NEWS & ANALYSIS FMJ.CO.UK
WORLD WORKPLACE EUROPE 2021
PREDICTIVE REASONING
Key themes at World Workplace Europe 2021 were lessons learned from the past year, how data can
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Bortkiewicz, Consultant at Magenta reports
World Workplace Europe 2021
took place on 17th and 18th
March this year, and anyone playing
buzzword bingo would have had
a full house within an hour. This
is by no means a criticism of the
conference or its speakers, rather
a reflection that the terms ‘hybrid
work’, ‘new normal’ and ‘smart
buildings’ are being bandied around
with increasing frequency – and no
doubt for good reason.
World Workplace Europe 2020 was
one of the first events to be impacted
by the pandemic and went from a
physical to a virtual event almost
overnight. A lot of talks this year
considered the lessons learned from
the past 12 months – perhaps the
biggest one is that making plans or
predictions is fraught with danger. Just
when we think we see a clear route
ahead, another roadblock appears, be
it a new strain of COVID or a country
going back into lockdown.
However, there were certainly some
interesting sessions that considered
new perspectives.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF WORK
The opening keynote was given by
Anders Indset, and was as entertaining
as you’d expect from a person dubbed
‘Digital Jesus’ and ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Plato’.
10 APRIL 2021
Indset spoke about how everyone is
turning into a leader and tuning into
the art of critical thinking.
He also suggested that the future
FM leaders will be highly skilled in
cocreation and collaboration, and
that all of us should be more open,
honest and vulnerable with each other
when we return to the workplace.
Vulnerability shows strength and
increases trust across teams.
TECHNOLOGY AND BARRIERS TO
CHANGE
One common theme was smart
buildings and the use of technology.
More than one speaker noted that,
generally speaking, FM is a bit behind
on the technology front and that this is
the ideal time to address it.
While it’s all very well telling people
they need to make a change, actually
putting that into practice can be
trickier. Deborah Nas, during her
closing keynote, considered why
people in general are resistant to
change, especially around technology.
Nas said that fear is a powerful
emotion so it’s easier to focus on the
negative aspects of tech, and that the
same arguments have been made
throughout history – from people
saying that learning to write would
cause us to forget things, to the
telephone being an invasion of privacy.
She talked about how our individual
frames of reference play such a big
role in our decisions and resistance to
change. If we asked parents whether
they would rather see their children
play with Lego or MinecraΠ, most
would say Lego. Why? Because that’s
what they did when they were young.
However, MinecraΠis basically Lego
but with a whole host of options to
build anything you like.
Nas also ran a thought experiment.
What if playing video games wasn’t
only the norm but in fact all our kids
did before books were invented and
loads of children started reading
instead? We’d probably say that
books are too isolating and can
o’ er nothing compared to the rich
digital environment of a video game.
Essentially, we’d find the negatives
because we have our set frame of
reference.
This plays out in business as senior
leaders are oΠen older people with a
fixed frame of reference. To remedy
this and welcome in new innovation,
we must listen to di’ erent people
who have unique frames of reference.
The disruptive (there’s another
buzzword) companies build around
what they need to succeed. Tesla
designs, builds and sells its own cars,
carries out maintenance and owns its
own charging points. They became
the company they needed to be to
succeed.
WHAT IS HYBRID?
Hybrid has come to be a bit of a catchall
term for any type of workplace that
isn’t 9-5 in the o’ ice. On the Workplace
Innovator Live podcast, Simone
Fenton-Jarvis asked that if a company
says you can work two days a week
at home, but not Monday or Friday, is
that hybrid work? Or just more flexible
work?
In a panel discussion looking back
at the last year, the point was made
that splitting the workplace into
physical and digital zones misses the
informal elements of the o’ ice, such
as unscheduled conversations or chats
around the water cooler. It was also
suggested that most workplaces aren’t
set-up to mesh physical and digital. If
half of a meetings attendees are in the
room and the other half online, will
those on the video be side-lined from
conversations going on in the room.
The big takeaway here is that it’s
easy to talk the hybrid talk, but quite
another to walk the walk.
WHERE NEXT?
We’ve all learned the folly of trying to
make predictions. So it’s not surprising
that PropTech was another major
theme, with multiple speakers extolling
the virtues of data, data, data. The
consensus was that for FM to grab this
opportunity to become a major part of
business, they must use tech, analyse
data and make informed, real-time
decisions.
From what Magenta’s hearing from
our clients and industry friends, that’s
easier said than done. But World
Workplace Europe undoubtedly
provides a strong foundation of ideas
and actions to help with the journey.