ABSTRACT
During the course of organisational consultancy with clients who require assistance in addressing changes or developments to social systems, I frequently have met or been presented with strong feelings about the design, construction and use of buildings. The people expressing these feelings tend to be the users of the building: managers and employees of a sub-unit for whom the decision to expand, build or renovate their workplace was taken elsewhere in the hierarchy of their larger organisation. In all the cases I have come across, consultation of the users was practically non-existent. Attempts to exert even mild influence were met by resistance from those personnel responsible for the design and building processes. As a result, productivity suffered dramatically post-construction.
