Industry leaders discuss the evolving landscape of FM, from AI and smart buildings to preserving skilled knowledge, with insights on leading through change in a rapidly shifting industry.
Today we are bringing you a special episode, featuring a snippet from Eptura's podcast "Workplace Innovator" with host Mike Petrusky. Mike sits down with guests, Lena Thompson, an IFMA Fellow and serves on the IFMA Global Board of Directors, Kay Sargent, Senior Principal & Director of Thought Leadership, Interiors at HOK, Mayra Portalatin, Vice President of Facilities Services at NVE, Inc., and Geoff Snavely, Vice President & General Manager at MilliCare by EBC Carpet Services.
Together, they discuss their upcoming education session at IFMA’s World Workplace 2024 in San Antonio, Texas titled 'Radical Change in FM: Lean In or Be Left Behind.' The session, scheduled for Friday, October 11 at 10:30 a.m. CDT, will cover the evolving landscape of facility management—exploring how to adapt to change, enhance infrastructure, and lead effectively in a rapidly shifting industry. They also dive into the rise of AI, smart buildings, and the challenges of preserving skilled knowledge as the workforce ages.
Resources from the show:
Lena Thompson: [00:00:00] The biggest challenge that I think we have is helping others in other roles. And I'm talking CEOs. And CFOs and COOs of major companies attending their events, their conferences, and really educating them about how important this profession is.
It is the built environment and without people to take care of it and be respected for the credentials that they have and for them to acknowledge that they need us and we need them, but we must bridge the gap for the respect and rapport for the profession.
And that happens through leadership that happens through educating.
Host: Welcome to ConnectedFM, a podcast connecting you to the latest insights, tools, and resources to help you succeed in facility management. This podcast is brought to you by IFMA, the [00:01:00] leading professional association for facility managers. If you're ready to grow your network and advance in your career, go to IFMA.org to get started. Today we have a special episode for you, featuring a snippet from Eptura's podcast, Workplace Innovator, with host Mike Petrusky. Mike sits down with guest Lena Thompson, who is an IFMA fellow and serves on the IFMA Global Board of Directors, Kay Sargent, who is Senior Principal and Director of Thought Leadership Interiors at HOK, Mayra Portalatin, who is the Vice President of Facility Services at NVE, Inc.
And Geoff Snavely, the Vice President and General Manager at Millicare by EBC Corporate Services. Together they discussed their upcoming education session at IFMA's World Workplace in San Antonio, Texas, titled, Radical Change in FM, Lean In or Be Left Behind. The session, scheduled for Friday, October 11th at 10. 30 a. m. Central Standard Time, will cover the evolving landscape of facility management. exploring how to adapt to change, enhance infrastructure, and lead effectively in a rapidly shifting industry. [00:02:00] They also dive into the rise of AI, smart buildings, and the challenges of preserving skilled knowledge as the workforce ages.
But before we get into things, make sure to check out the Workplace Innovator podcast for more insightful discussions like this one. Now, let's get into it.
Mike Petrusky: Hey, glad to be here as we prepare for IFMA's World Workplace 2024 in San Antonio, Texas. The group sitting around this table with me.
This round table discussion, which is not round, it's rectangular. We're going to square this circle or circle this square. And I've assembled much like the Avengers, this team of super star comic book heroes of the FM world who have done so much for this facility management community and have been involved with IFMA for a very long time.
We're excited. We're pumped. We're going to San Antonio for World Workplace [00:03:00] 2024 and who better to talk about it then returning guest, Lena Thompson. Welcome back, Lena.
Lena Thompson: Thank you. DJ Mike P. Glad to be here. Have you been? Wonderful. Enjoying the summer. And although hot,
Mike Petrusky: it is hot, hot times in DC, and I imagine it was hot in Ghana.
Lena Thompson: It was quite warm. Yes. Beautiful, but quite warm.
Mike Petrusky: As a member of the IFMA Global Board of Directors, Lena, you visited the first ever.
Lena Thompson: IFMA Africa.
Mike Petrusky: IFMA Africa.
Lena Thompson: The Ghana chapter was phenomenal. They showed, they set a, a template for those to come. I saw so many pictures online and it was like, Oh,
Mike Petrusky: that would be so cool to be there.
Lena Thompson: I think we blew up the internet on that. I think we did a little something on LinkedIn. It was trending for a while. Fantastic. Yeah.
Mike Petrusky: Well, I can't wait to hear more about it. If we can't get to it today, we'll talk about it at World Workplace. I'm sure it will be a hot topic as the theme of heat is continuing on.
And tell everybody [00:04:00] how sweaty Geoff is DJ Mike P right now. Like
you're
Mike Petrusky: cool as a cucumber, come on. On
Kay Sargent: a
sweat scale, I'd give
Geoff Snavely: it about a seven. Thanks. Yeah. Well, Kind of reminds me of the first time I'm see sweat is what I was told. I have a feeling it, it's gonna be more sweaty here in a few minutes though.
You, I, I think you're just getting started. Are we gonna
Kay Sargent: get into it? No, no. I just, let's do it. No,
Geoff Snavely: I'm just talking. Mike's gonna, Mike's gonna get going and I think the sweat is just, just started. The heat is on. The heat. Heat is on. There you go. Glen Fry would watch you. You go.
Lena Thompson: It reminds me about our first podcast.
Tell me about it. It was hot. We were up, we were, we were on the rooftop and they didn't turn the air on and Mike and I were both like Dripping with sweat and I was like can somebody from facilities get in here and fix this because
Kay Sargent: it's terrible. Where is the facilities manager when you need
Mike Petrusky: them? I said that on the show.
Okay, you read my script and it was all improvised. Yeah, aren't you glad that it was
Mayra Portalatin: It's a podcast and not actual video. It was video.
Lena Thompson: It's out there. It's on YouTube everybody. It was one of the first videos. [00:05:00] Oh my goodness. It was quite uncomfortable, but he did a wonderful job. Speaking of such
Mike Petrusky: things, I have to give credit to those listening who don't know Lena.
I call her OG episode 36 because you were in that very first group of podcasts, but you reference it. Even before that, you did a video with me. In 2016, and I'm no mathematician, but that's like eight years ago, and this is amazing. Thank you for that. But going back even further on video, Mayra Portalatin, how'd I do with the name?
Mayra Portalatin: You did fantastic. You're, you're, you're getting the hang of it for sure. That's
Mike Petrusky: nine years of me trying to pronounce Mayra's name. And she did a video in 2015, nine years ago. How crazy is that?
Mayra Portalatin: Time flies by. I do. I remember that's probably the first time that you find out about some of my music interests and tastes.
And you were probably a little bit taken aback because you didn't think that I had it in me.
Mike Petrusky: If I recall, Mayra, I said, I'm going to guess you're a backstreet boys. [00:06:00] New kids on the block fan. And no, you were what?
Mayra Portalatin: I was more of a nine inch nails disturbed kind of gal instead.
Mike Petrusky: Heavy metal Mayra. Fantastic. So good.
And Kay, of course, everyone knows Kay Sargent of HOK has been on the show many, many times has been on podcasts galore in the industry. So we know. Isn't in your title now thought leadership of some kind. I saw that.
Kay Sargent: Actually that is my title
Mike Petrusky: now.
What do they call you here at HOQ?
Kay Sargent: The director of thought leadership for interiors.
Mike Petrusky: Boom.
Kay Sargent: Wow.
Mike Petrusky: Drop the mic everybody. Impressive. Can anybody beat that? There's a lot of thinking
Kay Sargent: that has to happen right now, Mike. There's a lot of stuff happening and we got to really focus on it.
Mike Petrusky: A lot of thoughts, a lot of thoughts. And that's why I've gathered you all today. Geoff Snavely, of course, OG seven, episode seven.
We sat down in my basement, I think, and recorded it. No,
Geoff Snavely: well, we have been in your basement several times [00:07:00] recording stuff.
Mike Petrusky: You were one of my first guests. Yeah,
Geoff Snavely: we've come a long way. You've come a long way. That was eight years ago. Being at HOK Georgetown. It doesn't get any better than this. With that being said, I remember a time sitting in a conference room in my office where we had to put towels down for the microphone so it wouldn't catch the vibration.
Didn't want to vibrate the table. We've been in your basement multiple times. It's crazy. Yeah. It's wild.
Mike Petrusky: And so glad you're here. topic of discussion is our session coming up at world workplace. I wanted to give a shout out to the IFMA team preparing for the largest gathering of facility management professionals globally.
Am I wrong about that? Or is that right? I'm pretty accurate in saying that, and we're going to be part of it. Everybody, we are on a panel Friday morning, the last day of the conference. This amazing team will tackle the topic of [00:08:00] radical change in FM, lean in or be left behind. So let's talk a little bit about what we're going to talk about.
Maybe toss some ideas around and we need an intro song for this session, right? What do y'all have in mind change? What comes to mind musically? I've referenced the topic of change, especially in 2024 on my show, everybody brings up change management leadership role in change, moving teams forward, getting out of our comfort zone.
In fact, the description talks about the fact that we're going to look to the new frontier of the built environment for FM practitioners and workplace consultants and industry partners as we work together. To lead our community forward into whatever comes next. So I'm thinking.
Kay Sargent: Times, they are a changing.
There's a lot
Mike Petrusky: of songs related to that. Yeah.
Kay Sargent: Yeah. I mean, it's interesting because we actually Friday afternoon, we're going to be talking about future casting. And we've been spending a tremendous amount of time [00:09:00] over the last, we always do this, but specifically recently, because people are now not out of just triage mode.
They're kind of thinking, all right, now that we're starting to come out of it. You know, that triage mode, what lies ahead? And I think there's a lot of things on the radar ahead of us that people aren't really fully engaged in, whether it's artificial intelligence, whether it's the longevity imperative, whether it's sustainability and the fact that we are falling behind in that regard.
And we got to catch up really, really fast. Whether it's the new ways of working, there are a lot of things that are going to radically change. The way that we have to manage facilities going forward, that we need to pay more attention to and address more fully.
Mayra Portalatin: Well, and to that, you add the continued skill gap and retiring workforce as facility managers.
We see a lot of change. In bringing in all these new technologies, which it's hard for some of [00:10:00] our our more seasoned trades folks to kind of adopt those. So we're, we're looking at our younger folks to kind of bring that in because they're more, they're more likely to change to embrace those things.
But at the same time, we still have some very old systems that we're trying to maintain. And who's going to do those? Because as our folks continue to retire, there's nobody that has that knowledge, that skillset to continue to keep up these like old systems. So I know we talk a lot about new technologies and efficiencies, but we cannot forget that we still have a really old building portfolio that we still have to maintain.
And we need to kind of, you know, Take that and, and how do we marry that and train up our new folks in, you know, what's still left out there. But then our, our folks that have are pretty seasoned, you know, how do we get them also to kind of come to terms with [00:11:00] all this new technology? And that is the, I mean, that's the change right there, right.
That we have to manage.
Mike Petrusky: It summarizes it really well. Pretty well, the need to transfer knowledge to adopt new tools and technologies. The digitization of the built environment is something we talk about a lot on these shows.
Kay Sargent: Well, and it's also how do we deal with the aging infrastructure? Mm-Hmm. , because we have to, we have to modernize that aging infrastructure and we have to think about adaptive reuse as well.
Mike Petrusky: Big picture stuff, K. I love it. Geoff, what are you hearing from your customers?
AD: Hey FMs, get ready for an unforgettable experience and amazing networking opportunities at this year's World's Workplace Conference and Expo on October 9 11 in San Antonio, Texas. Don't miss our must attend welcome reception where the fun kicks off with a fiesta themed party. Attend our Explore FM event, meet new faces at the first timers reception, and connect with future leaders at the student and young professional reception.
Plus, enjoy [00:12:00] professional networking throughout the expo hall, educational sessions, and networking group activities. World's Workplace is one of the best ways to connect with experts in the industry and grow your professional network. Register today at worldworkplace. ifma. org. See you there!
Geoff Snavely: So, I think you hear it, and I think you see it. There is a real movement out there call it a transition or an evolution from facilities management to workplace experience management. I'm really trying to get my arms around what that means exactly.
Like, what are the differences between those two? What are the similarities? And then if workplace experience manager, and whether that be a formal title or just more of a, the, the types of responsibilities that you handle every day, what skills are required? In that world, that domain versus what we were [00:13:00] doing, what a facilities manager was doing five years ago.
And I think it's things like listening, empathy, trust, and relationship building. And those are all things that are easy to say, but how do we help this profession develop those skills, learn things that they could put into action. And I, and, you know, talk about world workplace that you would want people to go to San Antonio.
Pick up some of those things, bring them, not just technical skills and knowledge they're bringing back to their workplace, but the things that are going to help that transformation of FM into workplace experience, whatever that means.
Kay Sargent: Yeah, so I have to add to that, I think. One of the words that, that I would add to that is empowering.
And we look at this difference between the building management and employee or, you know, engagement and management is how are we empowering individuals with knowledge that we're collecting now through smart [00:14:00] buildings that empower you to make a different decision. So that you don't just have to sit there and be annoyed by something, but you don't have any information or knowledge about how to use it better.
So tapping into all of the things that we can do today to empower somebody to say, where is it cooler? Where is it quieter? Where's, where are my team sitting? So that they can, Create and go to the type of environment and experience that they want to have versus just kind of sitting there having to deal with whatever is impacting them.
Geoff Snavely: Do you think there's a shift from being more reactive to more proactive? You know,
Kay Sargent: I think we're on the cusp of it. I think we're collecting a lot of information right now, but we aren't necessarily putting it in the hands of the users to empower them to do it. And that's really kind of. Internet of things 2.
0 that empowers employees.
Mayra Portalatin: Well, that's almost like, well, in addition to that, I guess I would say that's where the AI comes in, right? It's we're [00:15:00] collecting all this information. We've been begging for all this information of all of our facilities folks, because we need the information in order to make informed decisions, right?
But what AI And what it could bring is that sourcing of all this information, and just like people are using chat GPT right now, is for facility managers or facilities folks to be able to ask something about our facility with everything that's stored in there and be able to get an answer from it. Like what you were saying, it's like, At this time of day, where is it cooler?
Where is a place where I can just sit quietly for the day? Because, hey, it goes through the entire systems and knows as far as occupancy where everybody's at. And it can tell you, hey, if you go to this room in the third floor, it'll be nice, cool, and quiet for you. That's what AI can bring to us, but we're not there because we need to feed it the information [00:16:00] and what, and we have to trust.
That the information is going to be well used and protected.
Kay Sargent: I think we're really, really close to being there if we're not already.
Mike Petrusky: We're on the verge. Yeah. We're on the cusp. So much there though. Lena, I have to hear from you. Advancing technology, the need to upskill, moving careers along, passing information onto the next generation, building our emotional intelligence.
Empowerment of this FM community. Are you feeling it as a practitioner? Are you feeling good about that? How optimistic are you about where we go from here?
Lena Thompson: I'm extremely optimistic. If you think back, our industry is constantly changing. It always has. And it always will, but here's something that I think leadership and it's a, it's one of those words, when you say it out loud, it goes.
Oh, what does it really mean? Well, our industry, we have an aging industry, [00:17:00] just like the trades. The challenge, the biggest challenge that I think we have is helping others in, in other roles. And I'm talking CEOs. And CFOs and COOs of major companies attending their events, their conferences, and really educating them about how important this profession is.
It is the built environment. The built environment and without people to take care of it and be respected for the credentials that they have and for them to acknowledge that they need us workplace. You call it whatever you want to call it. Facilities management, you call it building operations. They need us and we need them, but we must bridge the gap for the respect and rapport for the profession.
And that happens through leadership that happens through educating. Up and educating out that helps, you know, the, the boots on the ground. [00:18:00] You know, I've met many people over the years, students, higher ups. And the one common thing that always said, people always say is what is facilities management?
And we have a definition. Don't ask me what it is right now, but we have a definition. And it's so important to have that one band, one sound, and let's move it in the same direction. And if we continue to push, and I'm with you, Kay, I believe we can, we are so close. We're right on the edge because if COVID didn't teach them anything else, they need facility professionals to be around for the work.
Kay Sargent: I find that really fascinating that you're saying that because IFMA was very pivotal in testifying in front of Congress for the infrastructure bill. And several people were like, why is IFMA or why are you talking about that? Buildings are infrastructure. It's not just roads and bridges. And if we don't take care of, as we've learned, if we don't [00:19:00] take care of that infrastructure, it becomes dangerous and really, really expensive.
And not. Sustainable. And we have to invest in our buildings because fundamentally that is the infrastructure that we are all engaging with every single day.
Geoff Snavely: There's your, there's your intro song. Well said. A guitar riff, eruption, Van Halen. Eddie
Mike Petrusky: Van Halen.
Geoff Snavely: Yeah.
Mike Petrusky: It
Geoff Snavely: sounds like we're on the verge of an eruption.
Mike Petrusky: I love it. I love it. So I love quotes, you know, I love quotes and I wanted to get your reaction to some of these quotes. So tune in, see how you respond to some famous quotes about change. Abraham Maslow, Maslow's hierarchy, of course, in any given moment we have two options to step forward into growth or step back into safety.
We talk about that a lot. What do you think about that?
Kay Sargent: I don't think people are as afraid of change as we think. I mean, listen, [00:20:00] Everybody basically within a week's notice, if not a day. Was basically told you got to go home and work from home and we did right I think sometimes we make way too much of it and we make a big deal about it I think what people hate is transition and right now a lot of people are stuck in an extruded Transition and they don't know what they're doing and that unknown is far more settling.
Everybody hates to move But if I told you you would be in a new house or a new office tomorrow and it would just be done, you'd be fine with that. It's the transition and we are making this one of the most painful transitions we have ever experienced. And that's why I think people are just in such a flutter about this.
Yeah. And it's
Geoff Snavely: just, there's so much with them involved in that, you know, with change. If what's in it for me is a good thing with the change, people love change, but if it's not, they're going to resist it. And if they don't [00:21:00] know to your point, the uncertainty. If they don't know what this change means to them or how it affects them, that leads to a lot of discomfort, anxiety, and nothing good comes from those things.
Mike Petrusky: Yeah. That reminds me. Speaker once said that everybody, everybody loves it when they get to Disney world and get to enjoy the parks. It's the packing up the kids and getting in the car, a plane and traveling down there. It's the transition from your normal life to your. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Magical vacation that is the challenge.
And we can think through what it's going to take to get there, what the results going to be after we put in that work, then the joy comes. And speaking of Disney, here's a quote from Walt Disney about change times and conditions change so rapidly that we must keep our aim constantly focused on the future.
Kay Sargent: Yeah, I don't, I don't think our focus is on the future. I think right now people are so myopically looking like right at their feet that they're not even looking up. I mean, there are, there [00:22:00] are gray rhinos, known issues on our horizon that we are just blatantly ignoring right now. And we've got to snap out of that.
And part of the problem is that we're in triage mode, right? There are so many burning fires right now that it's kind of, we've gone into triage mode. And a lot of people. I know nobody wants to talk about return to office or work or any of those things, but I don't care. Every time we get a group of people in the room that is still one of the biggest things that they are trying to, they're struggling with is how do we go forward or what does that look like?
And do we even need to worry about that anymore? Do we just, is there a whole new definition about what work is and how do we just embrace that? But that is still an issue.
Geoff Snavely: Yeah. And it seems like we have spent a lot of time thinking about and living in the past or too far in the future and neither of those really add a lot of value.
Right? Like we got, it's, we're sort of in this existential crisis, right? Where we're not in [00:23:00] the moment enough. And, and yeah, you always need to be looking into the future to see what you call it. A rhino,
Kay Sargent: a gray rhino, gray. You need to
Geoff Snavely: see that gray rhino. So directionally, you know, you're doing the right things to avoid that.
But if we focus too much on that and we're not existing in the moment, I think that can get us in trouble.
Kay Sargent: And I'll give you an example of a gray rhino, a gray rhino you know, if you ask people why people don't want to come back to the office, the number one reason is the commute. That's the number one reason.
Anybody do anything about that? Yeah.
Lena Thompson: Nope. No.
Geoff Snavely: That's a great point,
Kay Sargent: right? Or second biggest reason people don't want to come back to the office is because they like the flexibility of when they work. Anybody doing anything about that? Right? So the two biggest reasons that people don't want to come to the office, people were just blatantly ignoring.
Because there isn't an easy answer to it. So yeah, we'll deal with that. You're right.
Geoff Snavely: Cause even if you have great breakfast burritos, you know, it doesn't help you with either of those. I'm not going, it doesn't help you with. I'm a fan of a
Kay Sargent: breakfast burrito. [00:24:00] That might get me in the office. Just saying, but I hear you don't, it wouldn't.
Yeah, that's
Lena Thompson: not for an hour drive.
Mike Petrusky: We do need to address it. Maybe we continue to offer some ideas at San Antonio during our session. Radical change in FM. Lean in or be left behind everybody. Join us in San Antonio, Texas at IFMAS World Workplace 2024.
Host: Thanks for tuning into the Connected FM podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, please take a moment to rate and review the show because it really helps us reach more listeners just like you. And don't forget to hit the subscribe button so you never miss an episode. See you next time.