LEARN A LITTLE:
Some Thoughts About Entropy
Among the work activities I enjoy are the conversations with younger executives regarding their efforts to improve the functionality of their organization. As you might expect, this is typically a greater challenge within larger and older organizations. The customary items are discussed: creating more sensitive corporate dashboards, identifying an agenda and the most important “KPIs,” and checking out the latest management fads, such as “disruption leadership,” for example.
What is often overlooked or even unknown is an understanding of the dynamics of entropy in their organization. Stated in the context of the second law of thermodynamics, systems naturally tend toward a state of greater disorder or randomness. Some energy is always lost or being lost. (The reader is encouraged to read about the phenomena in one of the many articles or books published on the subject.)
For our purposes, entropy is defined as that strong tendency for organizations to become increasingly disengaged: less effective, less efficient and unfocused over time.
Manifestations of Organizational Entropy
Entropy can manifest itself in:
- The organization’s culture
- Movement toward bureaucratic functions and practices
- Poor or weak communication patterns
- Loss of personnel
- Absence or weakening of long-term strategy or vision
- The speed of the organization
- Inefficient structure
- Lack of innovation
- Inadequate resources and distribution strategy, and
- Being unable to change when change is required.
What the above list identifies is the many ways an organization can degrade.
Two points need highlighting here:
- Entropy is a force that all organizations fac
- Entropy must be identified, reduced and mindfully manage
To understand this concept, it is helpful to recognize that we as human beings are also faced with the reality of entropy both physically and mentally. And it always increases. If you are not convinced, you must not be getting older. The reality in our personal lives is that we can also combat the presence of entropy and that requires the expenditure of energy.
Neither our body or mind stay the same. That is why we need to engage in healthy practices and diligence in our habits. Nevertheless, the fact is that in the end we will all pass away. We cannot prevent or stop entropy, but we can acknowledge it, reduce or slow down its impact, and accept it.
An organization does not have to give into the forces of entropy, but it surely needs to recognize its presence and take timely action to combat and curb it. Such efforts take energy, and lots of self-reflection and ongoing commitment. In many ways, this is the task of CEOs and corporate leaders. It’s also important to know that the time and process of construction is much larger and difficult than the course of destruction.
In many respects, this takes us back to the previous listing of the manifestations of entropy’s presence. As has been observed by others, more energy needs to go into the organization’s systems than in going out. It will also take a lot more energy to turn an organization with a high degree of entropy around.
Until next time,
Art Dykstra
LAUGH A LITTLE:
REFLECT A LITTLE:
Proverbs 9:9 (NIV)
Instruct the wise and they will be wiser still.
READ A LITTLE
Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things
Adam Grant
(Viking, 2023)
I thoroughly enjoyed Adam Grant’s book, Hidden Potential, and heartily recommend it not only to individuals but also to those who are interested in improving organizations. Grant, a professor in organizational psychology at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, and a well-known speaker and consultant, draws on his wide experience with people and business organizations in this easy-to-read book. Many readers will find it just as engaging as I did.
Success isn’t only about talent, life station or cognitive ability. It’s much more than that, and Grant does an excellent job of providing insight and positive steps we can take to enable us to realize and maximize our capabilities more freely. What follows are some of the helpful thoughts and recommendations made within three sections of this book and its nine chapters.
Part One: Skills of Character
- “Potential is not a matter of where you start, but how far you travel.”
- “What counts is not how hard you work but how much you grow.”
- Three keys to understanding the intent of the book are:
- “Personality is your predisposition—your basic instincts for how to think, feel, and act. Character is your capacity to prioritize your values over your instincts.”
- “Knowing your principles doesn’t necessarily mean you know how to practice them, particularly under stress or pressure.”
- “If personality is how you respond on a typical day, character is how you show up on a hard day.”
- “The way you like to learn is what makes you comfortable, but it isn’t necessarily how you learn best. Sometimes you learn better in the mode that makes you the most uncomfortable, because you have to work harder at it.”
- “Many people associate procrastination with laziness. But psychologists find that procrastination is not a time management problem—it’s an ‘emotion management’ problem.”
- A thought to ponder: “Although listening is often more fun, reading improves comprehension and recall.”
- “Absorptive capacity is the ability to recognize, value, assimilate, and apply new information. It hinges on two key habits. The first is how you acquire information: Do you react to what enters your field of vision, or are you proactive in seeking new knowledge, skills, and perspectives? The second is the goal you’re pursuing when you filter information: Do you focus on feeding your ego or fueling your growth?”
- “Instead of seeking feedback, you’re better off asking for advice. Feedback tends to focus on how well you did last time. Advice shifts attention to how you can do better next time.”
- “In their quest for flawless results, research suggests that perfectionists tend to get three things wrong.
- One: they obsess about details that don’t matter. They’re so busy finding the right solution to tiny problems that they lack the discipline to find the right problems to solve. They can’t see the forest for the trees.
- Two: they avoid unfamiliar situations and difficult tasks that might lead to failure. That leaves them refining a narrow set of existing skills rather than working to develop new ones.
- Three: they berate themselves for making mistakes, which makes it harder to learn from them. They fail to realize that the purpose of reviewing your mistakes isn’t to shame your past self. It’s to educate your future self.”
Part Two: Structures for Motivation
- “Character skills aren’t always enough to travel great distances. Many new skills don’t come with a manual, and steeper hills often require a lift. That lift comes in the form of scaffolding: a temporary support structure that enables us to scale heights we couldn’t reach on our own.”
- “Boreout is an actual term in psychology. Whereas burnout is the emotional exhaustion that accumulates when you’re overloaded, boreout is the emotional deadening you feel when you’re under-stimulated.”
- “Hundreds of experiments show that people improve faster when they alternate between different skills. Psychologists call it interleaving.”
- “To start moving, we don’t actually need a map. All we need is a compass to gauge whether we’re heading in the right direction.”
- “As you get better and better at what you do, your ability to communicate your understanding or to help others learn that skill often get worse and worse.”
- “Languishing is a sense of stagnation and emptiness.”
- “Of all the factors that have been studied, the strongest known force in daily motivation is a sense of progress.
- “Teaching others can build our competence. But it’s coaching that elevates our confidence.”
- “Making progress isn’t always about moving forward. Sometimes it’s about bouncing back. Progress is not only reflected in the peaks you reach—it’s also visible in the valleys you cross. Resilience is a form of growth.”
Part Three: Systems of Opportunity
- “In organizational psychology, culture has three elements: practice, values, and underlying assumptions.”
- “The best teams aren’t the ones with the best thinkers. They’re the teams that unearth and use the best thinking from everyone.”
- “If natural talent determines where people start, learned character affects how far they go.”
- “New evidence indicates that people with bigger dreams go on to achieve greater things.”
- “Success is more than reaching our goals—it’s living our values.”