Jim Culverwell

Let’s start with clarity

Do your research

Know who is on your side

Fire the first shot

Try to leave emotion out of it

Know your boundaries

Do you need support negotiating a commercial lease for your business?

Where would we be without the ability to work remotely? Those of you who know me well, know I have taken full advantage of online networking and have done a significant amount of my professional work remotely, using Teams and Zoom, to my clients’ complete satisfaction. I’m a big fan! 

Going forward, I do hope this way of working continues, to save time, reduce pollution and traffic congestion on our roads, and to save the money spent on those non-essential face-to-face meetings of the pre-COVID era.  The fact is: a great many meetings can be successfully done remotely. 

That said, sometimes there really is no substitute for being in the same place at the same time. I have recently returned from Africa as part of my work for The mudhouse Children’s Foundation, having had that belief reinforced momentously. Here are just a few of the experiences I had.

For context, I am a trustee of a very small charity doing important work to help the Maasai tribes of Northern Tanzania.  The region is North of the Ngorongoro crater, which some may have visited on Safaris.

Our mission is to help introduce education to those tribes who live too far (over two hours’ walk) from a government school.  By finding a willing sponsor here, we can send just one child from that village and the education they receive spreads throughout the community.  The whole community benefits and they are more grateful than I can explain (or than you can imagine, unless you have been face to face with these people).  There is much, much more to say about this but it is not the main point of this piece.

This was our first trip for two years (I, personally, have not been for two and a half years – a substantial part of a young child’s life).  The need to be there, on the ground, in the same space as the people we help and as those who enable that all to happen, was demonstrated to us in some amazing ways.

First a young child already under sponsorship and performing brilliantly in school, suffered a trauma I won’t detail here but because of which, they remained at home and didn’t return to school.  By being on the ground in the same space as those who could enable the child to return to school, which the child wanted greatly, we were able to achieve exactly that, and they are now back where they want to be and already justifying that work.

Also being sponsored by a generous UK citizen, is a girl with a badly deformed hand.  She also excels at school and is incredibly resourceful with what she has at the end of her left arm.  Surgery would transform the hand and of course, her potential.  While we were there we arranged for the girl to travel to a hospital, where once a year, surgeons fly in from overseas to carry out pro bono work on children whose parents are too poor to afford such treatment. This amazing little girl has now had an operation and is already in recovery and rehabilitation.

Finally, we have a sponsored child who is deaf and has – to our knowledge – never spoken nor made any sound from their mouth.  One of us on this trip is a retired teacher of the deaf and, using long established techniques, helped this child use their voice for the first time and form words, and also to learn sign language for the first time.  All the children were taught sign language to help their friend, which they took on board enthusiastically.  Again, the potential this opens for this third sponsored child is huge.

Yet another aspect of our work is to raise funds here in the UK to end the practice of cooking on open fires on the floor of the mudhouse (a practice of necessity due to a lack of resources for any alternative but which causes respiratory tract problems and sadly many children suffering burns). Instead we have raised funds here in the UK, for installing a small stove and chimney to take the smoke away.  The benefits include a smoke free mudhouse and a much safer environment for the children. We were very pleased when reports came in that the fires are found to be more efficient, cooking and boiling much more quickly and using substantially less wood.  This helps the forests and the women who gather firewood.

Whilst inspecting the installed stoves shown to us by proud owners, however, it became apparent that they weren’t all performing as they should and that simple maintenance and care was not being carried out as needed.  This could never have been spotted without physically seeing the mudhouses and the stoves.  Additional training on use and care has now been set up and soon all the little stoves will be doing their jobs beautifully.

What did I take away from this trip? Firstly, I can’t help but be reminded that sometimes complex problems are best solved with a simple solution! Replacing open fires with stoves and chimneys has had a huge impact on the communities we help. 

Although this is a principle I live and breathe in my work back home, seeing a simple solution actually make a meaningful difference to someone’s quality of life gives this concept a whole new level. The temptation to reinvent the wheel is often very strong in business, but the wheel was one of our greatest inventions, after all!

And of course, my main takeaway is that being face to face with the children we are sponsoring, and seeing their progress, is a humbling reminder of the power education has, to change lives for kids and their communities. The potential that offers them in their lives is genuinely priceless. Being physically present gave us a much deeper connection with the tangible results of what we seek to achieve as a charity. 

Sometimes there really is no substitute for being face to face.

https://www.mudhousechildren.com/

The government has produced some dramatic changes to the planning system which may affect you or one of your contacts.  The changes are intended to ease the blockage caused by the need for a change of use and to help the economy. This may have unforeseen consequences – we shall have to wait and see.

The changes took effect on 1 September,  without much fanfare for something so huge. They enable business premises to adapt more easily to other uses. The highlights for business owners and operators are these:

Class E: (Commercial, business and services) brings together:

• shops (A1),
• financial and professional services (A2),
• restaurants and cafes (A3) and
• offices (B1).

In addition, and of great significance, Class E includes such uses as:

• gyms
• nurseries
• and health centres (D1 and D2).

Previously, businesses such as a physio, dentist, chiropractor/osteopath, gym/fitness centre, would have all needed a change of use.

Other uses like B8, storage and distribution, B2, heavy industry and the C classes, residential, are unchanged.

So, you can see it is a real mix up of uses that were previously separate and this will change the look of town centres gradually but spectacularly.

I work closely with Bell Cornwell Planning consultants who have produced a very clear and succinct briefing note.  Click here to go to the page.

The change of use previously presented an obstacle to moving premises but this change in legislation widens options for your business if you are thinking of a move.

I would love to talk through the commercial property implications and effects for your business – as far as we can know them – and I would be happy to refer you to Rebekah Jubb at Bell Cornwell to answer your specific planning questions.

It hasn’t been great for everyone. Many office-based employees have had plenty of practice at WFH over the last almost five months.  Some have loved it others not so much.

Some have perhaps been treading water waiting to get back to normal only to find that the management has other plans.  The office is closing or you’re only going to be welcome two days a week and over time, the intention is that WFH becomes ‘normal’.

Others are back in already or will be soon.  The boss likes to be able to see everyone at work and knows there has been a loss of efficiency over lockdown.  I have heard some instances where social distancing is being ignored.

As with all things, there is a spectrum of ideas and wisdom on the subject and no one view is universally correct. Every situation is unique and the real answer for most businesses will be somewhere in the middle.

The office environment can be inspiring – the general buzz, sparking off one another and social interaction.  This can foster a culture that is positive and productive. Balance that against removing the time, cost and effort of commuting, the lack of interruptions to the working day and the ability to communicate with everybody and anybody by video call, phone call, email, text and all without having to go anywhere.

However, there are downsides to both scenarios.  Extremes, in most circumstances, do not produce good outcomes.

So, what should a business be looking to do, so they strike the right balance between office interaction and home working?  The challenge is that everyone is different. Each worker, staff member, employee, has different needs, ambitions, requirements, strengths and weaknesses.  It has always been this way but previously we have had a ‘one size fits all’ solution of going to the office every day.  That said, WFH is not new and some businesses have been doing it very successfully for many years.

‘Choice’ is key in drawing some conclusions about how to make the most of your staff and your resources.  Don’t force a member of staff with a difficult or complicated home-life, to work from home and if productivity is not being affected, don’t force the staff member into the office, who is so much happier working from home.

‘Resourcing’ is vital to make your people as effective at home as they can be at the office.  That means helping them find a dedicated area in their home – not necessarily a separate room.  Making sure they have a proper desk and a comfortable seat so that their physical health doesn’t suffer.  They need the equivalent IT hardware, software and support at home, that they would have in the office, including broadband and mobile, so they can work effectively and without disruption.

‘Community’, as we have already seen, is important to many workers.  Real friendships and support networks are established at work and these are diluted when people are not together.  The water-fountain conversations are not going to take place unless an environment is created where that can happen. Being in the office will not be about shutting yourself away to work but about meeting, socialising – communicating face to face.  This is also the driver for the culture of an organisation, which needs careful nurturing within a more dispersed group of workers.  Work form home and socialise in the office.

‘Accountability and measurement’ are important not just for managing remote workers but also for the workers themselves, so they can have the confidence that they are adapting and knowing they are seen to be effective.  Letting people know its OK to water the plants in their lunch hour and start the day by taking the children to school, will produce a relaxed and fulfilled workforce keen to put in the maximum.

‘Flexibility and controls’ will help everyone to know where they are and to flourish.  For some, flexible work hours are what make WFH possible.  If you have young children, being able to work in the evenings may be the only way.  On the other hand, if having done a days work, a staff member can’t put the work down and enjoy an evening as they would have, some intervention may be helpful.  Knowing the measurement is there in the background will encourage people into a routine that suits them and delivers what their job description requires.

Managed “office time” enables the interaction that is always going to be important and should not be downplayed.  Calendar software and a regime that sees everyone coming in for as many days as is appropriate, make managing this vital component possible.  Making changes to the floor-space that the new model requires, will take much longer and needs careful consideration and potentially expert help and advice.  Every unused work-station costs thousands on the bottom line and fine-tuning this costly and inflexible resource could take several years, so it’s not too soon to start.

WFH has been a revelation to many, who never thought it was feasible.  It has brought about a realisation that doing things the way we always have, may have been holding us back and that new ways of working can bring so many benefits.  The cost savings a business can achieve through properly resourced WFH are substantial as well as potentially increased staff well-being and productivity.