Communication of Change

Our industry is immersed in immense change. The timely communication of that change—both within and around our industry—is fundamental to our necessary evolution. We all need to be part of that communication.

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.
 - George Bernard Shaw

We need a vehicle for the complete industry. A way to exchange ideas while showcasing products and services; a system that allows every participant to choose their own preferred in a controlled format (and without annoying ads). The last few years of the pandemic have, out of necessity, honed our online presentation skills. Almost every company has been investing it its messaging, be it newsletters, blogs, video or podcasts. Although valuable, we all need to find the correct context to truly understand their complex content.

This article from Prasad Setty, VP of Digital Work Experience at Google Workspace, speaks to the changes in our communication environment:

So how do we deliver on the promise of a hybrid workplace where flexibility, well-being, and meaningful impact coexist? At Google, we’re bridging the gap between the in-person and the “somewhere else” by pushing technology, culture, and physical spaces to be more inclusive and maximize participation. We’re also innovating new Google Workspace features to power collaboration equity for our billions of users worldwide.

In this article from Rajesh Reddy, Cisco unveils Smart Workspaces, an all-new product for the Hybrid Workplace:

Smart Workspaces will transform the employee experience forever.

Never since the Industrial Revolution have we seen such a seismic shift in the very definition of ‘going to work’. Commuting to work will need to be justified by workplaces that are more safe, productive, and favorable than remote working. Not the other way around.  The pandemic dramatically accelerated the evolution of digital technologies and workplace transformation is at the epicenter of this metamorphosis. Smart Workspaces, the latest offering from DNA Spaces, is Cisco’s stride in the evolution of the modern workplace. Or as the world now calls it, the hybrid workplace.

Documenting and communicating our change while providing the correct context is the first step. In a group which I am part of,  Monday Live!, we have created tools like the smarter stack to deliver that context.

Here is an example of how to use that tool  from Steve Jones, Founder and Managing Partner at the S4 Group, Twenty Years of Making Buildings Smarter:

We will immediately start to use this Smarter Stack in our marketing, outreach, and educational activities. We believe that it will help us reach an audience that previously was hard to communicate within a way that can be directly tied to the success of their business. You too can create your own Smarter Stack at Monday Live!. The Smarter Stack is open-source. So are the associated Div 2525 specs the Monday Live! Group is working on defining. Thank you Monday Live! for a job well done and a tool that will be instrumental to the growth of our industry.

We are all involved in our own "Radical Reinvention Reconfiguration," and we need to communicate our progress both within our industry and with the wider world.

Because the wider world is going through the same transition and its progress will naturally affect our own (just look at something like the Uber effect). Thinking out loud allows us to communicate effectively with our younger, connected mentors who see a new world with a new way of doing.

AutomatedBuildings.com is deep in our own reinvention, trying to see how best to have the industry engage in the communication of change. We need to grow back to our roots. There’s a saying, "Our people are the industry that created us." We need to engage again with those people, in whatever format best suits the conversation. They all have valuable messages we need to get out to the world in their own words and shared—links ad-free! In everyone's presentation of information, the advertising model only adds confusion. We need to provide a sponsored, free, high-quality digital experience. Each sponsor needs a page to explain who they are and how they fit. 

I am very pleased with Our LinkedIn online group was created for discussion of our magazine created in 2010.  AutomatedBuildings.com Online Magazine Forum now has over 4700 members and has taken on a life of its own. I read the group with the same interest as everyone else to see what folks want to share, and to discover what is new and trending.

We all need a place to tell our story in our own words, so the world knows who we are and why we are.

In gathering information for our web resource we keep encountering the same two problems. First, some folks are too busy to tell their stories, and second, their stories have not progressed to the point they’re comfortable sharing them. We all need the "What Happened to your Tail?” and “You Grew Legs?” conversations while we are in this forced evolution.

ESG and Carbon reduction are our new measured Variables that point at the survival of our species, our contributing editors explains in these two articles— ESG and Zero Carbon – Managing Carbon Risk by Brad White P.Eng, MASc President, SES Consulting Inc:

Over the last 2-3 months it has become clear to me that Zero Carbon Buildings are no longer a bleeding-edge, or even leading-edge, concept. Rather, they are something that every building owner must start to seriously think about. I’d like to share with you just a few of the things that have happened to me recently that have convinced me that this is the case.

One of the highlights for me at AHR Expo back in January was our session on “Retrofitting for Net Zero”, where we discussed the challenges and opportunities that come with trying to decarbonize the existing building stock. If you missed this session, you can watch the recording here. Compared to when we did a similar session a couple of years back, the enthusiasm and interest in the audience this year were incredible. The key takeaways from this session are that, yes, this transition has a huge set of challenges we must overcome, but the tools and expertise exist to make this happen. Further, the huge influx of investment capital into decarbonization projects presents an enormous opportunity for those businesses that can align their services with making the transition happen. I’ve watched this happen firsthand in my own business over just the last 2-3 years, going from a consulting firm focused on energy efficiency where simple payback was king, to the majority of our work having a carbon reduction focus.

Environmental. Social. Governance by Marc Petock Chief Marketing & Communications Officer, Lynxspring, Inc.:

Adoption of smart building technology is at an inflection point driven by connectivity, data, edge, cloud, and the convergence of operational and workplace outcomes. The industry is currently being influenced by several forces which are creating this inflection point. The influence of flexible workplaces and demand for IAQ, the increasing number of connected devices and systems, cyber threats, and the global drive toward net-zero all depend upon connected and smarter buildings. In addition, this is encapsulated by the ESG movement where organizations are being compelled to be more conscious and demonstrate how they are addressing various environmental & social factors.

A New Connected and Protected World by Greg Fitzpatrick, CxA, Business Development Cochrane Supply:   

We are now a society that has moved towards online shopping, software subscription services, in-home learning, virtual offices, home offices, hybrid work environments, more video conferencing, and reduced international travel.  All changes require the support of a sophisticated technology platform.  For instance, the traditional use of office space has declined and has forced building owners to pivot and look for ways to retain occupancy by enhancing their occupants' experience using technology. Hardware and software solutions such as asset locators, personal wayfinders, UV disinfection technology, and building management systems that enable intelligent spaces and drive overall energy and building performance are becoming the norm.  These applications and technology platforms require a method to move, store, share and analyze data as quickly as possible.

Andy Frank, Founder and Principal of Novant discusses, What is an Independent Data Layer?  How does it work? And why the heck should you care?

The IDL has emerged to solve these exact challenges. Purpose-built to provide a reliable and straightforward solution for not just extracting data from buildings systems. But also for managing storage and access. This is a bit of a new concept for this space. The IDL is infrastructure. It does not provide end-user value on its own. Instead, it enables value. If a building invests in a proper IDL, it can reap substantial benefits for every new application added. Not to mention significantly improving how it maintains the systems it already has.

Contributing Editor and futurist Sudha Jamthe talks about the  Radical reinvention of global collaboration in AI Research:

The proliferation of Artificial intelligence into every corner of the world with its promise to solve local problems calls for a radical reinvention of how we work, collaborate and build our futures.  Innovation and domain knowledge needs to be balanced.  How can AI innovate with data when domain knowledge is locked in the data across many silos of people, countries, and industries?  Imagine AI building language models for translation using transfer learning. Language is more than syntax and semantics. Language carried the lived truth of people across generations and is tied to local geographies and histories and the migration of people. 

More changes coming to the industry can be seen here, in  The C4SB Coalition Activity Update:

The Coalition for Smarter Buildings (c4sb.org) continues to make progress in a number of proactive ways as members continue to pursue the coalition’s Five Pillars of Action (Interoperability, Analytics, Specifications, Financial Models, and Workforce).

Working in partnership with Monday Live! and BIG, March 2022 saw the start of a Div 2525 collaboration project, now meeting weekly to develop specification language that would help consulting engineers, building owners, as well as contractors working on buildings to specify and engineer smarter buildings of all sizes and types.

Please join me in the industry Crusade for the Communication of Change.