The first thing people ask when they want planning help often sounds like “We just need another office”. While this seems like a simple request, pre-determined space solutions often mask operational issues.
Being nosy by nature, planners tend to ask the dangerous question– why? That’s when the therapy session begins: “Judy is such a loud talker. We need to get her away from the rest of us, so we can get some work done.”
Space is a tool, it is not a magic wand. When people are thinking about new space, they often imagine that it will solve their organizational woes. Their desks will be cleaner, the fridge won’t smell any more, meetings will be fun, clients will be happier. Let me burst the bubble—this doesn’t happen.
Whatever weird personality conflicts, petty histories or work arounds that have evolved in your organization won’t suddenly be solved when you finally get new carpet and paint. In fact, those picadilloes and habits will probably get worse as you plan and start to make a change. Judy will start talking louder as her anxiety about change escalates, your staff will want to hide not just from their clients, but also each other. What started out as a great new opportunity will start to feel more and more like stress.
When thinking about new space, you will imagine that it will solve all sorts of problems. Your desk will be cleaner, the fridge won’t smell any more, meetings will be fun, your clients will be happier. Let me burst the bubble—this doesn’t happen.
You may be thinking at this moment “Teskey! This periodical is not only depressing, it’s also deeply unhelpful!” Here comes the nugget: space won’t solve the problem but YOU, and your amazing humanness, can figure things out. Because operational problems are really people and relationship problems. And there are no better people-problem solvers than people.
So how do you do that? Well, here are some easy steps:
- Define the problem
Referring back to the case of our friend Judy the loud talker, we think the problem is that you don’t have enough rooms to throw Judy and her voice into. That’s a space solution, but it actually doesn’t solve the problem.
Defining the problem is tricky because, as humans, we are natural problem solvers. We tend to go with the first and easiest solution that comes to mind. Defining operational problems are tricky because they force us to think about the way we work without running straight to a solution. This can be challenging because the way we work isn’t something most people think about all that often. We know who to talk to, we know how to get our tasks off our plate, we know how things “should work”. The assumptions and history that we have built up, the expectations of how we do our business are rarely based on best practice or thorough research into the most efficient way to do stuff- we work the way we worked yesterday.
In our Judy example, the actual problem isn’t about space- it’s in the relationship between her and her co-workers. For some reason, Judy’s volume is set at a higher level than the rest of her group. We can state that problem without judging or alienating Judy, and without jumping to a solution.
- Talk, talk, talk
Remember that therapy session mentioned above? Be warned. It’s about to arrive. The only way to start to see the solution in an operational problem is to talk it out. We know the problem is that the expectations around noise and talking aren’t working in Judy’s office.
But why aren’t they working? Is it that the rules haven’t ever been spelled out in an obvious way? Is it that Judy comes from a different department where collaboration was the norm and her new group likes to be more heads-down? To understand what the real issue is in this group, you’re going to have to talk to Judy, her teammates and determine what the underlying issues are in order to solve the problem.
As a side note, in this case, the problem is interpersonal. Operational problems can also relate to any of the work, processes or relationships within or between groups of people in an organization. The only way to define the problem, is to talk it out.
How do you know if you’ve uncovered the problem? I use these metrics:
- Judgement-free.
Can you state the problem without worrying that someone’s feelings will get hurt? If not, rephrase and refocus until the problem is neutral. The problem above isn’t that Judy is annoying. The problem is that the group’s understanding of workplace etiquette isn’t uniform.
Can you state the problem in a sentence or two? If it takes you five minutes to describe the history and background, you aren’t there yet.
If there isn’t a real solution, you haven’t found the real problem. If the potential solution to your problem is everyone having a donut shaped desk, or working from home in a client-facing operation, you haven’t uncovered the kernel yet.
If your problem meets all of these criteria, you are ready for a solution!
- Look for the low-hanging fruit
Once you are clear on what the problem is, the next step is to solve it. Here’s a bit of good news: the hard work is already done. The amount of time you’ve invested already in problem-seeking will start to pay dividends in solution-finding. In fact, the time you’ve spent in focus groups, interviews and coffee meetings have probably revealed the fix.
Like problem-finding, the best solutions are simple.
I used to have an eight-foot whiteboard in my office. When I was in problem-solving mode, it was full of complicated diagrams with arrows, boxes, timelines, and doodles- all attempts to visualize a solution. It was only when I got to a solution that I could diagram in a couple of steps that I knew that a problem was solved. Ideal solutions don’t require complete organizational overhauls or massive renovations.
In the case of our pal Judy, a conversation with the team, where the group determines the appropriate conversation norms for their office, is likely all that is needed. Start with the simplest solution first. It will probably fix the problem. And if it isn’t, take the next step. By starting on the lowest rung on the ladder, you have places to go. If you start with the most drastic option first, there’s little room to manoeuvre if things go sideways.
The reality is that space planning and programming often uncovers all sorts of operational band-aids. Knowing that these fixes and work arounds are in every workplace, it takes the pressure off finding them- they are there, you will uncover them, and then you deal. Hopefully, the fix is simple. Sometimes it won’t be, but the same principles of figuring out what the real problem is, talking it through and finding the simplest answer will still apply. And by then, you’ll be a pro!