FM Influences City Codes?

Friday, it was very fitting that we were having a training session about how to react (what's the proper protocol) when the fire alarm system is activated - in any way. Our building is classified as a High Rise - Group B, so it's not just a 100% evac situation. Insert a bunch of FDNY mumbo jumbo here to get the meat of the story.

According to the Fire Safety Director, High Rise owners are having problems falling in alignment with the FDNY Code and creating solid emergency action plans. He continued to explain that because of the evolution of Facility Management / Managers, Building Operators, Facility Managers, etc, building owners couldn't keep up with the changes. 

He gave a great example: Back when the last overhaul of the code happened, in the 70's, facility managers, building operators, etc, were the men who basically lived in the building, they knew every nook and cranny. But now that facility managers and building operators control many buildings at one time, there are no longer fire wardens or searchers that truly know a building. He also made it a point to call out what the implications were of having outsourced maintenance teams. As a result FDNY has instituted listing of fire wardens and or searchers on every floor of buildings so when activations occur the FDNY knows who to go to and those appointed people are in charge of knowing the ins and outs of their floors and its occupants. 

This whole example conversation lasted about 5 minutes before we moved on to the material that we were really there to cover. I sat there partially dazed only because it was something so simple, yet so complex. That said... time to identify some Fire Wardens and Searchers! 

What my thesis does and it doesn't.

I don’t argue that technology stimulates or attracts millennials to the industry, but I address how technology would keep them or does keep them in the FM world. Older generations previously steered clear of technology for various reasons; one of them is the training of technology is very involved and evolves at a fast pace; being so hands on with managing facilities, older generations didn’t take the time to invest in technology like IWMS, BIM, etc, mostly because they didn't have the time! There are theories that Facility Managers are silo'd so they didn't want to ask for help or admit that they needed the help that technology. A debate...

Other industries have or did embraced technology before FM, as a result FM has had no choice but to adapt and we’re playing catch up. When you’re talking about BIM for example our relationship with architecture has fueled the drive for FMs to adapt; ex: architecture develops technology to make their lives easier, specifically in context of a client (if you can show them exactly what their facility is going to look like, they will be oohhh'd and ahhhh’d, and have buy in). FM needs info from architects to run facilities effectively and this information comes digitally, only works in specific software, formats, etc etc. Previously FM’s would harvest the information themselves, sometimes ad hoc (staying silo’d). Technology breeds collaboration and transparency, something FM is becoming better at. 

I do touch on “gamification” of the industry in the context of teaching and training millennials, even though I hate that word and use a different phrase. I try and compare 'gamification' to previous methods of learning which was/is long, hands on training sessions in a classroom setting; my generation isn't anywhere near that anymore, we fall asleep.

Oh that Newton...

Newton's laws of motion (as described by WIKIPEDIA) are three physical laws that together laid the foundation for classical mechanics. They describe the relationship between a body and the forces acting upon it, and its motion in response to said forces. They have been expressed in several different ways over nearly three centuries,^[1] and can be summarized as follows:

1. First law: When viewed in an inertial reference frame, an object either is at rest or moves at a constant velocity, unless acted upon by a force.^[2][3]
2. Second law: The acceleration of a body is directly proportional to, and in the same direction as, the net force acting on the body, and inversely proportional to its mass. Thus, F = ma, where F is the net force acting on the object, m is the mass of the object and a is the acceleration of the object.
3. Third law: When one body exerts a force on a second body, the second body simultaneously exerts a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction to that of the first body.

I am sure you think I've digressed completely.... yes, but no. 

That Newton guy he was really effin' smart when he came up with this theory. I know that I, for one, continuously see the results of his work, be it personally or professionally. Normally, I'm on the shit end of the stick when it comes to his laws... but recently, I've been seeing some pretty spectacular POSITIVE results of his laws. 

My thesis falls under the first law, it has been established and I've come across some good research articles here and there to figure out what direction I might take with it. And then BAM! the second law - the project that I've been working on has taken off like a Virgin Airliner to London - which is amazing to say the least. The third law applies directly to the two previous laws (projects) colliding in mid air making for what is feeling like a firework right now.

For the project (also now dubbed the summer challenge) I am doing research and analysis on how we as facility managers use social media to interact with each other within the industry. I made a small survey to give some preliminary information. In reaction to this survey I have gotten feedback as to other places I can turn where previous research has been done on this exact topic. At this same time, at work, I also happened to be in a meeting about doing some disaster planning. One of the gentlemen at the meeting saw a book on inclusion sitting on someones desk and went into a nice professor-ly discussion about the social / generational inclusion that needs to take place these days. He of course was meaning this in the disaster sense where there is literally a huge divide between outgoing generations (baby boomers) and the XY factors. XY can't function without electricity the BB's know how to function, but in today's society dependent on technology makes it almost impossible to do - as if it's a lost art form. 

As the conversation about our actual meeting (about emergency management), the subject would inadvertently come up. How did people communicate during the storm? They ended up having to figure out how to effectively use the texting on their phone as worked on a different frequency then the jammed phone system. People from "inside" the storm ravaged areas could text to people outside who could then disseminate information publicly - almost in real time, keeping the masses informed. How is this built in to a disaster plan? Is it built into one? Who knows? 

The meeting continued, but then dots just started coming out to me just listening. A disaster happens, how can we mitigate it, how do we communicate it, how do we react to it, what can we do for the future to prevent the past from repeating itself...as bad?

Most all federal, state, and local funding mandates that facilities have certain emergency plans in place (emergency plans that mostly deal with how we communicate). Most all of these mandates give example "cookie cutter" plans that organizations can tailor to their needs, very rarely are they ever more than cookie cutter. These pre-conceived plans often times tend to be ill conceived because they foster very little collaboration, especially when you have a large population or umbrella organization to which you're servicing. 

This leads me to my own thesis... federal state, and local building codes, zones, laws are all going to change as a result of emergency management, disaster recovery, etc etc. As a DIRECT result, all mandates will change, emergency plans will have to be adopted to reflect those changes..... .... again goes to inclusion, reactive vs reflective. 

TA DAHHHHH full circle . . . . oh yes Mr. Newton ... "I can calculate the motions of the heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people." Science Kids - Science Facts 

• "Plato is my friend - Aristotle is my friend - but my greatest friend is truth."
• "If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of Giants."
• "I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."
• "Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things."