Think about all the places we go.
We go to work. We go to meetings. We go to school. We go shopping. We go hang out with friends. We go… The word go indicates that we leave the place we are for a different place. For most of our lives, when we wanted to begin a new activity we had to go to a different place.
The need to go to a place to do an activity creates a set of logistics (and rules) that must be managed: What time does the office open… school start… do you want to meet… the store close? What’s the best mode of transportation to get there? Will people need to eat while they’re there? How should we plan?
Leaders of public institutions spend a good deal of time and energy worrying about place based logistics. Makes sense. It’s the first thing people complain about if they’re not managed well. People who deal with these issues know logistics have a way of taking on a life of their own. They can completely overwhelm the purpose and content of what you’re doing if you’re not careful. For instance, the school calendar becomes more time consuming to plan than the content of courses.
All that is changing. I wrote previously that moble access to the internet is changing people’s expectations for place. To accomplish routine tasks, people are trading in physical places for digital spaces. Public leaders must keep pace.
People simply don’t need to go places to do things anymore. We can work from home. Study online. Go internet shopping. Hang out via text with friends across the globe. The complexity of tasks we can accomplish in digital space will continue to grow.
Coming together with others in a physical place takes on new importance. The place must provide a premium experience that people can’t accomplish on their own (with or without others) in a digital space. It simply isn’t enough to accomplish routine tasks. If that’s all we do in the physical place, then going to the place becomes an inconvenience.
We are shifting from a place based society to an experience based society. That’s true in the physical and digital world. (Indeed, we’re beginning to see people blend the physical place and the digital space.) It’s the experience that matters not the place where people are having that experience.
There is a huge upside to this new world. Employers can focus on what is accomplished rather than what time staff showed up to work. Schools can pay more attention to what students are learning rather than how many hours they are “in the building.” We can stay connected with friends even if we’re forced to be in different cities.
The transition from place to experience based society is not an easy transition to make – perhaps, especially for public institutions. Here are a few reasons why.
Funding for public institutions often is determined by place and time. Colorado public schools, for instance, receive funding based on how many students are sitting in desks the first week of October.
Individuals are making the shift from place to experience at vastly different rates. Some people enthusiastically embrace the virtual world and the freedom and flexibility it provides. Others cling to the physical world maintaining clear special lines between, for instance, work and home. Still others lack the resources to fully engage in digital space. Thus, the range of public expectations for institutions is expanding.
We still need places. People will increasingly look for premium experiences when they go to a place. But, face to face will continue to be the best way to have those experiences. The logistic issues of operating a place won’t go away.
In short, public leaders are being pulled in more directions than ever.
How would you suggest that leaders of public institutions manage the transition from a place based to experience based society?
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Picture Credits: Working by Ocean by Flickr user aptronym.