Facilities @ Management

3.5 We Are All Jugglers. Still.

Fred Kloet

Remember the video made by Steelcase in 1992? Yes, it’s old. You can still find “The Juggler” on YouTube. Show it to your students. It will make them feel what it is to be the jack of all trades in an organization. To be the oil that connects the dots. The one that best understands the culture of an organization. Juggler Michael Davis explained what a facility manager does. He is a magician. Someone who can handle all kinds of tools, processes, cultures, demands and services. I have an original copy of the video in my small library at home. In my 33 years in FM, I have never experienced anything like it. The video should be part of the online anthology of FM.

Many years later integration of processes became one of our core competencies. And today data driven FM is doing the exact same thing. In a way nothing has changed since The Juggler. However, everything has become a lot smarter and less corrective. Clients, buildings, providers, systems and workplaces all “evolutionized.” Technological innovation has always been driving FM products and allowed for smarter and more customer focused services. But one thing never changed. We were still working in silos. We still needed a magician to connect the dots. Yes, service providers could be hired to offer IFM or other types of high-level outsourcing solutions. But with outsourcing the silos often were just relabeled or started collaborating only. The professional specialists and their specialized ...