Catalysts and Activation Energy
A catalyst speeds a chemical reaction by providing a pathway with a lower activation-energy barrier. It is regenerated in the catalytic cycle and does not change the reaction’s equilibrium. In organizational change, this offers an analogy for removing barriers, though people and programs do not behave exactly like chemical catalysts.
THE IDEA
Activation Energy and Lasting Change
Starting a change and sustaining it can require different kinds of effort. As an analogy, activation energy draws attention to the barriers that must be overcome before a process can proceed. Estimate the resources needed for the transition and check what will keep it going. Overcoming an initial barrier does not guarantee that a chemical reaction—or an organizational change—will continue to completion.
Catalysts
A catalyst provides an alternative reaction pathway with a lower activation-energy barrier. More reactant particles can then react under the same conditions, increasing the reaction rate. A catalyst does not change the equilibrium between reactants and products or make a thermodynamically unfavorable process favorable by itself.
Catalysts are specific to particular reactions. They participate in intermediate steps and are regenerated over the catalytic cycle, rather than being consumed overall. In practice, catalysts may still become contaminated or lose activity, and recovering them for reuse can require work.
Catalysis supports many industrial and biological processes. It can reduce energy requirements or improve production efficiency; whether a process becomes safer or cheaper depends on the catalyst and operating conditions. Enzymes catalyze many reactions in living organisms, including those involved in digestion.
In a car's catalytic converter, catalysts promote reactions that convert pollutants such as carbon monoxide into less harmful substances. Converters reduce certain emissions; they do not make exhaust harmless.
Fermentation is another familiar example. The source places evidence of alcohol production as far back as 10,000 years ago. Yeast carries out fermentation using enzymes that catalyze the conversion of sugars. The enzymes are catalysts; yeast is a living organism that supplies them and can grow during the process. Ordinary soap-making also involves chemical reactions, but the alkali that reacts with fats is a reactant and is consumed, so it should not be used as an example of a catalyst remaining unchanged.
The source traces early systematic study to Elizabeth Fulhame's experiments in the 18th century. She investigated reactions in which water participated and was regenerated. That observation helped distinguish catalytic participation from the consumption of a reactant; it does not mean that all oxidation requires water.
Jöns Jacob Berzelius later coined the term “catalysis” and brought earlier observations together. By the end of the 19th century, researchers were developing a more systematic account of substances that change reaction rates. Wilhelm Ostwald helped formalize that understanding. Industrial applications gave researchers further reasons to study and develop catalysts.
Catalytic mechanisms vary, and understanding a particular one requires examining the steps of its reaction. For change outside chemistry, the useful question is which obstacle an intervention removes and what evidence would show that it helped.
« Catalysis…is is to chemical reactions what civil engineering is to the Alps: you do not need to cross the mountain passes to get to the Mediterranean, you can pass through the Simplon Tunnel. »
Lars Ohrström 1
When to use it
Implementing organizational change: leadership can introduce catalysts like retraining programs or incentive structures to lower the perceived activation energy for employees.
Personal habit formation: using environmental triggers or accountability partners as catalysts to reduce the effort needed to maintain a new routine.
Industrial chemical synthesis: employing platinum catalysts in converters to reduce harmful vehicle emissions at scale.
Learning a new skill: hiring a coach or using a structured curriculum as a catalyst to overcome the initial learning barriers and accelerate progress.
FROM THEORY TO EVERYDAY LIFE
In practice
Catalytic converters in cars
Catalytic converters use catalysts such as platinum to promote reactions that reduce pollutants in vehicle exhaust, including carbon monoxide. They reduce certain harmful emissions rather than eliminating all exhaust hazards.
Alcohol fermentation
Yeast produces enzymes that catalyze fermentation of sugars into alcohol. The organism is not itself an unchanged chemical catalyst. The source places evidence of alcohol production as far back as 10,000 years ago.
Soap-making: a reactant, not a catalyst
In ordinary soap-making, an alkali reacts with fats and is consumed. That distinguishes it from a catalyst, which is regenerated in its reaction cycle.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
Put it to work.
When have you attempted a change but given up due to underestimating the activation energy required?
What specific barrier could a coach, tool, or training program remove from a transition you are attempting?
How would you distinguish a slow chemical reaction from one that is thermodynamically unfavorable under the given conditions?
References
- Catalysis is to chemical reactions what civil engineering is to the Alps: you do not need to cross the mountain passes to get to the Mediterranean, you can pass through the Simplon Tunnel — Lars Ohrström
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Source texts
- The Great Mental Models Volume 2 Physics, Chemistry and Biology