agile and Lean Program Management, I explained how small world networks can extend the reach of any single person to the entire organization and back again. Instead of relying on hierarchy to identify and solve problems, we humans rely on each other. Hierarchies tend to be slow. Human networks tend to be much faster.
Every time people use the network, it gets stronger. That’s a feedback loop that creates outcomes we want. (In systems thinking terms, it’s a stabilizing system.)
In times of chaos, our small world networks can help stabilize our feelings. They might offer us options for probes or experiments we have not yet considered.
The more we use our small world network, the more powerful we, as a network, become. That helps us manage our individual lack of power.
Can any network stabilize the world? Maybe. We can use these small world networks to gather more information faster.
Gather More Information Faster
My small world networks are not the same as yours. We might have some overlap, but we tend to have disparate networks. This first image is a small world network with fewer people.
Here’s how you can tell. Take thirty seconds and write down all the networks you have. Consider all your email lists, Slack, and Discord communities, just as a start. When I did this, I counted seventeen networks—because my thirty seconds were up. Here are just three of mine: systems thinking, management, and writing. I am sure you have more—and different—networks.
I used those three networks as examples because they are so different from each other. Those differences mean each person in each network sees the world a little differently.
While no one person can see everything clearly, more of us can see more of the whole when we pool our information. That’s the value of more connections, as in this second image.
Even better, we can see where we might be missing information. That allows us to either send more probes, find more people for our network, or act.
Chaos requires that we think more clearly. Very few of us can do that alone. Instead of acting first, think how you will gather more information to make a more informed decision.
Something Fun Because We Deserve It
Daniel Steinberg’s Drip newsletter had a link to the Ukelele Orchestra performing the theme from Shaft. Every time I watch this, I smile.
Announcements…
Register now for the Q2 2025 Writing Workshop 1: Free Your Inner Writer & Sell Your Nonfiction Ideas. While primarily for nonfiction writers, I have options for how you can use this workshop for content marketing for fiction writers.
I’m still working on Effective Public Speaking: How to Use Content Marketing With Stories to Show Your Value. It’s only available on leanpub right now. If you do not like reading books in progress, do not buy it yet! I expect to keep updating it over the next month and then go to the publishing steps.
If you are part of the agile community, consider checking out The Agile Network. I’m speaking several times at the April micro-conference in two weeks.
Links
My Books. Also, my store is up. I do not yet have all the links on all the book pages (!!), but yes, you can go there and buy my self-published books and all my audiobooks.
See my Linktree with all the relevant links to everything I do, including all my social media.
Got any links for me? Send them on.
See you next month and on the blog next week,
Johanna
© 2025 Johanna Rothman