I am a facilities guy. Worse than that, I am a facilities data guy. There is nothing I love more than diving into a pile of data — sometimes literal, mostly figurative — to tease out the narrative. 

But here is something I have learned the hard way over the years: the narrative I love is not the narrative that wins votes in the boardroom. 

I have sat in plenty of board meetings and council chambers where a Facilities Director walked in armed with their FCI, their five-year capital plan, and a beautifully detailed list of mechanical systems past their EUL. Beautiful work, every page of it. I have also watched eyes glaze over by slide three. 

Then I have watched a different presenter stand up, in front of the same board, with the same buildings, the same backlog, and the same dollar figures — and walk out with funding approved. 

The difference was not the data. It was a single word. 

Cost vs. Asset

When senior leaders — board members, trustees, elected officials — look at your facilities, most of them are seeing a cost. Not because they are wrong. Because that is how the accounting tells them to see it. Buildings sit on the operating side of the ledger. Maintenance is a line item. Capital renewal is a budget request competing with every other priority on the desk. 

I (jokingly) blame the accountants. Sorry, accountants — you know I love you. But really, it is the language we have all inherited, and we have all been speaking it for so long that nobody questions it anymore. 

Here is what I have come to believe: what you do with a cost is cut it. What you do with an asset is invest in it. Same buildings, same dollars, completely different conversation. The single most important shift you can make before your next board or council presentation is convincing the room to see your facilities as an asset. 

Why does it matter? A board that sees a $400M cost is asking, “Where can we trim?” A board that sees a $400M asset is asking, “How do we protect what we own?” 

Two completely different questions. Same buildings. One board defers. One reinvests. Ten years later, those two boards are running two very different organizations — and the building tenants are living with the consequences of one word. 

What This is Not

Now, before anyone runs off to find-and-replace “cost” with “asset” in their next slide deck — slow down. This is not a rebranding exercise. Boards and elected officials are not naive. They will see through a marketing trick in about thirty seconds, and now you have not only failed to get funding, you have spent some of your credibility too. Not a great trade. 

The reframe only sticks when the data is wrapped in a story written for your specific audience. Asset valuations do not survive a CFO’s questioning unless they are rooted in consistent and defensible information about what you own, what condition it is in, and what it costs to operate over its lifecycle. That is the work. The word “asset” is the entry ticket. The story you craft from the data is what gets you the vote. 

And here is the part that took me a long time to fully appreciate: facilities people, generally speaking, are not natural storytellers. We are trained to be precise, technical, and thorough — which are exactly the qualities that get you eye-glaze by slide three. Telling a story for a board is a different skill, and it is one I think we all need to get a lot better at. 

In my next post, I will dig into how to use story — backed by data — to change the perspective of your boardroom leaders. 

Until then, take a look at your last board presentation. Count how many times the word “cost” shows up. Count how many times the word “asset” shows up. The ratio might tell you more about your funding outcomes than you realize.