Homeostasis
Etymology
Coined in 1926 by the American physiologist Walter Cannon from Greek homoios ("similar, same") and stasis ("standing, stability") — "staying the same." He chose homoios rather than homos ("identical") on purpose, to signal a steady-but-flexible balance rather than a frozen one, describing how the body defends temperature, blood sugar, and more.
noun · /hoh-mee-oh-STAY-sis/
The active process by which a system holds key internal conditions steady by continually correcting for disturbances.
What it names
Why stable-looking things — a body, a routine, an organization — often stay stable through constant hidden effort, not stillness.
Example
Any attempt to change the team’s habits ran into a kind of organizational homeostasis that quietly pulled everything back to normal.
Related idea
Inertia resists change passively, through sheer mass; homeostasis resists it actively, by sensing the drift and pushing back.