Griffin Hamilton, host of the Modern Facilities Management Podcast, joins World Workplace Live to share lessons from 120+ episodes. He explores the evolving role of FM post-COVID, the rise of AI and why mentorship and community are key to the industry’s future.
In this podcast episode, host Griffin Hamilton of the Modern Facilities Management Podcast speaks at World Workplace Live, reflecting on his experiences and learnings from hosting over 120 episodes. Griffin discusses the evolution of facilities management post-COVID, emphasizing the role of facilities teams as strategic partners in organizations. He highlights the integration of technology, particularly AI, in the industry and its impact on operations. Griffin also stresses the importance of mentorship in nurturing the next generation of facilities managers. He concludes by discussing industry trends and the importance of community and shared knowledge in advancing the field.
In this today's episode, recorded live at IFMA’s World Workplace, Griffin Hamilton, host of the Modern Facilities Management Podcast, reflects on key insights gained from over 120 interviews with leaders across the FM industry.
Griffin shares how the role of the facility manager has transformed since COVID-19, evolving from behind-the-scenes support to a strategic partner within organizations. He dives into the growing influence of technology — especially AI — and what it means for day-to-day operations and decision-making. The conversation also highlights the critical role of mentorship in shaping the next generation of FM professionals and how community-driven learning helps the industry thrive.
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This episode is sponsored by ODP Business Solutions!
Griffin Hamilton: [00:00:00] Looking to the facilities team as a strategic
partner to make sure that they are creating an environment and creating a place
of work or a place, just any facility in general that is a safe environment that
allows for the occupants to actually execute their job without having to think
about anything in the background.
Host: Welcome to Connected fm, 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 leading professional association for
facility managers. If you're ready to grow your network and advance in your
career, go to isma.org to get started.
In today's episode, host Griffin Hamilton of the Modern Facilities Management
Podcast reflects on his experiences and learnings from hosting over 120
episodes. Griffin discusses the evolution of facilities management post COVID,
emphasizing the role of facilities teams as strategic partners and organizations.
He highlights the [00:01:00] integration of technology, particularly AI in the
industry and its impact on operations. He also stresses the importance of
mentorship and nurturing the next generation of sms. Now let's get into it.
Griffin Hamilton: My name is Griffin Hamilton. I am the host of the Modern
Facilities Management Podcast. And I am thrilled to have the opportunity to do
a podcast here at World Workplace Live. It's a bit of a different format, seeing
how I don't have a guest and I'm the one that's gonna be talking the entire time.
Usually I'm the one that's asking the questions and letting the experts talk. But
after going through that format hundreds of times over the last three and a half
years, I've had a lot of solid takeaways on industry best practices, what's top of
mind for people and most importantly, [00:02:00] mentorship and the
importance of having a mentor throughout your career.
So, I started the podcast in early 2021. I. After starting a facilities management
software company called Flowpath as I was getting more and more into the
industry, I was just looking for more information. I'm a big podcast consumer
and I was just looking for content to learn about what people were thinking
about how people were operating best practices, and I couldn't find many.
Podcasts out there that we're consistently producing podcasts and producing
content. Fortunately, now that's changed with Connected FM being one of the
podcasts that have now come out over the last couple years that are helping talk
through different best practices in the industry and getting knowledge out there.
But at the time I figured, why not me? Why not purchase a mic and get people
to come on and just talk shop and me being a really curious individual. I got the
first [00:03:00] couple of guests to come on and just shot it with them of asking
what they do, how they got into the industry how they operate, really what's top
of mind for them and challenges that they have.
And through that it was just turned into more of a conversational type interview
where I would. I think to an annoying level just ask follow up questions and just
try to learn more and more about what's important to them. So that was the
beginning portion of the podcast, and as I mentioned, it's been almost 120, 150
episodes later.
I've had some solid takeaways and I have found some themes that have been
pretty consistent across all of those episodes which that's exactly what I wanted
to cover here today. I think going into the first item over the last handful of
years, this is obviously post covid the importance of facilities, organization and
how much of a strategic partner the facilities team has now viewed.
That has been a common theme of how different compliance related tasks have
[00:04:00] changed, how keeping up with standards has been challenging and
how now the business office or the finance department is looking to the
facilities team as a strategic partner to make sure that they are creating an
environment and creating a place of work or a place, just any facility in general
that is a safe environment that allows for the occupants to actually execute their
job without having to think about anything in the background.
And that impact that a facilities manager has and a facilities organization has
been. Something that I think has changed specifically over the last handful of
years and has been brought into the light and a lot more. It's been a lot more
common there. Another theme that I've seen has been technology and here at
World Workplace, we're seeing a main theme and a main topic being ai. And
that has been, you know, over the last 18 months, 24 months in particular top of
mind for just about every industry. But facilities management is no different.
And even before AI being a hot topic the [00:05:00] evolution of a tech stack
and facilities management has been a theme on the show.
Interviewing people that have gone from pen and paper to actually having a
CMMS or work order system to now adopting IOT devices and BAS
integrations and creating an entire tech stack to allow them to operate and
manage their facilities leveraging data and not just that gut feeling. And so
seeing the evolution of the different technology available and the tech
technology and how it's being used.
Has also been a common theme and a common challenge people have talked
about on the podcast.
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Griffin Hamilton: As far as my own takeaways, there being one of the
founders of Flowpath. We are a software company and so very much in the
weeds of FM technology and seeing how it is evolving and the options that are
there.
I think the selection of a technology stack has been top of mind for people and a
lot of conversations that I've had has really gone from it just being like, what is
my neighbor using to a more scientific data driven, a process of evaluation and
implementation. Now as far as. Where it's going.
That's one of the common questions I ask people is what is changing about the
industry and where do you view it going? And that's one of my favorite
questions to ask because you're getting the perspective of people that are in the
weeds that are making the most out of these different platforms [00:07:00] and
are impacted, being impacted the most by these different platforms.
And so, just seeing how they're readily available, how it's evolving pretty
continuously and. Throwing out AI and just that being opening up a whole new
world for how technology's gonna be used has been an interesting topic of
conversation there. One of the more important items, I've discussed with just
about every guest has been about mentorship. We've had people on from
different nonprofit organizations like Facilithon, talking through the next
generation of facilities managers and how we're going to replace the generation
that's leaving and coming at retirement age over the next handful of years with
this next generation of younger talent.
And mentorship has been a theme here of giving that next generation the
opportunity to learn and be mentored and shadow, and understand from the best
the people who have done it for decades on how to operate and what
opportunities are there within the [00:08:00] industry. The last question I ask
every guest on the podcast is, who or what has had the biggest impact on you
and your career?
And it's a good way for me to catch people who've listened before, but it's also a
good way for them to actually reflect and think back on the countless people
that gave them an opportunity and taught them something that they've carried
on throughout their entire careers. I. And to me that, again, that being a central
theme for this specific talk today is that importance of mentorship where
everybody has been given an opportunity and had that person come in and
really talk to here's how, showing them a ropes on how, here's how you operate,
here's questions you should ask.
Here's how you should act as a professional and make yourself a valuable. Asset
to whatever the organization is. And that doesn't matter what industry it is.
Every single one of the folks that I've had on has been able to answer that
question with someone that had a meaningful impact on their [00:09:00] career
and.
So again, I think those are, are three of the main themes that I've seen and that
I'm excited to continue on. And having discussions with different folks in in
facilities management. Now as far as different trends that we're seeing and kind
of tying it all together, the tech e evolution of the tech stack having a
mentorship program and being like a strategic partner at your organization that
is industry agnostic. And one of the reasons why I think so many people we're
nearing hundreds over a hundred thousand downloads. But I think that's why so
many people have been.
Drawn to that content and to listening to me asking people a lot of questions is
because it's applicable across verticals within facilities management. And so
seeing how people have engaged with the content and how they are coming up
to me at events like this and you know, providing encouraging words of, you
know, I'm listening every week or [00:10:00] every two weeks on best practice
of how others view it.
It's because we're all, as an industry we're here together and we have an
opportunity to learn from each other. And that is what I get quite excited about
'cause I think that is a requirement for us as an industry to move forward. One
of the themes of this conference has been AI and the evolution of ai and kinda
the big question mark on how AI is gonna be leveraged specific to this world of
new technology and how it's impacting the industry. What is ai? How could it
impact and how could I leverage it within my own unique organization?
So there's a lot of questions that still need to be answered, and frankly, I don't
think any one person has the single answer, but being able to once again, go
back and create a community. And an avenue for cons for people to consume
content and see what others are doing and implement it at their own
organization is really the purpose of of having these channels, [00:11:00] of
putting out content.
But yeah, that is really all I've got to say about Facilities management and the
Facilities Management podcast and my learnings, and I'm certainly looking
forward to the next chapter with the AI Facilities Management podcast.
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
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