Ed Buckley is Vice President of Facilities Operations at TDIndustries in Dallas, TX where he is passionate about supporting his clients and serving his teams. Host Mike Petrusky asks Ed about the role of the FM and CRE leaders in 2025 and they explore how the industry must continue to adapt to the changing nature of work and the built environment. Understanding and addressing the challenges faced by frontline teams is crucial for effective management and technology can be used to improve their work experience. Ed shares his view of A.I. in facility management and how our teams can significantly impact healthy hybrid work environments and the need for productivity in all spaces.
Agenda
- The importance of understanding the challenges faced by frontline workers
- The role of technology in improving work environments
- The impact of AI on the workplace and the importance of adapting to it
- Advice for workplace managers and leaders
What you need to know: Workplace takeaways
Takeaway 1: Being a workplace leader involves understanding the challenges of frontline workers and leveraging technology to improve their productivity.
The discussion touched on the importance of being a leader who understands the challenges of their frontline workers and leverages technology to improve their productivity. Ed Buckley emphasizes the need for leaders to be on the ground with their workers to truly understand their challenges. “Do a ride along with a technician or a frontline teammate and really watch and try to understand the challenges that they’re faced with,” he suggests.
Buckley also highlights the need to use technology to remove administrative tasks that often get in the way of the work. “Given that it’s going to be all-pervasive, I think it’s incumbent upon us to figure out how we can use technology to enable our frontline teams to focus on the work that they like doing and that only they can do, frankly,” he says. For those looking to make a difference, he suggests identifying one change that could improve the lives of the frontline teams, which, in turn, would have a significant impact on customers in the workplace.
Takeaway 2: Artificial intelligence (AI) is a crucial technology for the future of workplace management.
As part of the conversation, there’s a significant focus on the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the future of workplace management. According to Buckley, AI is a technology that everyone in the industry can benefit from, and it’s impacting almost every other technology used in the industry.
He recommends getting acquainted with AI, emphasizing its accessibility and usability. “First, if you haven’t done it already, download ChatGPT or Claude onto your phone and just have a go. AI is a great technology in that you don’t need to understand how it works in the background to get benefit from it,” he advises. Buckley also highlights that AI could be used to make jobs more interesting and attract more people to join the industry.
Takeaway 3: The Facility Management (FM) and Real Estate industry needs to focus on serving the end-user and listening to their needs.
The conversation also touches on the need for the Facility Management (FM) and Real Estate industry to focus more on serving the end-user and listening to their needs. Buckley mentions the importance of making the end-user experience a priority, especially when it comes to technology.
He shares, “The focus that I have is very much around their experience and working with our customers and various technology vendors to improve that frontline workforce experience.” He stresses that while it’s great to provide the best dashboards for executives, if they don’t result in a better-maintained, healthier, and more comfortable building, then the technology doesn’t provide much value. Buckley believes the better workplace managers and thought leaders in the industry will focus on ensuring that the environment and tools support the behaviors they’re trying to drive.
Workplace management insights
- The importance of understanding the challenges faced by frontline workers and making changes that improve their lives and have a positive impact on customers.
- The role of technology in facilitating better work environments and making frontline teams more effective.
- The importance of focusing on end-user needs when innovating in the workplace.
- The impact of AI on the workplace and the need for industry professionals to understand and adapt to it.
- The importance of setting up systems and environments that support desired behaviors in the workplace.
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PLEASE NOTE: Ed knows and apologizes for calling Robert Greenleaf, Mr. Greenfield in the podcast. You can follow the work of the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership here.
