Who do you need to deliver a Workplace Transformation?
- Peter Stansfield
- Apr 23
- 10 min read
Updated: Apr 25
Part 5 of 6 of the WorkFuture.com.au blog series, “Applying the Kipling Method* to Workplace Transformation."
In previous blog posts we’ve covered:
Now we delve into the who. Who are the specialists needed and crucially in what order should they be appointed to the project?
Vitruvius wrote about the composition of Roman concrete. The ingredients were known: lime, volcanic ash, water, aggregate. But knowing the ingredients is not the same as knowing the right combination.
Workplace transformation is much the same.
Most people can name the usual ingredients: Client stakeholders, Designers, Project managers, Builders, IT, Facilities, Change support etc.
The harder part, and the part that determines whether the project holds together, is the mix.
Who comes in when. Who leads whom. What roles get defined early. What stays flexible until later. And who is responsible for keeping the whole thing joined up from beginning to end.
That is the real “Who?” question.
Because workplace transformation is not always the same type of cake. It is not a fixed recipe where every project needs the exact same consultants, appointed in the exact same way, at the exact same time. Some projects need a tenant rep early. Some do not. Some benefit from early contractor involvement. Some follow a more traditional path. Sometimes strategy is led by a workplace strategist. Sometimes the designer is brought in earlier and provides much of that thinking. Increasingly, some interior designers are also taking on more of a lead consultant role.
There is flexibility in the model, but that does not mean anything goes.
The sequence still matters. The hierarchy still matters. And the difference between a project that feels controlled and one that starts to crack is usually not the presence of the ingredients. It is the quality of the combination.
This is not just about who. It is about when they are needed and in what sequence.
One of the reasons workplace transformation projects get underestimated is that people treat them like a single event. Find a new office. Appoint a designer. Get some prices. Build it. Move in.
That is the simplified story people tell themselves at the start. It is also why things can unravel so quickly.
A proper workplace transformation is not a single event. It is a staged exercise that moves from evidence and definition, into strategy, into design, into implementation, into close out. Different people matter at different points. Some stay involved throughout. Others are critical, but for a particular stage only.
So when we ask “Who is needed?”, the better question is this: who is needed at each stage of the lifecycle, and in what order should they be brought in?
That is a much more useful way to think about it.
First things first: someone has to lead the whole thing.
Before getting into the wider consultant team, there is one role that matters more than any other: someone needs to hold the whole program together on the client side.
Not just the design. Not just the fit out. Not just the move. The whole thing.
That lead role is the anchor. It is what stops the project fragmenting into separate conversations being run by separate functions with separate priorities.
Without it, intelligent people start pulling in different directions. Property is dealing with lease issues. The designer is solving for space and aesthetics. IT is worrying about infrastructure. Facilities is thinking about handover. Internal communications is preparing staff messaging. Procurement is focused on process. The builder is focused on programme. Everyone is doing their part, but nobody is properly joining it all together.
That is why client-side leadership matters so much. It gives the project a centre of gravity.
From there, the wider team can be brought in properly, in the right order, with the right brief, and with clear lines of accountability.
1. Establish & Gather Evidence
This is where the project gets set up for success, or quietly set up for trouble.
At this stage, the lead role is critical. Internal client stakeholders need to be engaged early as part of the delivery environment, not brought in later simply to be informed of decisions already taken.
Depending on the brief, this is also where tenant representation may become important, particularly if a lease event, landlord negotiation, incentive package, make good exposure, or relocation decision is driving the whole exercise.
Construction PM and or cost management input can also be valuable earlier than some people expect. Not because the project is ready to build, but because delivery logic, cost realism, programme risk and procurement thinking are often useful before the concept starts outrunning the budget.
Pro Tip: One of the smartest early moves is appointing a strong Construction PM to support the client-side lead. It helps set the hierarchy for later consultant appointments, creates delivery discipline early, and gives the project room for creativity within agreed cost and time constraints. Without that structure, design can drift away from the original business case surprisingly quickly.
This is also often the point where evidence gets gathered properly: utilisation data, headcount patterns, occupancy assumptions, operational requirements, workplace pain points, property constraints, and employee insight. Some projects will bring a workplace strategist in here. Others will appoint a designer earlier and use them to help shape the brief. Both can work. The point is not that there is only one correct model. The point is that this work has to happen to inform later stages, because without a solid base of governance and data all you have is your gut, perception, and good intentions.
2. Interpret including Strategy
This is the stage where information turns into choices.
It is where the project begins to decide what kind of workplace it is actually trying to create, what business case supports it, what operating assumptions sit underneath it, and what trade-offs are acceptable.
On some projects, this stage is strongly strategist-led. On others, the designer is already at the table and plays a major role in shaping the workplace strategy. Sometimes it is a hybrid of the two. That flexibility is completely fine. What matters is that strategy is not skipped and not outsourced to wishful thinking.
This is also where the hierarchy of appointments starts to matter. If strategy is weak, the design stage can often lose its way. If the brief is clear and the decision-making model is solid, the project moves forward with far less wasted effort.
Communications and change support may also start to warm up here, especially where the future workplace model is likely to affect ways of working, habits, storage, technology, attendance patterns, or employee expectations.
Costs also need to start taking shape here. Not in final form, but enough to test whether the emerging strategy is credible, affordable and aligned to the original business case, which will also avoid deep value engineering cuts later on.
It is also worth saying that “strategy” is not always one thing. Depending on the project, it may include an Accommodation Strategy at portfolio level, a Workplace Strategy for a specific building, a Property Strategy around stay-versus-go decisions, and an IT or digital workplace strategy covering hardware, collaboration tools, software, connectivity, data security and cyber risk. These layers do not all sit in the same document, but they do need to align.
3. Design
This is where strategic intent starts being tested against real-world constraints.
The interior architect or designer becomes central here, and on some projects, they may also act as lead consultant. That is becoming more common, particularly where the designer has the capability and the scope to manage coordination across the design team. On other projects, that lead coordination may sit with the Construction PM or directly to the client PM. Again, the structure can flex, but the chain of command cannot be vague.
As design develops, other specialists come in more actively. Mechanical and electrical consultants become important quickly. Workplace technology starts to move from aspiration into specification. AV and VC requirements need translating into something buildable. Security and access control may need to be mapped properly. Depending on the workplace, acoustics, fire, compliance, certifiers, accessibility input, furniture planning, specialist joinery, and food and beverage offering can all become relevant.
This is also the point where optional early contractor involvement can be very useful. In a traditional model, builder involvement peaks later during implementation. But increasingly, some projects bring a contractor in earlier through an ECI approach to test constructability, programme, methodology, cost confidence and delivery risk before the design gets too far down the track.
Employee engagement also matters here more than some teams realise. Design is not just a drawing exercise. It is the point where strategy starts becoming visible, and when employees begin forming very real opinions about what the future workplace means for them. It can be useful to find ways to “co-create” with employees, so they have input into the design process. If handled carefully, it will pay dividends later with enhancing employee buy in. Those who have contributed will have lower change resistance.
Pro Tip: Do not design by committee, but do create opportunities for employees to influence parts of the outcome. Task chairs are a good example. Shortlist three options that all work from an ergonomic, cost, quality, warranty and delivery perspective, then bring in samples, gather feedback and let staff choose. That kind of controlled involvement can meaningfully improve buy-in later.
4. Implement including Build / Fit out
By now, the builder or general contractor becomes central on most projects, whether they arrived through a conventional path or were involved earlier via ECI. Construction PM and cost management effort also intensifies. Delivery, sequencing, procurement, site management, programme pressure, variations, safety, defects and practical completion all become very real.
But this stage is never just about building. It is also where a wider specialist bench becomes important. IT and digital workplace teams are dealing with infrastructure, devices, docks, monitors, booking systems, integrations and testing. Facilities Management needs to be engaged early because they will inherit the space operationally. Furniture stops being an abstract selection exercise and becomes a very practical question of procurement, lead times, delivery sequencing and installation. Signage and wayfinding stop being details and start becoming user experience. Removalists and move managers become critical if there are staged moves, decants, weekend relocations or continuity constraints. And do not forget archive, storage, waste and e-waste vendors. You will need these whether you are staying or going, so factor them into your plans.
And then there is the employee engagement. Not just communications, but change management in the practical sense: leader briefings, the people side of change, psychosocial hazards addressed, training, change champions, floor-walking, support, move readiness and go-live communications. A workplace is not successful because practical completion was achieved. It is successful when people understand how to use it, why it works the way it does, and do not feel that change has simply been imposed on them.
Pro Tip: Investing time and energy into your middle management cohort is like compound interest in the bank, you will not regret starting early and keeping on depositing with this group. When the project team is not on hand who do you think employees turn to? If the manager is not confident to answer or knowledgeable about the “why” and the context then you’ve lost an opportunity to advance the program. Again, like compound interest, all those missing opportunities also add up.
5. Close Out
This is the stage many projects undersell.
There is a tendency to treat practical completion, handover or move day as the finish line. It is not. It is the point where the workplace starts being tested by daily reality.
Close out is where defects are managed properly, operational issues are surfaced, support models settle in, and the project proves whether it has genuinely landed. Facilities, IT and workplace support teams are critical here. Short-term training and floor-walking can make a disproportionate difference. Post-occupancy feedback can be invaluable. Lessons learned should be captured whilst still fresh.
Pro Tip: Introduce a clearly communicated 90-day change freeze after go-live, especially where a new way of working is being embedded. Capture all feedback during hyper care (via Change Champions and managers) but resist the urge to react to every complaint unless it is a serious operational issue. Most early frustrations are part of adjustment. Review the captured issues after 90 days and you will usually find that many have resolved themselves, allowing you to focus properly on the minority that genuinely need intervention.
This is also where benefits realisation matters. Have the pre agreed critical success factors been achieved? Did the new workplace actually deliver what it was supposed to? Has it improved the employee experience? Has it supported the new ways of working? Has it reduced friction, improved function, or created the strategic and operational outcomes that justified the effort in the first place?
Too many projects declare victory based on aesthetics alone. A proper workplace transformation project declares victory based on the legacy it leaves behind to the employees, stakeholders, customers, and wider community who use the new space.
The wider specialist bench
Not every workplace transformation needs every specialist. That is exactly the point. There is no universal consultant shopping list that applies neatly to every job.
But there is a wider bench that commonly comes into play depending on the nature of the project: tenant rep, workplace strategist, construction PM, quantity surveyor or cost manager, interior architect, mechanical and electrical engineers, workplace technology specialists, AV and VC consultants, security and access control specialists, certifiers, compliance advisers, furniture suppliers, joinery specialists, removalists, move managers, signage and wayfinding consultants, archive and storage providers, e-waste and disposal vendors, training and floor-walking support, and, on some projects, hospitality or food and beverage specialists as well.
Alongside all of that sit the internal client functions that people sometimes forget are part of the delivery environment too: leadership, property, facilities, IT, finance, HR, procurement, legal, internal communications and business representatives.
The mistake is not leaving one role off a diagram. The mistake is failing to recognise which of these roles need to be active, when they need to be active, and who is accountable for making them work together.
Why Roman Concrete stands the test of time
Vitruvius may have written about the ingredients, but durable outcomes were never created by ingredients alone. They were created by combination, proportion, timing and method.
Workplace transformation is no different.
The challenge is not simply to “assemble the avengers”. It is to understand the lifecycle, recognise where the flex points are, respect the hierarchy of appointments, and bring the right people in at the right time.
Get that right, and the project has a much better chance of holding together.
Get it wrong, and even strong consultants can find themselves inside a program that lacks momentum, burns time resolving preventable issues, and ultimately underdelivers.
The next instalment -Part 6 of 6 of the WorkFuture.com.au blog series, “Applying the Kipling method to Workplace Transformation” will focus on "Where to do a Workplace Transformation".
This blog was written by Work Future Workplace Transformation Consultancy. We specialise in leading and delivering workplace transformation projects in Perth, WA. Contact us at hello@workfuture.com.au or +61 0435 824 305 to discuss your workplace transformation needs.
