Managing in the whitespace of your organization

Managing in the Whitespace of an Organization JeffreyGifford@gmail.com

What’s “whitespace” andwhere is it in my organization?

Typical “Top-Down” Hierarchy

Servant-Leaderstyle works well in this structure Typical “Bottom-Up” Hierarchy

Typical Web-2.0 Hierarchy

What Web-2.0 can really look like

The opportunity to improve anorganization is frequently found in the whitespace of the organization chart.

Engineering Group One Operations GroupTelling Stories Engineering Group Two A Tale of Three Teams

Any organization that designs a system (defined broadly) will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organizations communication structure. Conway’s Law

ed op Corollary to Conway’s Law osPr Teams communicate the way they’re organized?? (maybe)

Communication . . .Communication . . .Communication . . . Communication . . .Communication . . . Communication . . . Communication . . . If you’re organized in functional silos . . . you’ll . . . it is likely that waycommunicate

Telling StoriesServer Deployment • 33 points of “touch” • 9 internal systems • 8 functional units • 2 data centers • 16 weeks duration • $3.5MM (US) annually

Organizational structures create artificial boundaries that may introduce extra steps in processes, such as excessive handoffs between teams. Gartner

Telling StoriesServer Deployment Transformation • 2 weeks duration (on average) • 2 internal systems • 8 functional units • 2 data centers • 3.5MM annually

Lessons Learned• Whitespace has different laws of gravity – No staff, No budget, No authority – Easy to be passed over – Unofficial “projects” may be better• Elements of skunkworks – Stay hidden until ready to go supersonic• Take problems off people’s hands – Provide people’s payoff early• Know your numbers (financials & widgets)

Tools• Servant-leadership• Define the terms• ITIL concept of Service Management• Walking around• Meeting people• Connecting people (Radar O’Reilly)• Graphs and charts that tell stories• Think, think, think

Bibliography• Brooks, F. (1975). The Mythical Man-Month: essays on software engineering. Addison-Wesley.• Conway, M. (1968). How do committees invent? Available: http://www.melconway.com/research/committees.html. Last accessed 20 May 2008 (updated 12/2010).• DeMarco, T and Lister, T. Peopleware: productive projects and teams. (1987).• Maletz, M and Nitin, H. (February 2001). Managing in the Whitespace. Harvard Business Review. 102-111.• Office of Government Commerce (2007). ITIL Service Strategy. United Kingdom: The Stationary Office. 121-122.• Scott, D and Holub, E and Pultz J. (20 November 2006). Organizing for IT Infrastructure and Operations. Gartner Research. G00137083.• White, E. (2008). Art of Persuasion Becomes Key. Available: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121115784262002373.html. Last accessed 20 May 2008 (updates 12/2010).

JeffreyGifford@gmail.com For more thoughts on“Managing in the Whitespace” visit http://JeffreyGifford.com

Managing in the whitespace of your organization

by JeffreyGifford

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