I had a student visit my office hours recently looking for career advice to help him marry his scholastic endeavors with his extracurricular activities as a student athlete. He began to expound upon his experiences in and out of the classroom here at the University of Michigan, the high expectations of the business school, and the pace of the classes. But what captured my attention most was the way he described the complexities of being a gymnast. Of course, it was more nuanced than just jumping and flipping; there’s the full-body physical conditioning of the sport and the mental fortitude it commands. All the things. However, as the student gave me a peek into his world of gymnastics, it became clear to me that what he was actually doing was defying gravity (cue the song from Wicked)—if only for a moment in time. When he jumps in the air, contorting and bending his body in mid-flight, he is essentially testing the boundaries of what’s possible relative to the forces of gravity’s pull.
Hours after our conversation, I found myself coming back to the idea of gravity. I went the entire day thinking about the profound nature of gravity and the role it plays in life. I couldn’t shake it. We all know gravity to be an invisible force that brings mass objects together—particularly, toward the center of the earth. It’s a force that keeps your feet on the ground. In many ways, culture acts as a gravitational force that brings people together and keeps our ways grounded in the expectations of people like us. Of course, this is a powerful idea when we think about organizational culture. So, we invited Chrysi Philalithes, the former Chief Digital and Innovation Officer of Bono’s non-profit to fight AIDS (RED), and Dario Calmese, Vanity Fair cover photographer and artist, to the FROM THE CULTURE podcast to contextualize gravity even further.
The way Philalithes describes it, when you enter a new organization for the first time, it’s kind of like moonwalking. Not the Michael Jackson moonwalk where you slide backwards while appearing to be walking forward, but the moonwalk of astronauts that bounce up and down as they walk the moon’s surface. With a gravitational pull about 1/6th that of the earth, astronauts feel lighter when they walk on the moon and, therefore, “bunny hop” as they traverse its surface. Likewise, when new employees start at an organization, the gravitational pull of its culture isn’t as strong so they kind of bounce around finding their way. That’s why new folks are so valuable to an organization because they can bring new perspectives to the table that have not yet been normalized. The gravity of the organization has not brought them down to the ground—i.e., reality—just yet, so they get to test the boundaries of what’s possible, if only for a little while.
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The social solidarity that comes from the gravitational pull of an organization’s culture helps get people on the same page, but it also prevents people from seeing things outside their shared peripheral vision. New perspectives, however, give the organization an opportunity to see the world differently and potentially identify new solutions that may have historically resided within the organization’s blindspot. This boon from new perspectives is especially felt with new senior leadership.
Consider Levi’s, for example. The beloved denim brand was experiencing sluggish growth after the outgoing CEO, Chip Bergh, led the organization through a major turnaround back in 2011. So, Levi’s hired Michelle Gass as President in January 2023 and Kenny Mitchell six months later to moonwalk the gravitational forces of the company and bring in some new perspective. What came from this new perspective was a strategic pivot toward direct-to-consumer (DTC), a multi-phase partnership with Beyoncé, and a cultural resurgence of the brand. 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.
But here’s the catch: after a while, the gravitational force of the environment pulls you back to earth, so it’s important to keep finding new ways to defy gravity. Like my student who trains and conditions himself as a gymnast, leaders must also continue to train themselves to broaden their perspective. Whether it be through reading, continued education, or advisors, leaders must simultaneously keep their feet on the ground (aligned with the organizational culture) and in the air (exploring fresh possibilities), if they are to realize the benefit of moonwalking, as Gass and Mitchell have, long after the newness wears off.
Check out the full conversation with Chrysi Philalithes and Dario Calmese on the FROM THE CULTURE podcast available here or wherever you get your podcast.
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