What do you do if your Facility Management team is struggling to solve problems together?

1 Identify the root causes

The first step to solving any problem is to understand what is causing it. Is it a lack of communication, trust, or accountability? Is it a mismatch of skills, expectations, or goals? Is it a conflict of personalities, values, or interests? You need to gather feedback from your team members, either individually or collectively, to identify the sources of their difficulties. You can use surveys, interviews, focus groups, or other methods to collect their opinions and perceptions. Be open-minded and respectful, and avoid making assumptions or judgments.

2 Address the issues promptly

Once you have identified the root causes of your team's problems, you need to act quickly and decisively to resolve them. If left unattended, these issues can have a detrimental effect on morale, productivity, and reputation. Depending on the nature and severity of the issues, you may need to provide clear and consistent guidance and feedback to your team members, set realistic goals and expectations for each individual, align the team's vision with the organization's mission, offer adequate training and development opportunities, recognize and reward achievements and contributions, mediate between conflicting parties, or implement fair policies and procedures.

3 Encourage collaboration and innovation

To prevent your team from falling into the same problems again, it is essential to foster a culture of collaboration and innovation. This requires creating a supportive and trusting environment where team members can share their ideas, opinions, and feedback without fear or hesitation. Moreover, team members should be empowered to take ownership and initiative in solving problems and improving processes. To encourage collaboration and innovation, involve them in decision-making and problem-solving processes, provide the necessary resources, tools, and information to perform their tasks, create opportunities for learning from each other and external sources, promote diversity and inclusion in the team, celebrate successes and learn from failures, and seek feedback and suggestions from team members and other stakeholders on how to improve performance.

4 Monitor and evaluate your progress

Finally, you need to monitor and evaluate your progress as a team and as a leader. To measure your progress, you can conduct regular team meetings and reviews, solicit feedback from team members, customers, and stakeholders, review goals and expectations, conduct surveys or assessments to evaluate strengths and weaknesses, or seek professional coaching or mentoring. Doing so can help your facility management team overcome their problems and work together more effectively. It can also improve your own leadership abilities and reputation. Remember that a successful facility management team is not only a group of individuals, but a cohesive and collaborative unit that delivers value and excellence.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?