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Brief history
of office planning
Workplace points of view | Space types Case Studies | 1 Campus MLC | 2 NSW Police HQ |
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Riding the White Water of Change Research indicates that 50 to 80 percent of large systems implementations, organisational re-engineering and change efforts fail to deliver the promised benefits.1 Dr Daryll Hull investigates why. To those in industry who have tried to implement changes in their workplaces, this message often sadly rings true. Yet when we look more closely at workplace change, it is often obvious that the change would be good for everyone. The technology proposed is excellent, the work organisation has been designed to improve productivity, and the implementation strategy has been built around high levels of employee consultation. Why then does change fail as often as it succeeds? More importantly, how can we increase our chances of making workplace changes sustainable? Mental Models of Change Part of the answer to the question "how to make change successful?" lies in those deeply held views about change that exist in all organisations. There was a time in past change management thinking, when corporations were urged to adopt change programs to "unfreeze" and then "refreeze" the workplace, as though the workplace and the people in them were physical objects, and the application of emotional heat could melt the hearts and minds of employees into new shapes. This approach assumed that making changes to the physical workplace environment would engender a corresponding change in staff paradigm. It is essentially a "physical" model of change, which looks like this:
Consultation and participation techniques were soon developed alongside this model to engage and challenge the imagination of the workforce and the management team. Tools such as visualization exercises, colour charts, numbering systems, and group questionnaires were deployed along with simple psychological approaches to change - to persuade, enjoin and then convert the employees. The aim of the process was to gain employee change-acceptance through employees feeling as though they had become part of the change process, and through fostering an employee sense of ownership and pride in their workplace. While this approach was a step forward from the original "physical" model of change, a "global" change in the socio-economic environment has proven this approach to be of limited use in recent times. Employees are now living in turbulent social and economic times, surrounded by constant change in technologies, business directions and their own personal situations. The current employees' view of the world is more "organic", less predictable; more connected to real life, and looks more like this:
As part of the employee acceptance of the inevitability of change in their lives, another change in the workplace environment is not perceived as a fundamentally permanent or life-changing event. For today's employee, the workplace environment is akin to a "white-water" rafting journey, where one rides the river flow, making the best of the available opportunities, and trusting their own intuition. Today's employees intuitively know that they have to learn about the environment around them (the river), and that they need to learn about their own capacity for change (rafting skills). They are better educated, have higher expectations and are less tolerant of autocratic management practices than previous generations. They also need to know that the systems around them are the best available - that they have good rafts, sound safety equipment, knowledgeable skippers and committed fellow crewmembers. In this "living" model of change there are three key elements:
In this model of change, just as in white water rafting, there is considerable planning and structured learning needed to ensure that everyone comes through the experience safely. James Carlopio, in his seminal work on the implementation of change in Australia in 1998, suggested that there was as much effort needed in the implementation strategy for organisation change, as there was in choosing the technical solution to be implemented. He postulated the following model:
His model offers a series of steps to successful implementation based on a combination of social, organisational and psychological analyses. He firstly talks of building a high level of knowledge and awareness - outlining the benefits, implications, consequences and outcomes of the proposed changes. He then proposes the creation of structured mechanisms to support the change program such as consultation groups, systems, management teams, and the use of experts, depending on the situation. He suggests that a large investment needs to be made in gathering commitment from everyone who is affected by the change. The "roll-out" of the change according to Carlopio should be measured, stepwise and tested. People have to get used to the change. Finally, he suggests a major investment in "turning off" the old systems, so that the new way of working becomes the accepted practice. One of the other seminal change management frameworks based on Australian experience, Denis Turner and Michael Crawford's 1998 "Change Power" model, supports Carlopio's view. They extend his model of structured change into new areas through the introduction of "organisation capabilities", which they believe have to be enhanced in any organisation in order to ensure success in the change process. They separated these organisational capabilities into two classes:
Reshaping capabilities are comprised of Development (getting ready for dealing with change), Engagement (getting peoples' attention) and Performance Management (being able to test to see if we are going in the right direction). They link this with Operational capabilities of three kinds: Biztech (understanding the business we are in terms of technology and systems), Marketing and Selling (being able to actually do the business better after the change) and Performance Management (checking that we are still on track through measurement and reporting). In the works of Carlopio and Turner and Crawford there is a common living model: They believe that successful change management is underpinned by a deep understanding of the way in which people and organisations work. It is essential (in their view) to see any organization as a living system of people, processes and physical assets. The interaction between the elements is complex, constantly evolving and highly social. Any successful change program requires the promoter to be aware of these interactions, and the organisational forces that drive them. We may convert this model to a series of key questions to guide us through the bends of the change river: GETTING READY FOR THE RIDE
MAKING THE JOURNEY - PUSHING OFF FROM THE SHORE
SUSTAINING THE SPIRIT OF THE JOURNEY
THE BUSINESS CHALLENGE - RAPIDS IN THE RIVER Despite the best efforts of the promoters of change, a considerable number of change programs still fail because they lose support from the rest of the business. This is particularly true in property and facility management. Accommodation issues often become a distraction in the midst of senior management crises, external market shifts, sudden changes in technology and changes in personnel. It is as though the program hits a series of rapids and the raft overturns. How do we avoid falling out of the raft when we enter rough water? In this regard the business case for change must include recognition of the linkages between business direction and organisation focus, as well as physical assets. This linkage is often problematic. In order to strengthen the case for change, a systematic examination of the interconnections between investment in accommodation and the pay-off for the business is essential. The question to be answered is: how best to demonstrate the connection? This can be done in a number of ways: 1. Making a business case based on traditional facility planning measures e.g. savings resulting from better churn management, higher retention of staff, enhanced communication between groups; and increased levels of user satisfaction; or 2. Making a business case based on a close examination between the business, work organisation and workplace strategies. The first method is widely used, and sometimes persuades senior managers to support the case for change. The second method is more complex and requires a clear understanding of the fundamental drivers impacting business direction and organisation focus. This necessitates close involvement with the most senior level within the organisation and sophisticated organisation analysis tools. It is only with executive buy-in and the capability to understand and interpret organisation direction that the linkages with accommodation strategies can be formulated. Only through a clear articulation of the fundamental strategic drivers impacting business, can change management begin to be really addressed. Many examples of earnest attempts to introduce change into the physical environment fail to deliver on their original promise. Calling a brightly painted café bar an "interactive break out" space does not make employees interact better or 'break down barriers' within the organisation, unless the work organisation and the business directions are aligned. A business based on "command and control" systems, coupled with a highly focused business based on established plans and procedures will not accept a workplace designed to "free people up". It will most likely result in unrealised expectations, frustrated senior managers and disappointed designers. When any organisation is first formed, it begins three journeys down the river simultaneously. One is a business journey based on the business model and plan of the managers. The second is an organisation journey that supports the business model and creates organisation structures, staffing policies, skills systems and all aspects of people management. The third journey is one of "place". Workplace strategies are developed, property plans laid and accommodation provided. Problems arise as the organisation travels down the river because the business model often becomes the preserve of financial, marketing and technical specialists. It is to these specialists that stakeholders look for returns and rewards. The organisation passes to the people specialists, the HR groups, the remuneration specialists, and the work process experts. The property and facilities journey falls to the property specialists and facilities managers. The three rafts separate at various times on the river and sometimes lose sight of each other. During turbulent times, the three groups will actually compete with each other for the best channel through the rapids. Usually the business managers win. Yet we are describing one organisation, one set of goals, one river. The challenge is for leadership to remind the groups that they are in this together, and what one group does impacts on the entire organisation. Understanding exactly how the groups impact on each other will increase the overall chance of everyone surviving the white water. The real challenge, rather like riding the rapids, is to accept that aligning the workplace strategy with business and organisation directions is the key to success. Peter Drucker, the international guru of management theory and practice in the last 50 years recently remarked - "we must learn to manage in situations where we are neither controlled nor controlling. Facility change is one such area of management. Enjoy the ride!" Dr Daryll Hull is a Director of Strategic FM, the first independent facility planning company to be established in Australia, and also an Adjunct Professor in the Graduate School of Engineering at UNSW, and Adjunct Faculty at the Australian Graduate School of Management. Daryll has had 30 years experience working with a variety of organisations understanding, implementing and measuring the impact of change. When he first started working with Strategic FM six years ago, Daryll together with senior Strategic FM staff, set out to develop a diagnostic tool which would assist the company to better define the linkages between organisation direction and the type and nature of accommodation. The resultant tool, The Triple Journey maps the three consecutive journeys that all organisations undertake: the business pathways; the organisation direction and the workplace strategy. The tool identifies the key organisation and business drivers that the changed workplace can seek to energise and enhance.
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