Doing nothing is great, isn’t it?
Tuning out. Going off the grid. Not lifting a finger. Whatever metaphor one chooses, the appeal of doing nothing is clear.
For maintenance and engineering managers in institutional and commercial facilities, doing nothing on the job obviously would lead to disaster. Many of the nation’s buildings — especially those funded by taxpayer dollars — already operate under a mound of deferred maintenance projects that threaten their safe, reliable and efficient operation. Doing nothing would endanger occupants and visitors and write the epitaph of most facilities.
And yet when managers seek funds to support repair, maintenance and renovation projects to improve their facilities, the people controlling the finances always seem to frame the resulting discussion by asking some version of this question:
“What is the project’s cost, and what is the cost if we do nothing?”
The question implies that a decision to deny a manager’s request means the organization won’t incur a cost — an appealing result for bottom-line-challenged organizations.
Nothing could be further from the truth, though. Refusing to fund a repair or renovation project does not mean the organization will not incur costs. In fact, one participant in a panel discussion on achieving zero emissions in facilities at the recent Greenbuild International Conference in Philadelphia offered a succinct rebuttal to the question:
“Doing nothing is not free,” she told attendees.
Her meaning is clear. Organizations that take the short-sighted approach of failing to invest in facilities — whether the project’s goal is addressing deferred maintenance or achieving zero emissions — are likely to face demands for even more spending in the long term.
For managers seeking funds for repair and renovation projects, a savvy approach when facing the project-or-nothing question is to spell out what a foolhardy strategy it is to do nothing.
Dan Hounsell is senior editor for the facilities market. He has more than 30 years of experience writing about facilities maintenance, engineering and management.
