Can I work and study here effectively?
This is the second main sub-question to answer ‘Is the learn/work environment adding value?’ An effective learn/work environment is not automatically good. Effectiveness is a process value, about how good the processes are in producing something but it does not say anything about the desirability of the output.
Optimizing the effectiveness of the educational process is about purpose, context and content (domains of qualification, socialization, subjectification) primarily based on an educational vision and the way in which it is structured in a didactic and organizational manner.
Secondly, the educational process is supported by the quality of the learn/work environment in which this process takes place. Accommodation to support the organization and people to thrive. The main objectives of accommodation are:
- Protection of people and goods against the climate.
- Facilitate the processes of the users.
- Protection of property against theft, damage and lost.
- Physical place for people to meet, interact and connect because digital contact does not replace human contact.
- Give identity a shape. And sometimes just for beauty alone.
The built environment is a starting point, a base for almost all human endeavour. A place for shelter, to create and manifest, to rest and charge, to feel save, to live and work with closed ones or likeminded people. The built environment is so a crucial base for human activity all over the world. How can it serve better?
If the organizational goals are objectively defined and translated into required and desired learn/work environment performance, this increases opportunities and limits risks to meet the objectives.
It helps to approach the learn/work environment in an integral way and to keep in touch with each other to utilize or confront new insights, for example by changes in the primary process, technological possibilities or external developments.
To add value to the organization, the intended benefits of the learn/work environment must be weighed against the costs, risks and time associated with initiating, implementing and exploiting them. The functional state of a building must meet the desired user options and be able to accommodate changes to the curriculum within a reasonable margin.
The policy goals thus become practical guidelines for daily management and promote a learning organization with a focus on continuous improvement. Consequences for the learn/work environment due to changing levels of ambition as a result of other policy insights and/or external developments can thus be earlier mapped, discussed and weighed up in full.
- QUALITY: How close matches the outcome the objectives and expectations?
- SCOPE: What exactly is the expected outcome (performance requirements: how good and how many, where, when and how often)?
“Places that work are process oriented and have a people centred approach.
They are an enabler for adding value.” (René Stevens)
The learn/work environment is usually an under managed business resource. Revenues from better performance of the primary business process often exceed those of efficiency measures in the secondary business processes like Real estate, Facilities and ICT. From costs to value.
Having grip on the effects of the learn/work environment performance and adding value in the areas of:
- The primary process. (desirability of education)
- Health, well-being and consciousness of the users.
- Expression of identity.
- Being timely adaptive to changing user needs.
Regular performance reviews of the learn/work environment as a tool for managing knowledge are required to ensure continuous improvement and a learning organization.
By breaking the question ‘Is the learn/work environment adding value?’ up into chunks it becomes more manageable. To answer it, four main sub-questions must be addressed. But be aware that Engagement, Effectiveness, Efficiency and Evidence are not ends in themselves but means to an end. Pay attention to what is important, not just what is quantifiable. Go for the good of the whole.