Planning is an Attitude

Facilities Check List
Practical, step-by-step guides for the busy FM
July 2000

Planning is an Attitude

The terms plan and planning have many meanings. But planning in current facilities and property management has acquired meanings that focus on the attitude with which we approach our work. There are six facets to a favorable attitude about planning:

1. Planning is not an end result, but it results in or produces end products (for example, a plan, budget or schedule). Planning is the process in which an organization’s needs are translated from an abstract idea, such as a job description for a certain type of worker, into physical requirements or documentation, such as adequate workstations, which become physical reality when, for example, a building is built or a new chiller is shipped and installed — all to meet the needs identified in planning.

2. Planning is undertaken to anticipate change and organize its implementation. Whenever an organization’s needs change, the new requirements are usually “out of sync” with the physical facilities built to support previous needs. The faster needs change, the more we must direct our planning efforts to anticipate future events. If we do not look to the future, we may become preoccupied with current problems and forget about tactics. Then we lose the ability to control the physical environment, and the changes we make are likely to be ineffective. In today’s fast-changing environment, planning must be continuously evolving.

3. Successful planning requires both flexibility and a proactive approach. Flexibility is an essential ingredient in facilities planning because so many factors (some beyond our control) can change, forcing us to adjust and modify the solutions we develop. Rigid solutions (those with only one solution and no options) become obsolete very quickly in the face of high rates of change. A proactive approach is also essential because in most environments the rate of change is so great that if we passively wait for events to occur and then respond to them, we let the events control what we do, rather than exerting at least some control over their outcome.

4. Facilities planning is highly integrative. The unusually broad spectrum of facilities and property management responsibilities makes facilities planning very challenging since these responsibilities extend in so many directions.

5. Facilities planning must be thought of in a cyclical, rather than linear, sense. To be sure, projects progress in a linear fashion from beginning to end. However, the end of one project sets the stage for subsequent projects, so the planning cycle repeats itself. With each repetition of the cycle, a new project makes an impact on the facilities or property management program of which it is a part.

6. Finally, facilities planning occurs along a continuum. This means that while most facilities projects have an official ending, they must adapt to changes in requirements while in progress. Completing a typical project is much like chasing a moving target. In addition, the end of one project may become so protracted or delayed due to constant change that the project often does not end but evolves into other projects. Planning thus becomes a continuous process. In fact, the higher the rate of change, the more intensively planning must be practiced. A strict change-control process must be in place to ensure that change occurs in an orderly way.

This installment of FM Check List is adapted from BOMI Institute’s Facilities Planning and Project Management course, (www.bomi-edu.org/13051.html), a required course in BOMI Institute’s Facilities Management Administrator (FMA) program.