The Beginning of the Organization Relativity Theory
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to observe two people who joined the same company in the same year.
They had graduated from similar universities, their entrance examination scores were almost identical, and during their first several years, their performance evaluations showed little difference. The people around them would sometimes joke, “It’s fifty-fifty as to who will become a team leader first.”
They were also comfortable with each other. They regarded one another as quiet competitors, but they were good colleagues as well. They often sat at the same table during lunch, exchanging trivial jokes and talking about whatever came to mind.
Ten years later, however, their positions had become remarkably different.
One was approaching an executive promotion. The other had remained at the same level for years.
What made the difference particularly interesting was that the person who had fallen behind was neither lazy nor incompetent. He was still diligent. In some respects, he was even more careful and thoughtful than his colleague.
Yet at some point, their careers began to move along noticeably different paths.
At first, the differences were almost invisible.
Who was invited to a meeting first?
Whose name appeared first on an important project?
Who received certain information a little earlier.
Who happened to be noticed by the right person at the right moment.
None of these things seemed particularly important at the time. They were the kinds of small differences that occur naturally in any organization.
But the differences did not disappear.
One small difference created another. That difference affected the next opportunity, and the next opportunity created another difference. Over several years, what had initially been almost imperceptible became a gap that was difficult to reverse.
The two people who had begun from almost the same starting point were now following very different trajectories.
For a long time, I could not find the right language to explain what I was seeing.
“Luck” seemed too easy an explanation.
“Organizational politics” sounded too cynical.
“Ability” did not fit the facts I had observed.
This book began with that unexplained gap.
We often try to explain success and failure within an organization through a single measure: individual ability.
The logic seems straightforward. People who perform well advance, while those who perform less well remain behind.
There is certainly truth in this.
Ability matters.
Performance matters.
Effort matters.
But anyone who has spent enough time observing organizations eventually encounters situations that these explanations cannot fully account for.
Two people with similar abilities can end up on completely different career paths.
A highly capable person can remain in the same position for years.
Someone who initially attracts little attention can suddenly move toward the center of an organization.
What creates these differences?
I found a clue in an unexpected place.
Physics.
More precisely, I became interested in the way modern physics changed the way we think about motion, space, and the forces that shape what happens within them.
An object does not exist in isolation. Its behavior cannot always be understood solely by examining the object itself. The structure of the space in which it exists also matters.
Einstein’s theory of relativity brought this shift in perspective into sharp focus.
General relativity showed that gravity could be understood not merely as a force acting between objects, but as the geometry of spacetime. Massive objects alter the structure of spacetime, and other objects move within it.
Light bends around massive bodies not because light suddenly changes its own nature, but because the spacetime through which it travels is curved.
The observer also matters.
Where an observer is located and how they move can affect how an event is measured and experienced.
As I followed these ideas, I began to see an unexpected parallel with the organizational world I had been observing for years.
If a person’s trajectory cannot be explained entirely by individual ability, perhaps the organizational environment in which that person exists must also be examined.
Perhaps the position a person occupies within an organization matters.
Perhaps the relationships surrounding that person matter.
Perhaps the movement of information matters.
Perhaps there are forces operating within organizations that are difficult to see but whose effects are observable everywhere.
There is something important to clarify before going any further.
This is not a book about physics.
Nor is it an attempt to transfer the laws of physics directly into the world of organizations.
Gravity in physics is not the same physical quantity as power within an organization. Information and relationships cannot simply be assigned the same meaning as mass or energy.
It would be misleading to say that “gravity equals organizational power” or that “inertia equals individual effort.”
What this book borrows from physics is not its answers, but its way of asking questions.
Physics has often advanced by examining observable effects and using them to infer causes that cannot be directly observed.
Newton did not see gravity itself.
He observed falling objects and planetary motion.
From those visible patterns, he inferred an invisible force and developed mathematical laws describing its behavior.
The same approach may offer a useful way to look at organizations.
The forces operating within an organization are not visible in the physical sense.
Yet their effects are everywhere.
One person can say the same thing as another and receive a completely different response.
Information from one person can spread rapidly throughout an organization, while information from another barely travels beyond a small group.
Someone without significant formal authority can influence an important decision more strongly than someone occupying a much higher position.
A person may produce excellent results and still find themselves excluded from important conversations.
Another person may have little formal authority but become someone everyone consults before making a decision.
These things are visible.
The forces producing them are not.
If the same patterns appear repeatedly, however, it becomes reasonable to look for an underlying structure.
That is where this book begins.
It follows the traces left by invisible organizational forces and asks how they shape behavior, opportunity, decision-making, and ultimately individual survival within an organization.
The journey begins with the universe.
Part I starts with Newton and follows humanity’s changing understanding of gravity, space, and relativity. From the universe, the perspective gradually moves toward the Earth and eventually into the smaller world in which most of us spend our daily lives: the organization.
Part II examines the forces that operate within that organizational world. Power, information, relationships, reputation, trust, and position are considered as elements that can influence how people move through an organization.
This is where the idea of organizational gravity begins to take shape.
Part III examines why people experience different realities within the same organization. Two people may work for the same company, perform similar tasks, and yet encounter very different opportunities. Their access to information, relationships, visibility, and position can alter the paths available to them.
A fictional company and several fictional characters will appear repeatedly throughout this part. They are not portraits of particular real people. Yet their experiences may seem strangely familiar to anyone who has spent years inside an organization.
Part IV turns from diagnosis toward action.
If organizations contain invisible forces and those forces influence individuals’ trajectories, then understanding them may help individuals navigate their organizational environment more effectively.
The goal is not to eliminate those forces.
It is to understand them.
After reading this book, there may be no perfectly complete answer to the story of the two people with whom I began.
Organizations are complicated.
They contain formal structures, informal relationships, personal ambitions, emotions, chance events, organizational cultures, political judgments, and countless interactions among people.
In some respects, an organization can be more difficult to predict than the physical universe.
But perhaps one thing can change.
When we encounter success or failure within an organization, we may become less inclined to attribute everything immediately to individual ability or luck.
When someone advances rapidly, we can look beyond that person’s ability and consider the relationships surrounding them, the information available to them, the opportunities they encountered, and the position they occupied within the organization.
When someone remains in the same position for years, we can also look beyond personal shortcomings and examine the organizational environment in which that person has been operating.
A different question then becomes possible.
What kind of field of forces am I standing in right now?
And how is that field shaping the way I move?
That question is the starting point of this book.
Before turning the page, imagine looking up at the night sky.
Far away from the offices, meeting rooms, and corridors in which organizational life unfolds, the first story of this book begins.
Hundreds of years ago, Newton looked at the falling apple and began to consider whether a single principle might govern both the Earth and the heavens.
Centuries later, Einstein transformed the way humanity understood that principle by changing our understanding of space, time, and gravity itself.
Now the perspective turns in another direction.
Toward the organization.
Toward the small world in which people work, compete, cooperate, influence one another, and make decisions every day.
Perhaps there are forces operating within that world that we have not yet learned to name.
This book is an attempt to find them.
Organization Relativity Theory
Prologue — Does an Organization Have Gravity?
The Beginning of the Organization Relativity Theory
Category: Organization Relativity Theory
Tags: Organization Relativity Theory, Organizational Theory, Organizational Behavior, Organizational Gravity, Leadership, Power, Information, Relationships, Workplace, Relativity, Einstein, Newton
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