What’s the Cause? Family Business and Physics share the same laws.

 
Did you ever consider that some of the laws of physics, thermodynamics apply to Family businesses. Let’s consider a few laws of physics, you remember your quantum physics right?

• The three that effect Family Businesses: Hawthorne effect, a form of reactivity in which subjects modify an aspect of their behavior, in response to their knowing that they are being studied
• Heisenbug when a problem or issues seems to disappear or alter its behavior when one attempts to study it
• Observer effect (information technology), the impact of observing a process while it is running

The other law we should consider is entropy.  “The idea of entropy comes from a principle of thermodynamics dealing with energy. It usually refers to the idea that everything in the universe eventually moves from order to disorder, and entropy is the measurement of that change. The word entropy finds its roots in the Greek entropia, which means “a turning toward” or “transformation.”

The word was used to describe the measurement of disorder by the German physicist Rudolph Clausius and appeared in English in 1868. A common example of entropy is that of ice melting in water. The resulting change from formed to free, from ordered to disordered increases the entropy.”

Everything moves from order to disorder. Family businesses change over time because of entropy. They move from order to disorder. Family Business Leaders need to move back to order. One method to energize the time is to give them a cause. Most Teams do not respond well to financial goals, “20% increase in ROI, and 3.5 % increase in market share’.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal suggested these rules for setting goals for Teams.

– Goals must align with the organization’s mission and strategy.
– They must be clear and easy to understand.
– They must be accepted and recognized as important by everyone who will have to implement them.
– Progress towards goals must be measurable.
– Goals must be framed in time, with clear beginning and ending points.
– They should be supported by rewards.
– They should be challenging, but achievable.

Family Business Leaders need to know “What’s the Cause?” Sometimes we miss the value of setting annual goals in our ISO, TS or Profit Plan. What is the Goal? The WSJ article suggests, “This may sound obvious. But it is remarkable how many managers never get to this basic question. They take their mission, strategy and goals as given – something that has been set by others. Perhaps it’s their boss, or their boss’s boss, or perhaps it’s just built into the situation or organization in which they work. These managers will spend their entire work life reacting – reacting to orders from above, reacting to pressures and problems from below, or simply reacting to the insistent demands of a busy workplace.

Family Business owners, leaders it is your responsibility to decide on goals for yourself and your group. And you must make sure that your team understands, accepts and commits to those goals. The more you can involve your employees in setting goals for themselves and the group, the more committed to those goals they are likely to be.

Never underestimate the power of a purpose. John Kennedy said, Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.