Archives for November 2009

My name is Marina Kostadinovic. I am a Business Student at ESCP Europe, and currently an intern at BBC Workplace, working with Chris Kane and others as a research assistant.

Last week I had the privilege of attending the WORKTECH '09 conference at the British Library, a gathering of all those involved in the future of work, workplace design, technology and innovation. This was a wonderful opportunity to meet people and learn about the latest workplace ideas.

The BBC was represented not only by the Chair (Technology Correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones), but also by Chris Kane who, together with Despina Katsikakis from DEGW, presented the BBC Worldwide Media Centre case study.

Keynote speaker, Alain de Botton, presented ideas from his new book Pleasures and Sorrows of Work. In his talk, he emphasised the idea that employers should know what they require from each employee and then give them the freedom to achieve these goals individually. He also discussed the idea that people go to work because they want to feel fulfilled and satisfied and not because they have to.

Flexible working demands clear objectives and the freedom to achieve them. Work won't happen in offices anymore; it will happen 'elsewhere' - in social hubs, inspiring places or on neutral ground. However, offices will not disappear, as they represent space where people come to cooperate. Some foresee a world in which, due to the change in workplace strategies, we will witness change in infrastructure and the ways in which countries are organised, i.e. that cities will stop growing and people will stop commuting. Companies will focus on implementation of new technologies, thereby enabling teams to cooperate at a distance.

Alongside the BBC Worldwide case study, other presentations were made on the Macquarie Group, Sydney and Nokia, Beijing.

The conference had other great speakers, including: John De Lucy, Head of Estate & Facilities, the British Library; Mark Dixon, CEO and founder of Regus; Guy Holden, VP and GM, JCI Global Workplace Solutions; Simon Ward, Group Property Director, Barclays; Roger Madelin, Joint CEO of Argent; Jack Pringle, Founder of Pringle Brandon; Erik Veldhoen, Founder of Veldhoen & Co.; Grant Baldwing, Macquarie Group; Clive Wilkinson, Architect; John Sellery; Adam Mundy, M Moser Architects; David Martin, founder of SMART Technologies; Philip Vanhoutte, MD, EMEA Plantronics; and David Firth, Author.

As a group, we in Workplace have been talking a lot about new ways of working, flexible working and hot desking. To my mind, all of these fall under workplace strategy. This is a term which may not be familiar to many, so, over the coming months, I intend to blog on key aspects of this interesting and challenging topic.

To get the debate going, let me explain what's happening in my world as a consumer of commercial space and how my team helps support the BBC with our strategy for our workplace. We no longer call ourselves by the outdated label BBC Property but have reinvented our function as BBC Workplace.

The nature of work is changing fundamentally. This is best described by the phrase - (used in an earlier post) - 'work is what you do, not a place you go'. But it is more than this and requires BBC Workplace to assume a wider role than may have been regarded as our traditional scope which was focusing on asset management and operating the buildings. The shift from bricks and mortar to the 21st century workplace is about changing to a new position where we consider how we are using space and how we best support creative work, enabling BBC staff to work anywhere, anytime and anyplace.

Our role is also to enable people to foresee how they might be able to work in the future taking maximum advantage of the new workplaces brought about by changes to the BBC estate. Our developments in W1 and Salford aim to incorporate these possible changes which include:
• Flexible working practices
• Enhanced collaboration leading to creativity
• Enabling mobility and flexibility

Our vision for BBC Workplace is to be a trusted advisor, able to advise the Executive Board and Divisions on all aspects of how to make the best use of the workplace. We are, in effect, consultants to the BBC and have the capability to suggest new and innovative ways of working. Charged with the challenge of acting as an agent of change, for me, this equates to being a leader in innovation.

For those providing new buildings, a key consideration in any new development is assessing how this might enable organisational transformation A move to a new building is a catalyst for and can symbolise change - it is no longer acceptable for a move to a new facility to be simply a 'lift and shift' from an old building to a new.

Moving the BBC to a transformed estate will probably require:
• A shift in organisational and cultural practices to enable the BBC's movement towards being an on demand content provider
• Achieving more efficient space layouts and adjacencies
• Embracing new and alternative ways of creating content
• Moving towards standard working conditions

BBC Workplace is already challenging the status quo when it comes to how the BBC uses space. Media Centre in West London is a great example of open plan team based working.

Watch this space for more thoughts - and do feel free to comment in the meantime - I'm very happy to respond.

Chris

I'm pleased to announce that the new BBC premises in Cambridge went live earlier this week. This is the culmination of a joint English Regions and BBC Workplace project to move the BBC from outdated premises and technology (under threat of redevelopment) to fully digital broadcast facilities on the outskirts of Cambridge, close to the renowned science park.

BBC Cambridgeshire consists of the local radio station - BBC Radio Cambridgeshire - and a TV sub-opt of the Norwich TV news (Cambridge do the first half of the 6.30 news for their area - BBC Look East). BBC Cambridgeshire also delivers localised web content.

Time, and the nature of Cambridge city centre being tight and pricey led the BBC to choose a recently refurbished office space on the north side of the city near the A14. We've built new radio studios and technical space on the ground floor and a TV Studio and Newsroom on the first floor. Where possible, we've reused existing building services and augmented them for broadcast continuity purposes.

Thanks to the building team: Capita Symonds, TP Bennett, Aecom, Currie & Brown, Munro Acoustics and Interserve and to Helen Minett and our partners in Balfour Beatty Workplace.

Construction was completed on time and budget in June and the technical fit out and training are now complete. A full programme of radio broadcasting began at 5am on Monday 23rd November and TV goes live on 7th December.

See below for some photos of the exterior, newsroom, TV studio and TV gallery. Well done to all involved for a smooth job well delivered.

Chris

In addition to raising thousands of pounds for our Children in Need at our fundraising night last week, Workplace was also able to present a second Playpump to One Water - this marks another milestone in our support for children overseas. I was delighted to share this good news by presenting to Kelly Phillips from One Water, assisted by Aramark's Val Carter and Hillary Friel.

For an insight into Playpumps, and our support for One Water, have a look at the video of a trip I made to Lesotho in February of this year.

Chris

It's great to see that our buildings continue to inspire the creative types for whom the BBC is home. Well done to all the competition winners. 

We took over Studio 6 at BBC TV Centre and invited our partners and staff to enjoy a pre-Pudsey evening with an auction, raffle, entertainment and dancing.

The results are due in large part to the immense generosity of partners. I want to pass on a huge thanks to our Platinum Partners - Overbury, Balfour Beatty Workplace, Johnson Controls, Aramark and Bovis Lend Lease who contributed nearly £68,000 towards our fundraising campaign.

Their support was crucial in making the night happen. Thanks must also go to others who contributed their services or donations for our auction - Wilson James, Lambert Smith Hampton, BBC Studios & Post Production, Capita Symonds, OCS, Swiss Post, Serco, Partytecture, Digital id, Relax, Nintendo, and Bobby's Props.

Andy Collins, our MC for the night, did a brilliant job. He conducted the auction which raised over £13,000 and included VIP visits to top BBC shows including Top Gear, Jonathan Ross, Question of Sport 40th Anniversary Special, Alan Titchmarsh, and Graham Norton. There were also bids for a VIP Tour of the Olympic Stadium, and a Queens Park Rangers Experience.

Strictly Come Dancing's Karen Hardy led Pudsey onto the dance floor and then invited the assembled audience to take part in a Cha cha cha group dance.

You can see everybody having fun, and helping us raise money, in these photos.

I was interviewed recently on the question of how new ways of working are developing and functioning in practice; I attach a link to the article. It did provoke thought about how we have approached work historically; mostly you could say that we all come to an office to do work. This is in accordance with long established rules and procedures and many people still expect this arrangement.

However, in the 21st century, I believe that the penny has dropped with increasing numbers of people and that many now recognise that work is something we do, not necessarily somewhere we go. Work can be done anywhere, any place, any time, much like the old advertising slogan.

But what does this changing landscape mean for offices and property? Your thoughts most welcome.

Last Wednesday at The Brewery in London, BBC Workplace had a great night out at the Property & Facilities Management (PFM) Awards 2009 - (check out this link for more info and pics). Along with our key partner, Balfour Beatty Workplace (BBW), we swept the board by not only winning the FM Corporate Partner category but also being judged the Overall Winnner for 2009!

The PFM Awards 2009 are amongst the most sought after awards in the facilities management sector. They recognise best practice in partnering in facilities management and support services between service suppliers and their clients, as well as the skills and enterprise of people engaged in this sector. The judges not only look for evidence of a good partnership, but also what the partnership has achieved and how innovative it is.

BBW and BBC Workplace were entered into the Partners in FM category which covers strategic partnerships where a wide range of support and facilities management services are delivered and managed for a large corporate client organisation. Entrants had to demonstrate how the partnership is strategically aligned with the client's business needs and reflected through the supply chain to effectively deliver a broad range of services.

All winners of the ten 'partnership' categories were then considered for the Overall PFM Award that demonstrates excellence in all the judging criteria.

The Corporate Partner award was given in recognition of the way BBW demonstrated how they partnered and strategically aligned with the BBC and reflected this through the supply chain to effectively deliver a broad range of services.

It was interesting to see the judging criteria: 

Partnership - how clients and suppliers work together to achieve the business, property and FM strategy.

Innovation - creative ways of achieving the business, property and FM strategy.

Achievement - movement towards and achievement of business, property and FM goals.

Sustainability - how the partners work towards sustainability objectives within the business, property and FM strategy that benefit the environment, the workforce and the wider community.

Apart from the BBC awards, BBW also picked up lots of other awards on the night - many congratulations to all concerned.

What a remarkable night! It was certainly one of which we can all be proud. It is well deserved, external recognition of all the hard work and effort lots of our colleagues are putting in to make proper partnering a reality. Well done all.

Chris

Firstly, let me start by saying a big thank you to everyone involved in our ONE Workplace Staff Events last week. We have taken a significant step forward.

I thought the events highlighted some of the best attributes of our ONE Workplace family. Everyone has an opinion, we don't always agree, but we are stronger when we work together.

From where I was in Manchester, there was plenty to be proud of, lots to think about, and some really interesting stuff to capture e.g. how much paper we generate. That's an important part - we are doing this because we want to learn and because we want to get better.

So, I wanted to provide you and your teams with a snapshot on the things we learned. We are focusing on what you said on the green and red cards when asked what you are most proud of at Workplace and what you would most like to change. When we have reviewed all of the feedback forms, we will also update you on the shape and subjects for our future ONE Workplace Staff Events

The Green and the Red cards - what did people say?

In each of our five locations (Birmingham, Glasgow, London W1, London W12 and Manchester), there was plenty of debate. Below is a snapshot of your comments from each location:

As we said at the time, the purpose of asking the questions was to learn from the responses and, where possible, to do things to change.

What can we do - always improving

Since the events last Tuesday, the Workplace Management Board and I have been looking at the comments made in each location. They are provocative and, in my opinion, very helpful. We are on a journey; we know we must always get better and, as I said at the time, I want our team to focus on going for gold.

Now that we have reflected on the comments made, these are the priorities we are taking away and on which we will be focusing. We will use these at our next ONE Workplace Events and I would encourage everyone to think about how they can respond to them. They matter to us all and we should all take action to address them.

Many of the points you raised were along common themes; many of the issues are in areas we are aware of and are working to address. However, we value your comments and recognise the need to address them, in a way we will be able to deliver. To this end Workplace Management Board have decided to focus on 3 main priorities which we hope will begin to solve some of the issues we are all facing:

1. Improve up and down communications
To find ways to improve communication across ONE Workplace teams in all locations, and to reduce London-centricity

2. Simplify processes
To identify ways to improve the processes for initiating and managing Jobs and Projects

3. Focus on how to make the big picture small
To improve awareness of strategy at ground level, so staff know what is expected of them and how wider Workplace aims are relevant to them in their everyday work.

The next step on the journey

Building on all of the good things that we are rightly proud of and changing the things that don't work is not going to be easy. Change never is, but we know that it's part of what we need to do and what we need to help everyone else in the BBC to do too. As Caroline Thomson said, we have a vital role to play and we have a great opportunity to step up and deliver even better results.

The next ONE Workplace staff events are planned for early next year (we will confirm the date shortly). We'll report back on your comments and the progress on the priorities at the end of this year but it should be remembered they are part of a journey. With your help and contributions we will endeavour to address other issues as we go along.

Keep talking

If you would like any more information on what we are doing to respond to your comments or on our ongoing work to improve how Workplace communicates, please do not hesitate to contact Hellen Martin, Kate Smith or Lauren Nippress. As ever, I am happy to respond to comments on this blog!

Thank you again. I look forward to next time.

Chris

It's really tough to figure out what is the best way to connect with the whole of our team. We're over two thousand strong and spread right across the country.

The problem is complicated because we don't have one single email or internet connection.

We have started a big conversation with everyone by holding pan-UK briefing sessions on Tuesday. It would be great to hear any further feedback from those who were able to attend - we will be assessing the feedback forms but any further thoughts will also help me assess whether you found them worthwhile.

For those who were unable to join, do have a look at the film via link below which will give you an idea of some of the key things we talked about.

Feel free to let me know your views via this blog - as ever, I'm happy to answer any questions or comments.

Chris 

CK interview with Pat West

Yesterday at our team briefing sessions we heard from the BBC's Chief Operating Officer, Caroline Thomson. 

As it wasn't possible to have everyone attend these sessions in London, Birmingham, Glasgow and Manchester, Caroline's short film is available via link below. I'll be following up the event properly next week so do keep an eye on the blog for updates.

Thanks to all those who helped everything go smoothly in all 5 locations yesterday, and to all staff who were able to participate.

Caroline Thomson film

Today sees the next round of our One Workplace briefing sessions as we journey towards becoming a truly world class team.

This time round we are trying to do something different as I want everyone across the country to have the opportunity to get involved. Rather than having one big meeting in London, we're holding a series of sessions in London (W1and W12), Glasgow, Birmingham and Manchester, each hosted by a member of the Workplace Management Board.

I want to talk about what we have achieved so far this year as there's lots to celebrate but also ask for your views on how we raise our game even further. We will also have some feedback from Caroline Thomson. Look forward to seeing you later if you are in Manchester, and to hearing your feedback. Please make a special effort to come along if you can.