LESSONS IN LEADERSHIP AND LIFE
I was introduced to entropy in Mrs. Hodges’ sixth-grade science class. She demonstrated entropy by making us sit up straight, feet flat on the floor, hands with palms down on our desks. We were told not to speak but to respond in an orderly manner by raising our hands to answer her questions.
Getting 31 kids to sit quietly in a room without moving or talking was a remarkable feat. Birds chirped outside, lawn mower engines could be heard in the distance, and classroom clamors came from other areas of the school.
Suddenly, the teacher yelled out, “Now everyone stand up and jump up and down! Yell as loud as you can and act crazy! Throw paper wads at each other, too!”
It was a blast! After a couple of minutes of helter-skelter, she said, “Okay, now sit down and I will tell you about entropy.”
WHAT IS ENTROPY?
The second law of thermodynamics describes entropy as a tendency for order to decline to a state of disorder. Entropy is a powerful force that can create chaos in the ordered workplace. It can ruin businesses, even relationships, and can occur in any setting, small or large, if not kept in check.
It is interesting to note that human ingenuity creates structure (order) through discipline of mind, logic, and desire for outcomes, but ironically, human nature tends toward disorder. People often want to find shortcuts to simplify work, especially if rewards are attained regardless of whether the work is performed efficiently or poorly. Human nature gravitates toward a desire for shortcuts that may lead to leisure and pleasure, often trumping hard work and discipline.
Entropy is an essential concept that leaders must understand to manage. Consider the following illustrative narratives.
Birds and Squirrels
I have a bird feeder at the edge of my backyard porch. It’s an 8 × 4 × 2 rectangular wire mesh box that hangs from a metal awning frame during the fall and winter months while the canopy is down. The open side of the box faces skyward and is filled with bird feed — mainly sunflower seeds.
Every morning, while eating breakfast, I face a large picture window that overlooks the feeder and the back yard. I see birds of different sizes, colors, and shapes getting their fill of nutrient seeds. I sometimes witness intense displays of social order and tyrannical behavior of larger birds toward the little ones.
Recently, the feeder has attracted another voracious diner: a squirrel … a gray one. I assumed he is the “scout” squirrel, solitary and fearless.
This pioneer appeared to have blazed the trail to my house, seeking food for his fellow squirrels. It took the pesky rodent two full days to figure out how to get into the food stash. Climbing up the side of the brick exterior of the house, it hopped onto the awning frame and made its way into the box.
I shooed it away, but eventually, an army of squirrels started coming around, and I found myself not eating or enjoying breakfast because I was too overwhelmed chasing them. Eventually, the poor birds went hungry because I couldn’t keep up with the chase, resulting in a temporary pause in seed supplies.
After some research, I bought a baffle to put over the feeder so the varmints would slide off if they tried to get in. Being very clever animals, one of the ninja squirrels soon figured he could jump into the food box from ground level (about 5 feet). He apparently taught the others, because they all eventually jumped in. It was like watching acrobats at a circus!
Many days of consternation and bewilderment followed as I tried to figure out how to beat the squirrels. I finally relented and removed the bird feeder. (The story does not end here! Please read the Afterword section of this article to find out who finally won this battle between man and rodent!)
Leaders and Meetings
My organization employs more than 200 staff members and maintains a robust CQI (continuous quality improvement) program as well as a risk aversion program that meets twice a month. Each meeting is an average of three hours long and is attended by department and division leaders; medical, dental, and pharmacy directors; and corporate executives who are all physicians. Conducting these meetings is expensive — about $15,000 per meeting (considering direct and indirect costs).
A few years ago, our leadership had the desire and foresight to implement an integrated communication platform to improve efficiency and communication for our clinical operations across facilities. The highlights were an improved internal video conferencing and online meeting system, a chat tool, and file-sharing capabilities.
Operating eight physical locations involving multiple disciplines, this was perfect for consolidating communication to one platform. An external IT support team and our own office-based IT personnel implemented this system.
Almost instantly, we reaped rewards with improvements at all levels.
As time passed, everyone settled into routines, but I noticed a trend of decreasing engagement in our meetings. I seemed to be the only one who consistently asked critical questions or pointed out errors in data reports. This team of high-level and highly paid individuals seemed to be glued to their laptop computers. (These leaders wanted access to their clinical teams in real time in case of emergencies, they explained. Hence, I allowed laptops into the meeting room.)
Eventually, an incident led to the discovery that this platform was being used for personal and social gratification rather than for work-related matters. The chat tool was being used as a social media platform filled with GIFS and emojis. Unbeknownst to me, they had the boldness to send social messages during our important risk and CQI meetings!
An audit ensued, discovering that some of the messages were sexual in nature, inappropriate, and derogatory of the meeting and/leadership, etc. Participants were also using the document-sharing feature to post unvetted and unapproved information. (Please see the Afterword section for follow-up.)
THE NATURE OF ENTROPY
Entropy can be stealthy and may creep up on a business without warning. Damage may have already been done, and recovery may require drastic measures.
Consider the Leaders and Meetings story again. On the surface, the meeting process and activities appeared normal and working. Underneath the facade, no one was listening, and no meaningful contributions were being made. These people were too busy sharing their knowledge of one of their co-workers’ toilet habits or planning their weekend getaways.
Why did this happen? Entropy occurs in business settings for many reasons. One of the primary reasons is that people may not agree with how things are being done. At the beginning of any project or goal, planning discussions include action steps. Not everyone may agree, and compromises may not have been adequately made. This leads to disagreements and fragmentation of the team and could lead to potential power struggles.
Sometimes, the structure of a process or project is too complicated, and it takes too much effort to do it right. Many don’t know the big picture of why we are doing something. They are too involved in the minutia and cannot see the big picture. They may be unable to follow the rules of the policies. People soon start to take shortcuts to get the work done more quickly.
There may be too many variables involved in a process. The Meeting story exemplifies a new communication structure with a lot of “toys.” The staff members were distracted and used the structure for their own pleasure. A lack of respect (for leadership) and accountability through no checks and balances also doomed the project.
External influences are also often a significant cause of entropy. The squirrel story is a good example. The plans were good, but because there were external influences — the squirrels came in to alter the flow of the birds eating at the bird feeder — it caused chaos, altering process flows. Entropy occurred, and the flow became chaotic.
HOW TO AVOID ENTROPY
There are at least five main themes that organizations can use to avoid sinking into the pitfalls of chaos. They are not perfect, but all are efforts to avoid or prevent disorder and not have to fix them after the onset. The efforts take vigilance and a constant eye on the business processes, the project at hand, and an overzealous attention to detail.
Leadership. It starts with strong leadership. How well is the leadership structured? Are there clear lines of reporting and delineation of responsibilities as depicted on the organizational chart? Does the leadership have a clear vision and understanding of the intended project? Are members of leadership unified in their approach to vision and mission? Is there respect for each other at all levels?
Rules. A second theme is creating and applying rules, which are as important as leadership. Policies, procedures, and protocols must be clear and easily understood. They should be succinct and precise.
These policies must be developed and planned, and not written as reactive policies. Reactive policies tend to become a patchwork of confusing and sometimes ambiguous rules that eventually make no sense and thus become non-functional.
These rules must be dynamic and flexible, as they may need to change to meet workplace variables. Thus, they should be reviewed periodically and regularly.
Communication. Third, the rules must be communicated at all levels, not just within the leadership. In my experience, rules often seem ignored by various leadership levels and do not get transmitted, or partial information gets disseminated.
As the program evolves, everyone must be briefed on its purpose and key elements. It’s also important to let everyone know that these processes are being audited (we’re looking over your shoulders!).
Redundancy. Fourth, the policies and other rules need to be rehearsed frequently. Redundancy, especially at the beginning of a project, is important.
Recall the basics of neuropathways: The more you rehearse, repeat, and practice, the better you will be because of realignment of the pathways. However, be aware of habit formation (repeating actions so often that you do things without conscious effort). This may result in reduced attention and focus, making it easier to forget details. So, mixing it up a bit will help.
Audit. Fifth, once the process begins, it is important to audit. This keeps people honest and should help with accountability. The audit does not have to be highly detailed or even frequent. When people know that an audit is part of the process, it becomes a deterrent for undesirable activities.
A little bonus tied to a job well done, attached to the audits is a good idea, too. It’s one of those proactive approaches — much cheaper to prevent a disease than to fix it after the damage is already done.
Not knowing that a rogue leader was posting unvetted and wrong information on the share drive and directing staff to process procedures incorrectly put my company through tremendous financial burdens. Auditing would have identified this earlier, and we could have avoided the fallout.
AFTERWORD
The squirrel story: I went to the local garden store and bought a Squirrel Buster bird feeder. Haven’t had a problem since. The squirrels went away and never came back!
The meeting story: It got so bad that we dismantled parts of the communication platform, particularly those with social media capabilities. An audit would have discovered the incident and prevented many headaches!
Take-home Message
As a sixth-grade student, I learned what entropy was and how destructive it can be to the ability to study and learn. As a CEO, I sometimes neglected this possibility in a business setting, and it caught me a few times. I learned to become more vigilant about this phenomenon.
The take-home message is that entropy is a real threat to orderly structures, especially something as complicated as healthcare delivery. It can occur because of an internal breakdown in leadership, policies, communication, lack of redundancy, and/or audit.
Something unexpected from the external environment (squirrels) may also disrupt harmony. The key is to be aware of entropy and know that it occurs anytime, anywhere, and in any setting. Chaos may become too difficult to overcome and repair if not recognized and corrected early.
Remember, it is human nature for this to happen.