6  |  SCHOOL PLANT MANAGER MAGAZINE  |  SUMMER 2026
•	 Clear expectations.
•	 Consistent communication.
•	 Protected PM time.
•	 Defined priorities.
•	 And leadership teams willing to stay 
disciplined when pressure increases.
Staff need to understand not only 
what the expectations are, but why they 
matter. If leaders want teams to think 
proactively, then the vision, goals, 
and priorities must be communicated 
consistently, not just during moments 
of frustration, but through everyday 
conversations, walkthroughs, meetings, 
and accountability. A wise man, 
Charley Branham, once told me, 
“Casey, you should be doing four 
things as a Director of Operations: 
THINK, PLAN, COMMUNICATE, 
AND EVALUATE.” Those four words 
are handwritten on a piece of paper 
that sits on my desk every day as a 
reminder. The older I get, the more 
I realize how true they are. Reactive 
leadership usually skips one or more 
of those steps. Strong leadership slows 
things down enough to think clearly, 
plan intentionally, communicate 
expectations consistently, and evaluate 
honestly afterward so improvement can 
continue.
One practical place to start is with 
a simple weekly reset. Take time each 
week to identify the most important 
work, separate true emergencies from 
routine requests, protect preventive 
maintenance time, and communicate 
priorities clearly to your team. That 
does not have to be complicated. 
Define what actually qualifies as an 
emergency. Review work orders before 
they are assigned. Protect certain 
blocks of time for PM work. Let staff 
know what the priorities are and why 
they matter. Then, at the end of the 
week, evaluate what worked, what 
interrupted the plan, and what needs 
to change.
That simple discipline gives your team 
direction. It also gives you a better way 
to explain decisions when someone asks 
why a request was delayed or why PM 
work was protected. The goal is not to 
eliminate every interruption. The goal is 
to stop allowing interruptions to run the 
department.
Preventive maintenance is often the 
first casualty of reactive culture, yet PM 
is one of the only things that actually 
reduces emergencies over time. When 
PM schedules constantly get pushed 
aside, the result is predictable: more 
breakdowns, more emergency spending, 
more frustration, and more reaction. 
Most major failures begin as small issues 
someone hoped could wait.
There is also a reward system 
problem we have to be honest about. 
Organizations often celebrate the 
firefighter while overlooking the person 
who prevented the fire. The employee 
who drops everything to respond to a 
crisis is noticed immediately, while the 
person quietly completing inspections, 
servicing equipment, or keeping 
systems from failing may never receive 
the same attention. Over time, that 
sends a message. Chaos gets praised. 
Discipline gets assumed. That does 
not mean emergency response should 
go unrecognized. It means prevention 
deserves recognition too.
One principle I was introduced to by 
a CEO I worked for, Robin Venn, came 
from his Code of Team Behavior: focus 
on rewarding and celebrating results, 
not effort alone. That has always stood 
out to me. Effort matters, but effort 
without improvement cannot become 
the standard. Teams need to know what 
success looks like, what progress looks 
like, and what accountability looks 
like. Clear expectations paired with 
recognition and support create healthier 
and more sustainable cultures than 
constant reaction ever will.
The same thing happens with 
planning. When departments stay 
buried in reaction long enough, they stop 
thinking long-term. Capital planning 
gets delayed. Equipment lifecycles 
get ignored. CMMS data becomes 
unreliable. Buildings slowly begin 
Note from the MSPMA President, continued
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