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Facilities MANAGING ASSETS FM and Relationships Take the time to cultivate appropriate relationships. BY PIETER VAN DER HAVE I N A PREVIOUS ARTICLE, I STRESSED the importance of relationships as the concept applies to architectural planning and design. There is not a doubt in my mind that any homage paid to those relationships has a terrifi c ROI. Now, I want to emphasize the other type of relationships: among people. Man is a knot into which relationships are tied. — Antoine de Saint-Exupery The preceding quote is a powerful statement. The inference is that without relationships, "man" is not a complete person. As fa- cility managers, we should remain constantly aware of the need for appropriate relationships. It is a wonder that so many of us spend so little time cultivating them. Assumptions are the termites of relationships. — Henry Winkler I remember visiting an institution where FM's senior offi cer relied entirely on his assistant to establish and maintain relation- ships with immediate subordinates. As for himself, he primarily maintained some sort of relationship with his own supervisor, although as interviews suggested, not a very honest one. In the meantime, the staff within FM hardly knew the director, to the point of not being able to recognize him if they bumped into him on campus. The assistant director was a strict by-the-book bureaucrat and not exactly a "people person." Technicians on the front line had very few positive comments about the department's management. The additional result was clearly that effective productivity was unacceptably low. It was not a surprise to learn that the managers were barely aware of this condition, and the administration of the institution was totally unaware. We probably don't have to expend a lot of time and printing ink on those other relationships — the romantic or physical ones, other than: don't do it! That is where perceptions can be seen (or become) as reality. It is undeniable that we are more comfortable interacting with certain individuals we know than we are with others. The ever- present challenge is for us to avoid allowing those feelings to affect the way we do business. For many years during the latter part of my career, it was my goal to avoid creating the perception that any one of my subordinates was favored over others. Was I entirely successful? If I was, it was because I saw all of them in the same 16 COLLEGE PLANNING & MANAGEMENT / NOVEMBER 2012 light. No special treatment for any of them. I have seen situations where managers avoided dealing with certain deans, merely because they didn't like them. We should remember that deans talk among themselves, including about you and your department and your staff, and it isn't always pretty. We interviewed a group of deans at a small institution and had an eye-opening experience, for us as well as for them. As a result of our questions, they learned that they and their respective build- ings were served at signifi cantly differing standards. It was clear to us that this was a refl ection of the interactions between the FM director and each of the deans. One dean, I remember, mentioned that he had not seen the director for several years — as others in the same room became slack-jawed and bemused. The latter had received personal visits from the director several times during the preceding twelve months, and were relatively happy with FM! I must admit to being stressed myself when sitting down with certain deans and administrators. I discretely had to work at it. I convinced myself that those were the very individuals where a respectful, trusting relationship needed to be cultivated. One of my assistants for a while refused — outright refused — to deal or com- municate with a certain VIP. Because of his attitude, there was no relationship between our respective departments. Certain essential activities failed to happen. Uncomfortable as it was for him, we spent signifi cant time together while I worked to convince him of the error of his ways. The point is that we should not be required to like each other in order to work together. We need to breed trust. That will never happen if we candidly, honestly, don't talk to each other. To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved. — George MacDonald We must work at maintaining appropriate relationships with suppliers and contractors. Especially at publicly funded insti- tutions, it is important to stay "at arm's length." Procurement policies at many institutions try to guide these relationships, but it is not impossible to fi nd yourself favoring one vendor's representa- tive over the other guy. Aside from policies and laws, we should avoid the perception of favoring one contractor. One day, after a catastrophe, you may need all of them! CPM Pete van der Have is a retired facilities management professional and is currently teaching university-level FM classes as well as doing independent consulting. He can be reached at petevanderhave@msn.com. WWW.PLANNING4EDUCATION.COM