In the shade, the real engine, that of invisible actions
A company is not only an addition of processes, budgets and products. It is also made of a more intangible material: a succession of micro-gestures, often discreet, sometimes harmless in appearance, but which shape the internal culture and maintain the machine in motion.
It is the daily “goods” that defuse tensions, the hand given without being asked, the email sent to the right person at the right time, the address book loaned to unlock a project. So many weak signals which, added, make the difference between an advanced organization and another which is flu.
Invisible mechanics
Behind the success of a project or the cohesion of a team, there is rarely a single factor. These are often discrete action chains.
Claire Martin, HRD in an industrial SME of 80 people, testifies: “I realized that some people were doing an incredible social oiling work, but completely invisible in our reports. They take five minutes to explain to a new collaborator where to find a document, or to translate a technical jargon. It is time that they do not charge to anyone, but it avoids cascading blockages. »»
These gestures do not appear in the KPIS or in the meeting reports, but their absence is immediately felt. Without them, the processes become rigid, the tensions settle down and confidence is crumbling.
Map the essential invisible
Cartographing these micro-gestures is accepting that corporate culture is not limited to the values displayed on a poster in the hall. It is to understand that she is built in the interstices:
- Translation gestures: when a technician reformulates for a salesperson, or vice versa.
- Early alert signals: this assistant who detects that a customer is annoyed before he even says.
- Spontaneous adjustments: Move a ten -minute meeting to avoid an agenda conflict, reprint a forgotten document.
- Informal knowledge transmissions: a tip given around the coffee machine that saves working hours.
- The gestures of discreet recognition: to thank someone in private, or to slide their name in a meeting to enhance their contribution.
These gestures are rarely planned. They emerge from the attention that some of the details, and the intuitive understanding of the system in which they evolve.
When the absence is felt: relational sensitivity
In 2022, a Parisian start-up specializing in health applications lost two of its informal figures: Hugo, senior developer, and Sonia, Office Manager. Officially, they did not have a strategic position. But after their departure, delays multiplied, misunderstandings too.
Management took time to understand that these two people played a role of binder: Hugo reformulated the fuzzy requests of salespeople so that the developers could move forward, and Sonia anticipated logistical problems before they become crises.
The company must have set up an internal program to identify and train other employees in these practices, but it has discovered that a relational sensitivity cultivated over the years does not easily replace.
The hidden economy of attentions
What these gestures have in common is that they cost almost nothing … and bring back a lot.
Organizational economists sometimes speak of “invisible social capital”: this set of tacit links, tacit routines and blows that fluidify the work. Their value is difficult to quantify, but studies show that a company where these micro-guests are frequent, there are less turnover, fewer internal conflicts and better overall productivity.
In management jargon, we also speak of maintenance acts (Maintenance Acts), a concept from sociology, which designates everything that does not directly create measurable value but which allows the system to operate without friction.
Silent guards of culture
Each company has, without his knowledge, “silent guards”. They are not necessarily managers or official leaders. These are people who, by their way of being, embody and transmit culture.
This can be Julie, a junior graphic designer, who always welcomes freelancers as full colleagues, preventing them from feeling isolated. Or Abdou, maintenance agent, who knows exactly when to intervene to repair a machine without disturbing the work of the team.
These behaviors are not taught in conventional training. They develop with observation, experience and a sense of the other.
How to make the invisible visible?
The challenge for leaders is twofold: recognizing the importance of these gestures, and creating an environment that encourages them. Some concrete tracks emerge from the companies that have been interested in it:
- Observe informal flows: note who speaks to whom, who asks for advice from whom, and on what subjects.
- Publicly enhance discreet acts, for example in a monthly meeting where a gesture has been highlighted that avoided a problem.
- Encourage transmission: offer apparently non -productive exchange times, but fertile in circulation of information.
- Train at active listening: because many of these micro-gestures arise from an ability to perceive weak signals.
Some companies go so far as to create an internal “relational cartography”, identifying people-people, those which naturally connect services or profiles that do not speak otherwise.
The risk of total invisibility
The paradox is that the more these micro-gestures work, the less we see them. The danger is to consider them as acquired.
When budgets are tightening, companies often remove positions or functions deemed peripheral, without realizing that it is sometimes those that maintain internal fluidity. Result: hidden costs explode, but too late to go back.
A manager of a consulting company entrusted: “I have one day deleted an assistant position who did not work directly with any customers. Six months later, I understood that it was the heart of the system: it provided for agenda conflicts, facilitated coordination between teams and preserved the general mood. We had destroyed our emotional shock absorber without realizing it. »»
When recognition changes everything
Once the company identifies these micro-gestures, it can strengthen them by recognition.
This does not necessarily go through premiums, but through a clear valuation: say thank you, explain how this gesture had a concrete impact, or even register these contributions in annual assessments.
Some companies, such as Patagonia or Décathlon, have set up “moments of gratitude”: once a month, each employee can cite a colleague whose gesture has facilitated his task. These moments have a snowball effect: the more we notice the micro-gestures, the more we reproduce them.
The irreducible human part
At a time when many companies seek to automate, standardize and rationalize, these gestures recall that the human part will not disappear. An AI will be able to send reminders, but it will not capture the emotional shade of a colleague who needs to be shifted a delay to avoid a burnout.
True efficiency does not only come from optimized processes, but from the ability of an organization to be adjusted constantly, thanks to this hidden economy of attention and care.
