Virtual Clutter: I

It's easy to estimate the cost of physical clutter at home or at work. Obvious costs include the cost of the items themselves, plus the cost of the space they occupy. Other costs include the effort required to find an item among all the clutter; cleaning, heating, and cooling; insurance; fire, flood, and other casualty losses; unnecessary purchases to replace what can't be found among the clutter, and on and on.

Most physical cost sources of home clutter have clear analogs at work. In the workplace, though, we have forms of clutter that have few clear analogs at home, because they're virtual, which makes them difficult to recognize. We rarely account for the burdens imposed by virtual clutter.

Here's Part I a short catalog of forms of virtual clutter, including brief discussions of the burdens they impose. Let's begin with the highest-level forms of virtual clutter.

Policies

Most organizations have collections of policies and procedures. Over time, these edicts accumulate virtual clutter: policies that no longer apply, or exceptions that are no longer needed. The virtual clutter can make it difficult for policy authors to notice internal contradictions, or to discern the gaps in coverage for new cases that have arisen since the policies were created or last revised.

Many organizational policy documents are now available on line. They're searchable, which makes them easier to use. Searchability also facilitates removing internal inconsistencies and updating the policies to remove virtual clutter. Excuses for virtual clutter in a searchable policy base are rather lame.

Strategic plans

Some strategic Some strategic plans contain
initiatives that cannot work if
funded at the low levels that the
organization can actually affordplans contain initiatives that cannot work if funded at the low levels that the organization can actually afford. Underfunded initiatives yield too little benefit, too late to matter. They are virtual clutter. They defocus the strategic plan, and disrupt its coherence.

How such initiatives persist is a topic for another time. For now, let's just begin to recognize them as virtual clutter, and do what we can to end them as soon as practical. Until we address the root causes of their existence, we'll likely see more examples in future strategic plans.

Processes

Organizational processes tend to have interfaces to other processes. When we alter processes, we don't always review the processes with which they interact. Consequently, over time, some processes develop now-unnecessary baggage that was once intended to support the needs of other processes, or make up for their shortcomings. An example: requiring the approval of a manager who no longer has appropriate authority, or worse, requiring the approval of a representative of a department that no longer exists.

When processes change, review all processes with which they interact. When we reconfigure the enterprise, we must systematically review all processes that control the activities affected.

We'll continue next time, exploring virtual clutter at lower levels of the organization.  Next in this series  Top    Next Issue

Are your projects always (or almost always) late and over budget? Are your project teams plagued by turnover, burnout, and high defect rates? Turn your culture around. Read 52 Tips for Leaders of Project-Oriented Organizations, filled with tips and techniques for organizational leaders. Order Now!

Your comments are welcome

About Point Lookout

Thank you for reading this article. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful, and that you'll consider recommending it to a friend.

Point Lookout is a free weekly email newsletter. Browse the archive of past issues. Subscribe for free.

Support Point Lookout by joining the Friends of Point Lookout, as an individual or as an organization.

Do you face a complex interpersonal situation? Send it in, anonymously if you like, and I'll give you my two cents.

Related articles

More articles on Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness:

Teamwork Myths: I vs. We

In high performance teams, cooperative behavior is a given. But in the experience of many, truly cooperative behavior is so rare that they believe that something fundamental is at work — that cooperative behavior requires surrendering the self, which most people are unwilling to do. It's another teamwork myth.

Logically Illogical

Discussions in meetings and in written media can get long and complex. When a chain of reasoning gets long enough, we sometimes make fundamental errors of logic, especially when we're under time pressure. Here are just a few.

The Risks of Too Many Projects: I

Some organizations try to run too many development projects at once. Whether developing new offerings, or working to improve the organization itself, taking on too many projects can defocus the organization and depress performance.

Meeting Troubles: Collaboration

In some meetings, we collaborate not in reaching objectives, but in preventing our doing so. Here are three examples of this pattern.

High Falutin' Goofy Talk: II

Speech and writing at work are sometimes little more than high falutin' goofy talk, filled with puff phrases of unknown meaning and pretentious, tired images. Here's Part II of a collection of phrases and images to avoid.

See also Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness and Critical Thinking at Work for more related articles.

Forthcoming issues of Point Lookout

Coming October 27: Five Guidelines for Choices

Each day we make dozens or hundreds of choices — maybe more. We make many of those choices outside our awareness. But we can make better choices if we can recognize choice patterns that often lead to trouble. Here are five guidelines for making choices. Available here and by RSS on October 27.

And on November 3: Way Over Their Heads

For organizations in crisis, some but not all their people understand the situation. Toxic conflict can erupt between those who grasp the problem's severity and those who don't. Trying to resolve the conflict by educating one's opponents rarely works. There are alternatives. Available here and by RSS on November 3.

Coaching services

I offer email and telephone coaching at both corporate and individual rates. Contact Rick for details at rbrenEQuetChPjwYBDxmgner@ChacxXTxBssoFmfDfMugoCanyon.com or (650) 787-6475, or toll-free in the continental US at (866) 378-5470.

Get the ebook!

Past issues of Point Lookout are available in six ebooks:

• Get 2001-2 in Geese Don't Land on Twigs (PDF, )
• Get 2003-4 in Why Dogs Wag (PDF, )
• Get 2005-6 in Loopy Things We Do (PDF, )
• Get 2007-8 in Things We Believe That Maybe Aren't So True (PDF, )
• Get 2009-10 in The Questions Not Asked (PDF, )
• Get all of the first twelve years (2001-2012) in The Collected Issues of Point Lookout (PDF, )

Are you a writer, editor or publisher on deadline? Are you looking for an article that will get people talking and get compliments flying your way? You can have 500-1000 words in your inbox in one hour. License any article from this Web site. More info

Public seminars

The Power Affect: How We Express Our Personal Power

Many people who possess real organizational power have a characteristic demeanor. It's the way they project their presence. I call this the power affect. Some people — call them power pretenders — adopt the power affect well before they attain significant organizational power. Unfortunately for their colleagues, and for their organizations, power pretenders can attain organizational power out of proportion to their merit or abilities. Understanding the power affect is therefore important for anyone who aims to attain power, or anyone who works with power pretenders. Read more about this program.

• A recording of a program presented June 29, 2017, Monthly Webinar, sponsored by Technobility Webinar Series. PMI members can earn 1.0 Category 'A' PDU by viewing this program. View this program now.
   
• A recording of a program presented June 29, 2017, Monthly Webinar, sponsored by Technobility Webinar Series. PMI members can earn 1.0 Category 'A' PDU by viewing this program. View this program now.
   

Bullet Points: Mastery or Madness?

Decision makers in modern organizations commonly demand briefings in the form of bullet points or a series of series of bullet points. But this form of presentation has limited value for complex decisions. We need something more. We actually need to think. Briefers who combine the bullet-point format with a variety of persuasion techniques can mislead decision makers, guiding them into making poor decisions. Read more about this program.

• A recording of a program presented June 24, 2020, Monthly Webinar, sponsored by Technobility Webinar Series. PMI members can earn 1.0 Category 'A' PDU by viewing this program. View this program now.
   
• A recording of a program presented June 24, 2020, Monthly Webinar, sponsored by Technobility Webinar Series. PMI members can earn 1.0 Category 'A' PDU by viewing this program. View this program now.