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Paul Hebert on "White Space Activities"

Enabling the white space has worked marvels in my past, helping quickly ramp up large, complex teams. It was one of the key observations that led to the creation of the concepts behind Jostle -- that much can be accomplished when people can clearly see, align with and help those around them.

Enabling the white space has worked marvels in my past, helping quickly ramp up large, complex teams. It was one of the key observations that led to the creation of the concepts behind Jostle -- that much can be accomplished when people can clearly see, align with and help those around them.

Below Paul Hebert provides a nice explanation of the importance of working "outside the box". Paul is the Managing Director of i2i, a marketing and incentive design consultancy that helps companies align the behaviour of their employees, partners and customers. The post below is reproduced from his i2i blog. Brad Palmer.
Think about your organization chart. Little boxes each linking to other little boxes. Inside each box are specific activities. Inside the Accounting box debits and credits get processed. Invoices are drawn up. Bills are collected. Inside the Marketing box strategies are formed. HTML emails are designed and each. individual. word. is parsed and debated as if it really had meaning (and they do.)

All of that work occurs inside those thin black lines that delineate the “department.”

Unfortunately very little done INSIDE that little box on your org chart helps you be more successful or more profitable.

Don’t get me wrong. That work is important. It’s just not really important until it goes OUTSIDE the box.

Real work, real value, isn’t created until the work inside the box travels outside box and connects to work being done in another box.

The true value of an organization is generated in the white spaces between boxes.

How well an organization manages the flow of work between boxes determines whether it will be successful or not. Great marketing doesn’t help if you have lousy customer service. Great customer service won’t overcome bad accounting and so one. Each box in your organization has to be good (nay, great) at transferring the work from one box to another.

Silos Don’t Scale

Don’t believe me? Ask yourself how many times you’ve commiserated with others in your organization about silos? How many times have you said something about someone building their “silo” and protecting “turf.” Those are the visible clues that someone is creating a moat around their box. Those are the activities that stop work from effectively moving from one box to the next.

Great work inside any box that can’t, won’t or is too difficult to connect to another box, makes that great work worthless.

Incentives and Rewards Outside the Box

Too often I’ve met with clients where their incentive and reward criteria are too focused on the work that’s done inside the box. I understand why. It’s easier. There are specific job descriptions for roles within boxes. There is control of the data inside the boxes. There is a direct connection between manager and employee inside the box.

Unfortunately there is no value in solely rewarding effort inside the box.

To truly drive greater performance in your organization reward work that occurs between boxes.

Find ways to highlight and reward the efforts people make to go outside the box and make the next box better. Does Accounting create invoices that are easy for the client to pay? Does Sales help Marketing by reporting back on what programs, tactics, ideas resonated with their clients? Does Marketing help Sales by letting them know what the client says in the twitter stream?

What criteria in your reward and recognition program are focused on white space activities?

Take time and identify the behaviors that demonstrate your employees are crossing the chasm between organizational boxes. Reward those behaviors and you’ll see a huge increase in engagement, performance and ultimately success for your organization.

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