A mysterious dynamic happens when organisations grow to a certain size. Suddenly the clan starts to fracture, made worse if people are spread across different buildings.
An Adelaide law firm experienced this growth pain, but took corrective action through an office move to reconnect the clan.
Recently I spoke at conference of managing partners of law firms. In speaking about human instincts I mentioned, amongst other things:
1. As your firm grows past about 80 staff heading towards 150, staff will begin to say, 'It's not as friendly as it used to be'. (This clan size, or size group in which we gain our sense of belonging, is linked to the size of our brain.)
2. The physical office layout impacts connections. Separate locations accelerate disconnections and even different floors have an impact. (Because we are wired for the single plain of the savannah, in multi-storey offices people will tend to be closer to those on their floor than those on floors above or below them.)
Over morning tea that followed my talk, Trevor Edmond, a partner in Wallmans, an Adelaide firm, told me that what I had said reflected their experience exactly. Trevor was happy to share their experience to help others with managing the human side of change.
Wallmans is a hundred-year-old law firm, employing 90 staff, including 12 partners and 42 fee-earners. Over the last decade as the firm out-grew its main office, groups were tacked on and the firm was spread across four separate buildings in the Adelaide CBD. They were indeed experiencing this distancing of satellite groups. One group, two buildings down the street from the main centre, didn't turn up to drinks on a Friday night with the rest of the firm—they had their own drinks!
With most of their leases coming up for renewal in mid-2008, Wallmans decided to address the issue and bring the clan back together. Their fundamental leasing decision was to locate everyone onto one floor in one building. That would be the best lever to reconnect the firm.
Their management of the relocation touches a number of human instincts and provides an excellent model for others who are facing an office move or more generally, managing a change in their organisation.
Large floor plate
Requiring a single large floor plate to house 90 people meant that options were limited. Wallmans held out for this fundamental requirement, and after seven months of searching a suitable building was located.
Location
As well as the requirement for a single large floor plate, Wallmans paid attention to the priorities for staff: convenient access to courts, easy access for client parking, close to shops and cafes and the like. Early in the process, staff were asked to rate the location factors so the project team had a clear guide to go by.
Project team
They found that a management team of eight was too many for a decision making-group (there is indeed research that the most ineffective committee is one comprising eight people!). So they formed a sub-committee of four who would meet weekly and make key decisions. (From human instincts we would predict that four will work well as it corresponds to our gossip-sized group of up to four people where everyone can have their say.)
Choice by staff
The sub-committee was keen to have input from staff on a range of options; carpet, desks, chairs, paint and the like. The clever part was that the committee narrowed the options down to two, and then gained input from staff. This fits with the capacity of people to choose between options. More choice confuses people. There is widely-reported research of choice given to people in tasting jam! At a supermarket, people were asked to taste five jams. The tasters were then asked to rate their satisfaction with the jam, and also a record was made of how much jam these people bought. A second condition was then tested with a different group of customers. This second group was given a choice of around 25 jams. How satisfied are they and how much jam do these people buy? The difference between the groups is that we like a lot of options, but with more options we buy less! The group that tasted 25 jams liked the jam more, but bought less than the group who tasted only a few jams. We get overwhelmed by choice and are less inclined to make a decision. (Note to remuneration and benefits professionals: extensive superannuation/pension investment options might be the reason people are staying with the conservative default option.)
At Wallmans, people appreciated being enrolled in the choices, and with so few chooses, decisions where efficiently made.
Communication to manage gossip
A feature of the human condition is our ability to talk and to share information; to gossip. To avoid people relying on the grapevine, and the risk the invention of rumours, Wallmans distributed a regular newsletter to keep staff informed about the relocation, including photos of the building and precinct and details of new furniture and furnishings.
Acknowledging the sense of loss
We know from human instincts that people are not wired to resist change; when people resist change they are driven mostly by the instinct of loss aversion. In an office move, there is no emotional attachment to the new building yet strong attachments to the old, and there is a strong sense of loss as people contemplate leaving the old building and all the experiences and memories associated with that building.
Wallmans found a creative and sensitive way to acknowledge this loss yet empathetically move people forward. They held a wake. In the good Aussie tradition, a barbeque was organised, with the partners as the cooks. Everyone was asked to bring along an item symbolic of their memories of the old building. The item was disposed of into bins. The items generated both a good deal of interest and good-natured conversations. When people ceremoniously deposited their item, they were given a plate for their food.
One person brought along a stack of old letterhead paper. Another person had an ancient calculator. Another disposed of old receipt books. One person threw out their coffee coaster, seriously stained after all those years.
The BBQ also included a charity auction of the office property of any value: a TV, bar fridges and cooling fans and the like. Several items of historic value were saved and now feature in the new building.
The event provided a respectful celebration allowing people to reminisce. It acknowledged the sense of loss, yet also provided closure and goodbye.
Office-warming involving families
From human instincts we know the special significance our real families have in our life journey (which relates to our survival strategy as a species). In the Wallmans move, this dimension featured through an open day, where families visited to inspect the new office. Showing your family around is the single fastest way to establish positive emotions with the new location.
The three-month rule
In an office move there will always be some things that aren't quite right for people. Wallmans found a great way to manage these concerns through a 'three-month rule'. As people took up residence, they were welcome to report any items of concern. If the concerns were significant (such as health and safety risks) they were attended to immediately, but any minor items were recorded but would not be acted on for three months. The rule was that any of these minor items that were still an issue after three months would be addressed at that time. At the end of three months, the facilities manager checked back with people who had recorded an issue in those early days. Nothing was required to be fixed; what had been frustrations at the beginning were no longer problems ('actually, the coat-hanger is in a good place').
What was the outcome from a well-managed office move? In summary, Trevor says that 'productivity went through the roof'. People enjoy being in the new office. There was a restoration of the 'one-firm' feel. People are enjoying spending their coffee times together and are spending less time at cafes. There is a quicker turnaround on work projects.
The new office has also had a positive impact on clients and helped win new work, to the extent that Wallmans credits the move as a key aspect of cushioning the firm from a negative impact of the Global Financial Crisis. Clients visited Wallmans to see the new offices. That generated a number of conversations that led to new work. Some of these clients were new clients who were contemplating switching lawyers, and a visit to inspect the new set-up provided an easy and positive connection with these clients.
Through managing the human side of change, Wallmans found that change can be effectively managed, staff engagement remained high and the firm is back as a single clan.
Thanks to Andrew O'Keeffe / HardWiredHumans
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