Dan Afrasiabi and Dick Hobbs of Geneva Woods Pharmacy and Tana Thomson of Xenium HR contributed to this article.
Being in the healthcare business, we constantly hear about medications for various syndromes striking humanity.   Everything from Acute Brain Syndrome to Zollinger-Elllison syndrome (with Puppet Syndrome thrown in the middle–yes, it really exists!).
Similarly, there are many syndromes that can strike organizations, causing them harm, impacting their growth or ultimately causing their death. In our own company, Geneva Woods Pharmacy, we have been laser-focused on avoiding a syndrome that hits many companies, especially those undergoing rapid organic and acquisitive growth: WBS or better known as White Box Syndrome.
Grey matters more

What Is WBS?

You know WBS. It’s what happens when companies focus so much on the white boxes in their organizational chart, that they forget about the grey matter in between. We all want to fill our white boxes with super-stars.   We all know the importance of recruiting, hiring and retaining “A-Players” in order to push ourselves past our competition to become industry leaders. What some of us forget however, is the glue that holds those white boxes together and catapults an organization ahead of its competition.   That glue, or the Grey Matter, is the right corporate culture.
While good companies worry a lot about the white boxes in their organizational charts, great companies worry just as much about the grey matter.   That grey matter represents the corporate culture and the value system that synchronizes the white boxes.
We’ve all seen WBS in business, sports and entertainment. Rock bands made-up of super-stars that break-up after a couple of best-selling albums. Sports teams made up of all-stars that lose in the playoffs to teams that are not even close to hitting the salary cap. And finally, and most spectacularly, executives who are paid massive amounts of money to join a company, only to be paid a severance payment a few months later to leave (Yahoo!?).
All of these situations have one thing in common: White Box Syndrome. Where there is more emphasis on putting an “A Player” in an individual white box, than there is in making sure the white box can properly connect with the boxes above, below and beside it. The symptoms of WBS include:

  • Lack of accountability for “dropped balls” between white boxes, especially where direct dependencies exist between groups;
  • Unhealthy inter-departmental rivalries, where department leaders harbor personal dislike of other leaders, leading to dysfunction and toxicity;
  • Focus on individual or departmental success, even at the leadership level, at the expense of another department or group;
  • “Hogging” information by one individual or group from another, in order to prove an individual or a group’s dominance over another;
  • Lack of cooperation amongst co-dependent groups, even though such lack of cooperation can obviously lead to long-term failure of the very group holding the information.

The trick to creating great, lasting companies is to put equal emphasis on both the White Boxes and the Grey Matter.
 

What Causes WBS?

Well, there are many common causes, including the fact that:

  • It’s simply easier to focus on filling boxes than it is to create and nurture a culture of cooperation, team-work and mutual success;
  • It’s easier to recognize and reward individual achievement, than it is to recognize and reward corporate-wide cooperation, success and cultural evangelism;
  • Distinct individuals and teams are understandably focused on their individual job duties and performance, and may not have sufficient information about downstream service failures;
  • Defined job responsibilities, similar duties and work output, as well as geographical (or spatial) locations all lend themselves to successful duty completion within the white boxes;
  • Leaders often allow personal rivalry and dislike of other leaders interfere with logical decision-making that can otherwise benefit the entire organization; and
  • Management is often reluctant to face hard issues of culture head-on. Managers are often scared of losing individuals who are cultural disruptors, but happen to be good at what they do within their white box;

How Do Great Companies Avoid or Cure WBS?

Like any other syndrome, curing WBS begins with the recognition of the problem. That, however, is the easy part. The hard part is ridding the company of WBS. Great companies:

  • Recognize the importance of managing the “grey area” of the org chart: This is where work product moves from one individual white box to another.
  • Evangelize a culture that promotes and rewards “ownership” of the grey area throughout the organization;
  • Are fearless in dealing head-on with individual super-stars who may do a great job of managing the white box, but do not take ownership of the grey area (even if it means eventually losing that person after direct coaching fails to create desired changes);
  • Create performance review and compensation structures that are totally aligned with their cultural values;
  • Emphasize and promote the idea that individual success is almost irrelevant, in the face of corporate failure;
  • Create a performance review and feedback loop process that constantly communicates expectations and cultural values to team members (as opposed to a once-yearly “official” feedback).

At Geneva Woods, our focus has been on recruiting A-Players, while simultaneously engaging in an exhaustive effort to create, communicate and re-emphasize our cultural values through a variety of communication channels.   For example:

  • We have a broad and deep utilization of Yammer, in order to break-down physical, geographical and departmental barriers to communication and cooperation.
  • We have monthly HR Leadership and Cultural Engagement webinars, where 3 levels of management from all of our offices participate in a structured discussion of leadership issues, and examine barriers to cooperation and cultural engagement.
  • Perhaps most importantly, however, we have outlined our cultural values in a definable and digestible list (See “Relying On Our Six Senses” below) that is integrated in much of our communication with our team.   This list not only defines our cultural norms, but it is also directly integrated into our Performance Review forms and process.   Each team-member is continuously (and primarily) judged on the manner in which they have adopted and use these Six Senses in their everyday work-life. As a result, we have aimed to create a level of consistency within the organization, relative to our expectations of our entire team (including all senior leadership).

SIX Senses
George W. Bush once famously declared that “nation-building is hard work”! We could not agree more. What is also hard work, is building a corporate culture that:

  • Can outlast individual white boxes, including that of the CEO;
  • Ultimately results in personal and professional growth of individual team members;
  • Promotes healthy debate amongst those team members, without allowing that debate to poison relationships between the White Boxes;
  • Demands accountability and ownership, and repels indecision and finger-pointing;
  • Allows many people, and not just the President or CEO, to look at the organization in holistic manner and demand cooperation between otherwise ambitious managers and leaders; and finally,
  • Sets expectations of excellence from and between individuals, but not at the expense of team success.

WBS is not necessarily easy to spot. As leaders, we must engage in a great deal of self-reflection and self-examination to identify it.  If you find, however, you’re your organization is suffering from White Box Syndrome, be sure to ask your doctor about Grey Matters!