Change

Understanding the needs of your client, helping change to happen and being aware of radical ideas.

I was watching BBC news this morning (16th February 2012) and there was a story about how our houses haven’t substantially altered since the first mass housing in Georgian times, which might say something about how resistant to change we are. They also talked of the radical idea of tower blocks and how they failed to catch on. Now another architect is offering radical housing but has hit on a good idea; he’s letting people live in the houses for a nominal fee to let them get used to the idea before taking the plunge. Another builder has also studied the behaviours of families living in homes and has modelled it’s new range on that research. So it might not be the answer to our housing needs but at least they might have a better chance of working rather than the tower blocks that were just an imposed idea from ‘ground breaking’ architects.

What learning can we take from this? Well, for me, it’s about making changes based on data not ‘gut feel’, building upon what’s already there rather than making big changes and about managing change by painting the positive picture of the future, perhaps by showing people reference sites and examples of good practice within and without the organisation.

Your thoughts?