Jackie Zach
July 29, 2024
In today’s discussion on the Tough Love for Business podcast, Jackie Zach and Mike McKay dissect the concept of entropy and its impact on business operations. They explore how systems naturally progress towards disorder, using relatable examples like the spreading of food coloring in water to illustrate this principle. The discussion highlights how entropy manifests in business processes, such as when teams deviate from established procedures, leading to inefficiencies and customer complaints.
Jackie and Mike emphasize the constant challenge leaders face in maintaining consistency and preventing chaos. They draw parallels to everyday scenarios, such as the meticulous processes in fast-food chains like McDonald’s, where even minor deviations can affect quality. The conversation underscores the importance of vigilance and repetition in business practices to counteract entropy and sustain success.
Is your business experiencing entropy? Take advantage of a complimentary business strategy session to discover the opportunities in your business! https://actioncoachwi.com/podcast-ask-a-question-complimentary-session/
Podcast Transcript
Jackie Zach: Welcome to the Tough Love for Business podcast! I’m your co-host, Jackie Zach, and I’m here with the ever-wonderful Mike McKay. Today, we’re diving into the topic of entropy. So, what exactly is entropy?
Mike McKay: Entropy is the natural law that every system tends to move towards disorder over time.
Jackie: Can you give us an example of entropy?
Mike: An example of entropy is when you drop a bit of red food coloring into a bowl of water. It spreads out and turns the whole bowl pink without any stirring. This illustrates how systems naturally move towards disorder or their ultimate energy state.
In business, any process you create is like that drop of food coloring. You can train everyone on the process, but over time, entropy kicks in and people start taking shortcuts. For instance, I spoke with someone about shipping efficiency. They trained their team on a specific process with paperwork, but after a couple of weeks, people stopped following it, leading to customer complaints. This wasn’t due to negligence but the natural law of entropy at work.
As a leader, you’ll always be fighting this chaos. For example, in a sales training session, we noticed participants’ purpose statements had drifted from the original by about 10%, affecting their close rates. They stopped saying, “At the end, I’ll ask you for a decision,” thinking fewer words were fine, but that allowed entropy to creep in.
In business, we often hear about efficiency—taking shortcuts and doing things the fastest way possible. However, this can lead to problems if parts of a process are neglected. In the sales training example, omitting key phrases in the purpose statement was just entropy causing issues by not using the process correctly.
Jackie: Right. And the moment you stop paying attention, entropy starts to take over. If you find yourself saying, “We need to get back to basics,” that’s a clear sign that entropy has entered your business. Your processes and systems are slowly eroding, affecting customer experience or creating inefficiencies.
Mike: A great business does the same thing the same way for a long time. But as humans, we get bored. You don’t go to McDonald’s and expect them to cook a hamburger for eight seconds instead of 32, right? The food would be terrible, inconsistent, and not up to their standards. Entropy is at work in McDonald’s too. If you’ve ever had fries that were pulled out five seconds early, they don’t taste as good. One might be raw because someone took a tiny shortcut, which had a massive impact on the outcome.
People think business is always exciting with new things happening, but generally, it’s about sticking with lead generation and marketing strategies that work. Do them longer than you want to because you think they’re not working yet, and then keep doing them consistently. You don’t change your marketing strategy when you get bored; you change it when your accountant gets bored, meaning it stops making you money.
The number one mistake business owners make with entropy is stopping or not paying attention as soon as something starts working. It takes a lot of effort to put something in place. In sales, this comes up almost immediately. If you don’t practice, train, and role-play your sales skills and process repeatedly, they start to fade right before your eyes. It would be great if this wasn’t the case, but it is. That’s what happens to sales skills—they’re highly perishable.
Jackie: And this applies to many skills. For instance, if you’ve been great at communicating with your team and customers but then stop paying attention or take shortcuts, misunderstandings and chaos can quickly follow.
Mike: Exactly. As soon as you think you’ve got it, you need to double down. Repeat your message in different ways so it’s consistently heard. Entropy is like gravity; it’s always at work in your business, body, and brain. You can’t stop it, but you can put measures in place to keep it at bay. Some people say they don’t need help or coaching, but why do the Kansas City Chiefs still have Andy Reid? Because entropy affects how you play football too. If you think it’s not happening, you’re in denial, which is suffocating your dreams.
If you don’t want to be overwhelmed by denial…
Jackie: Click on the link below to talk with us. Until then, join us next time when we discuss the concept of busyness.