February 4, 2010
Entropy and Equifinality
After looking over the terms and explanations of entropy and equifinality I took some time to understand how they are interrelated to each other as parts of a bigger system. Entropy is the compulsion of groups to decay, whether it be mentally, relationally, or organizationally, it comes in many forms. Its basically the premise that without newness or change to stimulate the groups energy or focus the groups attention, a group will become chaotic and dissolve. The book establishes that to prevent this, new energy, or change needs to be inputted, but not to much. I thought of entropy in groups a statement of group evolution. As the group grows, it needs to adapt and rearrange to survive, either that, or it gets eaten. Now, just like real evolution, those changes and adaptations that need to be made to stave of entropy come in many different forms and are and expression of equifinality. But as the group makes these changes they need to check that they dont make to many or make them to fast. Understanding that changes and innovation need to be made and can be made through a variety of different avenues is important to group collaboration.
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I think the idea of using evolution to look at a way of dealing with entropy is a really good idea. I can see how it would apply to small groups, because they need to change and adapt to their environment to continue to be successful in whatever it is that they do. If you cant adapt to your environment, it will eat you alive. i see how that can be viewed as not infusing enough energy into a group which causes for disorientation and leads to a group being disorganized. Adapting to too many things in a group's environment would cause for them to be hindered by development in unnecessary areas. I guess if we applied it directly to evolution, it would be like an animal that lives in the water trying to evolve by growing a pair or legs and losing a fin in the process. I would have the capability to walk if it needed to, but it has become less efficient in the water by losing a fin in place of the legs. This makes too much evolution not so good in the long run. Cool concept.
ReplyDeleteI really like the approach that you took with these terms. I would not have gone outside that box and thought of the concept of evolution. It is a wonderful idea though. The model of these two terms fit perfect into the concept of evolution. I think that it is awesome to get other students perspective on material for the exact reason that it can help better define the concepts or further elaborate on the topic. I now feel after reading your blog I have a deeper meaning to the terms. My definition of the terms was a little more on the surface, in which I spoke of sports teams coming together and working as a group. I really love the outlook you took and this topic it definitely explains the two concepts discussed in this question.
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