As we begin 2012, Stegmeier Consulting Group thanks you for your support over the past year.

2011 was an incredibly exciting year for SCG’s workplace change management team. We’ve enjoyed a tremendous expansion that has enabled our growing team to develop a number of new tools to compress the typical change management process for our clients. Our website has been totally updated, and as you can see, we started our new Workplace Change blog.

Stegmeier Consulting Group’s work continues to focus on delivering two significant results to our clients: 1) reduction in workplace costs, while at the same time, 2) improvement in workforce performance. A seemingly simple equation, yet one—if not properly managed—can cause costly business disruption and great risk. As students of change, we strive to learn from our diverse client experiences as we support them in overcoming employee resistance to workplace change. In fact, significant findings from one of our consulting engagements have led to a new best practice which will be applied to future workplace transformation initiatives.

Most gratifying were the numerous calls we received from past participants in SCG’s change management seminars and workshops, who proactively reached out to reconnect. We consistently heard comments such as, “I’ve carried your business card around for several years because I knew one day our company would catch up to the workplace trends you’ve taught us. We need you!” With the realization that change management expertise needs to be applied early in the strategic planning of change, we are excited to have already been engaged and working on client change initiatives that will come to fruition in 2013 and beyond.

We also appreciate hearing from our followers around the globe that they continue to draw from our book, Innovations in Office Design: The Critical Influence Approach to Effective Work Environments, for best practices in leading change that they can apply to their increasingly complex businesses.

To thank you for your interest in leading change, by opting-in to subscribe to our free mailing list, we will send you Stegmeier Consulting Group’s 2012 List of Change Management Resources (aka “The List”). We trust that you will find this growing list of resources beneficial, and look forward to hearing how we can assist your organization in 2012.

Stegmeier Consulting Group

The first tip? Make use of common areas: Rather than focusing on the limitations of our smaller private office, cubicle or shared space, we need to adopt the philosophy that a person’s office is the entire facility.

The next tip? [Read on to find out.]

The terms downsizing and rightsizing have long conveyed a negative connotation, with benefits to the organization—and sacrifices for the workforce. But don’t assume that tightsizing falls in the same category. The term tightsizing has not yet become mainstream, however I predict you’ll be hearing it used increasingly in the future. Tightsizing goes hand-in-hand with alternative workspace strategies (AWS), which in many cases, are a result of downsizing or rightsizing.

More and more clients contact Stegmeier Consulting Group early in their workplace transformation processes requesting change management support. Regardless of whether they refer to their initiative as alternative workspace strategy, shared space environment, hoteling, mobile work, flex work, web commuting, tightsizing, or other terms, the common thread these corporate real estate professionals share is the goal to balance workplace cost reduction and workforce performance improvement. It indeed is a balancing act, yet one worth pursuing. For every 100 individual workspaces an organization can eliminate when combining tightsizing and an appropriately designed workforce mobility program, that enterprise can conservatively save $1 million annually in rent, operations, depreciation, and churn costs.

Managing resistance to workplace change can seem a daunting task for business leaders. However, identifying and addressing areas of resistance early in the development of the new workplace strategy can ensure the organization maximizes the opportunities for reducing workplace costs:
• Operate more productively with fewer resources
• Reduce energy consumption and the corporation’s aggregate carbon footprint
• Support business continuity strategies
• Accommodate new hires without leasing additional space

Earlier in this blog, I asked readers to refrain from assuming that tightsizing has a negative connotation. An alternative workspace strategy may actually be a blessing in disguise for the organization. Tightsizing individual workspaces, while also granting members of the workforce the autonomy to select where and when they work based on the task at hand, can ensure the enterprise optimizes performance improvement:
• Increase productivity despite the location where work is performed
• Reinforce the corporate value of trust, improving employee morale
• Provide staff more choices and control to balance work-life
• Accommodate the needs of the multigenerational workforce
• Support the company’s attraction and retention efforts

When the term tightsizing becomes mainstream and its benefits well known, perhaps the blessing will no longer be disguised. For now, please refrain from assuming that reducing workplace costs can only result in benefits to the business enterprise, and sacrifices to the workforce.

Diane Stegmeier
Author, Innovations in Office Design: The Critical Influence Approach to Effective Work Environments

I was recently asked what I hoped to achieve with Stegmeier Consulting Group’s new blog. Good question. Those who know me have come to learn that there is a reason for everything I do. I don’t believe I’ve ever been called capricious, and the network of individuals with whom I work very closely understand that my goals for sharing my research findings are part of my complex plan to change the world. OK, not really the entire world, just the corporate work environment.

I began to reflect on my 10-year workplace research initiative that involved 140 organizations in 24 diverse industries throughout North America and Europe. The study initially focused on the impact of physical space on behavior in the work environment, and eventually evolved to also include the affect of the virtual workplace. My thoughts then turned to my study of the role of leadership in driving organizational change. I pondered the specific lessons I had learned from my postgraduate study of innovation and organizational change at Harvard, Duke, and Case Western Reserve Universities. As these thoughts began to converge, I came to realize that what I hope to achieve by sharing my knowledge on resistance to workplace change is best told by a story I’d like to share with you now.

In the third century BC, Greek mathematician Archimedes was asked by King Hiero of Syracuse to ensure that his gold crown, made by the local goldsmith, included every bit of the precious metal the craftsman had been supplied to create the king’s headdress. In a serendipitous visit to the public baths of Syracuse, Archimedes determined the mathematical formula to measure the volume of the king’s crown—an irregular-shaped object—as he observed water spilling over the edge of the too-full tub into which he stepped. In his excitement, he apparently forgot he was unclothed. He ran through the streets of Syracuse naked, shouting “Eureka, I found it!”

As an author, my goal for you, the reader of this blog or my book, is to discover—at minimum—one important concept that will result in an “aha!” moment as it relates to your involvement in the development of effective workplaces. That key learning may shed light on the perplexities surrounding seemingly sound workplace solutions that ultimately failed. Perhaps a new approach or an added insight will contribute to elevating your current level of success in your chosen field.

A word of warning, however: When you discover an idea that you realize will save you much frustration on your next workplace project, please don’t make the same mistake that Archimedes made. Do remain fully clothed. You know how your coworkers hate distractions in the workplace!

Diane Stegmeier
Author, Innovations in Office Design: The Critical Influence Approach to Effective Work Environments