Go Organic
The definition of the workplace has expanded and the FM’s role is growing organically in response to the offshoots. Practitioners must rise above the linearity of FM and grasp a wider role in the property industry
by Neil Harrison
A few years ago I had the following conversation with an architect:
Architect: “So what do you do?”
Me: “I am head of facilities”
Architect: “Great. It’s so nice to have someone on the team who is not a professional.”
Property is intrinsically connected to every aspect of commercial life. Each building has a life cycle of its own, determined by its structure and by a series of ever-decreasing life cycles relating to its technical, technological and built infrastructure, and the environments created within it.
Interweave the ever-changing patterns of occupants, and the ever-broadening definition of the ‘workplace’ to encompass home, the urban environment and anywhere else in which a ‘pause’ is possible, and the facilities manager could be forgiven for wondering quite what they are managing and how to make sense of it all.
Yet on this canvas of complex relationships and interdependence, the property industry retains a self-perpetuating tendency towards modular specialisation: agents, analysts, transaction managers, project managers, designers, facilities managers and a host of functional support roles. This generates a tendency towards linearity of process in property management, as specialists hand the baton to one another when their involvement ends. But the environment demands anything but linearity.
Efforts have been made to broaden the specialists’ horizon — the term ‘business infrastructure management’ was an early attempt to knit FM with appropriate strands from IT and HR. CoreNet has predicted that by 2010 the best practice model for workplace management will be integrated resource management and infrastructure solutions (Iris) bursting the silos of the various support functions found in corporate environments. Despite the common sense emanating from these attempts, FM has retreated whenever the prospect of a broader base has arisen.
FM, and the BIFM in particular, began establishing itself in the early 1990s — but created a paradox in the process. Attempts to solidify FM as a profession only served to create a defensive insularity and protectionism.
In recent years this reaction has stifled a potentially leading role for FM in the property industry, and undermined FM’s ability to rise above the specialist and into the realms of the general. It remains a junior non-strategic partner, and there are few signs that this will change.
Of course, it was important to establish a profession to put FM on the corporate map, but now it is vital that we use pragmatism to develop FM beyond the horizon it has set itself.
If the historical perspective is mired in frustration, the optimism for the future is energising.
The challenge for the facilities manager is to develop a broad-based living, integrated and flexible skill set, to be able to manage all aspects of property and its relationships with all other areas of commerce and support. These FMs are the ‘organic managers’ — leaders within the property industry who can master the general and are not afraid of its uncertainties and vagaries, but understand that a frighteningly complex world calls for adaptability and the broadest possible understanding of work and the workplace.
Realise your advantage
At this time organic managers are in drastically short supply. Yet FM is possibly the best-placed of all sectors in the property industry to develop into the organic manager of the future.
The reasons are inherent in the role. All it takes is for facilities managers to realise and understand their advantages and use them.
Facilities managers:
- often have broad commercial experience. In bringing their own pre-FM experience they are able to take a balanced, empathetic perspective;
- given the diversity of their responsibilities and the interactions this drives, are incredibly well networked inside and outside the host organisation. In their own fields they have often informally broken down barriers with other functions and the core business, even when silos remain by name;
- spend more time with more customers than do other areas of the property profession, and develop invaluable subconscious communication, situation and customer management competence;
- are accustomed to generalisms. The diversity of the challenges requires that they are able to manage a large number of issues across a diverse range of areas;
- are inherently proactive and reactive — required to plan for certainty yet be prepared for, and deal with, the unexpected;
- work in a practical discipline, which creates a grounded and realistic problem-solving mindset;
- understand buildings from the inside out, and are masters of ‘function over form’ where so many other areas of the property industry are focused on the reverse;
- develop and embody a learning mentality in the ever-changing world of FM, paving the way for growth and self-improvement;
- have a knowledge of service and property infrastructure management that is essential if they are to become the organic managers of the future.
Lose the shackles
This in-depth knowledge is far more difficult for professionals from other disciplines to learn because for them it implies an uncomfortable shift at the coal face. But learn they must. So how can aspiring facilities managers lose the shackles?
- Paint the picture of the future you want The starting point for your own personal challenge, and the “10” on the 10-point scale that will define the changes you need to make in moving toward the goal.
- Talk the role you see Ask questions and raise issues in a manner that fits in with the future goal — show a visible interest in order to open the pathway.
- Network wisely Networking events have their purpose but may not always suit you. Pick events and opportunities representative of the wider property profession. You may need to join organisations such as CoreNet or the BCO.
- Seek greater responsibility It won’t land in your lap.
- Follow up Don’t waste a networking event by collecting cards and contacts and not using them. Visit buildings, compare experiences and challenges, ask questions — and listen to the answers.
- Get formal training Conventional as it may seem, sometimes there is no substitute for learning the terms and techniques but in a formal setting. However, ensure that the training comes before the responsibility.
- Find a mentor We all need someone to turn to for professional guidance outside the formal reporting structures, preferably outside our organisation, with no agenda or vested interest. Professionals are often extremely keen to give something back — be the beneficiary.
- Move on Sometimes your picture of your desired future does not fit where you currently reside. It may be no fault of your employer — you probably entered the role with a different mindset, or the opportunities may now not exist. As the organic manager needs a variety of experience, there is no barrier to moving on other than yourself — even in a recession.
The next generation of movers and shakers in FM — are unlikely to be FMs at all, though they may trace their roots back to the discipline that set them on their way. The challenge is for individuals to recognise this, and seize the opportunity FM has provided. To those who are ready, there has never been a better time.
Neil Usher is general manager, Group Property at Rio Tinto
