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Facility, Property & Asset Management Professionals
"The man who starts out going nowhere, generally gets there."
- Dale Carnegie
Latest News : Seminars, White Papers, Blogs, Articles
Two of our articles were recently published in Facility/Property Management magazines. If you are interested in the text of any of these articles, please email us. See further below for details on Critical Facilities and Delivering The Message.
In case you missed the July Bulletin, we' made two White Papers availalbe.
You can download them directly here:
» Intelligent Benchmarking
» Health Check for FM Operations
We've added a new article to our website that focuses on Lifecycle / Total Cost of Ownership. It's the complete text of one of our articles published in a national magazine. It discusses the importance of managing costs over the life of a building, starting with good design that ensures energy efficiency and operational efficiency.
To read it, click here » A Lifecycle View - Article
We recently delivered three seminars:
» Performance Management at the 7th annual Federated Press 'Reinventing Maintenance' conference in Toronto. The focus was on Managing, not just Measuring.
» Getting Results with Effective RFP's at the annual Honeywell Users Group Conference in Phoenix, Arizona identifying how to get the right service provider.
» Communicating For Results : Delivered at the annual IIDEX/Neocon show in Toronto to help FM's get better results by communicating effectively.
Focus: Wringing Out Performance
When it comes to Performance Management, you need to change your thinking. When I use the term, almost everyone thinks of measurements, balanced scorecards and KPI’s, but it means much more than that.
Performance is about improving results and reducing costs using a wide variety of techniques, including technical, systems and most importantly, management and leadership techniques.
In this issue, I will outline a number of key areas where you can improve performance, but it’s important to pull yourself out of the daily grind and put some time into forward looking approaches. Look at as short term pain for long term gain.
Strategy - If you don’t have a strategy for what you do, you are probably just fighting fires and keeping the status quo.
• Develop a strategy for the next year at least, and even into the next few years. It doesn’t need to be a 100 page brick. Keep it simple, even a few pages to start. Focus on what is important to your organization’s success. Promote it to your leadership and get buy-in based on performance and results.
• Think into the corners to discover things you can do that will improve results. This includes things that haven’t been done before. Eliminate filters and abandon the "not invented here" or "it’s the way we’ve always done it" attitude from your team. Look outside your organization to understand how others are doing it better.
• Improve the visibility of your organization. You may be looked at as a cost centre, but turn that around and promote yourself as a saving centre. The things you can do if given a chance can reduce costs, whether it’s operation costs, project costs or lease/portfolio costs. And these days, you can align those initiatives with the all-important sustainability issue, which will get attention.
Use Information Better – You (hopefully) have lots of data available to you about your operation, but often it’s raw data. You need to turn it into information and knowledge you can use to make decisions that improve results or save money.
• With a Help Desk and Work Order management system, you have the information you need to make strategic decisions, but are you collecting it, analyzing it and using it to your benefit, or assuming that just by having these systems, you are getting better performance? The long term value is in the information they provide. If you don’t have these systems, they should be in your strategic plan.
• Condition information about your facilities will improve your capital planning and help you justify projects and activities. Doing it formally each year will highlight changes that need action. For leased buildings, you can use the information (along with Help Desk info) as leverage during negotiations.
• You may collect Customer Satisfaction information, but is it simply an exercise or is it designed to gather information you can analyze to improve performance, including management of subcontractors? Look carefully at your process and your questions – do they give you valuable information? Are you analyzing and creating action plans based on them? Do you communicate back to the tenants/occupants? All this can help you improve results.
• Do you get reporting from systems? Are they useful? Do they enable you to make decisions? If not, stop them and put something useful in place that are easy to read and give you information you can make decision with. Do subcontractors provide reports? Are they useful? Is it just data or do you ask for analysis and recommendations for improvements? They are experts in their area, so leverage their knowledge. If the reports are not useful, just because they are in the contract doesn’t mean they can’t be eliminated, added or changed to meet your needs better.
Subcontractors – Are they just contractors or are they partners and a key part of your overall service delivery? Always remember, if your subcontractors fail to perform, so do you.
• Don’t treat them with old-school approaches. They are important to your success, so manage them to help improve performance. Use their skills and knowledge. Communicate with them about problems and give them a chance to propose solutions and provide action plans.
• Implement measurements but put away the sledgehammer and start formal performance management meetings that focus on resolution and improvement rather than penalties. Implement regular performance feedback. Just like employees, regular feedback is the best approach to get results.
• Take a good look at your procurement approach for key service contractors. Do you focus on price and specifications or are you focusing on fit, past performance, sophistication and skills, their ability to recommend leading practices and share industry solutions with you?
• Balancing subcontracted services with in-house resources is important. Take a second look at what your staff are doing compared to what is subcontracted and you may be able to shift some of the low-value activities to a subcontractor while you and your team focus on the high-value and strategic aspects of your responsibilities.
There is much more, so look for a future White Paper on techniques and approaches you can use to wring performance out of every aspect of your responsibilities.
In the mean time, donwload a printable version of this item:Wringing Out Performance.
Blogs: Managing The Built Environment
Articles: Recently Published
Two of our articles were recently published in Facility/Property Management magazines. If you are interested in the text of any of these articles, please email us.
Critical Facilities - Risk Management: The Human Factor
May, 2008, Building Operating Management Magazine
In critical facilities, failure isn't an option. Preventing failure means focussing on the most likely issues, tht human issues. By developing processes and performance systems, including Service Level Definitions that don't just meaure, they provide a means of managing risk and looking forwards. Keeping a strong link with the managers of the critical systems and close process integration and communication are also key elements of success. Read about these elements and more to help you improve the reliability of your critical facilities. Read the entire article here
Delivering The Message
June, 2008, Canadian Property Management Magazine
Communication skills improve Facility and Property Managers' success and improves their image and their company's image. Forget spelling and grammar. Focus on the message and techniques to structure and present information so it's read and understood. Use techniques that get results with a business case, tenant letter, policy, newsletter or lobby/elevator notice. Based on a Strategic Advisor workshop. Learn More Here.
We have over 25 full length on-line articles for you to read. They cover Customer Service, Performance Management, Facility & Property Management and Outsourcing. Click here for access to all our articles.
For the text of any published articles not on our website, please email us. To see a complete listing of previously published articles and our speaking credits, click here
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About Strategic Advisor
We help customers get results by provide consulting, training and advisory services. We can deliver internationally for any Facility, Asset and Property Management organization.
We help you get results, reduce costs and improve your team's effectiveness.
Services include:
- Facility & Property Mgmt. Assessments
- Strategic planning
- Organizational Design / Improvement
- Performance Management
- Chargeback Implementation
- Business Cases
- Managing Transitions
- Contract Docs / Contract Management
- Policies & Procedures Development
- Outsourcing / Contracting Support
- Training & Education
- Surveys
Visit: Strategic Advisor
Download: Brochure
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Upcoming: Seminars
Our 3 day Workshop titled "Strategic Facilities Management & KPI's" is scheduled for November 10th to 11th in Dubai. The workshop provides strategic approaches to leveraging performance from your staff, systems and suppliers.
Updated: Outsourcing
We have added a new brochure outlining our Outsourcing Support services. Regardless of what stage you are in, from decision making to implementation, we can help your initiative succeed with industry experience you don't have in-house.
» Outsourcing Support
Available: White Papers
Our New White Papers are now available for you to download.
They provide you with a roadmap to succeed at these important initiatives.
» Intelligent Benchmarking
» Health Check for FM Operations
Upcoming: Articles
The following article is scheduled for publication later in 2008:
» Get Results, Get Attention, Get Ahead --- Canadian Property Management Magazine
Participate: Surveys & Polls
Add your opinion and information by visiting SurveyFM and participate in our Facility and Property Management based Surveys and Polls at:
www.surveyfm.com
Newsletter: Archives
If you missed any of the past newsletters, simply want to read them again or pass them along, please visit our newsletter archive.
» Newsletter Archive
Next Issue: CMMS
A Computerized Maintenance Management System is more than just a way to schedule preventive maintenance. It can provide a wealth of information you can use to manage better.
Our next issue will focus on computerized maintenance management systems.
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Feedback: Let us Know!
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If you have a question, comment or suggestion, please send me an email.
Sincerely,
Michel Theriault
Principal,
Strategic Advisor |
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