A question for you about Field Notes

I'm considering publishing my Field Notes—25 years of ethnographic observations from inside organizations around the world.

I wrote these seriously, as organizational anthropology: what you'd document if you stumbled into an unknown tribe and tried to understand behaviors without shared assumptions. But satire and anthropology can look identical on the page.

**Fair warning: This is a complete Field Note, so it's longer than my usual newsletter essays. I need you to see the full thing to give useful feedback.**

Here is an example:

Field Note: The Promotion Oracle

Subject: Corporate advancement rituals

Location: Various organizational territories

Duration of observation: Ongoing

The tribe refers to it simply as “getting promoted,” though closer examination reveals a process more akin to consulting an ancient oracle whose decision-making criteria remain opaque even to its most devoted practitioners.

The Merit Enigma

Before examining the Oracle’s workings, one must understand the foundational concept of “merit,” a term that pervades tribal discourse with religious fervor. Subjects consistently cite merit as the primary qualification for advancement, yet their own educational credentials reveal fascinating contradictions in this belief system.

Many tribe members trace their professional standing to prestigious educational institutions, which they insist admitted them based purely on merit. When pressed about the admissions process, however, a curious pattern emerges: a significant number possessed what they term “legacy status,” meaning their parents or grandparents attended the same institutions. They describe this inherited advantage as “merit” without apparent irony, suggesting the concept has expanded to encompass ancestral achievement.

This hereditary form of merit appears to compound across generations. Parents who attended elite schools through legacy admissions subsequently provide their children with superior educational resources, test preparation, and cultural capital. The children later cite these advantages as evidence of their own meritocratic advancement. The system thus produces individuals who genuinely believe in merit-based selection while being primary beneficiaries of inherited privilege.

The Ritual Components

Three elements appear to influence the Oracle’s pronouncements, though their relative weights shift according to principles that elude systematic analysis. The natives speak of “merit” with the confidence of those who have never questioned its definition. Performance metrics exist in abundance, yet high performers often remain static while others ascend, suggesting the Oracle weighs factors that predate any measurable output.

“Loyalty” constitutes the second component, though its manifestation proves counterintuitive. Those who demonstrate unwavering commitment to current roles often find themselves permanently installed in said roles, while others who threaten departure receive immediate advancement. The Oracle appears to reward both dedication and disloyalty simultaneously, or perhaps neither.

Most puzzling is what informants term “narrative alignment,” the degree to which one’s professional story resonates with prevailing organizational mythology. Subjects who craft compelling personal narratives about their trajectory often advance regardless of conventional qualifications, while those who simply perform their duties competently may be overlooked for possessing insufficiently dramatic arcs.

Physical Merit Manifestations

External researchers have documented additional merit categories that the tribe rarely acknowledges explicitly, yet which demonstrate measurable influence on Oracle pronouncements. Quantitative studies reveal a curious correlation between physical stature and advancement rates. Specifically, individuals of greater vertical dimension appear to possess inherent leadership merit that the Oracle recognizes consistently across diverse organizational contexts.

Even more intriguing is the apparent chromosomal component of merit. Individuals whose genetic composition follows the XY pattern demonstrate consistently elevated advancement rates compared to their XX counterparts. This biological merit appears to operate as a kind of invisible credential, providing advantages that compound across career trajectories without conscious acknowledgment from Oracle interpreters.

The tribe’s relationship to these physical merit indicators remains deeply paradoxical. Official doctrine insists that such characteristics are irrelevant to professional capability, yet the Oracle’s decision patterns suggest otherwise. Members appear genuinely unconscious of these correlations, expressing surprise when statistical evidence is presented, as if the Oracle prefers biological credentials to intellectual ones but dare not say so.

Spiritual Contagion

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the Oracle’s operation is its apparent belief in the transmissible nature of merit. When managers ascend within the hierarchy, their direct reports frequently experience rapid advancement shortly thereafter, continuing their reporting relationship under the new circumstances. These individuals exhibit what might be termed “associative merit.” Their qualifications have been enhanced by geographical and temporal proximity to someone the Oracle has already blessed.

This pattern suggests the Oracle operates on principles of contagion, wherein merit becomes transferable through sustained contact. Subjects who worked closely with the newly promoted individual suddenly discover latent capabilities that had previously gone unnoticed by the organization. Their skills remain unchanged, yet their perceived value undergoes dramatic revaluation based solely on their previous manager’s trajectory.

The contagion effect appears to operate through multiple vectors. Physical proximity emerges as a key transmission mechanism. Those who secured desks adjacent to rising stars often report mysterious career acceleration. This has given rise to what observers term “proximity optimization,” a form of organizational feng shui where ambitious individuals strategically position themselves near likely candidates for elevation, as if planting flags near blessed relics.

Meeting attendance patterns reveal similar strategic clustering. Certain subjects demonstrate uncanny ability to insert themselves into the same committees, project teams, and informal gatherings as those destined for advancement. These positioning maneuvers occur months before any visible signs of the Oracle’s favor become apparent, suggesting either supernatural prescience or a sophisticated understanding of pre-promotional indicators invisible to casual observers.

Most remarkably, this phenomenon occurs even when the original promotion was itself surprising or controversial. The Oracle’s confidence in its initial judgment appears to extend retroactively to all associated personnel, as if vindication requires elevating the entire professional ecosystem surrounding the promoted individual. The spiritual contagion spreads with mathematical precision, transforming ordinary workplace relationships into channels of mystical advancement.

The Oracle’s influence extends beyond mere decision-making into the realm of sacred geography. Certain organizational locations function as pilgrimage sites where devotees may receive divine favor. “Stretch assignments” serve as particularly revered destinations. The stretching itself apparently constitutes the spiritual benefit, regardless of measurable outcomes. Temporary postings to headquarters operate as Jerusalem-like experiences, conferring mystical authority upon returnees who speak of their time “at corporate” with reverent undertones.

Special projects occupy a unique category of holy ground. These assignments often exist independently of business logic. Their true purpose is to test the pilgrim’s faith through objectives designed less for completion than for contemplation.

Sacrificial Practices

The Oracle demands regular offerings in the form of human sacrifice, though practitioners refer to these rituals by euphemistic terms. Individuals who absorb impossible workloads serve as voluntary offerings. Their burnout is interpreted as proof of devotion rather than organizational dysfunction. Those who “take one for the team” during layoffs achieve martyrdom status, their names invoked in hushed tones as cautionary legends.

The Oracle appears particularly pleased by sacrifices of work-life balance, viewing the abandonment of personal time as evidence of spiritual commitment. Subjects who work weekends and skip vacations report feeling closer to divine favor, though the Oracle’s silence on such offerings suggests either deep approval or indifference.

Vestments and Sacred Symbols

Religious observance requires proper attire and behavioral signifiers that mark the faithful. “Executive presence” functions as the highest form of vestment, an ineffable quality that everyone recognizes yet none can precisely define. Its signs are subtle: voice modulation, confident stillness, the timely use of a folded laptop. Certain vocabulary choices serve as religious insignia. Strategic deployment of terms like “synergy,” “alignment,” and “value proposition” signals spiritual readiness to Oracle interpreters.

Physical bearing constitutes another form of sacred garb. Subjects learn to adopt specific postures, vocal modulations, and gestural patterns that communicate worthiness. These behavioral vestments often matter more than technical competence, confirming the Oracle’s apparent belief that performance is best judged by its packaging.

The Consultation Process

The Oracle’s deliberations occur in closed chambers known as “promotion committees” or “leadership reviews.” These gatherings follow established protocols: candidates are discussed in their absence, their worthiness debated by individuals who may have minimal direct interaction with their work. Decision-makers often rely on secondhand accounts and brief presentations, leading to outcomes that surprise even the committees themselves.

Sacred Texts and Prophetic Voices

The tribe maintains an extensive canon of sacred literature, though actual readership appears limited to ritualistic citation. MBA frameworks serve as foundational scriptures. Their abstract diagrams and two-by-two matrices are treated with reverential awe despite their frequent irrelevance to practical circumstances, their diagrams forming a kind of visual liturgy repeated in PowerPoint rituals. Business books achieve bestseller status through corporate bulk purchases rather than individual consumption, their titles functioning as talismanic shorthand in tribal gatherings. (”According to The Five Dysfunctions, we need more trust...” begins many invocations, though few practitioners have ventured beyond the cover.)

Excerpts from sacred TED talks are transmitted by video, their prophets speaking against minimalist backdrops, heads cocked in compassionate gravitas. Harvard Business Review articles serve as weekly scripture readings, their insights cited with the reverence typically reserved for biblical verse, despite most citations originating from abstract summaries rather than full textual engagement.

External prophets arrive periodically bearing mystical revelations encoded in consulting presentations. McKinsey oracles and their brethren speak in tongues of “digital transformation” and “organizational excellence,” their pronouncements accepted with the faith typically reserved for religious doctrine. These prophetic visitations often result in sweeping organizational changes that bear little resemblance to the original prophecies once filtered through internal interpretation, yet still fulfill the Oracle’s inscrutable will.

Temporal Anomalies

The Oracle operates on temporal principles that defy corporate logic. Urgently needed promotions may languish for months while others materialize with bewildering speed. Timing appears crucial yet unpredictable. The same candidate with identical qualifications may be deemed “not ready” in January and “perfect timing” in March, suggesting the Oracle operates on a calendar visible only to itself.

Attempts at Interpretation

Various shamans within the organization (known as “HR business partners” and “talent development specialists”) claim to understand the Oracle’s preferences. They offer guidance through elaborate rituals involving “development plans” and “visibility initiatives.” Yet their success rates appear roughly equivalent to random chance, suggesting their interpretive powers may be more ceremonial than practical.

The Paddle Ball Oracle

Periodic schisms produce splinter groups who claim to have rejected Oracle worship entirely. These breakaway tribes adopt alternative organizational structures (flat hierarchies, holacracies, startup cultures) while insisting they’ve abandoned the mystical advancement practices of their former organizations.

Yet sustained observation reveals remarkably familiar patterns emerging under new terminology. “Culture fit” replaces “executive presence” but operates according to equally mysterious criteria. “Peer feedback” substitutes for promotion committees while producing similarly inexplicable outcomes. The same individuals who possessed associative merit in traditional settings discover they have “entrepreneurial instincts” or “collaborative leadership qualities” in supposedly egalitarian environments.

Most puzzling is how these reformed organizations develop their own pilgrimage sites and sacrificial rituals within months of formation. “Cross-functional projects” serve the same function as corporate stretch assignments. Late-night coding sessions become the new form of devotional overtime. The Oracle appears to reconstitute itself organically, adapting its manifestation to whatever organizational vessel attempts to contain it.

The refugees from hierarchical structures express genuine bewilderment when confronted with evidence of these parallel patterns. They point to their casual dress codes and open floor plans as proof of fundamental transformation, apparently unaware that the Oracle’s influence operates independently of office furniture arrangements. Like a paddle ball struck with great force, the Oracle may travel some distance from its original position, but an invisible elastic cord ensures its inevitable return to exactly where it started.

The Prophecy Paradox

Perhaps most intriguingly, the Oracle’s pronouncements often become self-fulfilling regardless of initial accuracy. Those chosen for advancement tend to justify the decision after the fact, while those passed over exhibit a curious pattern of self-examination that further validates the Oracle’s apparent omniscience.

Rejected candidates rarely question the Oracle’s judgment directly. Instead, they begin elaborate investigations into their own perceived deficiencies. They ask what they lacked rather than what the process missed. This introspective turn produces lengthy self-improvement plans focused on acquiring skills or experiences they believe the Oracle found wanting, despite having no evidence of what the Oracle actually considered.

The passed-over develop what might be termed “Oracle consciousness,” a heightened awareness of their own inadequacies combined with renewed faith in the system’s fundamental wisdom. They speak of “gaps in their readiness” and “areas for development” with the earnestness of penitents confessing sins. The Oracle’s rejection becomes a form of divine guidance, directing them toward the personal transformation required for future worthiness.

Meanwhile, those who receive advancement rarely examine the decision critically. They accept their selection as validation of their merit, reinforcing their belief in the Oracle’s discernment. The promoted and the passed-over thus collaborate in maintaining the Oracle’s mystique: one group through grateful acceptance, the other through grateful self-flagellation.

This dual response creates an elegant closed loop: the Oracle cannot be wrong because those it rejects agree they were unworthy, while those it selects confirm their worthiness through subsequent performance. The system’s perceived legitimacy grows stronger with each cycle, independent of any correlation between its decisions and actual capability.

The Forgotten Faithful

Some are never summoned to the Oracle, despite faithful attendance to all rituals. These individuals often remain untouched by divine favor for years, yet continue their observances with quiet resignation. Among the tribe, they are known as “steady contributors,” a designation as damning as it is faintly noble. They perform their duties with competent invisibility, attending meetings where their insights are acknowledged but never attributed, completing projects that succeed without fanfare.

The Oracle’s indifference to these faithful servants appears absolute. No amount of sacrificial overtime or pilgrimage to special projects draws its attention. They exist in a parallel organizational dimension, essential yet unrecognized, their steady presence forming the foundation upon which more dramatic advancement narratives unfold. Their quiet competence becomes a form of camouflage, rendering them effectively invisible to Oracle interpreters who scan for more theatrical displays of worthiness.

The Apotheosis Effect

Those who receive the Oracle’s favor are assumed to have undergone a kind of spiritual transformation. Their flaws, once discussed in coaching circles, become reframed as “quirks of executive style.” Their decisions carry a weight previously denied them. Their pronouncements are quoted with newfound reverence. A mystical aura surrounds them, until the next Oracle cycle, when they, too, become subjects of interpretation.

The promoted discover that advancement functions as a form of retroactive sanctification. Previous mistakes become evidence of bold risk-taking; former indecisiveness transforms into thoughtful deliberation. The Oracle’s blessing rewrites personal history, creating new mythologies around the chosen that bear little resemblance to their pre-promotional reality. Yet this apotheosis remains perpetually provisional, subject to the Oracle’s continued favor and the ever-shifting interpretations of its earthly representatives.

The Enduring Mystery

Whether the Oracle exists as a divine force or a collective hallucination remains unresolved. What’s clear is that belief in its justice endures, even among those most harmed by its whims. Faith, it seems, outlasts fairness.

The true genius of the Oracle lies in its ability to inspire belief in those it disappoints. In its silence, it invites self-scrutiny, never protest. No one blames the Oracle. They only prepare better offerings.

The Oracle continues to function despite (or perhaps because of) its fundamental inscrutability. Tribe members persist in their attempts to decode its preferences, creating an entire subculture of speculation, strategy, and ultimately, resignation to forces beyond their comprehension.

Further observation required to determine whether this represents sophisticated organizational wisdom or elaborate institutional theater. Possibly both.

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I need your help with three questions:

• Do these read as serious observation or dismissive satire?
• How would you frame or title a collection like this to signal intent?
• Would these be useful to you, or just entertaining?

Please reply to this email with your thoughts. Your feedback will genuinely shape whether and how this becomes a book.

Thank you.

Richard