The value of Spaces: the make-or-break factor
- Barry Carney
- Oct 15, 2025
- 5 min read
Updated: Feb 18
For businesses and leaders, defining the end-goal is rarely the challenge. The rationale is clear, benefits outweigh risks, the KPIs are attainable in theory. The challenges and downfalls are in the doing.
Barriers can be wide ranging: capacity, ability, motivation, resources…. Calendars are too full, responsibilities straddle departments, internal politics stymie decision-making, desks are too messy and the coffee machine is out of order. Maybe it’s a goal to push into next quarter, or maybe park it, indefinitely…
Across the many obstacles (from the repeat offenders to the blind-siders) there’s a common denominator. At Peakpact, we recognise spaces as the environment surrounding your projects, operations, cultures, strategies, and resilience – the terrain and conditions that make ambitious goals viable rather than wishful, where the actions towards achieving those goals happen. Spaces shape whether doing good and doing well reinforce each other, or quietly pull in opposite directions.
Whether shaping a 90-day strategy, finalising a repositioning campaign, developing a pilot programme, or rolling out innovative measures to de-risk the year ahead, the environments you’re operating within will impact outcomes significantly.
A well-designed space offers the potential to get things going, keep them moving, and shift the odds toward achieving the goal. It can make or break ambitions and it’s vital to pay attention to the spaces we are or aren’t working within.
Example: You’re a B Corp with 30 FTEs, a new Commercial Director and a full pipeline. A bold 2026 roadmap requires the business to scale in multiple dimensions. A series of unexpected events have led to a daily rhythm of firefighting. Mid- and long-term judgement are clouded by short-term pressures. Structural and operational changes risk further instability.
How to prepare optimal spaces
Here are some of Peakpact's recommendations and guidelines when creating spaces.
1) Get clear on the purpose
Firstly, what is the space for? What are the goals and goal-oriented actions? Is the space for deciding what success looks like for the next 12–18 months, for ensuring operations are scalable, or for designing mechanisms that keep profit and purpose moving in the same direction?
To match a space to a need, problems must be well defined, goals mapped out in a logical sequence-of-events and broken down into feasible actions.
Clarity of purpose tells you whether you’re creating a space for Programs & Projects (how initiatives deliver the company mission), Operational Stride (how work flows), Strategy (how you’re getting where you’re going), Culture & Conditions (how people experience the journey), or Beyond Resilience (how you handle risk).
2) Understand what works
What works will be context-dependant, vary from person to person, team to team, department to department, and require a balancing of variables. Awareness is key. Pay attention to reality. Is there a time of day better suited to task types? A preferred location? When do leadership conversations flow or stall? What transformed the difficult topic into a source of learning, creativity, and community-building?
Be aware that what works one day might not work another day. We have different moods, fluctuating energy levels, and fallible attention spans. Life is in full swing; the weather is changeable. Old spaces that don’t evolve quietly become friction points. Growth-stage organisations can discover that what worked with 10 people fails with 40 people.
Be curious and receptive to what does or doesn’t feel right. Consider when it’s beneficial to remove things from the space, like tools or methods. Effective spaces provide enabling constraints: i.e. rules and conditions which provide useful limitations, to focus and elevate our efforts.
3) Accept limitations and prepare to adapt
We can’t control all factors all the time. Shaping the ideal space can involve some smart give-and-take. If you’re preparing to hike up a mountain, you can’t pave the challenging sections of your route but you can prepare mentally and physically, make the attempt within the good weather window and pack the right kit.
Combining acceptance of limitations with an understanding of what works allows us to keep sight of when NOT acting is the best course of action. Some things might be in your sphere of influence, but does achieving the goal need you to spend effort there? Clearing rocks from the trail would make the ascent easier, but it pushes the eventual success further back. Don't expect to fix every process, secure 100% buy-in, or plan for every eventuality.
With deliberate effort and practice, you’ll become adept at weighing up the pros and cons of each situation and improve your decision-making efficiency and efficacy. Leave rocks in place. Invest in improving the conditions, competencies and resources that promise better returns.
Key point: Once you’ve made a space that’s good enough to get you going in an optimised way, go.
4) Make the space
By now, you might have made links to spaces you already know work for you – the tried and tested, the default settings where you reliably get stuff done, the pragmatic recommendations you proffer to others. Great!
So, what about the ventures into the unknown, the repeat fails, the uncomfortable challenges and the non-starters?
Curiosity and experimentation are your best friends. Be willing to trial, to err, to try again or change tack – in most cases, you’ll have a strong sense of whether frustrations are from climbing a learning curve or from heading down a dead end. Trust your instincts. Again, what worked once in one situation, or what worked for someone else in a similar situation, may not work this time around.
Support teams to design their own spaces. Team compositions and dynamics are unique. An overt emphasis on structure and individual accountability can drive one team’s success, yet restrict and demotivate the team where creativity and dynamic collaboration drives the flywheel.
Taking a neutral or a zoomed-out perspective can afford clarity. Keep sight of what the goal is and what the next steps towards it are. Objectively, ask what stepping stone and conditions make that next step a confident one.
Example (revised): You’re a B Corp with 30 FTEs…. A series of unexpected events have led to a daily rhythm of firefighting. You commit the next six weeks to redesigning key operating spaces: Strategy sessions for mid- and long-term decisions are established and protected; firefighting is contained through clear ownership, escalation rules, strategic guardrails and bounded decision-making autonomy. Surprises still happen but no longer dictate direction – a culture of confident anti-fragility takes root.
Short summary
Define the goal, the problem and actionable objectives
Identify what works and what doesn’t
Map what’s possible (genuine feasibility over wishful desirability)
Define what ‘good enough to go’ looks like
Commit to curiosity and iteration – treat each new space as a live experiment
Go.
At Peakpact, we’re here to help you establish the spaces that underpin success. Contact us at hi@peakpact.co.uk, or via our contact form.
If you sense that your current spaces are not optimised for success, or need new spaces to realise your ambitions, our Winter Offer is live: a limited number of complimentary 1-hour slots with Barry, Peakpact’s Director of Strategy & Purpose, focused on your 2026 priorities. You can find more info and a direct booking link back on the Insights page.
