Is chaos ever a good thing? It can be—with the right approach. Dan Thurmon—Hall of Fame speaker, researcher, author, executive coach, and more—will reveal the true nature of chaos at his Monday, June 30 keynote address at the 2025 BOMA International Conference & Expo. His keynote experience will illuminate not only how to live in a space of uncertainty but also how to thrive there.
How is Chaos Affecting the Workforce?
Thurmon’s keynote will reveal illuminating findings from a first-of-its-kind study. The Impact of Chaos on the American Workforce, a 2023 report conducted in conjunction with the Center for Generational Kinetics, reveals 10 top insights on how chaos is affecting American workers, including:
- Nearly a quarter (24%) of study participants who are employed full-time, self-employed, or actively seeking employment consider quitting at least once a day. “The daily experience for many is unfulfilling, and in many ways, unsustainable,” the study notes.
- Financial stress is, by far, the most stressful form of chaos. Respondents across every demographic ranked financial chaos at the top, but it had the highest negative impact among older millennials aged 36-45 and among active job-seekers.
- Men and women have different experiences with chaos. Women indicated that they experienced significantly higher negative thoughts and conditions than men resulting from chaos over the past two years—72% of females in the study, compared to 60% of males, reported that chaos impacted them and their families more in the two years before the study than it had in previous times.
- People are feeling some confidence about navigating the chaos, though they still have concerns. More than half of the participants feel completely or somewhat comfortable navigating chaos at home (57%) and in relationships (52%). They are less confident about navigating the chaos of their thinking and their finances.
What is Positive Chaos?
“The reality is that chaos is a technical term that refers to the nature of a system and its openness to change and disruption,” Thurmon explained. “The times we’re living in right now, with this connected world and with technology accelerating transformation so quickly, means that the predictability horizon of what we can know for certain is getting shorter and shorter.” It’s less possible to figure out what is likely to happen, and this unpredictability can be highly anxiety-inducing.
“The case I make is that these forces at work are actually powerful accelerants for intention,” Thurmon added. “When you can spend less time and mental energy trying to play defense against the chaos coming at you, you can go on offense and start disrupting yourself and changing things about the way you interact with the world—starting things sooner, making small changes in your language, encouraging the people around you in very specific ways.”
“Chaos can empower us to disrupt our current patterns and realign ourselves with our values, goals, and aspirations,” Thurmon said. This disruption lets us change our world and influence people around us more effectively, and for the better.
What You Can Do About Chaos
You can’t stop chaos from happening, but you can change your perception and respond to it. Thurmon suggested these three approaches:
1. Find clarity about what matters. “It’s really important that you know what you want to achieve in the world—not just in terms of goals, but in terms of impact,” Thurmon said. Your company might have a set of goals or even a mission statement or vision—but do you have one for yourself? “An impact statement is about how you affect people around you and the difference you hope to make,” Thurmon explained. “That sounds very open-ended and ethereal, but it can be very specific if you understand your values and your principles.”
2. Look for patterns. Thurmon said, “We become overwhelmed when we see our challenges and circumstances as entirely new. Rather than seeing situations as ‘unprecedented,’ look for what’s familiar. How is this a new version of something you’ve already encountered? Quite often, on a personal level, when we fail to handle something adequately, it comes back in bigger ways to command our attention.” Thurmon advocates that we see past events, successes, and failures as vital tools for pattern recognition.
3. Become courageous and curious. “Instead of trying to play it safe, start trusting your intuition and recognize your ability to influence what’s happening—start saying and doing things differently than you have before, in better alignment with your goals and clarity about what your impact is and what you’re trying to accomplish,” Thurmon said. “You don’t have to change everything in a big way because chaos amplifies intention. Changing small things actually changes everything.”
Check out Dan Thurmon’s Monday keynote—and much more—at the 2025 BOMA International Conference & Expo in Boston. Not registered yet? Secure your place today!
