Dark matter

The invisible stuff that decides what's possible

Ever come out of a meeting thinking "what the hell just happened?" That feeling has a cause, and it usually isn't you.

Physicists reckon the universe we can actually see and measure is a tiny slice of what's really there, maybe five per cent. The rest is invisible, and it's pulling on everything. Organisations are the same. The org chart, the strategy deck, the project plan: that's the visible slice. What actually decides whether your work flies or dies is all the stuff you can't see. The politics. The power. The fear, the ego, the risk appetite, the red tape. The stories a place tells about itself, and who quietly trusts whom.

Nobody teaches us this. We'll happily research our users, treating them as the messy, emotional, social creatures they are, and then walk into a meeting and treat our own colleagues and bosses like rational robots. So we're blindsided when the obvious, logical, no-brainer idea gets knocked back. It got knocked back because of the dark matter.

The good news: it has properties and patterns. You can learn to read it, and to work with it. Get good at that, and the treacle turns into something closer to secret sauce.

Start here: Designing in the Dark

My talk Designing in the Dark is the way in. It takes something everyone struggles with, getting a sponsor or a decision-maker to back your idea, and turns it into a proper method: research the person properly, design a proposition that actually lands with them, experiment with how you communicate it, and reframe the whole business so it stops feeling grubby and starts feeling like the job it is. It comes with a canvas you can download and point at your own stuck relationship this week.

[→ Watch the talk] [→ Download the canvas]

Where to start reading

The writing here comes at the dark matter from three heights. One to try from each:

  • Leading yourself through it. "Repairing damaged peer relationships": how the most valuable relationships cool without anyone noticing, and how to warm them back up without the excruciating conversation.

  • Working the system. "Your risk aversion is riskier" and "Organisational self-sabotage: name it to tame it": why the safe-looking option is so often the reckless one, and how organisations quietly trip themselves up.

  • Leading a whole organisation. "BAU doesn't have to be BAU", "What's your bureaucracy ratio?" and "Swansongs and lame duck leaders": the forces that decide whether change actually sticks.

[→ All dark matter writing]

Short and sharp

I also break this down into short videos, one idea at a time: the games people play, the archetypes worth watching for, and what to do about them. They arrive when they arrive.

[→ Follow on Instagram]

You're already holding torches

You don't need to keep operating in the dark, stubbing your toe on things you can't see. You're already holding torches. You've just not been shining them at the relationships and forces that decide whether you succeed. If you'd like a hand pointing them in the right direction, for yourself, your team or your whole organisation, that's what I do.

[→ Work with me] [→ Get the free tool]