Is Managing Conflict the Elephant in the Room?
This article on Managing Conflict was written by AWA’s Director of Research and Development, Karen Plum. In recent months, I’ve …
Can Teams Really Develop When Working Virtually?
Written by Karen Plum, Director of Research & Development and Tanisha Krishnan, Associate, AWA During this strange Covid-19 year, much …
Managing the switch to Home Working
In March 2020 most of the world’s office based knoweldge workers went home to work. There was no change management …
So You Think You Aren’t Biased?
Written by Karen Plum, Director of Research and Development, AWA A couple of years ago, I wrote about cognitive bias, …
Where are you on the Workplace Maturity Journey?
For several decades, work and the workplace design has been evolving. It has been enabled by information technology and driven by economics and …
How Well Do You Really Know Your Team?
Written by Karen Plum, Director of Research and Development. In 2018, I blogged about the role of personality in team …
Assessing the Performance of People We Can’t See
Written by Karen Plum, Director of Research and Development Throughout my career in workplace change management, I’ve met many managers …
Why Does She Get To Work From Home When I Can’t?
Written by Karen Plum, Director of Research & Development, AWA In early September, I was a guest on BBC Radio London’s Drivetime show. Presenter Eddie …
Team Empowerment Happens When Managers Work For Their Teams
Written by Karen Plum, Director of Research and Development When researching the practices that make teams most productive, team empowerment …
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Are We Really Tired of Home Working?
Written by Karen Plum, Director of Research and Development If we thought that the debate about home working was lively …
Everyone Back To The Office? Hold on a Moment!
Written by Karen Plum, Director of Research & Development, AWA On Friday 17 July, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced …
The Greatest Social Experiment Nobody Planned
Written by Karen Plum, Director of Research & Development, AWA At the end of July, I was a guest on …
Low Carbon Working
It seems a long time ago that Climate Change was our number one source of anxiety. Since the Covid-19 pandemic …
Unlocking Psychological Safety
Neuroscience tells us that the brain is wired for safety. Its primary function is to keep us alive – striving …
Building and Sustaining Strong Teams When Working From Home
Inspired by lots of pieces that I’ve read since the COVID-19 lock down happened, I wanted to share AWA’s experience …
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Working From Home – is this the new normal?
It hardly seems any time at all since Covid-19 took us where many feared to tread. So many organisations have …
Working Well at Home: The Workplace Angle
The meteoric spread of the Covid-19 virus has caused us to re-examine almost every facet of our lives including, how …
The Workplace Management Framework – Resource Management
This capability is concerned with day to day management of resources needed to deliver effective workplaces. Resource Management covers physical …
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When Better is Best: The Evolution of Activity Based Working
In thinking about some of the terrific new workplaces on view during AWA’s annual Workplace Week New York this past …
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5 Things to Know About Change Management
Change management is a popular topic – put it into Amazon and you get over 50k hits. There’s no shortage …
6 Steps to Workplace Transformation
In this fast paced, increasingly digital workplace world, the desire to reinvent our workplaces and workforces to intersect the latest …
What is a Workplace Utilisation Study?
Quite simply, a Workplace Utilisation Study is a vital piece of “evidence” when building a persuasive and convincing case for …
The Workplace Management Framework – Capacity Management
Capacity Management is probably one of the most important parts of Workplace Management because capacity costs money, it often comes …
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How to Implement Activity Based Working
I was recently asked to write a blog on how to implement activity based working (ABW) / agile working. I …
In Change Management – Questions are a Gift
Every workplace transformation project I have ever worked on involved the compilation of a series of Frequently Asked Questions – …
The Workplace Management Framework – Change Management
In our posts to date we’ve talked about workplace experiences, clients, consumers and strategy. These are key ideas in the …
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Workplace Strategy: What are we trying to achieve?
Having recently finished a series of blogs about Workplace Change Management, I was asked to write a blog or two …
The Workplace Management Framework – Supply Chain Management
Supply Chain Management covers the entire Supply Chain life-cycle from strategic policies and plans, the selection of suppliers of all …
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Change Management: The Human Side of (M&A) Crisis Management
“Never let a good crisis go to waste!“ Attributed to Winston Churchill upon the formation of the United Nations, it’s sentiment still resonates …
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The Workplace Management Framework – Performance Management
In the previous Blogs, we’ve talked about Workplace Management organisations considering themselves as businesses within businesses. Here, we’re going to …
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The Workplace Management Framework – Client Relationship Management
In the previous blog we started out by talking about the Workplace Management function as a sort of business within …
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Building the Organization for Change
Change doesn’t happen because someone sends an e-mail. To build an organization for change requires extensive preparation and change management …
The Workplace Management Framework – Strategic Management
Imagine if you were running your own business delivering excellent workplace experience to your client’s and consumers in the organisation …
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Downsizing your Workspace?
Is your organization looking to refocus the business and possibly reduce it’s workforce? Office downsizing is a smart alternative that …
Workplace Management: Aid to the Transformation of business in the Digital Age
Institutions are changing their names, large corporations are recruiting Chief Experience Officers and Chief Workplace Officers and in the world …
Read moreWorkplace Management: Aid to the Transformation of business in the Digital Age
10 Things You Should Know About Change Management
Change Management Series – Chapter 8 A lot is written about change management, and I have enjoyed writing this series …
How Long Does a Change Management Programme Last?
Change Management Series – Chapter 7 Anyone that understands human behaviour, or has ever tried to form a new habit, …
How Does a Change Management Process Help a Company?
Change Management Series – Chapter 6 The very simple answer to this question lies in knowing why so many change …
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Launching Workplace House in London
On the 12th February 2019, along with five other organisations, we launched a new centre for workplace excellence in the …
Activity Based Working Benefits
A few years ago, I wrote about change management saying, “change management is like anchovies: everyone says they hate them, …
Resistance to Change
Change Management Series – Chapter 5 A theme through this series of blogs about workplace change management is resistance. For …
Office Relocations are an Opportunity!
Relocation and Innovation Series – Chapter 1 For many years, decisions about office relocations were made purely based on location, …
Why is Change Management Important?
Change Management Series – Chapter 4 If you’ve been following this series about change, then hopefully you appreciate that workplace …
What does an Organisational Change Management Team look like?
Change Management Series – Chapter 3 Implementing workplace change is rarely straightforward and takes a lot of effort – but …
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Space can only do so much!
You’ve probably guessed by now that I’m a fan of the open plan office design. (Not apologizing, just sayin’ – …
What’s So Good About Activity Based Planning?
When Advanced Workplace Associates invited New York Real Estate executives to weigh in on the May 2018 Harvard Business Review …
Change Management Principles
Change Management Series – Chapter 2 There are many things said about change – that it is hard, that “everyone …
Workplace Data and Design
Don’t let the Cart drive the Horse The chief criticism of the Harvard Business Review study on the open plan …
What is Change Management?
Change Management Series – Chapter 1 We live in a world that is constantly changing – the pace of change …
Workplace Planning and the Human Factor
Advanced Workplace Associates (AWA) hosted a dinner/discussion at Fonda del Sol in New York on October 4th to continue the …
Managing the Agile Workforce – Chapter 12: Characteristics of Agile Teams
To conclude our series of blogs on Managing the Agile Workforce, it seems appropriate to summarise the skills, attributes and …
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Managing the Agile Workforce – Chapter 11: Characteristics of Agile Leaders
To conclude our series of blogs on Managing the Agile Workforce, it seems appropriate to summarise the skills, attributes and …
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Managing the Agile Workforce – Chapter 10: Ten Things To Do Differently
Over the past few months, we have shared the findings from our research into the Management of the Agile Workforce. …
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Managing the Agile Workforce – Chapter 9: Task Coordination
Over the last few months, we have shared a number of aspects that our research showed were important to the …
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The Long Road to Workplace Management
It is interesting how ideas can spread. Some happen rapidly when something new goes viral on social networks. Other ideas …
Managing the Agile Workforce – Chapter 8: Trust
Some years ago, we undertook some research about the productivity of knowledge workers – and how it could be measured. …
Advancing the Debate on the Open Plan Office
When a new piece of research hits the workplace community, you know pretty quickly as everyone starts talking about it, …
Managing the Agile Workforce – Chapter 7: Communication Richness
When undertaking our research about the agile workforce, most of the factors that emerged as important were not a huge …
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Managing the Agile Workforce – Chapter 6: Cognitive Bias
If you are following this blog series on Managing the Agile Workforce, hopefully you’ll be actively considering the issues raised, …
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Managing the Agile Workforce – Chapter 5: Building and Sustaining Relationships
It was no surprise to find from our research on Managing the Agile Workforce that relationships are of key importance …
Read moreManaging the Agile Workforce – Chapter 5: Building and Sustaining Relationships
Managing the Agile Workforce – Chapter 4: The Role of Personality
When undertaking our research about managing the agile workforce, it became clear (not surprisingly) that there is a clear relationship …
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Managing the Agile Workforce – Chapter 3: Leadership / Workership
In identifying aspects that are important to the success of the agile workforce (teams that aren’t co-located or spend some …
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Change Management: May the Culture Be With You
Change is happening all around us at an exponential rate – this is not news. All we have to do …
Managing the Agile Workforce – Chapter 2: Synchronicity
When starting our research into the agile workforce, it was important to be clear about terminology. What counts as an …
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Managing the Agile Workforce – Chapter 1: Why We Still Need Help
In recent years, Advanced Workplace Associates have supported the professional development of ‘workplace’ leaders through our Workplace Performance Innovation Network …
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Is Talking a Forgotten Art in the Workplace?
This is National Conversation Week 2018 – when we’re encouraged to talk to friends, family, even strangers because conversation is …
What Flexible Working means for Human Resources & Recruitment
Flexible working… this is a term that has many meanings and all of which seem to be used simultaneously within …
Read moreWhat Flexible Working means for Human Resources & Recruitment
How to Map Performance Measurements to Strategy – Step 4
In our previous blogs we described the first three steps to ensuring Performance measures are aligned with workplace strategy. Step …
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3 Ways To Align Goals
The Advanced Workplace Associates (AWA) team have investigated what is required to achieve maximum workplace productivity. Our leading research in …
4 Ways to Encourage Trust and Increase Performance
In our last blog we explored the importance of trust at work. This time we look at 4 ways to …
Workplace Performance Management and the Troublesome Trucks
The Difficulties of Workplace Performance Measures The Christmas break offers the opportunity to read children’s stories to grandchildren and this …
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Talking Up, Phones Down!
I was talking to a colleague the other day and we were discussing the need and drive of generating social …
Establishing and Maintaining Trust in the Workplace
A few years ago, Advanced Workplace Associates (AWA) were involved in a research project that looked at the productivity of …
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How to Map Workplace Performance Measures to Strategy – Step 3.
“We already have loads of measures that take lots of effort to gather data on and which result in very …
Read moreHow to Map Workplace Performance Measures to Strategy – Step 3.
What is Space Planning?
Put simply, space planning is the process of designing how occupants will use a given space. For workspace design, this …
How to Map Workplace Performance Measures to Strategy – Step 2
How to Identify Positive Workplace Performances That Will Impact Strategy In the last Blog we described the need to weed …
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How to Map Workplace Performance Measures to Strategy – Step 1
In an earlier Blog we discussed the need to establish workplace performance measures that mapped upon the strategic outcomes that …
Read moreHow to Map Workplace Performance Measures to Strategy – Step 1
3 Tips For Flexible Working
Advanced Workplace Associates (AWA) are proud advocates for agile working and activity based working (ABW). As we’ve highlighted in other …
Winter and Cognitive Performance
It’s come to that time of year where the northern hemisphere starts to freeze over. That’s right, winter is upon …
Big Data in Facilities Management
If we are to believe the Facilities Management (FM) media, the Internet of Things and Big Data are about to …
What is Activity Based Working?
What is activity based working you ask? Let’s start off by first stating that “Activity based working” and “Agile working” …
Benefits of Agile Working
The Benefits of Agile Working Practices Without naming names, it is clear from the projects we work on here at …
What is a Workplace Consultant?
The professional services industry has grown and diversified as knowledge workers continue to advance and learn. The business management and consulting …
67% of Full Time Employees Wish to Utilise Flexible Working!
In this modern time of 2017, workplace management continues to advance and develop as time progresses. Here at Advanced Workplace …
Read more67% of Full Time Employees Wish to Utilise Flexible Working!
What Workplace Data you Need for your Workplace Strategy
The workplace is an adaptable and ever changing experience that can be sculpted around the things that matter most to …
Read moreWhat Workplace Data you Need for your Workplace Strategy
World Mental Health Day – 5 Tips to manage the Winter Blues
In recognition of World Mental Health Day – 10th of October 2017, one of our associates has shared her personal …
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Workspace Strategy to Halve your Workspace!
Advanced Workplace Associates (AWA) have created a tool that reveals the utilisation patterns of your workplace. By this, we mean …
Relocating Office and Enhancing Employee Performance
Initially, relocating your office is regarded as one of those things that is unavoidable and necessary at the end of …
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Do You Actually Need to Move Office?
There are some cases in which finding a new property seems to be the only choice. For example, your employees …
Can happiness at work survive uncertainty?
There is growing a belief that individual happiness has material causative effects on business performance and individual productivity. Harvard Business …
3 Tips You Need to Know When Moving to a New Office
There comes a time when your organisation may need to pick up and move operations to a new workplace in …
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The Under-Productive Workplace
No one can deny that high workplace productivity is the goal of most organisations. As a business manager or leader, …
Employees of the Future and Workplace Productivity
The 21st century has brought about revolutionary and innovative workplaces. Some in which foster and improve workplace productivity and some …
Mitigating Risks to Agile Working Projects
Risk Management in Agile Working In my previous blog I looked at the management of risks that occur in agile …
3 Healthy Workplace Tips for Leaders
Business leaders are majority of the time (if not always) under incredible pressure and stress. When there are deadlines to …
Risk Management – Transitioning to Agile Workplace
In this series of blogs on Agile Working we have discussed the difficulty of getting people to buy in to …
Transition to Agile Working Gone off Track?
All business changes require preparation, planning, execution and maintenance if they are to be successful and persist into the future. …
Knowledge Sharing in the Workplace
Having researched the things that influence team productivity, we know that social cohesion is the most important factor. If we …
Want to Know How to Implement Agile Working?
The team at Advanced Workplace Associates (AWA) has been supporting organisations wanting to make a change to agile ways of …
The Importance of Social Cohesion
As a business manager, it is your role to create a workplace culture that fosters workplace productivity and employee engagement. …