Leading outside the lines: How to Mobilize the (in)Formal Organization, Energize Your Team, and Get Better Results

Introduction

Like Talking to a Wall

 

 

 

 

Something strange was going on at the call center. It was one of those large open rooms, filled with cubicles, each occupied by a service rep wearing a headset and answering customer calls. The scene seemed typical of such workplaces, except for one thing: A ten-foot-high wall, clad in purple fabric, cut straight through the center of the room, separating half of the service representatives from the other half.

We had been asked by our client, a senior executive at a health benefits provider, to look at this recently redesigned call center for best practices that could be applied in the company’s other call center locations.

Throughout the morning, the air had been filled with the steady murmur ...