Small Business Today Magazine DEC 2014 NOUN INVESTMENTS | Page 24
EDITORIALFEATURE
Getting Organized:
Sharing Space
By Holly Uverity CPO®, Office Organizers
I
n today’s business world, it’s not uncommon
for people to share tasks and spaces and to
work closely with their colleagues. So what
happens when the organizational styles of
the two people don’t mesh? What do you do
when you share office space with someone
whose organizational style is very different from
your own? What if you feel more comfortable
working in a clear, clean space with minimal clutter and your officemate, deskmate, or spouse is
the opposite? How can two opposing styles of
organization not only work together but be productive? Is it fair to either of you to ask the other
one to change?
The first step always is communication; when
you have an honest conversation about sharing
space with someone, you may discover that
your differences could simply be a difference of
priorities. Let’s assume that your officemate’s
habit of dropping the mail on any given surface
makes you crazy because you can’t ever find
your mail. If you have a conversation about how
the mail is delivered, you may each discover that
a) the mail is more important to you than it is
your officemate and/or b) that your officemate
drops it anywhere there’s space because he never knows what to do with it. The solutions in this
situation can be pretty simple – maybe you and
your officemate agree that you’ll get the mail
from now on or you may simply choose a specific place to put the mail and your officemate
agrees to put it there consistently.
Another conversation you can have as you
begin working together is to define clutter. You
may think clutter is anything that’s on a desk other than what is being worked on at that moment and your officemate may think clutter is
anything on the floor; these are very different
definitions of clutter. By talking about your own
definitions of clutter, you can come to a mutual
understanding and agreement. Your style may
be to have only one thing out on your desk at
a time yet your officemate may work best if he
22 SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE [ DECEMBER 2014 ]
has several files out at once. What you define
as clutter, your officemate defines as a work in
progress. Your officemate may not understand
that seeing clutter anywhere can be distracting
to you and cause you to lose focus. Alternatively,
you may not realize that for your officemate, a
clear space creates anxiety, which does happen
with some people. Agreeing on definitions of
working styles as well as definitions of clutter can
be a great first step in working better together.
If your officemate’s clutter is spilling into your
area and it’s causing problems, another conversation could be about physical boundaries. You
and your officemate can create literal boundaries and commit to keeping your own physical
areas as agreed upon. If you share a common
table or workspace, for example, you can create
areas in which it’s okay to have a certain amount
of clutter and areas where it’s not okay.
Along with creating boundaries, you and your
officemate can also create a written checklist
detailing who is responsible for which areas and
when. It can be as simple as a list of shared
tasks that need to be done and a schedule of
who’s responsible for completing the tasks. The
list and agreement need to be reviewed on a
regular basis, especially in the beginning, and
then tweaked as needed. When people make
a commitment to each other and take personal
responsibility and ownership for tasks and spaces, they are more likely to get those tasks done.
The key to sharing space is communication,
followed by understanding. It’s easy to blame
someone else for issues that affect you both,
however, it’s more productive to honestly communicate, without anger or resentment, about
the issues and co-create the solutions.
Office Organizers is The Entrepreneur’s Organizer. Founded in 1993, they work with business people to create solutions to their organizational challenges. Contact them at
281.655.5022, www.OfficeOrganizers.com, or www.fb.com/
OfficeOrganizers.