Communication,
knowledge, and information are essential to a good building programming and design process. Unfortunately, the programming information provided to the architect is frequently incomplete, dated, and without sufficient facts concerning future anticipated needs. Too often after occupancy, clients find that their buildings and spaces were not designed to meet immediate, short,and long-term business obligations. Significant costs are then incurred including, but not limited to hard
construction dollars and reduced employee productivity, to make
required alterations. Although the architect’s limited training and related understanding of organizational behavioral issues are part of the problem, clients (especially their upper management) also contribute to the difficulties by their reluctance to share relevant information with their in-house facility management (FM) staff and/or outsourced real estate professionals. Individually or together, they are the ones who provide the architect with the programming information he needs for his design.
American corporations and
institutions have not yet effectively included their FM function, especially their in-house personnel, as part of their strategic business planning process. The success of people charged with the responsibilities of | managing their real estate is too
often measured by their day-to-day operations rather than how they meet long-term real estate needs. Essentially, the facility and real estate functions need to be more integrated with an organization’s business processes. The failure of numerous buildings and spaces to meet shortand
long-term client needs is thus not surprising.
In 2002, I initiated and developed a
research study for the International Society of Facilities Executives (ISFE), which was founded by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1989 to address the needs of senior-level facility executives. A special edition of the ISFE newsletter,
Executive Updates, was published in May 2002 to present a summary of the research findings. The research questionnaire was distributed and managed electronically through ISFE’s web site. The ISFE membership
respondents represented a broad
range of industries; the majority
were in the design, construction,
and real estate management sectors. The research demonstrated the importance of the facility function and the need to expand the role of FM within a company infrastructure by improving overall organization
participation and communication in
both short- and long-term facility planning processes. A brief summary. . . > > > more> > > |
