Managing The Built Environment

I was pleasantly surprised at how many people attended my seminar on Benchmarking at IFMA’s World Workplace in Orlando earlier this month. As usual, I brought some take-home material for the audience, but I ran out. In fact, a number of people had to stand at the back of the room.

I think it’s because the topic wasn’t just about traditional benchmarking. I emphasized the ‘Beyond’ part of benchmarking where traditional benchmarking, compare published results with yours – is only the first step in a process.

Here is a quote that pretty well sums it up for traditional benchmarking:

“what gets copied is the symptom of success, not the cause” – Dr. Ed. Baker, Ford Motor Company

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I had the pleasure of being invited to speak at the 2009 International Maintenance Excellence Conference recently. (IMEC.ca) Here is the blurb:

Do You Want Better Results? Don’t Just Measure Performance, Manage It!
Performance isn’t just about measuring results. You must implement management techniques that use performance measures proactively to drive behaviour and improve results. Start with measurement data and KPI’s, understand their impact on employee and subcontractor behaviour and implement a management approach that influences behaviour and drives results.

The conference is hosted by the University of Toronto’s Centre for Maintenance Optimization & Reliability Engineering (C-MORE) and organized by the publishers of Maintenance Technology Magazine.

My topic was a little different for the conference, which has an emphasis on technology, statistics and science to improve reliability, often for production facilities, factories and other organizations where high reliability and minimal unscheduled downtime are critical.
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I recently delivered a workshop on Strategic Writing to a group of FM professionals. It’s the same workshop I’ve given for other Property Management and Facility Management organizations who want to elevate their ability to write well, and present a good image and influence others.

Some of the participants had the same concern that others have had related to memo’s or letters. The approach I teach is focused primarily on communicating information and influencing the reader to do what you want, whether it’s agreement, approval or to follow directions. Since the writing has a clear purpose, I teach techniques that support the purpose. Every Facility Management professional needs to know how to communicate effectively to be successful yet this soft skill is often overlooked.

To that point, here is a very relevant quote:

“The only people in the world who can change things are those who can sell ideas” - - Louis Wyse, advertising executive

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If you’ll be at IFMA’s World Workplace in Orlando, Florida between October 7th and 9th, lets get together for a coffee or drink.

I’ll be delivering a seminar called “Intelligent Benchmarking and Beyond : Getting Results is More Than Just Comparing Numbers” at 3:30 on Thursday, October 8th.

Join me in the session or see me right after. Or, send me an email and we can connect some time during the conference or on the trade floor.

Michel.

michel@strategicadvisor.ca

This fall, the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) released the Canadian version of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED EBOM (Existing Building : Operations & Maintenance) certification rating system.

LEED stands for Leadership In Energy and Environmental Design system and is the most prominent rating system in Canada for green buildings.

It’s a pretty comprehensive system and because it is quite rigorous both in the standards and in the certification process, it’s a relatively expensive process, but the principles are what every Facility Manager or Property Manager should be applying in their buildings. Even if you are located in another part of the world, read the guides to see what else you can do. Continue reading »

I was interviewed and featured in a National Post article (a national Canadian newspaper) on the 28th of August, the same day as World FM Day, sponsored by Global FM (an alliance of FM organizations) along with IFMA, BIFM, AFE, FMA, SAFMA, ABRAFAC, HFMS and FM Arena.

The focus of the article was on the role of Facility Managers in green management of facilities. I was interviewed to give my perspective on the overall role of FM. Continue reading »

I’ll be delivering a short seminar on Managing Performance at the upcoming International Maintenance Excellence Conference on September 9, 2009.

The title is “Do you want Better Results? Don’t Just Measure Performance, Manage It!” Continue reading »