In the previous chapter of these guidelines, the need for both asset management system review and ongo- ing asset performance review was discussed. Both types of review will often require a response across the whole organisation rather than solely within the services that directly manage the assets. Providing that response can be challenging and sometimes the asset manager may not be familiar with the change management tech- niques needed. This chapter of the guidelines discusses the issues involved in change management. Its purpose is to highlight the importance, in asset management, of being able to manage change. It identifies the areas of change that are often encountered and records some of the specific features of change in relation to asset management.
It is not the purpose of this chapter to reproduce extracts from management texts or to repeat manage- ment principles on change management. Asset man-
RICS Public Sector Asset Management Guidelines
42
Property Asset Management Maturity Matrix, adapted and modified from the IAM Manual and the DETR Document ‘Building a Better Quality of Life’.
(Fro m Im pr ov ing P ro per ty A ss et M anage me nt in the C ent ra l C iv il Gover n me nt Estate, L eeds U n iv ersit
y for the Offic
e of Go ve rnment C o mmer ce, 2006 and 2007)
G organisational structure, roles and responsibilities, governance;
G resource management and capacity building;
G data management.
This is illustrated in Figure 6.1.
Two distinct types of change can be identified that an asset manager may be called upon to implement:
G corporate change (i.e. change outwith asset services and the individual buildings within the asset base) – those needed to get the organisation, as a whole, to respond; and
G asset management services change – those needed to make sure that asset management services facil- itate the delivery of the changes and the improve- ment in performance of the asset base and individual assets.
Corporate change
The asset manager can typically be at the centre of the following corporate changes:
G General
– Senior managers championing– getting senior managers to understand the significance of as- sets in business management and to champion the process.
– Getting buy-in to strategic decision making– work- ing with operating units to understand their re- quirements and to get their buy-in to corporate
decision making, rather than operating unit de- cision making, on asset management matters. – Culture– ensuring that there is a culture of sup-
port and belief in asset management in the or- ganisation.
G Asset management strategy and policy
– Identifying explicit business drivers for assets– working with senior and middle managers in the organisation, to comprehend and record the long-term business drivers of the organisation and to identify its implications for assets and the long-term vision and strategy for the asset base.
G Roles, responsibilities and governance
– Agreeing corporate standards, procedures, roles and responsibilities– working through the asset management processes across the organisation and clearly agreeing standards and procedures; and clearly agreeing roles and responsibilities for asset matters and decisions, and the organisa- tional structure necessary to make those deci- sions and implement them.
G Communication
– Forging links with stakeholders– creating effec- tive dialogue on asset matters with all stake- holders to ensure effective involvement in decision making and to inform stakeholders of relevant asset information and particularly per- formance information.
– Forging links with partners– creating effective di- alogue with partners to allow joined up use of the public asset base.
– Communicating complex asset issues simply– de- veloping skills and capacity to communicate
Chapter 6: Change Management
STRATEGY REVIEW DELIVERY CHANGE Leadership Culture Customers Structure Roles Responsibilities Resources and Capacity Governance Data Sustainability PROGRAMMES
asset issues (strategy, performance, technical) simply and relevantly to stakeholders.
– Influencing other bodies funded by the organisa- tion, on asset matters – making sure that the principles of asset management being applied in the organisation are being communicated to, and acted upon, in other bodies which are funded by the ‘parent organisation’, e.g. spon- sored bodies in central government and schools in local government.
G Asset management planning
– Business planning techniques for asset manage- ment – development, introduction and use of modern and sophisticated business evaluation techniques applied to the asset base.
– Corporate asset data – introducing corporate asset data systems where necessary linked to other corporate management information sys- tems and linked to operational databases. – Corporate project management– large corporate
projects where asset change is at their centre often start as asset projects and then gradually grow. The asset manager will need to have de- veloped the capability to manage such projects with all the non-asset activities and relationships that may be involved.
G Acquisition and disposal
– Corporate and planned acquisitions and disposals – developing a business-driven, planned acquisitions and disposal policy, driven by corporate value and medium- and long-term corporate planning, rather than driven by price/cost and short-term operational planning considerations.
– Strategic procurement– the introduction and use of corporate procedures for procurement of assets designed to be innovative, effective and efficient.
G Operation and maintenance
– Operational assets– encouraging, introducing and monitoring the use of robust asset systems in the management of operational assets. – Maintenance– agreeing an effective and funded
programme of planned maintenance together with reactive maintenance procedures, designed to minimise whole life costs and maximise whole life value to the organisation.
– Sustainability– ensuring that all aspects of the use of assets are properly founded on good en- vironmental and sustainability principles.
G Performance review and accounting
– Agreeing business critical success factors for assets – working with senior managers to determine the critical performance areas for assets in terms of business goals and objectives and business drivers. – Business performance indicators for assets– using agreed critical success factors to develop per- formance indicators for the asset base and using these indicators, over time, to improve per- formance.
– System review– introducing effective review of asset management systems and appropriate cor- rective action programmes.
Asset management services change
The Asset Manager will typically be leading the fol- lowing changes in asset services:
G Skills and capacity development– ensuring that the capacity and skills required for effective asset man- agement are present within the organisation.
G Culture change– moving those involved in asset management from a ‘property management’ mind- set to an ‘asset management’ mindset.
G Changing from a customer focus to a client/executive focus– the asset management function will require client management/executive decision-making tech- niques that have been described by some experienced asset managers as ‘consultancy’ techniques (e.g. client relationship management, information collection, analytical skills and techniques, recommending and getting agreement to high-level executive action, change project implementation, advocacy of recom- mended action, presentation skills (which may be slightly different from the customer skills of prop- erty management)). These techniques allow the asset manager to relate to their stakeholders in the most appropriate way to achieve success.
G Organisational change– asset management services and their relationship with property management services may necessitate some structural reorgani- sation, to make them function effectively and to en- sure that they relate to each other effectively.
G Team building and people change– the asset man- agement team may need to be brought together to form an efficient and effective team involving team development and people development.
A gradual process
Improvement in the performance of the asset base and of asset management services will not be achieved im- mediately or even in one year. It will be a constant it- eration of gradual improvement over a long period of time, continually visiting and revisiting various aspects to improve each in turn.
6.3 ATTRIBUTES OF GOOD CHANGE