Entropy and Equifinality

I am familiar with the concept of entropy. The authors write, "Living systems tend toward entropy-that is: disorganization, stagnation, and chaos. I was involved in a small group within a church for many years that eventually experienced entropy. We were originally excited and eager to share ideas. We accomplished a lot, including collecting input from the greater parish and writing and implementing a five-year plan for our particular area of the parish’s long-range plan. However, by the seventh year, the group had lost members and was down to the same three people coming to meetings, which were no longer effective and to which I no longer wanted to go.  The group had lost its focus of working for the good of the parish and the members were discussing the same things over and over at each meeting. We were definitely stagnating because we had no fresh input, just the same-old, same-old. We were somewhat disorganized; we didn’t always send out agendas prior to the meetings, and we didn’t always use agendas in the actual meetings. There was an event we put on that bordered on chaotic because we assumed it would go on as before so we didn’t put much effort into organizing it. Our group was fully into the state of entropy. Instead of doing what the book suggested to prevent entropy, “increasing inputs of energy and information,” I decided to quit the group. I have no idea how well the group is going now, or even if it still exists.

The authors write, “Equifinality refers to the fact that living systems can take different routes to the same destination. This was apparent to me over the years when I served as a small group leader at a retreat for teens. As an icebreaker, a scavenger hunt was always held the first night pitting small groups against each other. As many years as I was involved, none of my various groups ever used the same strategy and yet my group won more than once. The teens who had been to the retreat before learned that there was more than one way to be successful in a scavenger hunt. So, as the authors also write, “there is more than one way to skin a cat!”