Find the Metagame, or Get Played

A firm lives and dies on its information flow: Who knows what when, how, and why? A firm’s real org structure is its information flow. A firm's explicit org structure is never its real org structure. To do well, you must be in the information flow. To do well, you must discover the implicit org structure.

Discovering the implicit org structure takes many months.

Issue 1: You have 6-12 months to discover the real org structure. That’s less than you thought. And 6-12 months less time than you thought to do stuff.

Issue 2: Once you discover the real org structure you must navigate it. And it is hard for one primary reason: The implicit org structure is full of people who do well in it. To them, more people who know how things really work can be worse for them. Up to now, you were someone they had leverage over because they knew how things worked and you didn’t.

This isn’t malice. It’s largely unconscious. But that doesn’t change the conclusion for you: You have to find your company’s metagame. Your company’s metagame is in the implicit information flows. Find the metagame or you get played.