COMMENT Motivational speaker Simon Sinek knows a thing or two about “why”. He literally wrote the book Find Your Why. Among the great points he makes is that people buy your “why”, not your “what”. Customers, clients, staff, your spouse even, are attracted by what drives you, what makes you tick. Your purpose.
There has been a mad rush over the past 12 months or so among property folk to tell us about their what – what they are doing to tackle climate change, what they offer that’s different and better. The features of their buildings that should attract tenants, the aspects of their strategy that should attract capital.
I think we have jumped a critical step – and one that is even more important as we move through the Covid-19 pandemic. With no ”why”, you’re going nowhere. And it can give rise to cries of washings of all sorts – green-washing, purpose-washing, place-washing and the rest.
This does no-one in our industry any good. It breeds cynicism and undermines the real efforts being made to drive positive social and environment returns. We need to be thinking more about the why than the what.
Craving connection
Why have we suddenly seen a rush to ESG, sustainability and social impact in property? Why is there this shift?
It has been a confluence of events. For sure, on the environmental sustainability side, there has been an awakening to the climate crisis. The existential threat sure makes for a pretty good “why”.
But is that it? How about the equally rapid shift not only towards low-carbon design, but also in the nature of the workplace, the drive to make a positive social impact, the “millenialisation” of design? Are these connected with climate?
The property industry has worked hard over the Covid-19 crisis to play its part, for example, making properties available for the NHS. Now, as we move tentatively into recovery, companies are looking again at their values and missions.
Stakeholders want to understand your company’s values more than ever. We all as consumers are increasingly making buying decisions based on things with which we share a common set of values. This kind of values-based decision making is now finding its way to property.
There’s a good reason for that. We need to connect with things – and each other – more than ever. Over the past 50 years, the foundational pillars on which rest our moral beliefs have crumbled. Religion, family, government, community, and the rest, no longer provide the true north they once did. Again, Covid and forced isolation have accelerated this notion, made us all crave connection, and called into question truths that once seemed immutable.
True norths
The data are sobering. Less than 7% of 18- to 30-year olds describe themselves as living in good mental health. Some 40% of adults have experienced depression. In the UK, 9m adults say they are often or always lonely. Two-thirds describe their neighbours as strangers and more than 70% don’t even know their neighbours’ names.
Without our traditional social and cultural true norths, the latticework where we hang our values, it has become hard to fulfil the fundamentally human needs for love and connection, especially among young adults who seemingly have been thrown into life with no guardrails, no credible authorities. Into a world more unstructured and uncertain than perhaps it has ever been. Then add Covid. The crisis of connection is profound.
Work – workism – has to a degree stepped in to fill the void. We are putting more and more pressure on our jobs to give us a sense of purpose, of fulfilment.
There is a deep, powerful, truly profound need for longing and belonging. That’s the “why”. And it’s no wonder the stage on which this is playing out – the built environment – is under immense pressure to adapt and change.
Sure, as we try to entice staff back to the office, tenants and landlords are scrambling to serve flat whites, organise socially distanced yoga classes, and provide cycling facilities. I’m all for that. But let’s first understand why we are doing it.
Only when you know your why can you have the courage to take the bold steps needed to step into your what.
Basil Demeroutis is managing partner at FORE Partnership
