Month: June 2012

I recently listened to a colleague vent about her frustrations with another office — even though it was about some enhancements the office had just made!  The angst came not from the improvements, but rather from the fact that she wasn’t told about them; thus couldn’t do her job accurately.  Not only was it ironic that the frustrations were about a positive thing, but when pushed she agreed that the office and its staff did “their” work well — no question about it.

The challenge comes in defining what “their” work is.  In today’s interconnected world, and in a workplace that relies on great customer service, “their” work is really everyone’s work.  Their work is no longer just doing their own tasks, but communicating, coordinating and creating synergies.

A helpful way to conceptualize this difference is to think of an organizational chart.  There are boxes, but there is also the “white space*” between the boxes  (*Geary Rummler and Alan Brache coined this term in their book Improving Performance). Truly great work pays attention to the interplay that occurs in the connections between the boxes, not just within the boxes themselves.  If you’re only doing good things in your own area, you’re playing small.  Using the whole organizational chart that surrounds you is what makes a real impact. 

If you’re a manager, one of your most important tasks is to help your employees see that their work extends beyond their task-specific borders.  It’s like that classic psychology experiment where looking at the diagram one way allows you to see an old woman, and the other way frames a young woman.  If you don’t help your employees see both, they will operate from a world view that misses half of the picture.  Operating in the white space used to be optional, but today it is the essential distinction between effective and ineffective performance — for organizations and individuals.

— beth triplett
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