Rethinking Innovation in Facilities Management

11/27/2024

There isn’t a facilities management professional among us who hasn’t sat in a strategic planning meeting facilitated by a management consultant who keeps telling the team to free their minds and “think outside the box.”   

When this happens, participants usually slink lower in their chairs, look nervously around the room at other staff hoping someone makes a smart remark, or leaf frantically through their preplanning notes to see if they can find the right answer. 

However, the directive to think outside the box can be a problem for facilities management (FM) organizations. 

Outside the Box is Bad Advice 

Referencing to “think outside the box” usually takes place when someone is stuck on the practical boundaries of a problem or a new activity. They think of the box as a constraint to their creativity. 

According to David Adkin, co-Founder and CEO of Adalo, defining the box boundaries stimulates rather than stifles innovative thinking. His advice makes perfect sense within an FM framework. So many FM organizations become paralyzed because they overanalyze a problem and never get to a solution. 

When there are too many choices, it can dull the ability to make good decisions. Using a bank account analogy, if a team draws out a significant among of money for one expense, they have less in the account for remaining expenses. The more options the team exhausts for one problem, the fewer options there are for others. Scientists call this psychological depletion. 

Team members need to spend their time wisely. If the team brainstorms too many pathways to pursue a solution to a problem, the team could focus on these for months. They become consumed by finding more solutions and never implement one that is viable. The boundaries of what is possible could become exhaustive. 

When Inside the Box Works 

There are instances when the comfort zone or inside the box may be a perfectly acceptable place to reside. In these instances, it is not necessary to look at the outer boundaries that comprise the box and bind the issues or the problem together, but it is critical to understand why the comfort zone is important.  

Typically, being in the comfort zone means the skills involved in performing the job or tasks have been mastered and individuals or a group feel they can be productive. Another way to look at this situation is that expertise has been achieved and there may not be a reason to change the way of doing things. In certain situations a routine or proven method of doing something may allow an individual or team to maximize both time and resources by eliminating a trial-and-error approach. Staying on the course or working within a successful box environment may be a smart approach during periods of limited time, and people/financial resources. 

In addition, not everyone aspires to move up the corporate ladder. These folks have achieved a perfect within-the-box professional pattern of work. If there is no chance for criticism or the potential for replacement by more aggressive FM staff, then it may be completely acceptable to stay within the confines of the box. This approach only works when staff have been honest with each other (and themselves) and can say with certainty they have no regrets about missed opportunities.  

Outside the Comfort Zone 

The reality of working in today’s business environment means that having continuous “mental security” is not realistic. Sometimes it is necessary to move through the comfort zone and venture outside the box by visiting the growth zone.  

Beyond the growth zone is the scary place called the stress zone where business challenges may exceed current capabilities and promote anxiety and extreme pressure. It is the push/pull zone where FM professionals need to find the perfect balance, so they experience some push to expand and grow, but understand the pull to ensure they have not crossed too many box boundaries to be in the zone of excessive stress. 

Burn the Box! 

In an FM environment, there is an instinct to worry that if a new concept or idea does not work out, there will be a safety net to go back to the old ways. This mindset means that if an organization believes it has an option to come back, it changes their behavior. They may not go fully charged ahead but hold back on total commitment. According to Irv Grousbeck, an entrepreneur, professor at Stanford Business School and principal owner of the Boston Celtics, options on a creative path do not always have positive value. An individual or team must find the right strategy to make the innovation work. There can be no turning back. 

Stormy Friday is founder and president of The Friday Group, an international facilities services consulting firm. She is a member of the ProFMI Commission, a governance body that serves as an advisory committee for the Professional Facility Management Institute's (ProFMI) activities.