The document discusses managing in the "whitespace" of an organization, which refers to underutilized areas that exist between formal groups and hierarchies. The whitespace provides opportunities to improve processes by reducing handoffs between teams. Conway's Law states that communication structures will mirror organizational structures, so silos can inhibit communication. Lessons recommend using servant leadership in the whitespace and taking on problems to provide early payoffs while staying loosely defined. Tools include using graphs to tell stories that connect people across boundaries.

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

2. What’s “whitespace” and
where is it in my organization?

3. Typical “Top-Down” Hierarchy

4. Servant-Leader
style works well in
this structure
Typical “Bottom-Up” Hierarchy

5. Typical Web-2.0 Hierarchy

6. What Web-2.0 can really look like

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

8. Engineering Group One
Operations Group
Telling Stories
Engineering Group Two
A Tale of Three
Teams

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

10. ed
op Corollary to Conway’s Law
os
Pr
Teams communicate the way
they’re organized??
(maybe)

11. Communication . . .
Communication . . .
Communication . . .
Communication . . .
Communication . . .
Communication . . .
Communication . . .
If you’re organized in functional silos . . .
you’ll
. . . it is likely
that way
communicate

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

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

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

15. 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)

16. 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

17. 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).

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