Readiness as a Negentropic Force: How Coherence Expands Capability
Most organisations assume that capability comes from skills, motivation, or strategy. But capability doesn’t begin with any of these. It begins with coherence — the internal order that allows a system to move with clarity and purpose.
When coherence breaks down, capability collapses. When coherence increases, capability expands.
This is not a psychological idea. It is a structural one.
In physics, systems naturally drift toward entropy — toward disorder, noise, and the dissipation of usable energy. Human systems behave the same way. Over time, we accumulate:
outdated beliefs
inherited assumptions
emotional reflexes
cultural scripts
habitual interpretations
patterns that once protected us but now constrain us
These patterns create internal noise. They distort perception. They limit what feels possible. They reduce the amount of functional information available to us.
This is entropy in human form.
And this is where readiness becomes essential.
Readiness is the counter‑movement — the negentropic force that restores order, clarity, and capability. It is the capacity to reorganise the informational patterns we live inside so that they become more coherent, more functional, and more aligned with reality.
When readiness is active, several things happen:
noise decreases
clarity increases
perception sharpens
emotional bandwidth expands
new options become visible
viable action becomes easier
In other words, the system becomes more capable not because it tries harder, but because it becomes better organised internally.
This is why readiness is not about motivation or attitude. It is not about being positive or resilient. It is not about “embracing change.”
Those ideas are too thin.
Readiness is structural. It is architectural. It is informational.
It is the ability to alter the shape of our own constraints.
When a system becomes more coherent, it can do more with less. It can navigate complexity without panic. It can respond proportionately. It can see the difference between signal and noise. It can move toward better futures with less friction and more confidence.
This is what leaders feel when they say a team is “aligned” or “in flow.” It is not magic. It is negentropy.
We are bounded expressions of unbounded information. Our lives — and our organisations — are shaped by the patterns we inherit and the ones we create. Readiness is the force that allows us to reshape those patterns, reduce internal entropy, and expand what is possible.
When readiness increases, capability follows. When capability increases, the future opens.
This is the quiet physics of human change.