by Life is full of little decisions: Should I pick up that sock off the floor? Should I do the dishes before bed? How about fixing the leaky faucet in the bathroom?
Leaving a sock on the ground is an illustration of a concept from physics you may have heard of: entropy. Entropy is a measure of the amount of energy lost in a system. If a system loses too much energy, it will degenerate into chaos. It only takes a little energy to pick up one sock. But if you don’t take care of your yard, let your pipes stay clogged and don’t solve electrical problems, all this contributes to a chaotic house that would take a lot of energy to solve. And that chaos will take up your time and your ability to get other things done.
The good news is that entropy has its opposite – negentropy. As a researcher who studies social systems, I found that thinking in terms of negentropy and energy can help you fight against entropy and chaos in everyday life.
Minimize energy loss, maximize progress
In both physics and social systems, energy can be defined as the capacity or ability to do work. For over twenty years, I have studied social systems in schools, community dialogue, universities, corporations and non-profit organizations. During that time I noticed a constant loss of energy – for example, meetings of four to plan meetings for seven, or everyone’s worst nightmare, meetings that could be achieved by email. These little frustrations can add up to a point where good employees start to quit.
After thinking about energy for so long, I began to wonder – as others have – whether applying physics concepts to social systems could help them work better.
Over the past four years, my colleagues and I have developed the theory of slack and, using interviews and case studies, I have studied how energy is lost or gained in many types of systems – with includes higher education, leadership for online education, workplace organizations and online learning settings.
Our work suggests that when people keep the idea of neglect in mind and take actions that limit or reverse energy loss, social systems are more efficient and effective. This may even make it easier for people to achieve bigger goals. In other words, yes, you should pick up that sock, and yes, you should improve your meetings, and that may allow you to see other ways to avoid energy losses in the future.
5 steps to negentropic success
From my colleagues and my research on negentropy, we have come up with five steps to reverse energy loss in everyday life.
1: Find the entropy.
Identify places where energy is lost in the social systems in your daily life. It helps to think of it like a thermal map of the outside of your home that shows where heat – or energy – is lost. A poorly sealed window lets in heat energy. Finding things is difficult when you have a poorly organized kitchen. A poorly designed new employee onboarding system can lead to serious legal problems later on.
2: Prioritize the losses.
Identify the biggest or worst losses and those that attract your attention the most. For example, maybe that leaky kitchen faucet drives you crazy. If it could be repaired, you might have room in your mind to consider other improvements to your kitchen that would make it more functional.
3: Make a plan.
Identify actions that will reverse the energy losses you have noticed and plan ways to address the highest priorities first. You could start by fixing the leaky faucet or picking up your socks; if pre-planning meetings are causing your organization a lot of trouble, analyze the problem and find out how to solve it.
4: Try it and pay attention.
Put the thoughts into action, but stay focused on energy gains and losses. When trying to implement negative thoughts, keep track of what works, how much effort it took and ideas you come up with for future negentropic actions.
5: Go beyond setup and maintenance.
As you work to reverse energy losses, you may sometimes find that you are maintaining a social system that is not beneficial no matter how smoothly it works. Spending time improving orientation to introduce new workers to the company culture may not be very useful if the culture itself needs to be changed. The best way to apply the idea of negentropy to social systems is not only to improve the small processes, but also to look at the big picture and see if the status quo itself promotes energy loss.
Seeing things through a negentropic lens won’t fix a bad relationship or help you love a job you hate – those are complicated issues. However, noticing where energy is lost in your life will make it easier for you to prioritize and act in ways that can improve the social systems around you.
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This article is republished from The Conversation, a non-profit, independent news organization that brings you reliable facts and analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Alison Carr-Chellman, University of Dayton
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Alison Carr-Chellman does not work for, consult with, share in, or be funded by any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has not disclosed any relevant interests beyond their academic appointment.
