A Different Approach to Strata Building Operations: [Part 1] Organising Activities

Rethinking & reorganising how strata buildings do things …

We’ve been categorising the things that strata buildings do according to the way strata laws have defined them. But after 50 years, it seems to me there’s a better way to think about strata activities, decisions, and communication that is more logical, practical, and efficient.

[6.0 minutes estimated reading time, 1180 words] & read it on GoStrata Stak

Introduction

If you were to line up the ways strata building operations and management are structured and implemented by strata committees and strata managers, there’d be a very close correlation to the way the applicable strata laws are structured and the way they categorise decision making.

In particular, management and operational categories follow the different parts or sections of the strata laws [committees, insurance, strata managers, maintenance, by-laws, etc] and decision making is structured according to the voting level required [majority, three-quarter majority, no dissent or unanimous]. 

That ‘copy cat’ was fine when strata title was new and when we were all learning how to run strata buildings.  But, I daresay that after 60 years we’re past that and have a much better understanding of what should [and shouldn’t] be done by and in different strata buildings. 

If not, then we have some more serious problems to contend with that are beyond my capacity to fix.

So, I believe we should reorganise strata building operations and decision making.  And, as a consequence, change owner and resident communications.

In this 3 part series, I’m going going to look at how these things are done now and suggest a new [and better] approach for strata stakeholders.

So, let’s start with strata building operations.

The standard [old] approach

Virtually all strata building operations are organised in a structure that mimics the applicable strata laws.

It’s as if someone looked at those laws, identified all the things they say have to happen [in the same groupings as the laws create], draft management contracts to match that, and set up business systems and structures to deliver those things to the strata buildings.  I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t leave the government lawyers drafting legislation to decide how to structure the management of a large, valuable, and complex asset like a strata building.

Typically, activity and management service levels are matched to the frequencies specified in the strata laws [annual owners’ meetings, 5-year valuations, 10-year capital works plans, etc].  So, legal compliance becomes the norm and the ceiling.  I’ve even heard people say strata buildings can’t or shouldn’t do things that aren’t expressly required under strata laws.

But sometimes the minimum compliance requirements slip by and/or get done late because there’s too much to do, third parties are slow to provide some of the required ingredients, and for other good and bad reasons.  How many annual general meetings occur on time and how many levy cycles roll over past the end of financial years

Sometimes there are also things that are supposed to happen under strata laws but don’t and since no one notices or complains about them they just get ignored and lapse into the archives until someone sues.  Remember the requirement to send strata meeting notices to mortgagees or a strata manager’s obligation to make and serve a written record of their exercise of a delegation.  It’s been a long time since I’ve seen either of those.

That’s led to strata building operations and management being focused on compliance with laws rather than running buildings well, efficiently, or economically.  And, because of the undersupply of strata managers that I’ve written about in the article ‘How Many Strata Managers Does it Take to Change a Light Bulb?’ and commercial pressure on management fees, no one has the time to stop, rethink things or imagine and implement a different way.

A new way to think about strata building activities

I’m suggesting a different approach to strata building operations [and as a consequence strata management] that reconsiders what strata buildings need done, how, and when.

Imagine that a strata committee or strata manager is a juggler that’s given a number of balls to juggle which they’re managing but with the occasional close call.  Then someone adds another ball, and then maybe another. Despite their skills and best efforts, eventually, they’re overcome by the number, speed, and changing trajectories and they drop one ball, and then all the rest fall to the ground.

Rather than pick up all the balls and try to do the same thing again, what if the juggler examined each ball critically to see whether it needed juggling and whether it needed juggling now, so they only had to deal with what mattered [leaving the unimportant strata balls to be juggled later or by someone else]?

I suggest doing something like that with strata operations by looking at it in a 3 dimensional way.

Dimension 1:  Strata Operation Categories

In the first dimension strata building operations are categorised into types based on the broader conceptual nature of the activity rather than strata law categories or conventional/traditional approaches.

An example structure for strata building activities is:

• Building Structures

• Money

• Safety & Onsite Risk

• Information

• Resident Harmony

• Day to Day Operations

• Asset Protection

• Regulatory Compliance

Each category can have subcategories.

Dimension 2:  Importance

In the second dimension strata building activities are categorised according to how important they are to the relevant stakeholders.  Since those stakeholders may have different perceptions of importance, importance levels are a little more challenging to determine and they can and will change over time. 

Importance levels might also differ amongst buildings, when strata laws change or get re-interpreted, when there are unexpected events [like Covid], etc.

But, that actual rating given to each activity is less important than defining importance levels to the strata building’s activities so priorities can be assessed.

Giving strata building operational activities an importance rating makes it’s easier for everyone to prioritise [and deprioritise] things.

An example structure of strata building activity importance levels is:

• Critical to Survival

• Emergencies

• Very Important

• Important

• Normal Expectation

• Low Priority

• Not Important

• Ignore

Dimension 3:  Timings

The third dimension is time [but we all knew that], it applies to all strata building operational activities, and it is finite.  So, in the third dimension strata building activities are allocated higher or lower timing urgency along a scale.  

Giving strata building operational activities timings makes it even easier for everyone to prioritise [and deprioritise] things.

An example structure for timings is:

• Immediately

• Today

• In 60 hours/2.5 days

• Weekly

• Half Monthly

• Monthly

• Half Quarterly

• Quarterly

• Half Yearly

• Yearly

• Bi-Annually

• Tri-Annually

• 5 Yearly

• 10 Yearly

• Never

Bringing the Strata Operations 3D Map Together

These categorisations come together in a three-dimensional map where a strata building operational activity can be assessed by its importance and its timing urgency and then undertaken according to the resulting priority conclusions.

I know this sounds overly complex but it doesn't need to be. 3D mapping of strata building activities can be as complex and structured as you want or as simple and ad hoc as you can manage.

To be honest that’s what’s actually going on in strata building operations every day but without structure, conscious thought, and/or communication of these things between the affected strata stakeholders. 

So, what I’m really suggesting is to convert the challenge of getting all the things that a strata building needs or wants to be done out into the open for a frank assessment and discussion of their importance and urgency.

Even if you simply stop and think about strata activities to assess what category they fit into, how important they are, and what the correct timing or urgency is; that will improve things for you and the strata building. 

In the next part of this series, I’ll be covering a new and different approaches to strata decision-making.

May 20, 2021

Francesco …