Building Sand Castles

Did you catch the BBC series Wonders of the Universe presented by Brian Cox? In the first episode Brian explained The Second Law of Thermodynamics and it struck me that it applies to business as much as it does to nature.

The world continuously slides towards disorder and chaos. You only have to go into one of the leading retail multiples on a Saturday lunchtime to see chaos at work – clothing previously neatly stacked, litters the floor like a mosaic rug. Staff come round to refold and rehang the garments, only for the items to be scattered once again. A constant stream of energy and enthusiasm is required to keep the displays looking neat and tidy, otherwise things become increasingly chaotic

Brian cox used sand castles as a way of explaining this. Grains of sand on a beach exist in a completely random order. The effect of wind, rain sun and tides may move them around, add, move, remove or replace individual grains, but its still random and requires relatively little effort or energy.

Take those same grains and put them into something highly structured, like a sand castle. Now there are far fewer variations in the way the grains can be ordered and the effect of the weather is far greater. Maintaining the sand castle requires greater and constant energy. Any lapse in attention results in the sandcastle disintegrating as chaos once again takes over

The 2nd law of thermodynamics has some interesting implications for work and our personal lives. Take your desk for example. An untidy desk requires little effort to maintain, but tidying mine up and keeping that way can be exhausting.

Tidy desk = lots of energy input = high entropy
Untidy desk = little energy input = low entropy 

However, I have to able ato find things when I want them, so like many people, I have a simple system. Simple is good - I like simple.  The more structured and complex your systems and processes, the more energy required to maintain them.


So, what can you do to simplify your business and at the same time focus on what's most important?  There is only so much energy to go round, use it wisely.