Jul 315 min read

WPx Series: The Flying Formation of your Workplace Experience Goals

Updated: 4 hours ago

WPx: The "Who" is far more important than the "What"

Working with countless companies and groups I find the most overlooked part of any plan in trying to improve or alter the WPx, is who is actually going to be responsible for the path forward. - John Schmidt

Like Nature vs Nurture, Confidence vs. Success, chicken or the egg, the "Who versus the What" is one of those loops and it's often overlooked as people by nature want to jump in and start working towards something. Especially something as new and exciting as creating a new WPx.

Undoubtedly, you will have no shortage of volunteers and people ready to sign up and be a part of creating a new WPx. The most important thing you can do is step back and with the most critical hat you can ask these crucial questions:

What are the values I need from this team?
What the abilities I need?
What are the skills I need?
Do I have the right SMEs (Subject Matter Experts)?
Do they have a true passion for creating world class experiences?
Do the people I am looking at have all of the above but also do they have the capacity?
Are we selecting the right responsible party and building a team that will give us the greatest opportunity to achieve the goal?

It's not enough to establish just the "what" but more importantly, the "why". Defining your Purpose, Vision, Mission, and Values (P+V+M+V) is a fundamental step in how you craft your overall WPx strategy to gain maximum, long term and sustainable impact." - Simon Elliot, Managing Partner, 4xi Global Consulting

In any pursuit of organizational success, there is a tendency to prioritize "what" needs to be done over "who" will do it. I have learned over time when companies come up short of their goals or struggle with successful completion of projects and diagnose the shortfall, 99.9 % of the time the failure or miss will come down to people somewhere in the machine that failed through execution.

That does not mean the people that failed are not valuable, it does not mean they should not have been part of the process. It usually is tied to under-visualization of what was needed from the people involved to achieve the goal.

You need to have a clear understanding of the values, skills, experience and the capacity that will be needed. Then line that up with the right folks within your organization.

A WPx strategy that is really focused on evolving your suite of services and amenities is no small task, it will ultimately require a team and will most likely involve both internal and external members.

So, when thinking about “the who” I would think in terms of building the most effective flying formation possible.

A solid well thought flying formation will maximize collaboration, engagement, efficiency. In addition, it will take advantage of cross departmental alignment and strengths of the individuals involved while offsetting weakness. It will help you identify gaps and allow you to fill those gaps with the right people.

Key elements for a flying formation to execute on WPx or Services and Amenities strategy:

1. Executive Sponsorship

Who at the highest level possible will sponsor the initiative, the sponsor(s) are tasked with holding the person responsible accountable. They are ensuring the aims are aligning with the goals and ensuring that the companies values and culture are in alignment with them. This roles also is helpful with span breaking and ensuring interdepartmental collaboration is strong (Examples: COO, Chief People Officer).

2. Responsible Party (RP)

This is the singular person (in some cases team) who is driving the team towards the goal. In some firms they call this the Project Lead or Project Manager. This Project Lead or Project Manager should align within the organization as the highest or most prominent point of the pyramid involved in the project, containing strong leadership skills, be a good team builder and a problem solver, and is able to make cross departmental and stakeholder connections.

If your goal aims at a particular department, like facilities, the responsible party should come from facilities. If your goals’ objectives cross over into multiple departments, you would want to move up a level or possibly have RP from each critical group. From an accountability and efficiency perspective you want to strive for as few RPs as possible.

3. Project Manager (PM)

Manages the project, administratively supports RP’s in timelines, budgets, pulling all the moving pieces into a reportable, measurable document. They ensure loose ends are closed, changes are captured, etc.

4. Team leaders

Own specific objectives which should be closely tied to area of responsibility that aim is changing.

5. Cross functional teams

Team members from other departments supporting objective. One way to look at this is if an objective such as improving the food experience would also involve improving how to order catering and make cafes multi-use for meetings. In these cases IT would need to be in your flying formation as a cross functional team. If part of your WPx strategy includes building out a walk up help desk for technology, IT would assign a team lead for that as the responsibility lies inside their purview.

6. Stakeholders

Often overlooked, the right representation of the people that will received / be affected by the changes you are making. You want a VOC in your flying formation. Bringing everyone along as you evolve is critical, their feedback and buy in is crucial. Too often the said SMEs put together elaborate plans, that once rolled out do not have the impact expected. You need constant feedback and communication with your critical stakeholders.

7. Support functions

People assigned to the flying formation to help get things done; this could be admins, finance and tax experts and external groups as well.

8. Triangulation

I like to see, in any flying formation some level of external believable party triangulation. You want external eyes on your plan and how it progresses. This could be a board member, a consulting group that has SMEs, someone who used to work for a competitor. You want some level of triangulation outside of your core organization.

Vendors and consultants can play a role in your flying formation, they often bring skills, expertise, knowledge and market awareness to a project that you either don't have or that you just don’t have the capacity to in order to move it forward within your timeframe, (everyone on your team is running a business while trying to transform it, which is not easy).

While the "what" of your WPx and Amenities objectives and strategies is important, it's the "who" – the individuals, leadership, culture, and relationships – that ultimately decide success. Even the most well thought out goals can fail if you have under visualized who handles executing.

With the right people in place and a good set of objectives you will not only increase your chances of achieving your desired outcomes, you will lay a foundation for long term sustainable excellence in services, amenities and overall WPx.

John Schmidt

Corporate Strategy & Workplace Experience

4xi Global Consulting

Global amenity services and operations, transforming the work experience, and leveraging the 4xi strategic and tactical network.

You can contact John directly at john@4xiconsulting.com or learn more about John by reading his bio.

4xi Global Consulting & Solutions is a team of talented leaders from both the client-side and service provider side, impacting the Human Experience (HX) for people at work, in education, rest, and at leisure.

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