WHITE SPACE

A room is useful because of what isn't in it.

Thumbnail image: Futarasan Shrine at Nikko (Nikko Futarasan jinja) by Tsuchiya Koitsu.

Recommended reads: Zvi Mowshowitz "Slack" and Austin Caro "Development Part 2".

In "Development Part 2", Austin Caroe argues that a well-functioning Army unit (Battalion, Squadron (US), Regiment, etc.) is its own Professional Development program. I'm using Professional Development, or PD, here as a generic label for the wide range of extra-curricular learning activities imposed by leaders on their subordinates. PD can be very informal, like running Tactical Decision Games for an afternoon, or more formalized and expensive, like travelling for staff rides or conferences. If I boil-down "Development Part 2"to a core lesson, it’s that the best PD program that you as a leader can implement at your level is to ensure that your unit/sub-unit/platoon/section is functional in the first place.

Before you add tasks, ensure that your team is managing current demands.

Before you plan a "voluntary" mess dinner with $70 plates, ensure that your subordinates are being paid the right amount and on time.

Before you assign presentations on Second World War campaigns to your subalterns, check to see if they know how to use enterprise software and the unit’s workflows.

I spent a week on a career course learning how to operate a C6 General Purpose Machine Gun in the Supporting Fire (SF) role. Almost a decade later, I've spent approximately zero (0) hours running a C6 SF kit, but in an average week I spend more time with Microsoft Office than I do with my family.

In aggregate, I’ve spent the equivalent of many weeks learning to use enterprise software the hard way. Most soldiers can’t shoot to the mechanical accuracy of their rifles, and most staff officers can’t use their digital tools at a level that approaches their full potential. Yet it seems like there is never enough time to work on either problem.

I’ve had section commanders that spent more time away on courses than the home station. The unit invested in them so they could turn around and train others, which may have worked if they were ever home long enough to train their sections.

These scenarios are variations on a theme: respect your subordinates’ white space.

White space is Army jargon for unfilled time; the empty columns in a synch matrix; the blank days in your Outlook calendar. White space is working time in which there are no tasks scheduled aside from daily routine. It's a form of slack, an abundance of time.

In their book Scarcity, Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafi illustrate the economics of scarcity and slack with the metaphor of a suitcase. Imagine that you are packing for an upcoming trip. If you have a large suitcase, you can pack discretionary items with room to spare. If you have a small suitcase, then you have to cut down your packing list and only bring the basics. If you can’t fit all the basics, you will have to triage the most essential items. The trade-off is exposure to risk and reduced flexibility. If you can’t pack dressier clothing then you can’t visit fancy venues (reduced opportunity). If you leave your warm layers home then you risk being cold if the weather changes (increased risk).

There are only 24 hours in a day, of which (in theory) eight are dedicated working hours. That's your suitcase. You can scale this metaphor into days, weeks, or months, whatever your planning horizon is. "Imagine that after having packed a large suitcase you want to add an item. You can just thow it in. No item needs to come out. You do not need to rearrange the contents because the suitcase had extra room to begin with - it had slack." When you have slack, you don't need to make trade-offs, or at least you can choose less painful trade-offs.

Slack comes from stock abundancy. With an abundance of funds you don't have to worry about trade-offs for rent, utilities, and food. If a force has an abundance of munitions they they can afford to be looser with expenditures. A person with more date requests than time to go on dates can be more selective with prospective partners.

Slack gives you room to manoeuvre, it enhances resiliency and provides a safety margin. You can look around, breath, and use available slack to put resources towards less immediate objectives. You can invest.

White space is slack-as-time. In the same way that a tactical reserve is a body of uncommitted combat power, white space is a reserve of uncommitted time. It's surplus stock.

Stocks act like buffers in a system. If you run water into a tub, fill it up, then pull the plug, the water does not all drain out instantly. The rate of flow causes a decrease in the stock (water) over time. The gap between identifying that stock is diminishing and balancing the flows in and out is perceived as a delay. Systems are balanced when their stocks can buffer sudden changes in input or output while corrective action is taken. Staff work is art of managing delays.

Every task has a point at which throwing more resources at it won't get it done any faster. Three women can't finish a baby in one trimester. Data takes time to accumulate and process. Three soldiers can clean a machine gun faster than one soldier, but ten soldiers can’t really clean it any faster than three. The point is that not everyone needs to be hands-on with the same thing at the same time. Doing more often results in achieving less.

White space is the staff's tactical reserve of time, it gives them the flexibility to exploit success and prevent failure. White space allows instructors to spend more time with struggling students or practicing new skills. White space gives your subordinates time to fix problems and pursue projects at their level. How is anybody supposed to innovate on anything when they're staring down the bore of an 80 hour work week?

When a hard charging CO takes over and says "look, I know everyone's been working hard, but brace yourselves because we we’re about to go all out", they are often overlooking the fact that their predecessor said the exact same thing, and so did the person before them. Little things add up to big impacts, so it's best to observe the system for awhile before you commit to radical change or begin building your legacy. Check for casualties before you charge another trench.

Time and attention are zero sum. They cannot be multiplied, only divided. Multi-tasking does not multiply your attention, it divides it.

Nobody is paying attention to a PD lecture if they have a looming deadline, or their accounts are overdrawn, or they're going to catch hell at home for working late again. You know where their attention is? "I have a deliverable due tomorrow and I could be working on it now instead of listening to this and oh my God why does he have 73 slides about the Battle of Cannae?" There comes a point where the marginal tax on attention is detrimental to performance. The juice isn’t worth the squeeze.

This is why the best PD is being in a functional unit. In a functional unit, core business gets done with time left over. The system has some slack, and this gives it flexibility. Hence, the one-thirds two-thirds rule in planning: allocate 1/3 of the available time to your own planning, but leave 2/3 of the available time to your subordinates. This is an heuristic to save you from the planning fallacy, because it builds in slack.

There's a species of officer who talks about the Eisenhower matrix as if it was handed down by Moses on Mount Sinai. If you haven't been graced by the light of the Lord's chosen time management tool, here it is:

Example of an Eisenhower Matrix copied from Wikipedia.

The Eisenhower matrix is a great tool for keeping a shame list of all the important things you neglect when you're fighting for survival in the upper left corner. Hobbies are the first to go; then personal administration; time with friends; time with family; you forgo maintenance on your home, your body, and your mind. You drive to work every day with the check engine light on because taking the car to the shop requires time away from work. "Well, hopefully tomorrow" ad infinitum.

When they have white space, people have enough bandwidth to direct their attention to activities which pay off on longer timescales, to the things that improve their situation past mere survival. White space is such a valuable commodity because it is so rare, but it’s a necessary condition for high performance. I’ll go even further and say that it’s a necessary condition for a life worth living.

Respect your subordinates' white space and protect your own. Demonstrate what right looks like by being excellent at your core business, and giving your team the time and space they need to do the same. People learn how to lead when they are well-led. Meet that demand first, and if you're good (and a little lucky), then you'll find world enough and time for everything else.