Facility management teams are often asked to solve problems they did not create.

A budget gets cut, service levels suffer and suddenly FM is responsible for the complaints. A capital project prioritizes upfront savings, only for operations teams to inherit higher maintenance costs for years to come. An experienced employee leaves, taking decades of institutional knowledge with them.

For facility managers, these challenges can make it difficult to move beyond the immediate demands of the day. Yet as facilities become more complex and expectations continue to rise, staying in reactive mode comes with its own risks.

In this episode of the Connected FM podcast, host Wayne Whitzell sits down with Grant Sommerfeld, president of IFMA’s FM Consultants Council and founder of Executive FM, to explore how facility management teams can break that cycle. Their conversation covers data-driven decision-making, communicating with executive leadership, building stronger operating models and giving FM a voice before critical organizational decisions are made.

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Hear the full conversation to explore how facility management leaders can use data, communication and a more strategic approach to strengthen FM’s role within the organization.

When "Getting It Done" Becomes the Problem

Every facility management team has someone who knows where everything is, steps in when something goes wrong and somehow keeps operations moving.

That expertise is invaluable. But when an operation depends on individual heroics to remain stable, Sommerfeld argues that there is a bigger problem to address.

As he explains, "The objective is not finding better heroes. It is building an operating model that no longer depends on heroics to remain stable."

For facility leaders, that means creating time to look beyond the next urgent request. Where are recurring problems coming from? What knowledge needs to be captured? Which processes are forcing teams to stay reactive?

As FM becomes more complex, answering those questions is increasingly important to building resilient operations.

FM Needs a Voice Before Decisions Are Made

Many facility management problems begin upstream.

Sommerfeld points to a simple example: An organization cuts its housekeeping budget, occupants begin complaining about cleanliness and FM is left managing the consequences.

The facilities team did not necessarily create the problem. It inherited it.

Instead of simply being told where to cut costs, Sommerfeld argues that FM should be part of the conversation about how savings can be achieved. That requires facility leaders to communicate in terms executives understand.

A request for a new boiler, for example, is not only about replacing equipment. For organizational leadership, the more relevant conversation may be about business continuity, financial risk or operational performance.

Building greater influence means connecting the needs of the facility to the priorities of the organization.

Data Can Help FM Move From Reactive to Proactive

Facility management teams are surrounded by data, from CMMS platforms and work orders to building systems and occupant requests. But collecting information and using it to make decisions are two different things.

Sommerfeld sees data as a major opportunity for FM.

Instead of cleaning every space according to the same schedule, usage data can help teams allocate resources based on actual need. Patterns in hot and cold complaints can point to an underlying building system issue before it becomes a larger problem.

Data can even help teams recognize when not to react. One unusual incident does not always require a new procedure. Continually creating processes around one-off problems can add complexity, cost and even more operational challenges.

The goal is not to collect every possible metric. It is to identify the data that helps FM recognize patterns, understand performance and make better decisions.

Key Takeaways for Facility Managers

  1. Build systems that reduce reliance on heroics: Capture knowledge and address the processes that keep teams in reactive mode.
  2. Get involved upstream: FM can provide valuable operational context before budget, design and capital decisions are finalized.
  3. Translate FM into business outcomes: Connect facility needs to risk, continuity, cost and organizational performance.
  4. Use data with purpose: Focus on the metrics that reveal patterns and support better decisions rather than collecting data for data’s sake.

Ready to move from reactive facility management to greater strategic influence?

Listen to the full episode of Connected FM to hear Sommerfeld and Whitzell explore how better data, stronger communication and earlier FM involvement can help facility leaders shape better decisions across their organizations.