Empowerment is certainly not another buzzword in building management field, however let’s consider it to be subset of broader concept of Smart Building which is further subset of Smart City concept. And these underlying concepts are attracting attention because these are about making life better for a particular community.
Those whose lives are directly affected, as the building administrator or manager, you can empower them to have greater participation in matters that impact them. Empowered community can bring a lot of intended and (sometimes) unintended outcomes.
Looking from positive angle – within your building an Empowered Community:
- Can and want to take action
- Can and want take responsibility (at least we hope so!)
- Can drive change
- Helps lift standards and quality
- Puts soul in your building
When I refer to community – it includes all participants
- In commercial context Occupants, Employers, Employees, Care-taking Staff, Trade Experts and last but not the least Building Managers.
- Similarly we can establish community participants within a Residential environment.
The role you, as the administrator, play in this empowerment process is extremely important. You have the opportunity to harness this collective power by providing them right technology and communication channels. You can eliminate the friction points and have your community respond positively to issues, incidents, upcoming changes or even help in implementing the change.
The alternate, of course, is just trying to handle their grievances passively (we all been there and no one likes to do that, right?)
Apart from the outcomes listed above, the overall result of positive and managed empowerment is where building community:
- Feels proud – The timely resolution of their issues gives them confidence.
- Feels secure – They know other people and management are there and ready to take action
- Have sense of belongingness – By participating in bringing positive change.
And they can benefit from:
- Productivity improvement – Through removal of friction points
And we as building or office administrators win from:
- Increased longevity of equipment and facilities/amenities within the buildings
- Having our ears next to the heart beat!
How technology can enable this aspect is remarkable and the possibilities are endless how it will evolve. On the horizon we have IoT and blockchain concepts. The pace of transformation can be (or will be) phenomenal. Most importantly, the change needs to start now to be ready to take advantage and importantly to empower your community.
NowYouCan is at the forefront of enabling this change, let’s book a chat!
