Building & Facilities Operations

No one likes delivering bad news.  Especially if that bad news is ambiguous and you know it will lead to several questions that you don’t know the answers to.   When people find themselves in this situation, I think it’s normal to experience stress, and often it causes people to shy away from meeting the problem head on.   “I could make this phone call….or….I could wait until I know more….”

Bad move.  Think about the person on the other end of the phone.  They are also experiencing anxiety and stress waiting to hear from you.  While of course they are hoping for good news, more than anything they just want clarity and visibility into the situation.

Delivering bad news might not be fun, but it’s a weight off both parties’ shoulders.  And while it can be painful, nine times out of ten, the person on the other end will recognize that your intention is to be honest, upfront and informative. It also illustrates that you care about finding a resolution even if you don’t yet have the solution they desire.

When in doubt, grit your teeth, pick up the phone and make the call.  You’ll be happy you did.

When it comes to technology, most people fall into one of two camps:  Either they hate it and shy away from change and advancement, or they love it, and they are always first in line for the upgrade or latest and greatest.  Personally, I try to walk the middle road and find a balance somewhere between the two.

Both of the philosophies mentioned above can be dangerous.  Resisting change and failure to embrace new technology is closed minded.  It is important to be open to new ideas and ways of doing things – generally these advancements improve the quality of our lives and ease with which we accomplish things.  If not for changes in technology we would still be sending letters by way of the pony express rather than email and sitting on the phone for hours to purchase airline tickets rather than doing it online in minutes.  Think about how you would have gotten money and directions to a restaurant 15 years ago.  I hope you got the money before the bank closed…

Racing towards technology and embracing change too quickly can have its downfalls too.  Unless you are a self-proclaimed early adopter and enjoying helping companies work out the kinks, sometimes it’s better to not be in the first round of people to try a new product.  Bugs and pieces not all working together properly can lead to time consuming trouble shooting and frustration.

Recently, a lot of people have been moving off local email clients like Outlook to web-based email like Hotmail and Gmail.  I tried this briefly myself, but found that I personally didn’t like some things about gmail.  I don’t like the way they index emails together.  I also think that it does not look professional when you send a work related email and it comes from kylemaikath@gmail on  behalf of Kyle Maikath. I’ve also experienced issues when accepting invites via Gmail – they don’t always show up on your calendar and that can be a real problem.

As a result, I’ve opted to stay with Outlook.  It works well for me and I am happy with its performance – less 1 item.  I really don’t like the archiving in Outlook.  .PST files can be gigantic and clunky and it’s tough to retrieve information from them.  I had problems about a year ago in which a giant .PST file crashed my computer and I lost everything.  Not fun…

I started to think that there has to be a happy medium between the two.  I started looking at Gmail again and noticed that there was unlimited storage.  And then the light went off.  I decided to continue to use Outlook for my day to day operations, but to use Gmail as my means for backing up.  This revelation led me to my current configuration:  Emails are received and managed using Outlook.  Emails are automatically deleted from Outlook once they are 3 months old.  Emails are automatically forwarded to Gmail where they are stored indefinitely.

The configuration has worked out great.  I am still using the interface and app. I prefer for email, but I am also taking advantage of the unlimited storage of an online email client.  In the end, a combination of new and older technology worked best for me and allowed me to do everything I wanted.  Best of both worlds!

It can be very frustrating when you don’t see eye to eye with someone.  Whether it’s a difference of opinion between friends, an argument between rivals, or a dispute between a vendor and client, when people are not in agreement, tempers can flare and emotions can get the best of almost anyone.  Before blowing off the handle, it’s important to think carefully about the big picture and not jump to rash decisions.  In moments of adversity and frustration, try to think of these 5 simple rules:

1)      Consider all the Facts

 Don’t jump to conclusions before having done all the necessary homework to see the big picture and understand all the variables.  Don’t rush…make sure that you’ve considered every angle and have all pieces of the puzzle before you try to put it together. 

 2)      Picture the Problem from the Other Person’s Point of View

 Really try hard to put yourself in the other person’s shoes and imagine what you would say if you were being dealt the information or pitch that you are about to deliver.  Is it believable?  Would you be amendable to what is being proposed?  Don’t forget to really listen to what the other person has to say.

3)      Make Sure You’ve Explained Yourself Well

Your argument or point of view may be so obvious to you and so well thought out in your head that you might not take the time to calmly and slowly explain your opinion.  Most people assume that everyone is following point #2 above – they probably aren’t.  If you find yourself hitting a wall…stop.  Take a deep breath and declare that you are guilty of not explaining yourself well.  This admission of guilt will help to bring the other person’s guard down and help you to work cooperatively rather than antagonistically 

 4)      Sell Your Opinion

 Remember that you want your opinion or point of view to be adopted by your adversary.  A little salesmanship goes along way when trying to get your point across.

 5)      Compromise

In many situations a perfect solution for both parties may not be possible.  Compromise is an important element in order to arrive at a resolution.  Remember, it’s better to get 80% there than to walk away mad.

In the end, you aren’t always going to see eye to eye with everyone, but with a little hard work and a lot of patience, you can almost always get close.

Every 4 years the soccer world turns its focus to the world cup.  32 countries and their respective players practice and train for years simply for the chance to compete in this prestigious event.  While there are certainly favorites and teams that are expected to win, it seems nonetheless that every year there are upsets and the teams we expect to win don’t always oblige.

For example, in this year’s contest, the French team headed to South Africa with high hopes and was expected to fare well.  They had plenty of talent on the roster and many of the players had been there before and had the experience and skills to wager a successful campaign.  But as the first round comes to a close, France has been eliminated and will be heading home.  So what went wrong?

The team dynamics and overall attitude of the team played a major role in their failure.  They didn’t work well together, allowed  the egos of the players to get the best of them, and they did not put the team’s interests first.  The negative attitude of certain players and members of the staff poisoned the group as a whole and rendered them ineffective.  In the end, all the experience and skill in the world couldn’t fix the egos and bad team dynamics.

In business too, building the right team dynamic is extremely critical.  Do the members of your staff respect each other and work well together?  The most talented or skilled employees are not necessarily a good fit if they bring down team productivity and morale.  When evaluating a candidate for a position it is so critical to think about how they will interact and work with other members of your team.  Finding that perfect fit is far more important than finding the most talented person and taking this approach when building your company or team will prove to be invaluable and almost certainly translate to success.

With everything we have going on these days it can be easy to allow things to slip through the cracks. If you have 50 things to do, chances are that you will forget at least 1 of them unless you’ve documented your to-dos or have some sort of list to work off to help you to keep track.

Atul Gawande just wrote a book called The Checklist Manifesto. The book’s main point is simple: no matter how expert you may be, well designed checklists can improve outcomes.  He gives many examples of how checklists have improved the performance of surgeons, airplane pilots, rock stars, etc.  One of the main points the book makes is that there are differences between errors of ignorance (mistakes we make because we don’t know enough), and errors of ineptitude (mistakes we make because we don’t make proper use of what we know).  He suggests that the majority of failures in the modern world are due to this latter type.

The bottom line is that no matter how smart, organized or prepared we think we are, we can all benefit from making a simple checklist and verifying our work against it.  This applies to almost everything we do – from performing preventive maintenance work on an air handler to operating in the emergency room to doing the weekly shopping to getting dressed.  Yes, getting dressed.  As I stood at my gym locker this morning – sopping wet, I realized I had no pants.  My options were limited…wear smelly gym shorts to work or drive home and get a pair of pants.  If only I had made a list of the things I needed the night before.

The goal of any preventive maintenance program is to prevent equipment failure before it occurs. This is typically accomplished by way of a schedule of planned maintenance activities such as equipment checks and inspections, system overhauls at designated times, oil changes, filter changes, and so on. The benefits of performing preventive maintenance are numerous and not typically debated:

• Improved system reliability
• Increased longevity of equipment
• Decrease in replacement costs
• Decrease in downtime

That said, another way to look at the benefits of a preventive maintenance program is to think about the cost associated with NOT having a PM program. Most people recognize the benefits, but many do not recognize the costs associated with doing nothing. By neglecting to perform PM, not only will you miss out on the benefits, but you will become burdened with additional costs:

• Increased replacement/ repair costs due to more frequent failure
• Increased man hours to maintain equipment as problems arise
• Increased downtown and dissatisfaction by equipment users
• Safety risks for equipment users
• Getting fired

Wait….getting fired?!?!?! Yup, not doing PM could be a one way ticket to the unemployment office:

The city of Boston has just terminated 8 MBTA employees for falsifying Preventive Maintenance records associated with public transportation. Not only has this delinquency costs these folks their jobs, but it has also put the general public at risk, not to mention cost tax payers more money by ensuring that these systems will break down sooner than later and more frequently.

There are many tools available today that will help you to get started and build a PM program: It could be the difference between a promotion…and a pink slip!

The Squeaky wheel does tend to get the grease…but does the squeaky wheel get the type of grease it really needs or does it get the first thing you can find on the shelf to make it stop squeaking?  In the arena of client services and support it is difficult to ignore the squeaky wheel – they are your most outspoken customer, they have definitive thoughts about what they what and need and they are not afraid to tell you!

While it is important to make sure to pay close attention to all of your customers, it is difficult to avoid priority being given to your squeaky wheels.  While this may be unavoidable I urge you NOT to give the squeaky wheel that first can off the shelf or exactly what they ask for without question.  Doing so might solve the problem in the short term, but it will likely come back to bite you in the “you know what” in the long term.

The squeaky wheel might not like taking the time to wade through the problem with you and answer questions, but it is imperative to make this a priority.  Squeaky wheels have a tendency to describe the solution they want…not the problem they suffer from.    It might not be pleasant, but I can assure you that if you do the hard work up front and force the client to think through the problem more critically, you end up delivering a far better result and they will be much happier in the long term.  If you force yourself to do it right the first time, those lingering, periodic “squeaks” will be drastically minimized and both parties will be happier  in the end.

The funny thing about writing a BLOG is that it requires having the internet.  In this day and age, you would think that the internet would be an easy thing to come by, but in fact, accessing the internet today is about as easy as finding your way around in the Bermuda Triangle or seeing a dodo bird.  Why is the internet so difficult to come by you ask?  As it turns out, it is due to having a bad service provider.

A bad service provider is a company that does not deliver what they say or promise they will.  It is a company that has indicated that they will provide an ongoing service, and that service is either inconsistent or often disrupted.  Additionally, and almost as important as the service itself, a bad service provider is a company that does not treat its customers with respect or acknowledge its shortcomings.  Its one thing to fail to deliver a service, but it is another to fail AND not have a reason, plan for it not to happen again or explanation for what happened.  From my experience, most people can grant forgiveness for a mistake, but it is far more difficult to forgive a mistake when the company at fault does not take ownership for it.  Many companies are guaranteeing this satisfaction in the form of a Customer Satisfaction Guarantee. It’s nice to be reassured that the item I purchased will work…and if it doesn’t…that my vendor will make it allllllllll better.

So as I sit here today writing my LOG (I would need the internet to include the “B”), a new service provider is setting up and configuring my new internet connection.  I am hopeful that the service promises they have made will ring true.  I am hopeful that they will not drop the ball – but if they do – I hope most of all that they “make it right.”

What does Account Management mean and what do Account Managers do?  The role of the Account Manager in many organizations is neither clearly understood nor properly executed.  He/ she is often someone who does not seem to clearly fit into a prescribed department.  The Sales Team provides a clear cut function – to sell goods and services for the organization they represent.  The Customer Support Team provides another clear cut function – support the customers who use those goods and services.  So, who is this Account Manager who seems to have a foot in both departments?

A good Account Manager should act as the liaison between a company and its clients, and it’s their responsibility to see that those clients are maximizing the value of the products and services provided. That beings said, there is also a sales component to the Account Manager’s job as well. It’s the Account Manager’s role to not only maintain and retain the customer but also to up-sell additional products and services to those same clients.

So does that mean that my Account Manager is someone I shouldn’t trust?  Is it someone who does not have MY best interests at heart?  If they are a good Account Manager, the answer is no – they should be someone you trust and they should have your best interests at heart.  A good Account Manager will be most successful if they think of themselves as an extension of the client – a representative of the client within the organization.  It is their job to live in the client’s shoes and understand where they’re coming from.  If they are successful in doing that, they will be able to more accurately represent the needs and requirements of the client within the organization and work effectively to help the client achieve those goals.  By achieving those goals, they will help to maintain client satisfaction.

In today’s economy, there is great value in applying effort and resources toward retaining clients and ensuring their happiness.  A happy client will not only continue to pay you, but they will help you to continue to develop your product.  They will provide valuable insight into the market and help you build feedback into new configurations and solutions.  A good account manager should feed off  that invaluable stream of information and use it to help develop products and services that can be sold to other clients with similar organizational structures and needs.  The up selling part of the Account Manager’s job is not about “sticking it to the client” for additional revenue…it’s about providing complimentary products and services that make the entire package an end all, comprehensive solution.  If your Account Manager is good…their goal will be to help you to achieve that success.  Yes, sometimes there will be additional costs associated with reaching that milestone, but a good Account Manager is not focused on the revenue…they are focused on the comprehensive solution.  If the Account Manager keeps that their focus, additional revenue for the company will come on its own and will simply be gravy on top.

In summary, an effective Account Manager should be someone you consider your friend.  They should be a trusted resource for advice and guidance.  They should be detail oriented, organized, and communicate well.  They should accurately represent your needs within the company and they should follow through on their promises.  They should own up to mistakes and make things right when they are wrong.  The bottom line is that if an Account Manager is doing their job properly, they should be your strongest ally within the company, your friend, and they should be focused on your success.