Use these ideas to make sure your next renovation or new build is hugely successful. By Mark Alguard, LEED AP BD+C Sponsored by Momentum, Inc.
Many credit union leaders are faced with the need to invest in a new or updated workplace. It could be that your growing team is out of space, your operations facility has reached the end of its useable life or your workplace simply doesn’t support your credit union’s way of working. The need to stay competitive should also weigh in the decision for a large workplace investment. Viewed from a strategic perspective, it comes down to this: The technical systems and social organizations housed within your organization’s workplace can either support each other, or they can fight each other. When they support each other, organizational performance metrics (such as the operating expense ratio) improve. At Momentum, we recommend three ways to set your credit union on the path toward optimizing these systems through a high performing building: 1. Define success clearly: Begin by taking a deep dive into the purpose of your workplace facility. Ask your team leaders what issues their areas of the organization currently face in the larger competitive environment. Dig into how their current workplace impacts their team’s performance. Link these conversations to clear and measurable success statements and align your team toward a shared workplace vision. 2. Integrate your team: Do not make decisions in silos but, instead, have a broad representation of users and operators at the table when outlining the program for your new workplace. Require your builder and designer to integrate the design process with iterative systems and technology exploration, plus real-world cost information – and insist that this happen from the earliest conceptual project stage. 3. Ensure you're following the tenets of "buildable, useable, operable, and sustainable": Just like your credit union’s cultural values guide the organization towards its organizational mission, these four ideas will guide your team toward delivering a high performing building. Hold your integrated employee and design-build team accountable for delivering on these tenets, and resolve questions such as these early: Operable – Are the selected building systems controls user-friendly? Useable – What is the right balance between space for collaboration and privacy for focused work? Buildable – Is the selected building structural system optimized for local market conditions? Sustainable – How will this workplace project have a long-term positive impact on financial performance? Momentum uses the framework of total investment analysis to conceptualize and quantify the areas in which a facility impacts an organization’s performance. It’s both the guide to and justification for a high performing building. As your credit union plans its next workplace project, start by integrating your team and remember that the project must be buildable, useable, operable, and sustainable for the highest impact on performance and the most likely path to organizational success. Mark Alguard, LEED AP BD+C, is senior director/strategic and pre-construction services at Momentum, Inc., a CUES Supplier member based in Seattle. CUES School of Member Experience will next be offered Sept. 26-27 in Charleston, S.C.
