Walk into the Glendale, CA, corporate offices of LeadingAge Member Front Porch and you’ll find support staff sitting near the windows while executives work in cubicles and glass-enclosed interior offices.
“Putting our core office team near the windows sends the right message about how important they are,” says Kari Olson, Front Porch’s chief innovation and technology officer. “They are here day in and day out, so isn’t that exactly where they should be?”
Front Porch’s new office, which opened in March, sends many other messages to its 80-member corporate staff and to the 2,600 employees working in its 11 full-service retirement communities and associated ventures.
What’s the most important message? It’s simple, says Olson:
Don’t be afraid to question the status quo, exercise creativity and embrace collaboration.
The Humanly Possible Framework
Front Porch’s innovative office design represents a tangible demonstration of a new strategic initiative, called “Humanly Possible,” which the organization launched in January. The initiative is using collaboration and “innovation with a cause” to address the myriad challenges that every LeadingAge member is facing, says Olson.
“We’re facing a sea change around us,” she says. “We see changes in marketplaces, competition and regulations. These create an imperative for us … to identify, understand and deliver solutions for meeting unarticulated, emerging and future needs.”
Humanly Possible has been an organization-wide initiative for Front Porch. Olson worked with the executive committee of the Front Porch Board for 12 months to craft, endorse and sell the culture change to the full board. The board supported the initiative enthusiastically by designating funding so that Chief Executive Officer Gary Wheeler could work with staff to integrate a culture of innovation into the organization’s day-to-day operations.
So far, Humanly Possible has entailed:
- Education: Front Porch is sending 70 members of its executive team to the Innovator's Accelerator, a training program that teaches employees how to be innovative. By Spring 2014, each of the organization’s 2,600 employees had attended a 2-hour training program explaining Humanly Possible and encouraging staff to live out its 8 guiding actions: observe, inquire, expand, link, imagine, experiment, collaborate and inspire.
- Ideas: Front Porch is encouraging each of its departments to identify potential innovations that could take root within the organization. “We want them to work with people outside of their own departments and come up with ideas that they think will make a difference in the lives of the people we serve,” says Olson.
- Grants: Seed grants of up to $5,000 will help staff members develop the “10 really good ideas” that surface during departmental brainstorming sessions. The most promising ideas will be referred to the Front Porch Development Council for possible replication and scaling.
- Incentives: In January 2015, Front Porch will award a total of $25,000 to 2 staff teams that have conceived significant innovations and carried out game-changing collaboration, and to an individual who has demonstrated leadership and innovation.
“People are already coming forward with great ideas that we have never heard of before,” says Olson, who also serves as president of the Front Porch Center for Innovation and Wellbeing. “My job is to connect people who have never traditionally worked together so we can help nurture those ideas. We don’t want our size, our bureaucracy, our silos or our traditional roles to stop collaboration.”
Designing an Office to Promote Collaboration
Front Porch’s new corporate office promotes the culture of collaboration that is at the heart of Humanly Possible. The new office:
- Encourages mobility. A high-tech communications system allows staff to talk on the phone or collaborate online from any location. All staff members use laptop computers so they can work wherever they are most comfortable.
- Supports collaboration. Employees work together in a variety of “collaboration spaces” that dot the open office. In addition, 7 enclosed conference rooms enhance collaboration by offering one-button access to video conferencing or virtual meeting capabilities.
- Sparks interaction. Low cubicle walls and glass-enclosed offices make it possible to see—and make eye contact with—anyone working in or walking through the corporate office. And walking is encouraged. For example, Front Porch did away with personal printers to encourage staff members to walk to a central copy room to retrieve printed documents and greet fellow employees. “We were very intentional about creating all kinds of security if you don’t want your print job to be seen by anyone,” says Olson. “But we wanted to give everyone a reason to get up and walk around the office. It’s small subtle things like that that have a powerful impact on office culture.”
Asking Questions and Removing Barriers
A willingness to ask questions and remove barriers that inhibit creativity has been the key to successfully launching Humanly Possible, says Olson.
“Ask your team members how they think they can contribute to helping your organization achieve its vision,” she advises. “I think you will be astounded at the ideas they offer. But you have to be comfortable with asking difficult and candid questions and you can’t be afraid of the answers.”
Those questions and answers led the Front Porch leadership team to recognize that the organization had developed incredible expertise within its individual silos. But Front Porch wasn’t doing enough to encourage staff to reach outside of those silos.
In addition, Front Porch recognized that it needed to give employees the time to be creative—and the permission to fail.
“We needed permission to make small bets, try pilot projects, and look at everything we do as a learning experience, even the ideas that don’t work,” says Olson. “And that’s okay, especially if we can learn from mistakes and improve each time we fail.”