Some people’s messy desks hide very organized minds. Don’t judge the system by its look.

Order is not always visible from outside. Plenty of people work out of what looks like chaos and know exactly where everything is, because the system is in their head rather than on the desk, and a tidy surface is no evidence of a tidy mind either. Judging someone’s competence by their presentation is a cheap shortcut that is wrong often enough to cost you good people.

Before you correct somebody’s method this week, ask whether it is working. If it is, leave it. If you are the messy one, make sure the system is real and not a story you tell.