Perspectives

TAMSIN TWEDDELL

EXPERTISE ARMOUR

TAMSIN TWEDDELL is a leadership and learning coach, and former Soft Landings expert NICK FOX is deputy director of capital projects and estate management at North Bristol NHS Trust

I’ve noticed a common theme among the engineering leaders I coach. You need to build a lot of knowledge to be an engineer, and getting things wrong can have serious consequences. So being a ‘knower’ becomes second nature, and being seen as a knower can be core to your professional persona. The trouble is, it can sometimes inhibit the development of the people you lead.

Instead, leaders need to model that it is OK not to know something, and to get things wrong occasionally. Otherwise, your colleagues will not feel comfortable admitting to what they don’t know and may try to conceal their mistakes. This hinders growth.

I am coaching an emerging leader who wants to bring out the best in the people she manages. She feels that they don’t share much with her and are reluctant to ask questions when they are having difficulties. She assumed that to maintain her authority she needed to have all the answers to their questions.

She had also told me she had a strong relationship with her own line manager – she could tell him anything, including personal issues. He would share his challenges and struggles with her, which made him seem more human and approachable.

Then there was a light bulb moment. She realised that sharing her own uncertainty with her team would not lead to a loss of respect, but might make her more approachable, permitting them to share their own struggles.

Social psychologist Brene Brown describes the ways we unconsciously hide our vulnerability as “armour”. Expertise can be used as armour against vulnerability and we may feel the need to be right all the time. By having the courage to admit to what we are unsure about, we can model curiosity and being a learner, encouraging others to do the same. I read an interesting post recently about how a ‘dip sample’ type approach to compliance auditing gives adequate assurance. Except it really doesn’t.

Auditing by task, asset, building and site is my chosen technique.

Compliance is one of the main challenges for facilities professionals, but I refuse to believe it’s complicated – it normally comes down to process, systems and behaviours.

I have written before about a measurement for ‘compliance’. What does it even mean because when do you become compliant?

I break compliance into two parts: ● Engineering activity compliance – have you done what the law says you need to do from a maintenance perspective? ● Management-type requirements – including permits to work, ladder registers, working at height, COSHH and risk assessments.

Clients often take audits verbatim. If they are not comprehensive enough you often have gaps and leave clients with a false sense of compliance. I always ask clients: to what level do you want me to prove compliance?

I ask you all to consider the ‘audit golden thread’: ● Audit to determine the right tasks are taking place; ● Audit so the CAFM system contains these tasks on the right frequencies in the right buildings; ● Audit to ensure evidence can be provided to support completion of tasks at asset level, not just task level; ● Audit to ensure all assets are linked to PPM regimes;

● Audit so the person who does the work has the right credentials; and ● Audit so the company who you employ has the right credentials.

This is the only way to prove compliance at the level I believe it should be evidenced at, but I rarely see this level of assurance being sought.

‘Dip sampling’ isn’t for me (unless that’s what the client asks for). If we are going to provide assurance, let’s do it properly.

Expertise can be used as armour against vulnerability and we may feel the need to be right all the time Compliance is one of the main challenges for FMs, but I refuse to believe it’s complicated

NICK FOX

THE KEY TO AUDIT SUCCESS

JACQUELINE K CUPPER

LIFT AS YOU CLIMB

JACQUELINE K CUPPER is an FM consultant and cofounder of Plan B, which aims to increase gender diversity

Mentoring dates back to ancient Greece, when Odysseus left home to fight the Trojan Wars leaving his son Mentor behind to look after the household. These days, professional mentoring is essential as our working world shifts to being more flexible, agile, remote, hybrid – and all the other adjectives FM leaders are encountering post-pandemic!

There is great power in experienced professionals sharing their knowledge to help others grow. Plan B for FM was created to support women, an underrepresented group in the FM sector, learn from others, and accelerate their careers through mentoring. But mentors and mentees both gain from the experience.

Mentors hear about creative new ideas from mentees unrestrained by fear of failure and, in turn, they offer their experience to improve upon them. Mentees gain confidence from mentors’ personal input into their career decisions, thus improving chances of success.

Our sector has been at the heart of every aspect of the return to the office. For many of us, we finally have a seat at the boardroom table – and we’re required to speak the language of the boardroom, not day-today FM. Cross-sector mentoring from women in senior positions can help FMs to navigate this new corporate seniority.

Equally, hospitality and FM have great opportunities to mentor each other, especially as we all strive to enhance the end user’s experience. Cross-sector mentoring can help us to innovate and test ideas on those who have more experience or who have faced similar challenges. The result for FM leaders will be finding new ways to demonstrate their value to the communities they serve.

So while you’re climbing the ladder, remember to turn around to help others. You’ll make our sector better in the process – what’s not to love?

Mentees gain confidence from mentors’ personal input into their career decisions

BIANCA ANGELICO

SERVICES AFFECT WELLBEING

BIANCA ANGELICO is chief daymaker at On Verve

As we return to the workplace there are even more elements for businesses to consider. At the top of the list is making the workplace a destination. Studies reveal that workers are keen to retain some form of hybrid working, and that they have higher expectations of their workplace.

However, a recent Global Workplace Report from NTT provides a stark warning for leaders. Whereas 91 per cent of businesses recognise the value of employee experience (EX) as being important to the organisational strategy, just 38 per cent of employees surveyed believe that their employer fully values their health and wellbeing.

There’s a big disconnect and companies that fail to address this will suffer. One way to bridge this disconnect is to empower front-of-house (FOH) teams to go beyond their traditional roles at reception and become more embedded in an organisation.

FOH teams can be the eyes and ears of an organisation. On top of this, they can develop relationships with employees and ensure that each individual feels truly valued and supported.

Instead of being tied to the reception area, FOH teams can spend time each day walking through the workplace and chatting with employees. Not only will this build relationships, but they can collect feedback – formally and informally.

Sometimes the informal feedback can be most valuable. As FOH teams build relationships with employees, the watercooler chats can lead to employees sharing feedback they may not share in a more formal setting.

FOH teams can take mental notes and share the feedback with management, ensuring that senior leaders have a constant finger on the pulse of their EX.

A strong emphasis on employee wellbeing will lead to benefits throughout the business, from improved productivity to increased profits. FOH teams are in the ideal position to be the drivers of wellbeing projects.

FOH teams can be the eyes and ears of an organisation... they can develop relationships

FRONTLINE HEROES FINALIST

Angela Longhurst

● What? Selected as a finalist in the Frontline Heroes category at the 2021 IWFM Impact Awards for maintaining high-quality daily business operations – recommissioning clinical space, managing compliance, planned maintenance scheduling, reactive work requirements – while supporting customers and teams during the Covid-19 pandemic ● My role? To provide safe environments for patients and customers through effective estate management and ensure a positive customer experience by placing patients at the heart of everything we do. Great service and high standards are at the centre of my focus, and I’m always looking to improve them. Additionally, I took a hands-on approach to Covidrelated safety for our team, customers and patients. ● The impact? I set up and managed local processes to ensure the regular supply of PPE and lateral flow test kits for frontline team members. Through collaborating with NHS colleagues from the local primary care network, the NHSE Primary Care Estates team and clinical commissioning group, I helped to deliver a PCN vaccination clinic at Parkwood Health Centre, accommodating internal space requirements, creating recovery areas for patients, which improved the patient experience and enabled the NHS to see more patients. I have helped to improve compliance performance through regular review and liaising with tenants, landlords and the NHSPS compliance team. ● What’s next? As we approach what is likely to be a challenging winter, ensuring the health estate remains up and running is vital. My colleagues and I will continue working hard to ensure that hospitals, health centres and clinics are clean and safe for patients and our NHS colleagues throughout this difficult period. We also want to ensure that the health estate continues to meet the needs of patients now and beyond the pandemic, so we will continue identifying practical, tailored, and innovative local property solutions so that every patient can get the care they need in the best space and place for them.

ANGELA LONGHURST is facilities coordinator at NHS Property Services

VOLUNTEER VIEWPOINT

TIME TO REFLECT

RAY GOODIER is a volunteer on the IWFM Health Working Group and a certified leadership coach/mentor

FM professionals have shown how we are able to adapt, upskill and deliver against relentless challenges. We need to continue this high performance in 2022.

In the healthcare sector we face many challenges and opportunities: supporting hybrid or changed work premises; overseeing health, safety and wellbeing initiatives; adopting smart tech (AI, IoT) to deliver smart hospitals and integrate smart city concepts; managing the effects of the labour shortage and the impact on service delivery – our own and our supply chains; PFI hand-back and changing capital/ funding regimes; changing business models with the introduction of ICS and managerial delivery concepts; and increasing collaboration with CRE colleagues.

So how do we equip ourselves to deliver the ‘Great FM Reinvention’?

First, we need to define what we FM professionals want to be remembered for. The invisible profession or visible impact leaders, innovators, disruptors and trusted board members?

Second, let’s identify our super-strengths. What differentiates us, our team, our organisation from others? What are our standout abilities? Let’s identify them and strengthen them.

Third, we must borrow ‘red teaming’ practices from our military colleagues to embed applied critical thinking into our processes. It’s a revolutionary way to stress-test strategies, flush out unseen threats and missed opportunities, execute delivery in an uncertain world. We need critical and contrarian thinking in our everyday planning processes, challenging assumptions, considering alternative perspectives and disrupting our own thinking.

Fourth and finally, as professional impact leaders and innovators, we need to give back to the profession. Volunteer and you will see the amazing rewards to the sector and society.