Blueprints of Success

Creating a facility master plan is a puzzle with many moving parts – timing, collaboration, research, writing, editing, metrics, and a deep knowledge of the intended audience. While some seek help from outside organizations, others count on internal teams for checks and balances. Whichever route you take, the bottom line is that the plan should reflect the current state of your facility, projected changes that may occur over time, and a set of prioritized tasks and responsibilities.

While it’s not easy being both a great Facility Master Plan writer and a great facilities manager, there are a lot of commonalities connecting both jobs – communications, curiosity, analytics, selflessness, technical knowledge, and a desire for continuous improvement.

Facilities are always evolving, along with the needs of the people being served. There are huge financial and funding implications behind every plan so it’s advisable to give yourself plenty of time to prepare.

Dr. Louis L. Fletcher is the Executive Director of Facilities and Operations for El Paso County Colorado School District 49. He leads security, transportation, nutrition services, facility maintenance, capital construction, and community planning leaders who serve over 28,000 PK-12 Students.

Fletcher believes that many facility master plan writers leave out metrics, measurability, and accountability.

He said, “I think most people just get a snapshot of deferred maintenance and suggestions about fixes. It’s not enough to simply tell your audience the current state of events. You’ve got to include metrics that tell them how to get from here to where they need to be.”

Fletcher believes that a master plan should be done on a four-year or five-year rotation so you can effectively learn what to expect and what milestones are next.

“Otherwise, you’re just comparing two snapshots, and you can’t see what’s changed,” he said.

One of Fletcher’s target audiences is the school board. He’s got to get a group of people who are not acquainted with construction to get excited about a plan and where the plan is going.

“I explain to them that we have children, and teachers and administrators in the school building. If we don’t take care of getting the roof replaced when it needs to be replaced, we increase the probability that when the snow falls and it fails or when we get heavy rains, that those walls get full of water, that roofs get full of water, and ceilings get full of water.”

When addressing school superintendents, it’s important to emphasize that investments in infrastructure have long-term benefits which contribute to student learning and well-being, which are interrupted when there are rodents invading buildings and roofs that are failing.

“We can only put a Band-Aid on so much,” he said.

Dr. Fletcher offered these tips to facility master plan writers:

• When writing plans, try to achieve a balance of emotion, facts, and actions
• Write in bullets. Don’t go into details
• This is a collaborative process. Get others involved in writing and editing.
• Give yourself plenty of time
• Use photos – not charts or graphs when normalizing the meaning of Facility Condition Index (FCI) scores. Pictures of before and after could communicate the change in FCI to novices and experts alike.
• Remember your audience and their care-abouts
• Keep presentations under an hour
• Do more interviewing than writing. Talk to as many people as possible.
• Make sure the “you” in your presentation disappears. Instead, make it “us” against the problem
• Go outside. Walk through all buildings, top to bottom, soup to nuts
• For schools, summer is a less disruptive time to work on facility master plans

Dr. Doug Aldrich, from IFMA offered suggestions about pitching facilities master plans to organizational leadership. “My approach with facility master plans is to sell in the C-Suite what’s in it for them as organization leaders. They remember me when I present capital and budget requests. The number one core competency in IFMA is communication. FM’s, in particular senior leaders, must use it to the fullest.”

Aldrich added, “Senior FM’s do well to present only highlights and overviews. Use short lists about strategy, building diagrams, people growth graphs, and site maps (as examples). People relate to those.”

Gordon Rogers, Program Director Judicial Council of California, has lead teams that have master planned various state agency portfolios composed of more than 40 million square feet in over 750 buildings, community colleges, religious campuses and county municipalities with multiple sites and service offerings.

One Facilities Master Plan included rebuilding procedures that encompassed all 11 of IFMA’s core competencies.

“Each sector has its specific success metrics. Imagine the differences between master planning houses of worship vs inmate housing! Or, between master planning an employee office building portfolio from master planning County services to the public,” said Rogers. “Master Planning starts with knowing the success metrics for the user, then understanding the opportunities available to improve those metrics. Of course, budget is a large dictator on how far a Facilities Master Plan can progress.”

Rogers shared that he feels like a beginner every time he starts working on a facility master plan. He’s learned that it’s very important to align your processes, procedures, and outcomes to the wishes of the client.

“Doing it the same way you did the last one will get you in trouble. Whether your client is your boss, the C-Suite, or elected officials it is critical to hold meetings early on to determine their goals, desired outcomes, budget and time constraints, their availability for ongoing meetings, how they need to present the final plan to their constituents,” said Rogers.

Across the board, experts agree that facilities teams could be heroes every day in their organizations, concerning master planning, understanding the ramifications of deferred maintenance, and the cost of operational interruptions on building occupants, whether that includes students, office workers, friends, and families. But there’s got to be a reality check associated with investing in facility improvements. As Dr. Fletcher said, “A vision without a budget is a dream.”