By David Karpook
Edition 4 – September 2014, Pages 15-17
Tags: facilities management • workplace strategy
For generations, the workplace has been thought of as something to be acquired, allocated, traded, upsold, utilized and disposed of. The facility management profession turned the workplace into a service offering, one that dealt in amenities, convenience, and the delivery of the provisions necessary for successful job performance.
Now, technology has moved the ball forward again and the workplace is being re-conceived in many sectors as an “experience,” akin to retail or hospitality.
We’re seeing this in sectors such as healthcare delivery, where pharmacies and department stores are establishing themselves as total healthcare providers, advisors and concierges; in specialized co-working spaces that cater to various niches of the workforce and highlight the particular attractions of their setting.
Spotlight on performance
“Work is theatre,” said B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore in their book The Experience Economy. They go on to explain: “The word drama derives from the Greek expression ‘drao’, meaning ‘to do.’
In all organizations, whether or not managers generally recognize it, the workers are  playing, not in some game, but in what should be a well- conceived, correctly cast, and convincingly portrayed real-life drama of doing.
Indeed, understanding this crucial point brings whole new meaning to often-used business terms borrowed from or shared with the performing arts, such as production, performance, method, role, scenario, and a host of others.
If we see work as theatre in these terms, then that makes facility managers the stage managers, set designers and lighting technicians tasked with readying the performance space; and the newer, professional class of workplace strategists act as producers, directors, choreographers and scenarists, making sure that all of the varied components of the environment work in synchronicity to support a top-notch production.
“When a business calls its workplace a bare stage, it opens up opportunities to distinguish itself from the myriad humdrum makers of goods and providers of services that perform work without recognizing the true nature of their acts.”
— Pine and Gilmore, The Experience Economy
Often, that bare stage has been staffed by people who see their roles as background, as invisible service providers. Perhaps more businesses should take a cue from high-end hotels where a card may be left on your nightstand to let you know that your room was “expertly prepared by Hannah.”
The enemy of performance is indifference
Facilities management has engaged in the crafting of experiences for generations, but often in transforming negative experiences we didn’t create. The leaky roof, the smelly carpet, the dirty bathroom, the crowded and overheated conference room – these are the experiences that FM routinely is called on to transform. We do so by providing services: rapidly, unobtrusively and economically.
Because we meet those goals so well, we are often not credited with the transformative impact we have on our customers’ experiences. But we have opportunities to craft wholly positive experiences for our clients, and it is on these we must focus.
The paradigm of unobtrusive facilities service may inadvertently contribute to a culture of minimal performance. If the only expectation is that: ”I work quickly and quietly and get the hell out of there,” can I be expected to focus on more than the absolute minimum required to complete the job?
Facility and real estate management professionals ought not to be seen – or, more accurately, hidden — as merely providers of commoditized space and services, but should present themselves as key participants who enable the production to take place and garner applause.
To once again quote Pine and Gilmore: “All business, as well as the work that defines it, from executive suites to factory floors, demands the same kind of performance as that featured on Broadway and in ballparks.” It should be well-rehearsed, passionately delivered, reliable yet nuanced and surprising. And it should happen in venues carefully selected, designed and tuned to enhance and extract the maximum impact from the customers….