Choosing Greatness Every Day
Staying True Means Making the Right Choice, Every Time
When things aren’t maintained, they fall into chaos.
This is the reality of any system, whether it’s a worksite or the natural world. Things left unattended don’t just stay the same. They break down, slip out of alignment, and descend into disorder. This tendency toward chaos is called entropy, a principle that governs everything from the cooling of coffee to the collapse of once-great buildings.
In the 1850s, German scientist Rudolf Clausius described how heat always dissipates unless external work is applied. If you want your coffee to stay hot, you have to continually apply energy to keep it warm. If you want a fire to keep burning, you must keep feeding it fuel.[1]
The same is true in construction. Success is never a given. It requires effort, diligence, and a commitment to the right choices, every day.
Work Brings Order to Chaos
Entropy is a law of physics, but you don’t need to be a scientist to see it in action. It’s something we see all around us, all the time.
Left alone, things start to fall apart. Work sites get messy. Equipment breaks down. Employees start making careless mistakes. In other words, the battle against entropy in construction is really just a battle against complacency.
It’s easy when you’ve experienced some success to rest on your laurels and let things slide. It’s easy to cut corners, skip safety checks, or rush through processes. But taking the easy route is what allows entropy to take over—and for things to fall apart.
The only way to counteract this tendency is to work with effort and purpose in the opposite direction. At Jaynes, we call this “staying true.” Staying true means knowing the standard and upholding it with consistency. It means following processes that have been refined over decades.
And it means holding each other accountable, ensuring that everyone on the team plays their part in keeping entropy at bay.
A Legacy Doesn’t Build Itself
Jaynes didn’t become a leader in the construction industry by accident. For over 75 years, we’ve grown and evolved, becoming more sophisticated in our operations, expanding into new markets, and setting the standard for excellence in the Southwest.
But growth doesn’t mean cutting corners or compromising values. Our legacy is built on the opposite: on raising the bar for ourselves, for our industry, and for the communities we serve. We strive daily for greater efficiency, safety, quality, and expertise. And we know that staying true to our values is the only way to ensure that growth and excellence go hand in hand.
Here’s how we stay true to our values in everything we do:
- We empower every employee through our Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), giving them a financial stake in the success we build together.
- We lead with integrity, ensuring that every interaction—from job site conversations to negotiations with Owners and subcontractors—is handled transparently and ethically.
- We prioritize safety above all with our zero-incident safety culture, holding rigorous inspections and protocols so that every team member returns home safely each day.
- We self-perform concrete and millwork, taking full ownership of our timelines and quality to deliver superior craftsmanship.
- We drive innovation by adopting emerging technologies and process improvements that ensure we deliver the best quality, efficiency, and expertise on every project.
Each of these actions is part of our ongoing fight against entropy. By staying true to our processes, our people, and our standards, we ensure that our legacy of excellence continues to grow.
Staying True Is the Jaynes Way
Legacies aren’t built by accident. They’re forged by the continuous effort to hold the line against entropy, to stay true to the standards that got us here, and to push for even higher standards with every project.
Staying true is about more than just showing up. It’s about choosing greatness, every single day. That’s the Jaynes way.
SOURCES:
[1] Frese, D. (2024, August 13). Council post: Entropy in business: Redefining chaos in terms of probability. Forbes.