I had a scholar go to my workplace hours not too long ago on the lookout for profession recommendation to assist him marry his scholastic endeavors along with his extracurricular actions as a scholar athlete. He started to expound upon his experiences out and in of the classroom right here on the College of Michigan, the excessive expectations of the enterprise faculty, and the tempo of the courses. However what captured my consideration most was the best way he described the complexities of being a gymnast. In fact, it was extra nuanced than simply leaping and flipping; there’s the full-body bodily conditioning of the game and the psychological fortitude it instructions. All of the issues. Nevertheless, as the coed gave me a peek into his world of gymnastics, it grew to become clear to me that what he was really doing was defying gravity (cue the track from Depraved)—if just for a second in time. When he jumps within the air, contorting and bending his physique in mid-flight, he’s basically testing the boundaries of what’s potential relative to the forces of gravity’s pull.
Hours after our dialog, I discovered myself coming again to the concept of gravity. I went the complete day eager about the profound nature of gravity and the function it performs in life. I couldn’t shake it. Everyone knows gravity to be an invisible power that brings mass objects collectively—notably, towards the middle of the earth. It’s a power that retains your ft on the bottom. In some ways, tradition acts as a gravitational power that brings folks collectively and retains our methods grounded within the expectations of individuals like us. In fact, it is a highly effective concept after we take into consideration organizational tradition. So, we invited Chrysi Philalithes, the previous Chief Digital and Innovation Officer of Bono’s non-profit to battle AIDS (RED), and Dario Calmese, Self-importance Honest cowl photographer and artist, to the FROM THE CULTURE podcast to contextualize gravity even additional.
The way in which Philalithes describes it, once you enter a brand new group for the primary time, it’s sort of like moonwalking. Not the Michael Jackson moonwalk the place you slide backwards whereas showing to be strolling ahead, however the moonwalk of astronauts that bounce up and down as they stroll the moon’s floor. With a gravitational pull about 1/6th that of the earth, astronauts really feel lighter once they stroll on the moon and, subsequently, “bunny hop” as they traverse its floor. Likewise, when new workers begin at a company, the gravitational pull of its tradition isn’t as sturdy in order that they sort of bounce round discovering their method. That’s why new of us are so invaluable to a company as a result of they’ll carry new views to the desk that haven’t but been normalized. The gravity of the group has not introduced them all the way down to the bottom—i.e., actuality—simply but, in order that they get to check the boundaries of what’s potential, if just for a short while.
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The social solidarity that comes from the gravitational pull of a company’s tradition helps get folks on the identical web page, but it surely additionally prevents folks from seeing issues outdoors their shared peripheral imaginative and prescient. New views, nonetheless, give the group a possibility to see the world otherwise and probably establish new options which will have traditionally resided inside the group’s blindspot. This boon from new views is particularly felt with new senior management.
Contemplate Levi’s, for instance. The beloved denim model was experiencing sluggish progress after the outgoing CEO, Chip Bergh, led the group by means of a serious turnaround again in 2011. So, Levi’s employed Michelle Gass as President in January 2023 and Kenny Mitchell six months later to moonwalk the gravitational forces of the corporate and herald some new perspective. What got here from this new perspective was a strategic pivot towards direct-to-consumer (DTC), a multi-phase partnership with Beyoncé, and a cultural resurgence of the model. The moonwalking resulted in 14.1% year-over-year revenue increase from 2025, driven by a 16% rise in DTC sales—both of which were already up the year prior from 2024.
However right here’s the catch: after some time, the gravitational power of the surroundings pulls you again to earth, so it’s essential to maintain discovering new methods to defy gravity. Like my scholar who trains and situations himself as a gymnast, leaders should additionally proceed to coach themselves to broaden their perspective. Whether or not it’s by means of studying, continued training, or advisors, leaders should concurrently hold their ft on the bottom (aligned with the organizational tradition) and within the air (exploring recent potentialities), if they’re to appreciate the good thing about moonwalking, as Gass and Mitchell have, lengthy after the novelty wears off.
Try the complete dialog with Chrysi Philalithes and Dario Calmese on the FROM THE CULTURE podcast accessible right here or wherever you get your podcast.
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