By B. Kevin Folsom, CEP
Published in the July/August 2014 issue of Today’s Facility Manager
Q I recently became the facility manager for my company, and I’m not sure where to begin. Is there a great guide to get me and my organization up to speed quickly?
Joe Reynolds
Facilities Manager
Applied Genomics Technology
San Jose, CA
AIf I were in your situation, I would as quickly as possible find out everything that is expected of your facility management organization. While networking with your peers and leadership, you need to write a paragraph on everything that is expected of you. Include a quality statement for each item such as responsiveness, end result, and follow-through.
If you network with a full cross section of your peers and leadership, you should have no less than a couple dozen paragraphs. This will give you a good start in identifying what is expected of you. In facility management, managing expectations and perceptions is of the utmost importance because you work in a fishbowl.
I would then strongly advise you join a facility management association: APPA for education; IFMA for general commercial; BOMA for high-rise management; ASHE for healthcare; etc. Attend one of the conferences as soon as possible. Attending at the national/international level is a good place to start; then drill down to local chapters. But if the wait for a national conference is too long, find a local meeting.
I have written a few times about this topic in this column, so you may want to read my past advice to other readers. You can browse this column online at https://facilityexecutivemagazine.kinsta.cloud/magazine/columnists/tricks-of-the-trade/.
