Jeffrey Campbell is the chair of Facilities Management Program at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. He currently serves on the National Academies of Science committee that is researching business strategies for public capital investment. He can be reached at jcampbell@byu.edu. This is his first article for Facilities Manager.

The Learning Pyramid
Jenna Jones is a facilities manager who workers for a Fortune 500 company. Jenna graduated with a degree in architecture from a prestigious school in the Midwest. Jenna's dream of designing magnificent buildings that would leave her mark on the world was unexpectedly changed when upon graduation she discovered that the demand in the job market had shifted from architectural design to the more generalized field of facilities management. She interviewed with several companies and accepted her current position as an assistant facilities manager with responsibility for five buildings totaling 2.3 million square feet. Before she knew it, she was doing much more than she had been trained to do in architectural school. Now she is preparing budgets, managing projects, performing regulatory and safety compliance audits, overseeing custodial contracts, etc.

Jenna's story is not uncommon. Times have and will continue to change. Jenna has realized that although she has a good understanding of building design and systems, there are many other areas of knowledge that she must still acquire. Thus, the concept of being a lifelong learner will be important to her.

Upon graduation she realized that while she had some knowledge in certain areas (i.e., negotiating contracts), her skill level in these areas was minimal. She learned quickly that knowledge did not necessarily translate into an immediate skill and that her skill level will only come from seasoned work experience.

Through the transition, she also recognized the importance of having a learning and cooperative attitude. In her first year, she watched a colleague in a similar position and with a degree in engineering, dig in his heels and refuse to learn and grow in his job. He had not learned that although he was bright and had a good knowledge base, that without the right attitude he would never succeed in his current position.

In order to be prepared for the facilities management demands of the future, the triangle of knowledge, skill, and attitude form a power model that needs to be understood and practiced by facilities professionals.

Trend in University Facilities Management Education
Most universities are still rooted in the traditional disciplines such as engineering and architecture that have not changed for the last 30 years. Some of these traditional disciplines have experienced declining enrollments and lower starting salaries. During this same time, facilities management has emerged as a professional discipline, but very few university programs have adopted this new profession.

The future will require that facilities professionals be well educated in technical disciplines and also receive management training. Currently, there are two models for facilities professionals majors that are being offered in colleges and universities in the United States. The first model is to earn a professional degree in a technical area such as engineering, construction management, architecture, interior design, and related areas, followed by an advanced management degree that specializes in facilities and management. There are several universities that are offering this model because of industry need and demand.

The second model is to earn a professional degree that incorporates technical facility and property management competencies along with a general management degree at the baccalaureate level. There are only a handful of universities that offer such a degree but they all appear to be very successful. The reason for their success is that they provide graduates with the knowledge, skill, and attitudes needed in the facilities management field.

These two models will continue to grow and develop as the industry continues to demand more specialized training in facilities management.

Current and Future Trends in FM Practice
Facilities managers now need to have a broad array of skills and talents in many areas. Here is a brief look at ten of them:

1. MasterBuilder. In the 17th century, the MasterBuilder oversaw the complete delivery of a project. Then, because of the Industrial Revolution and the development of the assembly line, business operations moved to a divided, separate entity to provide goods and services for the production of building projects. Now architects, engineers, and contractors step forward when it is their time to perform in the assembly line. This is the design/bid/build model of construction. In the last 15 years, the design and the building of a project has evolved under the same roof. As life-cycle planning and budgeting become more important, the industry is moving to the design/build/maintain model. This new model is returning to the MasterBuilder concept and is being filled by facilities managers. Architect, engineers, contractors, and operations/maintenance companies are becoming lesser players in the overall delivery and maintained life of a structure. This building life delivery system maximizes the value of the physical asset. Its practice will continue to grow.
2. Human, Environmental, and Safety Management. Ergonomics, safety planning, regulatory compliance, security systems and management, and disaster recovery planning have immediately become more important. Once again, facilities managers must step up and take the leadership role in providing safer places to work.
3. Space Planning and Design. This applies to both interior and exterior space. Space planning employing reusable modular furniture systems is being used more often because space needs are constantly changing. Along with those space needs comes a change in technology for each move. Many organizations are measuring more closely the income and cost per square foot of space. Thus, effective and efficient use of space will continue to grow in importance. Churn rates for space are increasing, as the knowledge worker demands that space be multifunctional.

   The knowledge worker of today and in the future wants personalized control of their environment in order to enhance productivity. Space design is and will continue to be an important factor in attracting and maintaining a talented work pool. In the future, planning and design must not only integrate data, power, voice, and video but also lighting, sound, airflow, and temperature. Knowledge workers will want the same conveniences that they experience in their automobiles. Exterior space must also be carefully planned through effective landscape design and by managing resources such as irrigation and electrical lighting use.

4. Operations/Maintenance and Outsourcing. Operations and Maintenance (O & M) is the basic function of facilities management. Technology drives the way that we manage and monitor building systems for preventative and predictive care. Trained experts to maintain these systems will continue to be important. Bathrooms will still need to be cleaned and fan belts will need to be changed. New technology will allow O & M to monitor systems more closely and to be better informed as to their status. Work order processing will be done through wireless personal digital assistants on a regular basis. Much of O & M is now outsourced. Outsourcing is determined on the premise of cost/saving, quality, performance, proprietary knowledge, safety and security, and reliability. There will not be a wave of massive outsourcing, but there will be a growth in outsourcing companies that will try to deliver better overall value to their clients. Every facilities department should be looking at themselves as a separate entity that deals with internal or external customers.
5. Contracts and Ethics. In 2001, 74 percent of high school students admitted to seriously cheating. That is more than double the percentage since 1969. Americans cheat the government out of $195 billion each year in paying taxes. This moral decay is beginning to dramatically affect business relations and costs. Instilling integrity and ethics among employees and contracted companies will continue to be a challenge.
6. Finance and Real Estate. Finance departments currently drive and will continue to drive facilities management. For many reasons, there is a big disconnect between finance and facilities. Facilities managers must take a leadership role in bridging this gap. One of the best opportunities might be the creation of a reliable and defendable asset management tracking system that financial managers can understand and believe.

   The acquisition, management, and disposal of real estate are an important part of facilities management. The ability to conduct highest- and best-use studies and due-diligence studies is a must. The future will require that better space, real estate, and asset strategic and master planning take place since there are the frontiers that have not been adequately controlled.

7. Communication and the Delivery of Quality Facility Services. Because the facilities department is so often viewed as a cost center, its operations must be streamlined, efficient, and effective in order to be viewed as one of the best-run departments in the organization. Is there any question that the facilities manager must be a master communicator? After all, this is a people business. Client loyalty and retention become the final yardstick in determining how successful a facilities manager really is.
8. Project Management. Studies show that over 50 percent of a facilities manager's time is spent on managing some type of construction project and the associated programming activities. Given the variety of new project delivery systems and risk sharing, this area will only become more complicated.
9. Power and Water. The growth of our economy has drained our resources and severely impacted our infrastructure. The cost of resources that have been taken for granted will continue to increase; thus, facilities managers must be more efficient in their use.
10. Information Technology. With the blending of facilities and technology, it is becoming more difficult to determine where Information Technology stops and facilities start. Historically, there has been a separation between the two. In the future, there must be more shared knowledge and cooperation between these two groups.

Lifelong learning, adapting to continuous change, and delivering services more efficiently will be the driving forces for facilities professionals in the future.