Cultural learning in the hospital sector: An investigation of the briefing process in strategic facilities management

Facilities Management is an emerging field of study that is characterised by calls for a stronger strategic role. This new positioning of the Facilities Management profession requires an ability to learn about a customer's business at a cultural level. To this end, this paper uses Nonaka's theory of Knowledge Creation to explore cultural learning during the briefing process of a hospital project. Using this model, the briefing process is portrayed as cyclical one where actors converge upon shared meaning. This is in contrast to traditional linear models of the briefing process. The paper concludes with a methodology to explore cultural learning in the health sector based on Laukkanen's Comparative Causal Mapping.