Communication

Updated: November 2024

Communication is the process of passing information and understanding from one person to another. However, effective communication is more than a core leadership skill; it is essential for leadership success. Communication includes speaking, writing, listening, and ensuring congruency between words and actions. Leaders deliver messages multiple times daily, so information, thoughts, and ideas must be transmitted not only in a way that listeners understand but also with caring and honesty.

The Communication Process

The process begins with an idea or message that the sender wishes to convey. The sender has a thought, puts it into words, and sends a message. The message is either fact or opinion. It may be sent as a statement, question, request, or an instruction. The receiver translates the message into his or her thoughts. The success of the sender depends on how the receiver translates the message. The first step in improving our communication skills is to understand the process.

The main idea of effective communication is that it occurs only if the receiver understands the exact idea or information the sender is trying to convey to the person or persons doing the listening. Without this understanding, communication has not been successful. For effective communication to take place:

• The message must be clear.
• The receiver must pay attention to it.
• The sender must be credible.
• The receiver must be willing and able to act.
  
  

Why Bother

Your communication skills directly affect the people and places you are connected with. Improving your communication skills is crucial because of the impact effective communication has on:

• Employees
• Organization
• Job satisfaction
• Customer satisfaction
  
  

Barriers

Anything that prevents understanding of a message being communicated is a barrier. These are some of the barriers to the process:

• Lack of clarity about the message: The message must be clear.
• Improper audience analysis: The message should be tailored to the audience. For example, using accounting terms when addressing custodians is inappropriate.
• Inability to establish credibility or rapport: The sender must be credible, i.e., believable. For instance, if a leader addresses a team about the importance of time management but is consistently late to meetings, the leader’s credibility may be questioned. Building rapport involves showing genuine interest and understanding of the audience’s needs, which enhances trust and message acceptance.
• Failure to ask for feedback: There must be a way to check for understanding. For example, the trainer should ask clarifying questions or encourage participants to summarize key points after delivering a training session. This ensures that the message was understood as intended and helps identify areas for further explanation if needed.
• Incorrect interpretation of feedback: Feedback must be interpreted correctly, just like the original message.
• Sender’s mannerisms: Body language should align with the message.
• Literacy level: The message should match the audience’s literacy level.
• Cultural differences: Cultural context should be considered in message delivery. For example, in some cultures, direct eye contact is seen as a sign of confidence, while in others, it may be viewed as confrontational or disrespectful. Being aware of such nuances helps in ensuring the message is well-received across diverse audiences.
• Biases: The message should be free of bias. For instance, using gendered language like “he” to refer to all leaders could alienate or marginalize people of other genders. Ensuring neutral language helps make the message inclusive and respectful.

What Are You Trying to Communicate?

It is important to be able to articulate the message you want to communicate. Distill it down to one or two sentences that convey the intended message, and then write it down. Doing so will crystallize your thoughts, resulting in mental and message clarity. Consider message development: The communication should be consistent and accurate whether someone reads the message or speaks it at a departmental meeting. The goal is to speak with one voice on the message points you are trying to convey. If you are communicating complex issues—such as flat budgets or budget reductions, parking rate increases, or reductions in the workforce—you should consider developing “talking points” or a consistent script. It is also important to develop frequently asked questions (FAQs) to anticipate the common questions people will ask. These questions should be paired with the answers you will give to your audience or to the media. This approach is also applicable to sharing good news. Examples include an energy grant, an APPA Award for Excellence in Facilities Management, an Urban Design Award, or a LEED-certified building.

In bad news scenarios, the media often see an opportunity to create a headline news story, so they may contact the organizational leader to respond to questions. Some institutions will appoint a communication expert or spokesperson to respond to these types of inquiries, but on other campuses, the organizational leader may become the institutional spokesperson. To prepare for this eventuality, the leader must prepare his or her talking points, including FAQs, in advance. It is helpful to send the media person a copy of your talking points and FAQs electronically, preferably in a Portable Document Format (PDF). News reporters can be relentless in their questioning, especially when they have a subject on camera and the topic at hand is a bad news story. Organizational leaders should seek media training, which will expose them to the dos and don’ts of on-camera interviewing through practice and feedback sessions.

Good news doesn’t travel quite as quickly as bad news does. Hence, it is incumbent on the facilities leader to ensure that good news gets the coverage it deserves in publications on your campus. This will require contacting editors and reporters at various newspapers, magazines, or newsletters to share your story or achievement. These publications could include websites, an alumni magazine, a campus or student newspaper, departmental newsletters, electronic media reports, electronic mailings to campus, and listservs.

Who Matters: Who Is Your Audience?

Communication takes many forms. How you frame your talking points and FAQs depends on the audience you are addressing. It is essential that the method of communication matches the message you want to send and the audience you are communicating with. Choosing the most effective means of communication can be as important as the message. Some might say that we have too many ways to communicate; choosing the most appropriate and effective method is essential.

These are some of the many options we have:

• Phone
• Memos
• Email
• Online
• Website
• Instant Message
• Face to Face
• Body Language
• Meetings

Understanding your audience is the key to tailoring all your communications more effectively. The message you wish to deliver may seem clear and obvious to you, but your audience may not process the information as you do. Effective communication is not only about conveying information; it’s also about developing relationships and building trust with your audience. No one knows who you are online, but when you come face-to-face with your employees, students, faculty, customers, and the like, the real you is quickly revealed.

Research has shown that audience members:

• Would rather hear from people in their group or someone who understands their concerns and needs.
• Are often mistrustful of people from other groups, particularly those they perceive as a threat to their workplace stability.
• Detest defensiveness and manipulation on the part of the communicator.

The leader must understand the audience he or she is addressing, tailor the talking points to the topic or issue at hand and to the audience, be authentic in his or her presentation style, not read the speech, maintain eye contact with the entire audience, and be prepared to answer any question posed by audience members. Making effective oral presentations takes considerable time and effort in preparation and practice, so plan accordingly.

Preparing written documents requires the same attention to the audience as preparing oral presentations. If you fail to tailor your writing for the readers, you risk alienating or confusing them, losing their interest and focus before they receive the message you are trying to convey. Your readers are the most important part of your writing, so keep them foremost in your mind by using the following steps:

• Clearly state your message and explain your intent and aims when writing the correspondence.
• Anticipate the questions your reader will need answered. For example, what is the cost of this improvement, how long will it take to complete the work, how does this project compare to other campus-wide capital renewal priorities, what are the risks associated with waiting to do this work or postponing it indefinitely, and what funding sources should be used?
• Write as if you are talking to your reader.
• Keep sentences short and well-structured.
• Use an active voice and avoid jargon or highly technical terms.
  
  

Technology

In today’s organizational environment, writing e-mails, presentations, reports, and correspondence to employees, customers, or administrative leadership is a fundamental expectation. All successful writing relies on your ability to understand your audience, being clear in the message you wish to convey, thinking carefully about what information to provide, and how best to structure the message so that it is easy to understand and solicits the response you seek.

Many people in today’s technology-centered and fast-paced environment rely heavily on e-mail and text messaging to communicate with others. While these skills are valuable tools for facilities management leaders, leaders should be wary of using these means as dominant communication modalities. There is no substitute for personal phone calls or face-to-face interactions with your customers, employees, or leadership. Thus, use e-mail and text messaging judiciously to augment your personal communication style rather than as a substitute for personal interaction because you are too busy or want to avoid personal interactions or difficult topics or conversations.

How Does Your Audience Receive Information: How Should You Communicate to Them?

Distributing your message in the right format is important to reach your intended audience. Not only do facilities leaders work with different constituencies, but leaders also have a wide range of age groups and technological sophistication within each. With the advent of blogging, podcasts, digital video, social media, and more, facilities leaders need to have the skill set to reach both the pre-baby boomers, the baby boomers, Generation X, and the millennial generation (also known as Generation Y). It is hard to keep up with communication in a digital world. Facebook and X are forms of social media, which Dictionary.com defines as.

“Websites and other online means of communication that are used by large groups of people to share information and to develop social and professional contacts: Many businesses are utilizing social media to generate sales.”

Generational changes in the workforce continue to expand our need to utilize the most effective way to communicate with our constituencies. One size does not fit all!  To assist in utilizing social media to its fullest, take advantage of the millennial generations’ knowledge and seemingly innate connection to social media outlets to help develop your presence and tools for communicating to a broad audience. “Lunch and Learns” can be a great tool to help share knowledge and familiarity of social media that have been successfully implemented on campuses nationwide with your employees.

Equally important to consider is that in facilities operations, we have employees who do not have access or an opportunity to explore electronic communications. If you rely solely on the computer to get the message to your employees, you will not be successful—the all-employee e-mail blast may not reach the audience you intend, and thus, a very important voice will be missing in the communication chain. Take steps to bridge this gap!  Developing specialized training programs, utilizing tech mentors to provide one-on-one ongoing support, or simply having onsite assistance for employees can be invaluable when engaging in required computer-related activities such as annual benefits selections, employee satisfaction surveys, online job applications, etc. Remember, it is difficult to sustain if you don’t have an opportunity to use a new skill regularly.

Social Media

Social media has become a powerful tool for facilities managers to showcase accomplishments, highlight responsibilities, and engage with a wide variety of stakeholders. Platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), and even various emerging social media channels offer unique opportunities to reach diverse demographics, from younger Generation Z employees to seasoned professionals. Effective use of social media can help facilities teams share updates, celebrate milestones, and educate the public about ongoing projects, sustainability efforts, and community initiatives. By tailoring content to the audience on each platform, facilities leaders can maximize engagement—using LinkedIn for professional updates, Instagram for visual highlights, and X for real-time announcements, for example. This strategic approach not only enhances visibility but also helps build a positive perception of the facilities team within the broader organization and community.

Websites

A well-maintained website is essential as it often serves as the first impression of an institution’s brand. For universities and large organizations, the website is a critical platform for communicating with the public, students, staff, and media. Consistent updates and a user-friendly design help ensure that visitors find accurate, current information. Furthermore, aligning the website with the institution’s branding guidelines strengthens credibility and supports cohesive messaging. To achieve this, campuses should prioritize sustainable website management practices, ensuring that the site remains functional and engaging even as web trends evolve. This could involve structured content management processes or designated teams responsible for keeping the website relevant and reflective of the institution’s values.

Every person looking for information about your campus or organization starts at your website. Reporters researching stories on energy conservation, for example, likely will start with what they can find online. If that information is outdated, you may find your institution’s erroneous data listed in a local paper, or worse, in a national publication. The reasons for keeping your website current are many and compelling. If you have hired students to design and populate your web page, it is likely that when these students graduate, you will be left with a site that no one else knows much about. Designing a website with bells and whistles is great, but it must be maintained to be useful. A simple web design will be easier to maintain. Even with in-house resources, you need logical web page organization. Each institution needs to decide how creative and high-tech to be. Even with excellent in-house resources, you need good page organization. Look at other websites that you find to be workable. Why is that? How are they organized so that they are easy to navigate? Is their design sustainable?

Written Communication

The most common way we have of communicating is via printed material through your departmental newsletters, university news, the student newspaper, memos to department heads, or through all-employee listservs and the e-mail. It may be best to ask your audience what works best for them. Remember that utilizing multiple methods to distribute your message is imperative to reach a broad audience in a university community. Make sure that all university newspapers and reports are distributed widely throughout the organization. Having distribution racks throughout the facilities operations is a great way for your employees to have access to other issues and activities on campus and helps them feel connected to the place where they work.

Community Outreach

Community outreach is an important function within facilities operations throughout much of the country. For example, engaging the local community in meetings and town halls to share future capital projects, land use concerns, real estate purchases, and construction plans may be an invaluable tool for developing transparency that aids your communication and strengthens trust and relationships. Town-gown relationships can be a challenge.

In one example, Emory University has developed a series of quarterly town hall meetings where all our neighborhood civic associations are invited to listen to and ask questions of the executive vice president for finance and administration. The university’s relationship has improved considerably since this program and other community initiatives started. Similar to a focus group, these sessions allow for a free exchange of information and sharing ideas and concerns.

Oral Communication

Oral communication is perhaps the most challenging way to communicate in the twenty-first century, but also the most important. Seeing the people you want to communicate with is a significant aid in ensuring your message is heard. More than half of the message we intend to communicate is conveyed nonverbally, so being face-to-face is important. Holding regular meetings at your facility can give the entire organization an opportunity to receive updates and ask questions. Answers to these questions can be published in a newsletter, which enables the organization to hear directly from its leadership and get answers to any staff questions. Employees recognize this level of transparency, which is important to developing trust.

Non-Verbal Communication

Have you ever been in a situation where you didn’t believe what someone was saying? In other words, you had a sense that something didn’t ring true, or your instincts were telling you that something was off. Body language is an essential ingredient in effective communication, and leaders must understand that they cannot send mixed messages—saying one thing while nonverbal body language conveys something different.

Non-verbal communication represents perhaps the single most important method of improving communication. There are cues you need to be aware of when you are communicating.

We are constantly communicating—whether we want to or not. Even when we don’t say a word, we communicate. That’s because an essential part of our communication involves using nonverbal factors—such as facial expression, posture, gesture, dress, and office furnishings. These nonverbal factors can have a powerful influence on what and how we communicate, yet most of us are largely unaware of our use of these nonverbal factors when we communicate. Our gestures, intonation, body language, and facial expressions are almost always demonstrated without conscious awareness of the meaning of what we are saying. Effective communication requires sensitivity to nonverbal factors.

Remember that each person is unique, and their signs or signals may have a different underlying cause than the ones you suspect. This is particularly true where people have had different life experiences or where there are cultural differences. This is why it is essential to ask questions to ensure your interpretation of someone else’s body language and what they intended to communicate is accurate.

We communicate non-verbally through our:

• Body Language
• Posture
• Facial Expression
• Eye Contact
• Gestures
• Proxemics (how close we are to the receiver)
• Appearance
• Office
• Desk
• Tone of Voice
  • Intonation
  • Pitch
  • Volume

Have you thought about this before? Even the condition of our desks sends a message about how organized we are. Consider the message that the appearance of facilities management vehicles sends about the organization.

One study found that tone of voice and body language communicate more than the actual words we speak.

When Should You Contact Your Audience? Timing for Each Level of Communication

Understanding the political environment in which you work is one of the most important aspects of delivering your message. Leaders must be decisive and respond to a situation with authority. Still, at times, it is equally important to develop the conversation slowly, allow others to hear concerns, and enable others to come to their own conclusions. If leaders issue directives as though the decision were only theirs to make, they will miss out on opportunities to develop their employees’ confidence and good judgment and will have stifled their growth. Leaders should understand the importance of taking steps toward what they want to occur but should allow the process to unfold naturally. By allowing others to reach conclusions, they can take ownership of the results.

Department News

Within a department, always ensure that the supervisor is informed before something is publicized. As obvious as this may sound, day-to-day operations are quite different. The current pace of work is so quick that employees often respond to tasks immediately and forget to share information with the leaders. Many employees have experienced the consequences of this.

For example, consider how a facility manager would feel if he or she heard of news within his or her own department from a colleague outside the department. If it were good news, the immediate reaction might be positive. But this reaction quickly would be followed by confusion. Why hadn’t the manager been informed about this initiative by his or her own staff? What does it say about an employee who forgets to inform his or her manager? Does it suggest that the leader cannot keep up? Does it mean that the staff does not see this level of communication as a priority, even if the manager does?

Nothing is more important than knowing how to manage and meet expectations as often as possible. Each university environment is different, and each will have its own communication hierarchy. It is important to observe your organization, learn who the decision-makers are, and understand their circle of influence.

Media

When working with media, the timing of your message is more important than knowing the date and time of a particular publication deadline. Often, the question is not whether you can meet a deadline but whether you want to. Considering whether now is the right time is an important leadership decision. At times, facility managers cannot control the timing of a message going out, but sometimes they can, and doing so with forethought is an important consideration.

Before publicizing your message, answer the following questions:

• Have I told those up the line from me about the issue?
• Are there consequences of getting this publicized immediately that I’m not prepared for yet? Is there additional work to be done first?
• Are we ready to answer the questions that will likely follow this announcement or piece of information?

University News

Electronic and social media can be excellent tools for communicating university news. For example, an online campus newspaper can explain a staff reduction to control rumors. By quickly publicizing the facts of a sensitive situation, the university community can manage its fears and concerns. Waiting to communicate using printed materials can cost the university valuable time. Using electronic media can be a key to successfully communicating the right message.

Listening is the other half of the communication process and is essential for communication to be effective. The slides below from the APPA Supervisor’s Toolkit is about active listening.

Listening Skills

Listening is the most important of all leadership skills. As a facilities leader, you must get out with your people and customers and listen to their complaints and suggestions to take corrective action. As an active listener, you give a gift of your time and attention to another person. Focus on responding verbally and nonverbally to the people who are speaking so they know you are listening and understanding what they intend to communicate. By asking probing questions and restating what you have heard, you convey a genuine interest and understanding of what is being communicated.

Many employees in a workplace with declining morale say that all they want is for someone to listen to them. They wonder: why try to be creative or improve productivity, cost reduction, or quality if no one listens? Why try if no one cares what I think? In other words, employees will become frustrated if leaders want them to leave their brains at the door. This is why being present to your employees so you can listen to their concerns and respond to their questions is essential to your organization’s service delivery success and to your effectiveness as that organization’s leader.

Employee Feedback

Employee surveys can provide important feedback and give employees an opportunity to voice concerns about leadership. At times, the survey instrument may not provide adequate specifics to act on that feedback. Focus groups within the organization allow employees to explain why they feel the way they do about each survey topic. Listen to what employees say and ask for clarity or examples as they speak about specific situations or personal experiences. Employees can be amazingly candid and vocal in this process.

It would be helpful to have someone take notes and record comments so the facilities manager can stay present to the employees and be an active listener. When you finish the focus groups, you can categorize the comments into theme areas. Follow up on these themes during employee meetings and ask employees whether you heard their concerns. This process should provide overwhelming agreement and validation with the results. Be sure to keep employees informed about the progress you continue to make.

Caring Conversations

Inevitably, leaders will be faced with the need to give people critical feedback on their performance or workplace behavior, discipline an employee, demote an employee, eliminate a position, implement a reduction in force (RIF), or tell people they are not a good fit for their job and ask them to seek other employment. How the leader has these conversations and how he or she conveys the message that needs to be delivered is crucial for organizational success.

Most leaders fear having these difficult conversations because they are stressful and often emotionally charged. The anxiety associated with this important responsibility often causes long delays between the actual performance deficiencies or workplace behaviors that need to be discussed and the discussion itself. Not giving timely performance feedback robs the employee of the opportunity to fix the problem and erodes your credibility as a leader in the eyes of your other employees. Unlike wine and cheese, bad news does not improve with age.

People struggle with learning how to say “no.” “No” should never be an absolute response to any situation. It always needs context and explanation so that the receiver can understand where you are coming from.

Throughout these conversations, it is essential to be sensitive, respectful, and empathic to the employee. Be especially cognizant of what you are saying and how you say it. Leaders who have little empathy are prone to giving feedback in a hurtful fashion. Also, voicing your frustration to the employee or attacking his or her character will usually cause an emotional backlash and undoubtedly will escalate the tenor of the meeting. The intention is to provide the feedback in a caring and respectful way, such that the employee remains whole throughout the conversation rather than emotionally scarred because of it. The steps to provide feedback in these difficult conversations are as follows:

• Prepare your notes and bullet points for the discussion: Be specific and pick significant incident(s) or events that illustrate the problem you are discussing or the reasons behind job elimination. Being vague in this discussion is demoralizing because it does not give the employee an opportunity to improve behavior or performance.
• Walk through the conversation mentally and think about how you intend to deliver the message: Consider the array of responses you might receive from the employee and mentally prepare yourself for how you would respond in each scenario.
• Meet with the employee and give him or her feedback in a simple and straightforward manner: Do not beat around the bush.
• Tell the person how he or she needs to change performance or behavior and what positive impact doing so will have for the organization: Ensure the employee understands the consequences of choosing to do nothing—that is, it means risking his or her job and career.
• Reach an agreement about what the employee intends to do to change the behavior: Set a due date or a time frame for reviewing progress.

A particularly difficult yet caring conversation, for example, could be sitting down with a director-level person and telling him or her that he or she is not meeting performance expectations and furthermore suggesting his or her skill and expertise are better suited to another position rather than the one he or she occupies. Numerous examples and leadership miscues illustrated why it was necessary to make a change could be discussed, as well as how the person can be successful in another position. This example illustrates another expected role of the facilities leader—getting staff on the bus and in the right seats. Being on the bus means you’re heading in the right direction and supportive of the leadership vision and direction. The right seats suggest that your role in the organization is consistent with the skill set and experience you bring to the institution.

Difficult situations, such as RIFs, require the same level of sensitivity to affected employees as the job performance example above. However, they also demand that leaders be equally sensitive to the colleagues who remain in the organization. RIF situations raise anxiety levels in organizations to unprecedented heights because employees fear they might be next or worry about retaliation for continuing to exhibit loyalty to affected employees. Remaining employees will want to know why the RIF occurred, how the organization was sensitive to the needs of affected employees, whether there will be more budget cuts and additional RIFs in the future, how decisions about employees were made, what criteria were used to decide who was laid off, and what alternatives to layoffs were considered.

Leaders must be present to their remaining employees immediately after the layoff notifications are made so they can explain the situation and answer these and other questions that will surely arise. Leaders must be honest and consistent with their messaging when giving notice to affected employees and meeting with the remaining staff afterward.

Crucial Conversations

A team member has just missed a critical deadline—what is being said to him or her? You disagree with your boss but are afraid to push back with him or her. Top-performing employees are leaving the department because poor-performing employees are being ignored—who do you speak to, and what do you say about this situation? Your boss micromanages your every move, but you hesitate to speak up. Every organization has similar problems, and they play a significant role in the quality of the work environment and work-life employees experience day to day.

When faced with these or similar situations, it is quite common to back away from discussing them. It is easy to fear that the situation will become confrontational and that it will cause pain or escalate emotions or problematic behavior. In these situations, a lot is at stake surrounding the issue; opinions of the parties are varied, and emotions can be highly charged. Humans are experts at avoiding these conversations. We send e-mails to nearby coworkers rather than speak to them face-to-face. We leave voicemails when we are delivering bad news or trying to avoid contact with someone. We give the silent treatment to a significant other or friend. We change the subject when the topic gets too risky, and so on. Do any of these behaviors sound or feel familiar to you?

Most people in crucial conversations at work or in their personal lives resort to the “fight or flight” approach. This approach describes the way the primitive region of our brain responds to stress and anxiety. Flight in our environments usually means silence or absence. Fight, on the other hand, often translates to pushing, yelling, screaming, slapping, and other forms of violence. To have successful crucial conversations, we must shift from how we traditionally have faced difficult situations and conversations to a dialog that encourages the free flow of meaning between individuals.

In the book Crucial Conversations by Patterson, Grenny, McMillan, and Switzler, the authors outline seven tools that can lead to profitable conversations:

• Start with the Heart: This means starting with yourself and examining your role in the crucial conversation, including your real motives. Selfish motives like saving face, looking good, winning, being right, getting even, or punishing the other person will destroy any chance of having a successful conversation. So, the first step is to identify and correct your motives. You want ones that are honorable—like learning, growing, understanding, making the best decision, or getting the best result. Remember that “you can’t fake an honorable motive”—none of us is that good at acting.
• Learn to Look: This involves learning to see any signs that the parties’ safety is at risk from someone in the conversation resorting to either silence or violence mode.
• Make It Safe: Making it safe for others enables them to speak honestly and candidly without experiencing negative responses or results from you. If either mutual purpose or mutual respect is violated in the conversation, parties will revert to their flight-or-fight behavior. Mutual purpose means you care about the other person’s goals, and they feel the same about yours. Mutual respect suggests that you each genuinely respect one another.
• Master the Stories: Being in control of your emotions and recognizing the stories that create emotions in you is the essence of this principle. The concept is that emotions are not passed off to you by others. They are of your own making. For example, we often blame others for making us mad when the truth is we make ourselves mad because of someone’s comment or their behavior. Once you have created that emotion, you must either find a way to master it or become a hostage to it by allowing it to control your future behavior.
• State My Path: This principle involves speaking persuasively and not abrasively. In other words, you share your facts, story, and what you’ve begun to conclude. State your story as a story rather than a fact. Ask the other persons to share their facts and their stories. Make it safe to be candid in this sharing and to hold or express differing points of view.
• Explore the Other’s Path: This encourages the free flow of meaning. Begin with an attitude of curiosity and patience. Start by asking about the other person’s views. Acknowledge the emotions people are feeling. Paraphrase what you’ve heard to convey that you understand and that it’s safe for others to voice what they think.
• Move to Action: This turns crucial conversations into action and results. Turn your conversation into decisions and united action by avoiding the traps of violated expectations and inaction. Decide on who does what by when and agree to a method of following up.
  
  

Customer Conversations

Customer conversations take many forms, but all require a sincere interest in what customers have to say and a keen ability to listen. They also require discerning underlying issues, responding appropriately, following up consistently, and then closing the matter. Whether the customer contacts you or you contact the customer, these steps are necessary for a successful outcome.

As discussed earlier in this chapter, listening is probably the most important skill a leader must exhibit. At times, the words that are spoken appear to beat around the bush and dance around the real issue. Good listeners will seek to understand, ask questions, repeat what they hear, and seek clarification from the customer.

Consider a situation in which a key customer is regularly complaining about service. After looking into the matter, you might discover that your response and action steps were right on the mark and that the constant complaint is a mystery. In this case, the customer may have an underlying issue that is unclear. This will require a sharp focus on what really is at the heart of the matter. After digging a bit deeper, you may discover the real issue. Perhaps the customer was expecting significant savings, but it was not showing up in the financial statements. Their frustration manifested in the form of complaints about service when the real issue had nothing to do with that. Active listening and asking questions can help you understand the real concern, which will result in more focused dialog to resolve misperceptions.

The foundation of establishing strong customer relationships is built on effective listening and follow-through from the facilities operation. People tend to think that follow-up means to inform the customer when a problem is fixed. Although that is important, it is equally important to make sure the customer receives communication from the beginning and possibly the middle of service delivery as well, depending on the nature of the request. Although staff may know that they are working to resolve an issue, the customers may not and may be left wondering if their concern fell into a black hole and disappeared. In the absence of good information, people make up stories. In the world of customer service, that is not a good thing for a facilities organization because inevitably, those stories reflect negatively on the service provider.

Nothing is as important as face-to-face conversations; customers value them as much as employees. Whether you pick up the phone to check in, schedule lunch to catch up, or develop a formalized process for gathering information, personal connection is the way to go. Focus groups with eight to 10 customers are a great way to gather information about service delivery, what we do well, and what we need to improve. The group dynamic in a focus group usually provides a lot of valuable feedback in a short period of time. Selecting the right facilitator who can listen to the comments without being defensive is key to getting good results from the process. Ensuring that everyone has an opportunity to contribute, asking probing questions, and keeping everyone on track are the responsibilities of a good facilitator. A surefire way to call a screeching halt to a focus group conversation is for the moderator to become defensive and not listen to what the customers are trying to say. A poorly facilitated group will result in resistance to communication in the future and the continuation of mediocre customer satisfaction rates, at best.

Disney’s approach to dealing with customer complaints is intriguing, and its philosophy is worth instilling in your organization. Disney’s approach is based on the fact that if a customer comes to you with a complaint, you are in the enviable position of being able to correct it. When you correct a situation for a customer, you have gained an advocate, and they will tell others. If the customer never came to you but simply stewed over something that was broken and did not get repaired quickly, you never had an opportunity to make it right or to make a positive impression. This is why we work hard to train our staff to welcome customer concerns and feedback. Be open to receiving feedback, thank the customer for sharing, communicate your progress, and complete the process. This is how your reputation as an excellent service organization will grow.

Contractor and Vendor Conversations

Facilities managers must consistently and often utilize contractors and vendors to meet the demands and responsibilities of a facilities organization. Although many organizations have skilled resources within their frontline staff, there are always times when someone from outside the university is called in to provide specialized service. It is worthwhile to spend some time exploring these conversations.

The current economic situation has hit the building industry hard and escalated the number of vendors pounding the pavement to round up business. If you are like us, you have several vendors a week wanting face time with you. This can significantly interrupt your day-to-day work activities if not managed carefully. To better control schedules, designate specific days each week on which contractors and vendors can make appointments to make their presentations. When you receive a call, have the vendor routed to a specific administrative staff person who schedules these half-hour meetings. Walk-ins can also be directed to this established process. It is important to be available for these types of meetings, but equally important to manage the time to meet your needs rather than theirs.

Specific vendors may want to show you a product, which can be burdensome if not managed. Setting up a process to allow frontline analysis of the product can be a way to ensure that your time is well spent. Not every vendor gets face time! For example, a particular vendor of LED lighting systems may want to demonstrate their product in a building’s elevator lobby. If you direct this call to a staff electrical engineer to look through the material and talk to the vendor, the engineer can determine whether the product has a return on investment or cost-efficiency. This process not only helps with time management but also engages the frontline staff’s expertise in the organization’s decision-making process.

Much of the information listed above is germane to all facilities organizations and should be an important part of everyone’s communication skill set. Depending on with whom we communicate, whether a competitively bid contractual relationship, a single project proposal, or a product vendor, there are different needs and expected outcomes. Knowing the desired outcome helps determine the direction you take. In all cases, transparency, honesty, and integrity are the fundamental values to maintain.

Executive Conversations

Top leaders in facility organizations are frequently called upon to make presentations to the president’s cabinet, deans, ways and means or budget committee, and board of trustees. Virtually all these presentations are intended to update the group or seek approval and endorsement for a new building site, a capital project, energy conservation, or capital renewal budget requests. You are often invited to these meetings to elaborate on a project or respond to the parties’ questions or concerns regarding a proposal you are trying to advance. All these presentations require excellent oral and technical skills, plus graphics to illustrate the chosen site, the schematic design for a new building, a deferred maintenance problem, and the like. Combining PowerPoint graphics or photographs with oral explanations and elaboration is crucial to the effectiveness of these executive briefings.

For example, when managing communications with various board of trustee committees, you may meet with the Real Estate Buildings and Grounds Committee. During these monthly meetings, you may make presentations on new campus projects ranging from a $10,000 marble bench to a $1.2 billion healthcare redevelopment master plan and every kind of project in between. Update them on all the projects underway on campus using the combined oral and graphic techniques described above. Trustees were not interested or engaged in the conversation during past oral presentations without many graphical aides. In fact, they appeared to be downright bored. Use photographs on the active project briefings together with a few oral comments. This approach will engage their interest to the extent that you may need to be prepared for questions about contractor means and methods on some projects.

Transparency and Confidentiality

Transparency is a key attribute of an ethical organization. In an ethical organization, roles are clear, responsibilities are defined, rules are understood by all, trust is fostered, fear is eliminated, and situations and/or processes are openly discussed. This kind of environment values individuals’ right to express their opinions and be heard without fear of intimidation. In other words, people are encouraged to voice dissenting points of view, and the organization values that level of openness and that type of dialog among its staff. In the daily business activities of any organization, there will be conflicts between when to be transparent and when confidentiality should be the prevailing principle. An example of such a dilemma would be personnel actions and decision-making, where confidentiality must always precede. Conversely, full transparency should be expected, required, and practiced when addressing employee performance concerns, departmental reorganizations, hiring new staff, opening promotional opportunities, discussing new policies/procedures, planning for budget reductions, or any similar aspect of organizational life that affects or addresses individuals and/or the common good. Building transparent cultures that make bad news safe to discuss is essential to earning and maintaining a reputation for credible leadership. When it comes to setting the tone for ethical behavior in an organization, all eyes are on leadership. Remember, what leaders do has greater importance and impact than what they say.

It is possible to have situations in which a leader must be both transparent and confidential. The following example illustrates that point. In response to a recent budget reduction directive, it was necessary to begin planning for a significant reduction in force. To address this requirement, the director worked with the department’s leadership team and appointed an advisory board of 21 frontline employees representing all the departments in proportion to their employee count. The purpose of this advisory board was to facilitate communication with frontline employees and to assist the leadership team in evaluating departmental policies, procedures, work practices, customer service issues, etc. When the magnitude of the budget cut and its potential impact on employees was known, this information was shared in detail with the advisory board. The leadership team also shared information on the areas and services most likely eligible for budget cuts: areas and services that are revenue-dependent, such as project management, interior design, and painting services. The advisory board was then invited to advise about how to approach the decisions regarding who would be laid off. Its response was to use performance as the principal decision-making factor.

Given this advice, the leadership team developed an assessment tool that would be used for ranking all like positions within a workgroup using seven different performance factors. This assessment tool information was shared with the advisory board for its comment/input. The next step included review, comment, and input from the supervisors and managers over the impacted work areas. They were asked to rank the employees in their area independently. Those employees with the lowest average assessment ratings would be selected for the reduction in force. The affected employees were notified as quickly as possible that their jobs were being eliminated. Once these notifications were completed, the director met with the advisory board again and shared the number of positions impacted by the RIF and the names of the people involved.

No question walking the transparency vs. confidentiality line is challenging. It takes purposeful decision-making and a high level of caring about the people within your organization. We all know how quickly rumors spread throughout an organization, and in a situation where accurate information is not available, inaccurate information is invented. There will probably be a greater negative backlash by employees from what is circulating in the rumor mill than what is being shared openly and transparently with them.

This is an example of a tough situation where some key guidelines are illustrated: Always deliver the news in person rather than via e-mail or memorandum; be transparent in delivering as much information as you can at the time you do it; allow your audience to ask questions and provide input; and deliver bad news as soon as you can. Your credibility will be at risk if you wait for the right time to share the news.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Software writing tools have existed since the earliest days of commercial desktop computers, and now generative artificial intelligence takes that to the next level. For example, AI can mine readily available resources online and compose an article, chapter, or communication if the author provides the intent. AI can also respond to emails. This is still in its infancy and thus needs human intervention at this juncture, but AI shows great promise in improving our communications.

It has been said that we, in Facilities Management, are not in the facility business; we are in the people business. Effective communication is our job and our responsibility. We must be able to communicate up, down, and across, as communication takes place at all levels of the organization.

We must be able to construct clear and concise messages. We should be able to recognize and respond to nonverbal and vocal cues. We must be prepared to utilize all forms of communication, from the Grapevine to AI. We must listen effectively, and we owe it to those we work with to be able to give and receive constructive feedback.

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