SAUDE Workshop September 2016

As part of the HEDQF’s ongoing initiative to develop a program of events with estates professionals within the University sector, we were invited to run a workshop for SAUDE members at the Glasgow School of Art, coinciding with their annual conference. The group included the estates teams from a number of Scottish universities, and focussed on the challenges they face in delivering and maintaining quality HE facilities, under the constraints of efficiency and rationalisation. The workshop included presentations from Ian Caldwell and Mike Entwistle, with the group discussions facilitated by members of the HEDQF. The workshop established 10 dilemmas they face, on the themes of Place, People and Process, and proposed a series of Top Tip solutions for each.
 

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Place

Dilemma 1.0

Perceived ideas of what open environments are like, particularly office space where open plan is equated with call centre environments; and which are all about “squeezing” cost of the estate, with no benefit to the academics or students.

Top tips

Education / exposure through case studies:

• Of the rich, enjoyable and productive range of space types available in a modern work environment
• Of how rationalisation can unlock the opportunity to create a better range of spaces (choice of what suits the task in hand) which are co-located (access), which drives better utilisation, releasing resource to create better quality of environment (greater staff and student satisfaction)

Dilemma 2.0

Efficiency is about creating spaces which are needed and in the right place so people will use them.

Top tips

• Early briefing is required; Why are we doing this, what benefits will it bring, what is the vision, ambition and aspiration?
• Involve the right people: Students and Staff
• A building project takes time, look beyond the horizon of current practice, encourage those in the briefing process to look beyond ‘what is” to the horizons of inevitable change and future innovation

Dilemma 3.0

Doing more with what we have

Top tips

Understand how space is currently used:

• Know and understand what is done where, when and by who
• More holistic approaches to utilisation understanding: Measure the full estate, Monitor attendance, Use technology in place such as proximity readers, swipe and smart phone technology
• Understand where duplication exists and where cross faculty sharing opportunities exist
• Retro BIM as an asset management tool
• Use the public realm and outdoor space in a meaningful way (improved connections and navigation, improved expression of identity, culture and values, enabled with wifi and relevant furnishings)
• Lengthen the teaching hours in the day, teach on a different day, mix up the timetable, disrupt the normal patterns

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People

Dilemma 4.0

Cultural change is slow, resistance to change is high, institutional inertia is low.

Top tips

• Change initiatives need top leadership, they need to be managed and they need to be informed and developed from the bottom up
• Change programmes need management
• Change management is a skill which needs to be resourced, a change manager is different from a project manager and these are complimentary roles with differing expertise, not the same role

Dilemma 5.0

Change will only be welcomed if it offers improvement, benefits and makes this better

Top tips

• Understand and articulate the benefits to the academic who is resisting the change: how does the institute saving money and modernising the estate help that academic , what are the ‘carrots’, can cost models have a more devolved structure so that the benefit can be understood locally at faculty level
• Dynamic and effective modern space models can facilitate dynamic and effective collaboration (particularly important if this is articulated as the vision development recommended in top tip 2.0)
• Be robust in the strategy and reasoning, academics are persuaded by evidence (case studies are not just about design and spaces, organisational change successes make good case study material)
• Understand what has not worked as well as the successful case studies
• Prototypes, pilots and tests beds create useful evidence and can market the potential of doing tongs differently
• Change focussed initiatives need time: participation and communication cannot be rushed

Dilemma 6.0

People are stuck in “this is the way it has always been” particularly in regards the relationship between seniority and space

Top tips

Understand how space is currently used:

• Challenge is needed however this challenge will be better facilitated if benefit can be articulated

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Process

Dilemma 7.0

Current reporting categories for space can result in successful and well utilised spaces not being understood particularly when considering student focussed spaces

Top tips

• Consider how the reporting format can be refined to capture these really important fluid spaces, these are spaces which really contribute to the student experience (eg. where transition spaces / corridors have been enabled through space planning and furniture interventions or within cafe spaces which have become active learning spaces)
• Consider how metrics could be used more creatively to identify success in a different way: eg is there a correlation between students experience, academic success, quality offacilities and energy use?

Dilemma 8.0

Academics respond to good empirical data /evidence

Top tips

• Lessons learned and continuous improvement of the estate can be facilitated by a briefing process which starts with the vision and is not concluded until the post occupation analysis is complete and after care initiatives are implemented

Dilemma 9.0

There is a great deal of duplication of similar space typologies – shared space needs collective ownership and management.

Top tips

• Consider who should own and who should manage space?
• Will the facility be best utilised and most enjoyed if it is run by a diverse group of users
• Should the model be more like hospitality with changes supporting academic needs
• Should space be centrally timetabled, or part of faculty space?

Dilemma 10.0

We give everyone a standard issue of technology: a PC, a tablet, a mobile

Top tips

• Consider peoples virtual needs more appropriately to maximise the use of the resource but also to serve that persons needs better i.e. are they better served with a single high end device?