Synopsis
Chris and Ian return to Blighty to explore a novel approach to the ‘post-occupancy evaluation’ (or POE) of new workplaces with Dr Harriet Shortt, Associate Professor in Organisation Studies at the UWE Bristol. Harriet and her collaborators used a participatory visual technique featuring smartphone photographs to explore the lived experiences of staff, students and visitors using their shiny new £55m Bristol Business School building. James then joins for a PinderPonder™ to discuss the value of POEs, fluffy research and novel approaches.
TL;DL
Whilst useful learning and evaluation tools in principle, POEs are often uninspiring exercises that only scratch the surface of workplace change initiatives. This visual approach found that only 10% of the findings replicated areas covered by traditional POEs, suggesting the huge potential for untapped insights from richer qualitative work. And all of this from two simple questions:
Timings
[00:00] Welcome to Workplace Geeks
[01:19] Introducing Harriet
[04:00] Harriet explains her work and this research
[09:44] Traditional versus alternative POE approaches
[19:04] Paradoxical findings, including pride and identity
[22:38] Open and closed
[27:22] Being open to criticism
[32:34] Demonstrating strategic value
[38:48] Impacts of visibility and transparency
[41:48] Practical advice for trying participant-led photography (PLP)
[48:18] The PinderPonder™
[63:52] Outro and contact us
Learn more
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