Navigating the Corporate World with the Power of Pregnancy Hormone and the Butterfly Effect

N. Sahin, Ph.D.
4 min readApr 5, 2023
Photo by Amadaranth on Unsplash

What do pregnancy and sales commissions have in common? Other than the fact that both can induce feelings of panic and dread, they actually share a surprising similarity — they both demonstrate the butterfly effect in action. You know, that phenomenon where small changes in initial conditions can have big impacts on outcomes over time? In this article, we’ll explore how progesterone, a hormone responsible for preventing menstruation and maintaining pregnancy, and sales commission structures exemplify the butterfly effect, and what lessons we can learn from them when making decisions in the corporate environment. So buckle up and let’s take a wild ride through the chaos theory of decision making!

Let’s start with a relatively less-known miracle hormone, progesterone. It is one of the main ingredients of contraceptive pills, which essentially prevents pregnancy. However, once you are pregnant, progesterone plays a critical role in maintaining the pregnancy by preventing the shedding of the uterine lining and supporting the growth of the embryo.

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

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N. Sahin, Ph.D.

Data Scientist, Storyteller, System Biologist, People Analytics expert, And a huge fan of systems thinking, organizational design,