Anyone who’s spent time around youth soccer knows the pattern: a swarm of kids chasing the ball, all bunched together, tripping over each other’s feet. I can still hear my coaches yelling from the sideline: “Find space!”

It’s good advice for more than just soccer.

In the workplace, everyone wants to be where the action is. They naturally want to work on the hot new project that everyone is talking about. But in such a crowded environment the marginal impact you can have is limited.

Don’t be the twelfth player on an eleven-person team. Find space! Look for the open field — the areas that matter but aren’t yet crowded. That’s where you can make a play and actually move things forward.

This isn’t about avoiding collaboration. It’s about finding impact gradients where your effort produces disproportionate results.

Sometimes the most valuable contribution isn’t running toward the crowd, but running to where you can actually be most useful.