The Observer Effect
Often as we observe a thing, we perceive it changing with time. In some cases throughout work and life, the mere act of observing actually causes the change.
Before we begin — what is this publication?
The observer effect, for which both this post and this publication are named, is a thing you learn about in physics where by watching or measuring some aspect of a given system, you actually (often without intention) alter the system itself, merely by the act of observation.
It’s a cool name for this blog—or clearly I think so—because it’s more or less what I aim to do by writing. I plan to write what I see: capturing observations from my work in the tech industry and probably some from my life outside the industry as well. I hope that by writing about how the systems work (as far as I can tell) a reader or two might subtly alter their own inputs back into the system.
Posts to The Observer Effect and the writings therein will contain my views and observations alone. Nothing I say here is associated with whatever organizations I may be part of.
Now that we’re properly introduced, let’s talk about this eponymous phenomenon, the observer effect, and how you’re disturbing the systems around you, possibly without meaning to.
I’ll believe it when I see it
All of us want to be data-driven, especially in our modern world where data and the ability to parse, analyze, and interpret are accepted as critical for decision making. I’m not arguing against data-driven decision making. Orienting ourselves around the state of the world, measured by whatever we deem useful, is usually better than a shot in the dark.
What’s easy to forget, however, is that measurement itself is imperfect. It is especially imperfect in proportion to the complexity of the system being observed. People and groups of people (sometimes called “Teams” or “Organizations”) are particularly complex systems.
“It is necessary to look at the results of observation objectively, because you, the experimenter, might like one result better than another.” — Richard Feynman
Some of the ways our observations influence the thing we observe are easy to reason about:
Bias: what we measure and the subsequent analysis is prone to inherent bias. We tend to notice that which we expect. We tend to measure based on what we expect to be worth measuring. By so much as setting the perspective of the lens by which we observe, we set the shape of the output which is projected back to us.
Incentive structure: when we define a “success metric” it’s not such a far leap to say we also define success. People tend to orient themselves around that definition of success. We call these incentive structures. When we start measuring against that success metric, we aren’t actually measuring much outside of our organization’s ability to follow incentives.
Simple errors and inherent flaws in setup: As I fill up my tires with air, a smidge escapes when I press the gauge to the valve stem. When I ask someone on my team to estimate the impact of their time, they spend time capturing the impact. For many systems there is no way around this type of effect, but we should remember it when reasoning about the observations we draw from such systems.
I always feel like somebody’s watching me
When you manage people (which again are very complex systems), observing them too closely will alter their behavior in unintended ways. We are all on our best behavior when our boss is watching. You could be a really Cool Boss™ thereby minimizing this effect, but it is still there in some capacity.
You probably have been told by now you shouldn’t micromanage. An obvious reason is that you can wear people out by forcing them to do things your way and by compelling them to spend time and effort to make sure they optimize for your perception. This is the proverbial “taking air out of the tires” version of the observer effect, where we deflate the more we press.
What are you gonna do, stand there and watch?
So, we just put our heads in the sand and our teams will all do their best work because we aren’t watching and stressing them out? Of course not. Being oblivious will do even more harm. It’s all in how you reframe your perspective, from observer to collaborator.
Let’s say a project your team is working on is off-track. You ask the team to present their plan to get it back on-track. The team does not want to disappoint you, and they know you more or less decide things about their future, like how much they get paid. Remembering this now, what type of information do you expect to get from your team?
As you grow in responsibility and your org grows in size, you’ll find yourself further from the details, appropriately so. You are now observing from a distance. You rely on the smart people on your team to see and know more than you. That makes it incredibly important to frame your “measurements” of the current state in a way that gets you the answers you really want. I find it helpful to take the approach of offering to help rather than asking to observe.
One will end up getting vastly different output by asking “why is this project off-track?” than by asking “what do you need to get this project back on-track?” Observation has its time and place, as do action and assistance.
Let some light in
My favorite, and perhaps the most famous, example of the observer effect is seen in quantum mechanics. The double slit experiment showed the duality of light as wave and particle.
Hopefully the people reporting to you are at any given time in some stage of growth. If that’s true, it means they are probably exhibiting plurality: thriving, failing, stalling, and beginning, all at once. In an unobserved context, these states can co-exist. It’s only once you take a snapshot that it becomes one or the others. Be aware of how the image captured is merely a projection of reality, not reality itself.
“How much does one imagine, how much observe? One can no more separate those functions than divide light from air.” — Elspeth Huxley
As an aside, this is also true of self-awareness, or the observation of oneself. We should be very careful about the snapshots we take and the conclusions we draw from observation of our own current state. The impact of self-awareness is probably a post all on its own.
Be careful to remember that we all exist in pluralities: both good and bad, on and off. Try to make sure any conclusions you draw are in shades of gray.
Leave no stone unturned
This post is not intended as a call to action to leave things in an unobserved state, for fear of disturbing them. As I said, being oblivious is far worse in most cases. It is simply intended as a reminder to be aware of how our biases and assessment of the state of the world can subtly deceive us if we’re not careful.
In our quest to learn about the world around us, half the battle is distilling the complexities inherent in what we observe—whether it's our teams, our organizations, or even ourselves. People and processes within an organization can change under scrutiny.
The goal is to balance observation with empathy, to move from merely seeing to truly understanding. By intentionally shifting our perspective, we minimize the entanglement between the influence of our perception and reality.
