Lost in Translation

There’s an old joke about lawyers being the only people who, with straight face, call a 700 page document a brief. Look at a brief for a new healthcare building and you may get the same impression of project managers. As we work with client teams to introduce the idea of design statements we're finding some people have to unlearn 20 years experience of technical writing to start to describe the fundamental human needs that their project must support and nurture. Users get it very quickly, and designers can pick up from their intent. Our hopes and desires don’t translate well through technical mediums, so write it in human.

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The God of Small Things

Often when we’re working with clients we’re talking about getting the big moves right – the right people, the right site, the right site layout. But recently I was reminded how the little things can work against those big moves: for example doors. We were looking at a great development, one that gets all the big things right. It’s a joy to be in, is easy to find your way round, flexible... great! But the doors (which are not on hold open devices) have become an everyday bar to the staff, a psychological barrier to joined up working.

As Arundhati Roy wrote "Little events, ordinary things, smashed and reconstituted. Imbued with new meaning. Suddenly they become the bleached bones of a story." A reminder to myself to delight in the detail also.

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talktalk

We’ve been doing wee studies on various process issues from Strategic Asset Management to Post Occupancy Evaluation and there’s a common thread coming through : talking and listening.

The skills needed to operate effectively in the space between changing service models and infrastructure investment are expansive. Professor Steven Male, discussing the issue at Improving Scotland’s Public Sector Estate, described the new Property Professional as having the ability to develop a clear line of sight between policy and technical issues – from strategic direction to briefing and construction - and the human skills to lead ‘one time only’ clients through the change needed to develop resilient infrastructure. SGHD's own Mike Baxter continued, stressing the importance of the role being played by estates staff particularly in ensuring the best results are achieved through infrastructure investment; facilities that realise benefits of co-location and provide truly healing environments.

We’re finding people with these rare skills come from a range of backgrounds; but wherever we find good practice and innovative thinking we find a key figure with a personable, pragmatic and collaborative approach who can converse as readily on matters of policy and strategy as on the position of a basin and the feel of a place.

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