Marc Petock Vice President, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer Lynxspring
As March comes in like a lion and we get ready for the madness that happens at this
time of the year, I am reminded that the built environment is a lot like March Madness.
In addition to each being dynamic, transformative, and full of surprises, they share
several similarities.
Both encounter diverse elements and complexities. In March Madness, you have a
multitude of teams with varying skills, strengths, and approaches to the game. Similarly,
the built environment embodies a range of different building types, each with its own
unique characteristics, functions, and approaches to how they are operated and
managed.
March Madness is known for teams competing against each other to advance to the
tournament and, hopefully, win the coveted championship. Likewise, in the built
environment, there is competition among facility management, engineers, IT, solution
providers and developers to create innovative and functional spaces that stand out and
meet the needs and requirements of a variety of businesses.
In March Madness, the tournament bracket is carefully planned, and teams are seeded
based on their performance and rankings. Similarly, those involved in managing and
operating buildings need to plan and design their operating environments carefully,
considering several factors, such as facility use, productivity, compliance, infrastructure,
security, sustainability, desired outcomes, and more.
In March Madness, teams must be flexible, often needing to adapt their gameplay and
strategies based on live game situations. Likewise, the built environment must
accommodate the unpredictable—adapting in real-time to dynamic events such as
occupancy levels, environmental conditions, equipment functionality and unexpected
occurrences.
March Madness garners widespread attention and support from a community of fans
and alumni rooting for their favorite teams. Similarly, the built environment relies on a
community and extended ecosystem to ensure buildings operate efficiently and
effectively and to key performance levels.
While the built environment and March Madness may seem unrelated, they share
several of the same characteristics that are essential to win. They both need to operate
harmoniously, unite disparate things together, utilize data to get a leg up, make people
and things interoperate with each other—all to deliver winning outcomes.
