CM 498A

Facility Management: Planning

Course Introduction: Part 1

What Completing This Course Will Do for You

In this course, you will learn about the nature of strategic planning and real estate issues as you gain an overview of facility management as a profession. You will also learn how leadership style, communication skills, and the ability to work well within an organization’s structure contribute to successful handling of specific facility problems. As you do so, you will think about, evaluate, and practice specific communication and interpersonal skills.

Building Skills through Experience

The goal of this course is the development of practical skills. To gain these, you must learn some basic concepts and information. For the most part, you’ll get this information from the online lessons, the text, the Supplementary Course Reader, and the writing exercises. The rest of the course, and the majority of your instructor’s time and energy, will be devoted to helping you apply what you have read and heard to solve real-world, practical problems. Throughout the course, your instructor will serve as your expert mentor and coach, giving you regular guidance and assistance, showing you the strengths and weaknesses of your work, and giving you feedback on the kinds of results expected of accomplished professional facility managers. Needless to say, to get the most from this course, you must assume responsibility for completing the assigned reading and listening assignments on your own, and for regularly participating in online discussions and other activities.

Whether you already have some experience managing facilities projects or are new to this process, this course will help you increase your ability to identify facility issues, resources, and alternatives. It will also help you learn to interface with senior management and strategic planners throughout an organization as well as to develop or acquire the leadership skills you will need to manage a facilities team. Finally, completing this course will give you a context for understanding facility issues and processes so that you can successfully complete the UW Distance Learning Certificate Program in Facility Management if that is your goal.

Learning Objectives

After mastering the material in this course, you will be able to

• identify distinguishing characteristics of the facility life cycle, the facility management process, and the concept of people-process-place (Lesson One);
• describe the facility function in terms of supporting the core business function of an organization (Lesson One);
• evaluate your own interpersonal skills and code of ethics (Lesson One);
• describe the key elements of the strategic planning process and how strategic planning can work within a given organization (Lesson Two);
• identify the differences between long-range and current-period planning (Lesson Two);
• identify characteristics of three different methods of strategic planning financial analysis (Lesson Two);
• evaluate and recommend possible actions on real estate master plan options, alternatives, and development decisions (Lesson Three);
• describe the uses of various real estate documents (Lesson Three);
• identify features of total quality management processes (Lessons One, Two, and Three); and
• improve your general communications skills, your writing skills, and enhance your knowledge about effective presentations (Lessons One, Two, and Three)

Real-Life Facility Management

Imagine the following scenario: you are one of several facility managers at a Level 1 regional trauma center—the only one of its kind in a five-state area. The mission of this medical facility is to serve not just severe trauma cases throughout the region, but also to serve low-income and immigrant local populations. Tied to this aspect of its mission, funding for the medical center comes from the state and from county bond issues approved by voters of the county in which the facility resides.

In your role as facility manager at this medical facility, you are constantly dealing with the problem of inadequate space, outdated equipment, and inefficient space arrangements. Due to the gap between facility needs and the funding approval process, you often find your department operating in a reactive, rather than a proactive, mode.

Now your facility is facing a health crisis similar to the rapid increase of new AIDS cases in the 1980s and early ‘90s. The epidemic you are facing is increasing steadily. It tends to affect some of the populations your medical center has dedicated itself to serving: low-income and immigrant populations. Strategic planners need to act now to carve out enough space in the facility to accommodate the projected number of cases over the next two decades. Will you need an entire nursing floor for these patients? Or will the epidemic have tailed off by the time the modifications to the facility are made? (Note: for this facility, strategic planning goes in ten-year cycles so that as soon as one plan has been implemented, it is time to begin the process all over again.) You are called upon to advise strategic planners on how the space now being earmarked for this purpose will be used should the need for patient space change by the time the new space is built/remodeled. In other words, you are being called upon to help planners build as much flexibility into the plan as possible.

Your Role in the Big Picture

Imagining yourself in this situation, what do you believe your role to be in the "big picture"? You are in a position to advise strategic planners on how to increase efficiencies related to the location of facilities and programs for the delivery of patient care. Further, you are in a position to give feedback on planning projections and alternatives. This is particularly important since facility needs often change between the time they are originally identified, funding for changes is approved, and actual changes in facilities are made. Your knowledge of existing day-to-day issues for the facility will be an essential part of a successful and dynamic planning process.

Harborview Medical Center As a Strategic Planning Model

The scenario just given is an actual description of Harborview Medical Center (HMC) in Seattle and the issues associated with its Long-Range Capital Improvement plan (LRCIP). This course provides a case-study treatment of Harborview Medical Center’s strategic planning process. You will learn how HMC planners have shaped that process, including making recommendations on real estate scenarios, and you will consider some of the ethical issues that have arisen as projects specified by the LRCIP have been implemented. As part of the required online discussions for Lessons Two and Three of this course, you will be asked to consider problems from the perspective of an HMC facility manager, based on the case-study segments. These discussions will also give you a chance to share what you may have learned about facilities on the job or as a user of facilities.

How Is This Course Organized?

This course—Facility Life Cycle: Planning—is composed of three lessons. As you go through the course, you will complete a required activity approximately once per week. (See the calendar on your online course syllabus.) The final assignment, which includes participation in a team presentation, will be due at the end of the course. (See "The Team Assignment" in this introduction.) Each lesson is designed to be completed in approximately three weeks, with one additional week factored in at the end of the course to allow you time to prepare your presentation with your team. The entire course is designed to be completed in 10 weeks.

The components of this course include

• required reading in a text and the online lessons, or commentaries
• discussion forums
• self-study exercises
• online self-study quizzes
• teamwork
• written assignments

What Do I Need to Do to Complete This Course?

To successfully complete this course, you must do the following:

• complete reading assignments in the text;
• complete reading of online lessons, or commentaries
• actively contribute to the online course discussions;
• complete the online quizzes;
• complete and submit all written assignments; and
• participate in specified team activities.

Each of these requirements is discussed below.

Complete Reading Assignments in the Texts and the Supplemental Reader

Text: Facility Management by Rondeau. This is the primary text for this course. I have chosen this text because of its emphasis on planning. In addition to presenting concepts important to facility management, the chapters you have been assigned to read contain numerous check lists and sample documents relevant to the chapter subject matter that I think you will find useful for this course and in real-life job situations. The book should serve you well, both now and in the future, as a solid reference on facility management processes and procedures.

The text is supplemented with articles from the supplementary reader that provide greater depth and additional examples on specific topics.

Supplemental Reader. The Supplemental Reader, which will be mailed to you after you register for the course, includes a variety of articles related to the topics in this course. Most of the articles are from professional journals. They have been selected to illustrate practical applications of the concepts presented in Rondeau.

Writing that Works. Learning to communicate clearly in writing is essential for the student of facility management. Writing that Works covers the basics of organization, punctuation, grammar, and word choice, and is organized in such a way that information on specific topics is easy to find. The book focuses on how you can better serve your reader, including helping you identify and eliminate certain writing "tics" that a reader might find distracting. Finally, the book uses numerous examples from business writing that you can use as models for the kinds of writing you will do on the job.

The Readings

Each online lesson assigns reading in the text and supplementary reader. In addition, you are required to read the online commentary for each lesson. The commentaries serve as introductions to the readings. I recommend that you follow these steps to efficiently complete the readings, and to test your understanding of the concepts:

1. Read the lesson commentary.
2. Complete the reading assignments from the text and supplementary reader. I recommend that you read Rondeau first, then the articles in the supplemental reader. Rondeau introduces you to key concepts, and the articles in the supplementary reader solidify your understanding by discussing specific applications.
3. Scan the lesson commentary, paying particular attention to the sections titled "Important Points from the Text."
4. Be sure to complete any self-study exercises contained in the online lesson—this will help you to integrate key concepts and prepare you for the lesson assignment

Actively Contribute to the Online Discussions

Each lesson of this course requires you to participate in several online discussions. If you are diligent about participating actively until you become familiar with the online discussion tool, you will soon find that the online environment is a powerful, flexible, and comfortable means of learning from people with whom you cannot meet regularly face-to-face.

In each lesson you will find a section with a series of questions to which you must apply your developing facility management skills in the online environment. You will make at least one posting to the online discussion per lesson, based on the problem posed. Other criteria for satisfactory participation in the discussion are posted at the heading in each discussion forum. The dates for each discussion forum are posted under each forum on the online syllabus, and also in the online schedule. Your participation in the discussion forum contributes toward your participation grade in the course work

The discussion forums enable you to share work experiences with classmates and coordinate required team interactions. The forum replaces a classroom setting’s open-ended discussions and question-answer sessions.

Links to each discussion forum are on the online syllabus.

Complete and Submit All Written Assignments

At the end of each lesson, you will complete a written assignment to be submitted for evaluation. (See "Submitting Assignments" in this introduction for guidelines on how to submit assignments.) For Assignment 3, you will participate in ongoing discussions with a group of teammates as you discuss the solution to a team problem that you will then write about individually. In addition, Lesson Three includes a mandatory "writing tutorial" that will help you complete Assignment 3.

These assignments are your most important opportunity for taking advantage of my years of experience in the field. My feedback to you will emphasize helping see the different ways of approaching a particular facility problem. Be sure to check the assignment timetable for all due dates on required activities.

See the section of this introduction titled "Evaluation" for more information.

Preview of Writing Assignments

Assignment 1. For this assignment, you will develop several criteria statements for conducting a hypothetical office move so that the move will support the core business function of the organization. As part of this assignment, you will list the resources you used to complete the task and define several key terms.

Assignment 2. This assignment includes the outline of the most recent business plan for a hypothetical mid-sized company known as Alpha Zed, Inc. You will review the business plan, then (1) discuss three effects the business’s facilities might have on the successful attainment of the business’s goals, and (2) based on the business plan and your response to the first question, you will list a minimum of ten additional pieces of information that the facility manager will need in order to suggest facility uses that support the business plan.

This assignment includes an optional part 2 that will help you prepare for the presentation you will give at the end of Lesson Three. This optional assignment centers on making a recommendation for a facility move.

Assignment 3. Part 1: With your team, you will discuss a realistic solution to a facility management problem that you will be given at the beginning of the course. Individually, you will write up a solution to the problem that reflects your own thinking. You should acquaint yourself with the details of this assignment now since you will be discussing it with your teammates throughout the duration of the course. Don’t wait until the end of the course to get started—communicating with your teammates at a distance takes time, and you need that time in order to address the problem properly.

Part 2: You will write a three- to six-paragraph "journal entry" consisting of a detailed description of your participation in the team discussions. In your journal entry, you will describe (a) the role you played on the team throughout the discussions on the team problem; (b) how you overcame the "distance factor" in working with your teammates on the team problem; and (c) how the team discussions helped you develop your own creative thinking about a solution to the problem.

You will also describe the two most important things you will have learned as a result of the class. For complete instructions on this assignment, see the section of this course introduction titled "The Team Assignment."

Lesson Three Writing Tutorial. At the end of Lesson Three, you will complete a writing tutorial designed to help you complete Assignment 3. This tutorial asks you to rewrite a memo, using organizational and drafting strategies provided. You will also draw upon the writing skills you have developed throughout the course

Participate in Specified Team Activities

At the beginning of the course, you will be assigned to a team. Team selection will be based on various factors, some of which might include the organization/industry you work in, your job description, level of computing experience, and your geographic location. You and your teammates will work on the resolution of a hypothetical facility problem that will be the basis of your individual work on Assignment 3.

In each of the lessons, you will encounter prompts for working on the team problem. These prompts are presented in sections that appear in each lesson titled "Check Point: Working on the Team Problem." The prompts in these sections will help you break down the work that needs to be done and gauge your progress both individually and as part of the team. You are expected to actively participate in the team discussions. As part of Assignment 3, you will write a "journal entry" describing your participation in the team discussions and how the discussions helped you develop your own solution to the team problem. Take advantage of the variety of communication options you have available to you, both to accommodate your personal needs and to enhance teamwork by selecting the method most suited to the work to be done (see your student handbook for tips on communicating through diverse media). This assignment gives you the unique opportunity of learning how to collaborate at a distance—something that is becoming much more common in today’s work place.

Take the Self-Study Quizzes

Each online lesson includes an online self-study quiz. The quizzes are designed to help you assess your understanding of the lesson material, including assigned readings and lesson commentary. You will not be graded on the quizzes, but I strongly recommend that you take them to test your understanding of the material.

After you submit the quiz, the answers you selected will be displayed on the screen. You may then check your answers in Appendix A.

Go on to Section 2 of the Introduction.

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