The corporate energy dispersion diagram depicts the reverse situation. There are still three lenses. But in this case each of them is acting to diffract and disburse available energy rather than focus, multiply and transmit it to the next stage of the process. Poor disheartened leadership, ambiguous goals, muddled planning, conflicting authority, poor communication, poor coordination and teamwork within and between functions and departments, inadequate skills, demoralized attitudes, stress and burnout lead to wastage and dissipation of energy at each stage, so that the momentum generated at the start and the top peters out and fades as it moves down and through the organization.

In every company I have ever visited, there is enormous scope for raising the level of energy generated at each stage of the process, for increasing the intensity of the force with which it is focused and directed, for multiplying the effective power of that force by fine-tuning the structure and systems of organization through which it is channeled, and for elevating the skills and attitudes through which it is expressed at all levels in every operation of the business. As every engineer knows, the final output of a system is a product of the efficiency of transmission at each stage. A four stage process with 90% efficiency of transmission at each stage results in 73% overall output. Eighty percent efficiency at each stage results in just 41% final output. Raising performance at each stage of the energy conversion process by a mere 10% is sufficient to double or triple the profitability of any business. In practice I have found that there are ways to raise energy generation and conversion at each stage by 50% to 100% or even more.