You’ve just settled into your office chair one morning when you get called away for a not-so-quick conversation.  By the time you get back to your desk, your coffee is cold.

Or:  The box you grabbed from the supply closet slips out of your fingers, and now the hallway is strewn with paperclips.  It’s going to take a lot longer to gather them up than it took for them to scatter.

Or:  One freakishly hot day in February, the dazzling ice sculpture in the park melts into a shapeless blob. Temperatures return to normal the next day, but the image of Elvis does not reappear.

These are all functions of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which observes that the universe tends toward disorder. In any closed system, the level of structured energy will never be greater than it was at any previous moment. This is commonly known as the law of entropy.

The principle, however, applies not only to the physical world but also to culture and society.  Hence, this week’s addition to the Ethical Lexicon:

Entropic (en·​tro·​pic/ en-troh-pik) adjective

Chaotic; without form or order

Relating to or characterized by a doctrine of inevitable social decline and degeneration

Chinua Achebe summed it up perfectly in the title of his 1958 novel, Things Fall Apart, a painful account of the chaos inflicted on the African continent by early European colonists. With the abolition of slavery in Europe and America, with the spread of democracy, and with quantum advances in civil rights, we might reasonably hope to have reversed, or at least stemmed, the tide of cultural conflict and divisiveness.

If only it were so. And yet, as much as social disintegration may be inevitable, that does not give us a license to eagerly help it along. Indeed, since leadership holds the reins that direct the course of culture, the increasingly juvenile behavior of too many of our leaders is cause for grave concern.

On May 16th, at a House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) questioned the relevance of a remark made by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). “Do you know what we’re here for?” she asked.

Greene could and should have responded by explaining why her comment was germane to the topic at hand. Instead, she opted for gratuitous nastiness: “I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you’re reading.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) promptly rallied to her colleague’s defense: “That is absolutely unacceptable! How dare you attack the physical appearance of another person. Move her words down.”

Unrepentant, Greene shot back, “Aww, are your feelings hurt?”

To which Ocasio-Cortez countered: “Oh girl, baby girl, don’t even play.”

Which is equally inexcusable, especially from or directed toward a member of Congress. Doubtless, Ocasio-Cortez would defend her repartee by declaring, “She started it!”

Welcome to the sandbox of contemporary leadership.

It doesn’t matter which party you like or loathe, which side of the debate you’re on, or whether one side is more culpable than the other. When adults behave like adolescents, everyone loses. And that’s just as true in the office or boardroom as it is on Capitol Hill.

It’s baffling that stories continue to abound about toxic work environments.  Anyone with a marginally functional moral compass or ethical barometer recognizes the corrosive consequences of incivility. That’s why we dare not tolerate caustic speech or behavior: They are self-replicating, and they produce an entropic effect that promotes mayhem and undermines productivity.

This is precisely why we have personal and professional rules of conduct: to set a standard that maintains cohesion within a community or organization. Dress codes, rules of order and procedure, addressing colleagues respectfully—these are not anachronisms from a bygone era. They are tried and tested practices to preserve awareness that we have an ethical responsibility to hold ourselves to a higher standard of personal deportment.

When anyone violates these codes, it is the job of leadership to hold them accountable. If there are no codes in place, if they aren’t enforced or effective, look to the leaders and you’re likely to discover why.

Ethics influences culture by summoning us to interpret and apply the spirit of civil discourse rather than compelling robotic compliance to lists of prohibited or mandated speech. Formal guidelines for civil behavior need to be concise and common sense, neither overburdened with specifics nor perpetually expanding with each politically correct flavor of the week.

At the same time, those guidelines need to acknowledge specific challenges, such as the integration of young members who missed out on socialization during the COVID years and on account of the Zoom culture.

Designed thus, and implemented with adept mentorship, the development and retention of social skills and maturity becomes the norm rather than the exception. When that happens, cultural biofeedback ensures that employees and managers remain conscious of what behaviors benefit a healthy and vibrant work environment while requiring a minimum of executive intervention.

When interpersonal clashes flare up, leaders should respond in the moment with diplomacy, defusing contentious episodes with redirection, and then reviewing expectations in private with a respectful yet firm tone. When recalcitrant individuals show a persistent lack of interest or ability to conduct themselves with professional courtesy, they must be shown the door before they cause systemic damage.

In 1961, John F. Kennedy gave his inaugural address without a hat. When he did, men’s hats went out of style virtually overnight. We managed to survive that transition. But when leaders allow the basic rules of civility and respect to fall by the wayside—or, even worse, disregard those rules themselves—they drive an entropic inertia that will prove culturally devastating faster than you can bat your eyelashes.