As I travel around the country discussing facility assessment projects and other facilities management initiatives, I am regularly confronted with facility managers who take the position that we need to tell the story to leadership, including a university’s administration or trustees, a city’s board of commissioners, or others holding pursestrings. Having spent three-and-a-half decades in the facilities management industry, I would like to posit a counter position: We should be telling truth to power, not telling a story.
When I think of storytelling, the first thing that pops into my head is bedtime stories with my children (admittedly, it is tough to remember back that many years, but I try). Typical storytelling involves tales of fiction (maybe with some factual basis) that are intended to educate or caution. An example is the story "Chicken Little: The Sky is Falling". I choose that example purposely, as I am constantly reminded of Chicken Little when I see the positions put forth by many in the facilities management industry. Whether it is from facility managers or professional consultants, I see a pronounced tendency to exaggerate building needs and paint consequences of maintenance inaction in a manner out of proportion to real concerns. This is analogous to some societal trends believing that every problem is the worst calamity faced in the history of mankind.
As facility professionals, I believe it is incumbent upon us to resist this trend. We should not spin stories about levels of deferred maintenance based loosely on aggregated numbers of dubious accuracy. We should simply tell the truth. We must resist participating in a veritable arms race to paint the facilities renewal backlog in the largest, most dire terms possible. We should, instead, report accurate, verifiable needs that are based on real data gathered by experienced facilities professionals. Only through this process can we gain credibility within the larger audience with respect to our reported numbers.
Returning to Chicken Little, let us assume that he is the VP of Facilities for a major institution of higher education. Should he go around singing a song of doom and calamity with respect to campus facilities? I say No. He should accurately report the real, quantifiable needs. There should not be a rush to proclaim that the sky is falling and the campus is in danger of shutting down.
I don't mean to downplay real issues facing facility managers, but the truth is that, in most cases, a facility is not in danger of shutting down due to poor condition. Issues must be dealt with. Roofs must be replaced. HVAC systems must be renewed. Although resources are always stretched, our clients always manage to deal with the truly critical issues. Renewal of items is deferred due to lack of resources and because they can be deferred.
If we go out and paint everything in dire circumstances, we will become…to bring another cautionary children’s tale into the conversation…like "The Boy Who Cried Wolf", and will be ignored when serious issues arise.
At ISES, we support telling the truth rather than engaging in storytelling.
