ADVICE & OPINION
IWFM CONFERENCE 2019
PAINTING A
PICTURE OF THE
IWFM’S FUTURE
As the first truly national
event from the Institute of
Workplace & Facilities Management
(IWFM) since its rebrand last
year, April’s conference felt like
a genuine opportunity for the
institute to break with the past
and present members with its
vision of the future. That feeling
was undoubtedly helped by a
programme that hinted at very
little traditional FM content. On
the bill was a business coach, a
Shakespearean actor and even a
hostage negotiator – but no sign of
a facilities manager or FM service
provider.
According to the IWFM’s Director of
Insight, Chris Moriarty, inviting outsiders
to speak rather than the usual cast of
industry insiders was deliberate. The
organising team wanted to energise
delegates, expand their thinking
and prepare them for the many new
challenges that lie ahead. But this
decision was also in keeping with the
institute’s ambition to be “21st century
fit”.
For the IWFM, this means being a
10 JUNE 2019
more outwardly facing professional
body. Having embraced workplace as
a legitimate business discipline, with
plans to develop its own professional
pathway, the institute hopes to generate
a greater understanding of the value
that facilities and workplace managers
contribute to UK PLC. But the institute
also recognises that the profession
it represents now forms
part of a much larger
organisational
ecosystem called
“workplace”
that stretches
beyond its
traditional
parameters
incorporating
people,
place and
technology.
Keynote speaker
Marcus Child kicked
o‡ proceedings at IWFM’s
conference by urging delegates to paint
their life picture. Building a collective
vision is paramount to success, he said.
With the stage set, it was Heather
Carey’s job to reveal
the landscape. The
Deputy Director of the
Work Foundation, a notfor
profit organisation
that explores the future
of work, focused on
the UK’s longstanding
productivity problem
and why our reluctance
to adopt new
technologies might be
to blame. “We have
technological leaders
who are at the forefront
of technological
innovation – but the
hard truth is that
innovation di‡ usion in the UK is not
great,” she said.
There was a similar message from
prop-tech expert Anthony Slumbers,
who warned delegates that corporate
real estate sector’s steadfast refusal
to change could be its undoing. “The
demand for real estate is changing,”
he said. “It’s a product industry in a
market that wants services.” To adapt
to this shiΠ, he added, the focus must
now turn to developing a culture that
incorporates data, analytics, brand,
tech, marketing as well as space-as-aservice.
Similarly, HR expert Lucy Adams urged
delegates to think outside the box and
take inspiration from other
sectors. She praised
the retail industry’s
ability to foster
customer
engagement
and loyalty
by painting
an extremely
intricate
picture of
the consumer
journey. This
kind of thinking
forms her EACH
model: Employees as
Adults, Consumers and Humans.
For Nancy Hey, thinking about
people’s experience at work with this
level of empathy and detail will deliver
much better outcomes. The Director of
the What Works Centre for Wellbeing
said that everything from commutes
and musculoskeletal problems to trust
a‡ ects wellbeing and performance. As
such, Hey stressed the importance of
developing a wellbeing strategy that
considers the gamut of an employee’s
workplace experience.
Perhaps the biggest departure from
FM on the day came in the form of
Hostage Negotiator Richard Mullender.
In a wonderfully engaging session, the
former Scotland Yard man showed
delegates how the tricks of his trade
could be used in their world. “Ask fewer
questions, don’t interrupt, lean forward
when listening and always make eye
contact (though not too intensely),” he
said.
If the conference aimed to provide
its FM audience with a window to
the outside world, Mark Rowles’s
presentation must have felt familiar
and reassuring. The digital marketing
expert revealed that his profession and
facilities management have su‡ ered the
same existential crises such as a lack of
boardroom recognition and strategic
irrelevance. But Rowles explained how
marketing’s fortunes changed when it
began to use new digital technologies
and data to paint its own picture for
business leaders, one that was also able
to demonstrate the profession’s value.
In the penultimate session, corporate
culture expert Carolyn Taylor told the
audience that they could influence
culture and e‡ ect change without
boardroom power. This is possible,
she said, through role-modelling
behaviours, playing the part of
“conscience and coach”, and ultimately
aligning systems in the workplace with
whatever values their organisation
prioritises.
Finally, Olivier Mythodrama’s
Jonathan Stebbing sought to show how
Shakespeare’s Henry V can be used as a
blueprint for leadership in the corporate
world. “Our challenge as leaders, when
people’s heads are down, is to motivate
them,” he said “Once more unto the
breach, dear friends, once more.”
Finishing the day as it had begun with
Child, Stebbing’s rousing performance
was a reminder that the tenets of
storytelling or painting pictures are
universal.
If delegates arrived at IWFM’s 2019
National Conference wanting to
hear the latest on FM legislation or
innovation, they will have leΠfeeling
short-changed. But for those excited
about the changes now taking place
to the profession (and wonder about
their own role in its future) the event will
have inspired, as it set out to do. For the
IWFM, it was a lightning bolt reminder
that the organisation has started a new
chapter fraught with risk, but one that
presents it with an opportunity to paint
its own picture.
FMJ reports from the 2019 IWFM National Conference,
where the theme was disruption and virtually nobody
mentioned facilities management
If delegates arrived at
IWFM’s 2019 National
Conference wanting to hear the
latest on FM legislation or
innovation, they will have
left feeling shortchanged.”