2006 BIFM Annual Conference FM – The Leadership Challenge

Citation

Finch, E. (2006), "2006 BIFM Annual Conference FM – The Leadership Challenge", Facilities, Vol. 24 No. 9/10. https://doi.org/10.1108/f.2006.06924iac.001

2006 BIFM Annual Conference FM – The Leadership Challenge

2006 BIFM Annual Conference FM – The Leadership Challenge

This year's British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM) conference took place in the hallowed setting of Keble College Oxford. The College was opened in 1820, being the first new college to open in Oxford for over 200 years. The “modern gothic” redbrick style of most of the College is the work of architect William Butterfield. However, later architectural additions have been made including the Sloane Robinson Building, a highly modern RIBA award winning building completed in 2002, designed by Rick Mather architects. It was in this highly modern yet restrained building that the conference took place providing a main conference auditorium and several smaller presentation rooms on the upper levels (Plate 1).

Plate 1. Ian R Fielder – Chief Executive BIFM: welcome on day three of the Conference

The conference began with an upbeat presentation by Mike Dalton who highlighted the dramatic growth and changes that have taken place in the BIFM over the last five years. Membership growth has risen from 2,943 in 1994 through a steady rate to a staggering 9,505 in 2005. The presentation also highlighted the growing challenges facing facilities managers over the next 20 years. In particular, the increasingly stringent environmental requirements that will be facing all building owners; including that of on-site sustainable power generation. Mike Dalton's presentation was succeeded by a presentation by Bill Callaghan, Chair of the Health and Safety Commission. The general message in this presentation was that health and safety remained a key responsibility for facilities managers and that representation at the board level was paramount. He commented that “we need to be clear that organisations contracting out their facilities management functions delegate their authority to others but not their responsibilities”. The proposed changes to company law (involving duties of care placed on directors of listed companies concerning their employees) reinforced this point.

The Hugh Channon Memorial Lecture, presented by James Nixon, dealt with the future of facilities management in the global context. In this, the presenter drew on his long-term experience with global organisations and in particular with Arthur Andersen. He spoke at length about the difficulties of expanding in a global arena, since most FM services are delivered on a local basis. He observed, “many countries, particularly developing countries, will have a “local” network that is tapped for various services. This network can be the result of long-term personal relationships, and family relationships, and can be difficult to challenge or effect change”. Clearly for organisations with global aspirations this was a timely reminder of the cultural challenges involved with extending into new territories (Plate 2).

Plate 2. Rakesh Kishan, Senior Vice President – Strategic Markets – EMCOR Group speaking on “Shaping value-focused FM organisations”

Much of the discussion and debate took place in what was termed the “Fringe Conference” which ran as parallel sessions. These smaller groupings provided more opportunity for open debate. Topics covered included “Qualifications – the future”; “A Question of Health”; “Who leads the team?”; “Global FM”; and “Getting Cultured – delivering FM in Europe” amongst others. As is the problem with parallel sessions you can never get to hear all that you wanted to, but in general there was a certain vitality and liveliness in the discussions which I attended. In some of the presentations the seating space was rather overwhelmed, caused in part by the uncertainty of who was going to attend what session.

The keynote presentation by Kirsty Hayes from Sydney, Australia, was invigorating, sharp and entirely engaging. She works with managers around the world with managers, developing their personal, communication and thinking skills. She exploited her neuro-linguistic programming skills to illustrate people's routine habits of blame. She spoke at length about what is meant by “commitment” and that it is much more than a cursory process of “buying into” an idea. Her style was dramatic making full use of her arm gestures, the audience and the stage. I sensed in the audience that everyone was identifying with the human behaviours that until that point perhaps had remained dormant or subliminal. At the end of the presentation the conference delegates expressed great enthusiasm for her frankness and ability to make sense of issues that to many of us seem so confusing. For me this presentation showed mastery of presentation and a deep understanding of how human behaviour influences management success.

The evenings included an informal dinner on the first night and a formal dinner on the second night. Both of these took place in the surroundings of the dining hall. Undoubtedly this seemed to be the setting for a Harry Potter wizard's convention! The first night included a presentation by Jan Meek, a Guinness Book of Records world record holder after 101 days of rowing across the Atlantic. The formal dinner was accompanied by a six member choir that showed great virtuosity and a considerable amount of humour.

In all the conference provided for me an opportunity to reflect and become reinvigorated with the FM challenge. I feel sure that this is the way that most of the other delegates felt at the end of the three days.

Edward Finch