Particle Physics and People Analytics

Some of you have heard me allude to a correspondence between particle physics and people analytics over the last year in various forums. Having recently examined the relevance of poetry in people analytics, I thought it timely to unpack this new analog.

I am not referring to ‘quantum headcount,’ representing the fuzziness around the exact number of people employed by an organization. Nor am I referring to the related notion of headcount duality (akin to the wave-particle duality of light) wherein Finance counts units of labor as full-time equivalents (FTEs) and HR counts them as heads (colloquially, ‘butts in seats’).

(Perhaps the advent of artificial intelligence and looming automation of work requires a new calculus: carbon-based (i.e., human) and bit-based (i.e., robot) units of work.)

Rather, I relate the emergence of people analytics in the first twenty years of this century with the emergence of quantum physics in the first thirty years of the previous century. Humor me with a little autobiography before we delve into the historical comparison.

As a high school student beginning the nuclear physics chapters in our physics class, I was fascinated by The Tao of Physics, a book by physicist Fritjof Capra that drew parallels between theoretical physics and eastern–Indian and Chinese–mysticism. References to familiar ancient Indian texts and philosophical concepts in relation to principles of nuclear physics were a heady mix.

I was drawn toward the fascinating personalities and momentous events surrounding the discovery of sub-atomic particles and the birth of quantum physics. I was excited to learn that Capra had discussed his remarkable ideas with Werner Heisenberg, the Nobel Prize winning German physicist famous for the eponymous Uncertainty Principle.

“[Heisenberg] said that he was well aware of these parallels. While he was working on quantum theory he went to India to lecture and was a guest of [the Nobel Prize winning writer,] Rabindranath Tagore. He talked a lot with Tagore about Indian philosophy. Heisenberg told me that these talks had helped him a lot with his work in physics, because they showed him that all these new ideas in quantum physics were in fact not all that crazy. He realized there was, in fact, a whole culture that subscribed to very similar ideas. Heisenberg said that this was a great help for him. Niels Bohr had a similar experience when he went to China.”

The discovery of the electron (J.J. Thomson, 1897), the atomic nucleus (Ernest Rutherford, 1911), the theory of atomic structure (Niels Bohr, 1913), the proton (also Rutherford, 1919), and the neutron (James Chadwick, 1932) looked within the structure of atoms and laid the foundation for quantum physics discoveries: wave mechanics (Erwin Schr?dinger, 1926), the Uncertainty Principle (Heisenberg, 1927), and quantum mechanics (Paul Dirac, 1928).

Nuclear and quantum physics birthed a new physical world-view and necessitated a new mathematics very different from the prevailing paradigm of classical Newtonian physics and its associated calculus. Max Born, after learning of the Dirac Equation, said "Physics as we know it will be over in six months."

There were both intense rivalries and fruitful collaborations behind these path-breaking discoveries. Gatherings and conferences of physicists and chemists such as the Solvay Conferences catalyzed new ideas and discoveries as participants shared their theories and research. The conversations accelerated the pace of discovery at a crucial early stage of nuclear and quantum physics.

The photograph from the fifth Solvay Conference in 1927 is telling: 17 of the 29 attendees either had or went on to win Nobel prizes. Marie Curie, the only woman in the group, outshone her brilliant peers, winning Nobel Prizes in two separate fields, physics and chemistry.

The abundance of people analytics conferences and webinars around the world are generating a similar catalytic force in this early era of people analytics. Attendees come to learn from expert practitioners, researchers, and from each other. Models and approaches jump across functions, geographies, and industries. Technology and other HR vendors, often at the cutting edge of the field, contribute to the advancement and cross-pollination.

Absent a comprehensive people analytics text-book, it is the conferences, meet-ups, peer interaction, blog posts and articles that serve as vehicles for learning and advancement in the field. Curated lists of insightful articles highlight progress, raise general awareness, and suggest areas for further exploration. Executive retreats of seasoned people analytics leaders take discussions deeper and push the field’s boundaries further.

Nuclear and quantum physics complemented classical physics to offer a more holistic and practical explanation of the universe. Similarly, people analytics is transforming the human resources function by opening it up to data, workforce science and emerging technologies. The “classical” approach to human resources, reliant on legacy methodologies and traditional programs, is giving way to a more data-driven, evidence-based approach.

Nuclear and quantum physics revealed the massive energy latent in atoms. In comparison, people analytics is revealing and quantifying the untold value locked away in individuals, teams and organizations by management structures and management systems. Through the measurement and characterization of intangibles such as culture, leadership, relationships, processes and programs, people analytics identifies the drivers of economic value.

New mathematics, such as those dealing with networks, are applied to organizations, revealing connections and dynamics behind the traditional organization chart. Comprehensive people analytics platforms deliver the equivalent of x-ray and MRI scans of the organization, providing intelligent visualizations that facilitate rapid and easy diagnoses and smart intervention.

People analytics serves as an integrating function across human resources pillars, allowing for a full-information, multi-variate understanding of an organization’s human capital stock. Connecting people data to operational, customer and financial data allows for correlating people investments and programs to business outcomes. The rise of people analytics has changed the essential nature of HR, echoing Dirac.

People analytics elevates HR to the forefront of business strategy. Revel in these early, extraordinary times. Get involved in people analytics. Explore, advance, and share.

References

Capra, F. (1983). The Tao of physics: an exploration of the parallels between modern physics and eastern mysticism (Rev. and updated ed.). Boulder: Shambhala.

Fritjof Capra, interviewed by Renee Weber in the book The Holographic Paradigm, Shambhala/Random House. 1982. pages 217–218.