Building efficiency into buildings - Tom West

1. Co-designing space that
works for everyone
Tom West
Head of Operations
Institute of Ageing and Chronic Disease,
University of Liverpool
AUA North Wales and North West Regional
Mini-Conference
‘Organisational Effectiveness and Using
Resources Effectively’
Friday 19th January 2018

2. INSTITUTE OF AGEING
AND CHRONIC DISEASE
One of 5 research Institute’s within the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences
90 academic research staff, 40 professional service staff and 120 PGR students
‘Benchtop to bedside’ approach taking basic science through to clinical application

3. Aintree
Liverpool
Leahurst
Working across 3 sites in the Liverpool region

4. Where we came from

5. Where we’ve ended up

6. The William Henry
Duncan Building
• £40M Development
(£10M ERDF funded)
• 12,000 m2 total area
(excluding plant)
• 5,000 m2 UoL
• 4,000 m2 Liverpool Bio
Innovation Hub
• 3,000 m2 shared,
communal space

7. 112project meetings
75user group meetings
22Project Control Group meetings
15site visits
1,000s of emails
14 monthly updates
2 years

8. 112project meetings
75user group meetings
22Project Control Group meetings
15site visits
1,000s of emails
14 monthly updates
2 years
1

9. 1. What is ‘co-design’ and why do it?
2. If we take a co-design approach how
do we manage the mess?
3. Why do people hate change, and how
do we manage change without
ending up hating people?
3 questions

10. From a users perspective
is space ever truly neutral?

11. What thoughts or feelings spring to mind when you look at
each of these images?

12. Space always evokes a reaction, and that
reaction is different for each individual.

13. Even a completely ‘neutral’ white box could produce strong feelings..

14. I’m telling you Pete,
it’s Distant Grey
Shup up Greg,
it’s definitely
White Dove!

17. Oh God what have I done!?
There’s another 2 hours of
this and my leg’s already
gone to sleep..

18. The use of partitions, or the layout of desks can influence people’s reaction to office space

19. The amount of natural light can have a strong impact on people’s experience of a space

20. Whether the corridors and offices are closed off or open and visible can convey
unintended messages about an organisation’s transparency (or lack thereof)

21. Even the humble office chair can inadvertently attribute importance to one group
of staff (i.e. managers) over another group

22. (To consciously avoid this unintended message we chose a single office chair for every
office and desk in the new building)

23. Building design always affects the building users in all
sorts of subtle ways which can easily get lost during the
frenetic planning and implementation of a major project

24. ‘We shape our buildings;
thereafter they shape us’
Winston Churchill

25. Designers Users
Architects,
planners,
engineers,
facilities,
managers,
sustainability
officers
Academic staff
Professional
Service staff
PGR students
Undergraduates
Post docs
Technicians

26. Designers Users
Impact
The design of a building or space has a high degree of impact on
the eventual users of that space

27. Design Users
Involvement
However, in traditional design approaches, users often have very
little involvement in the design process

28. High Impact + low involvement = Dissatisfaction

29. Userinvolvement
Time
Typical involvement of users in a large re-design project

30. Userinvolvement
Time
Involvement of users through a co-design approach

31. Userinvolvement
Time
What matters is not just the total number of people consulted (similar in either
approach) but the quantity and quality of those interactions

32. This scale of consultation required for true co-design can feel like you’re about
to open Pandora’s Box, or a can of worms, which is why designers are often
reluctant to involve users in meaningful ways

33. However, major change
projects are ALWAYS a can
of worms.
The only real question is
when you decide to open
the can?

34. Designers Users
CompletionProject start
Users inhabit the space long after the designers have left, so
don’t wait until the snagging stage to open the can of worms

35. The trouble with co-design is that projects that start out like this..

36. Soon end up looking more like this..

37. Co-design is an inherently messy process
that wreaks havoc with Gantt charts..

38. 1. What is ‘co-design’ and why do it?
2. If we take a co-design approach how
do we manage the mess?
Which brings us to the 2nd question

39. Half way through our co-design project, I received a
phone call asking whether we were going to have a
suitable room to undertake the dissection and
subsequent storage of gorillas
(Apparently zoos occasionally donate the bodies of
large apes who have died of natural causes to our
evolutionary gait group to study comparative
anatomy, which was news to me..)

40. People often refer to problem of ‘the elephant in the room’

41. But when it comes to
co-design don’t worry
about the elephant in
the room. You can see
the elephant, you know
it’s there.
Worry about the gorilla
in the ceiling void, you
never know when the
‘gorilla problem’ will
strike

42. Other examples of unexpected ‘gorilla problems’
from our co-design project included:
• The last minute need to accommodate a full
scale x-ray facility within the infrastructure of
the building due to a successful large
equipment award
• The need to construct an internal bin store to
accommodate 20 industrial sized bins
• The request to create a basement instead of
backfilling the lower ground floor

43. All large scale projects start with a neat project plan (and usually a
brightly coloured Gantt chart)
Project plan

44. But these plans often don’t take into
account the various problems or
opportunities which will arise
Problems / opportunities
Project plan

45. Problems / opportunitiesWhen problems arise we have a finite amount of
resources which we can deploy to address them
– this is our ‘influence capital’
Influence capital

46. Problems / opportunities
These resources can include
any of the following:
Influence capital
Time
Expertise
Knowledge
Political Capital
Authority
Trust
Charm
Present

47. Depending on the scale and importance of
the problems or opportunities we can
decide how to split up our influence capital

48. For example, we could
divide our resources equally
to attempt to address every
problem, but in so doing we
run the risk that we won’t
apply enough influence to
the most critical problems

49. Alternatively we could
decide which are the 3
main challenges or
opportunities, and choose
to address just those 3

50. Or concentrate on an even
smaller number to apply
the maximum impact of our
limited resouces

51. Storage
Heating
Furniture
Liquid
Nitrogen
Colour
Scheme
During our project we
encountered a number of
‘gorilla problems’ and had
to choose which ones to
apply our resources to try
and address

52. Problems / opportunitiesResources
Influence capital
Time
Expertise
Knowledge
Political Capital
Authority
Trust
Charm
Presence
Thinking of a large
change project that
you’ve been
involved in, fill in
the blanks.
Which resources
did you employ?

53. The last question when considering a
co-design approach is how to manage
the inevitable emotional conflict
which arries.

54. 1. What is ‘co-design’ and why do it?
2. If we take a co-design approach how
do we manage the mess?
3. Why do people hate change, and how
do we manage change without
ending up hating people?
3 questions

55. “Nothing is so painful to the
human mind as a great and
sudden change.”
Mary Shelly

56. Morale
Time
The ‘Kübler-Ross Change Curve’ is a helpful tool for thinking about
the various stages of emotional adjustment people go through
during a large change project

57. Morale
Time
Shock
Denial
Anger
Depression
Experiment
Acceptance
Performance
There are 7 distinct reactions, although everyone will experience
them to different degrees and at different stages of the project

58. Morale
Time
Shock
Denial
Anger
Depression
Experiment
Acceptance
Performance
The 7 reactions can be broadly categorised into 4 distinct phases,
each of which requires a different management approach

59. Morale
Time
Shock
Denial
Anger
Depression
Experiment
Acceptance
Performance
Empathy
During the first phase it’s important that staff feel listened to, that
their concerns are heard and, where appropriate, validated.

60. Morale
Time
Shock
Denial
Anger
Depression
Experiment
Acceptance
Performance
Empathy Information
During the second phase it’s important that staff are given
information about what’s happening as frequently as possible

61. Morale
Time
Shock
Denial
Anger
Depression
Experiment
Acceptance
Performance
Empathy Information Structure
During the third phase, as people begin to adjust to the new
environment it should be clear where they fit in the new strucutre

62. Morale
Time
Shock
Denial
Anger
Depression
Experiment
Acceptance
Performance
Empathy Information Structure Involvement
During the final phase there should be multiple opportunities for
staff to get involved and contribute within the new environment

63. Morale
Time
Whilst it’s impossible to eliminate the complex emotional
reactions to processing change, it is possible to reduce the ‘morale
dip’ through effective communication throughout the project.

64. A study by the University of Exeter showed that staff who are
given an element of control over the design of their
immediate work environment are up to 32% more productive
than staff who had no control and worked in ‘lean’
minimalistic environment
Involving staff in co-design is often a long and messy process,
but it pays off

65. 3 quick rules for encouraging staff involvement in
projects of any size
1. Clearly articulate the ‘fixed parameters’ i.e. those things
which are not open for negotiation (timescale, floorplan,
design, budget etc)
2. Step back and allow space for staff to ‘own’ their ideas and
suggestions, only intervene when necessary
2. Once plans have been agreed, communicate any changes
and don’t change things without explanation

67. Further Resources
General Change
management
Leading Change
John P. Kotter
Staff motivation
Drive
Daniel H. Pink
Teamwork
The Five Dysfunctions
of a Team
Patrick Lencioni
Improving process
through learning
Black Box Thinking
Matthew Syed
T.west@liv.ac.uk