This article explores how learning and results emerge in the organizational and physical spaces between municipal institutions. The study is based on a multi-year improvement project in a medium-sized Norwegian municipality that connected home care services and the municipal car workshop to improve vehicle management—an essential support process for municipal health services. The project crossed both physical spaces (workshop, home, road) and organizational spaces (professional silos, procedures, budgets), illustrating how such interstitial spaces generate friction while also enabling new practices. Methodologically, the study is based on a learning history approach using semi-structured interviews (n=12) and a validating workshop. The analysis highlights three key conditions for achieving results: (1) perspective taking and psychological safety enabled open dialogue and constructive handling of disagreement, (2) a longer time horizon was necessary to translate experiences into organizational memory, and (3) artifacts (shared procedures, e-learning, attitude cards, dedicated communication channels) functioned as bridges between organizational units. Results included standardized procedures across home care services, integration into the municipal quality system, regular network meetings between vehicle coordinators in home care and the workshop, and the establishment of new roles and communication practices. These measures helped reduce barriers, strengthen coordination, and promote learning across organizational boundaries. The study contributes to the understanding of interstitial work in the public sector and demonstrates how boundary objects (e.g., the vehicle), safe arenas, and extended time horizons can make cross-disciplinary collaboration more robust. We argue that improvements require more than technical solutions; they depend on social and material infrastructures that institutionalize learning as an organizational practice.
Key words: Cross-disciplinary collaboration, Interstitial spaces, Organizational learning, Boundary objects, Public sector improvement
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