As we near the end of 2015, our facilities engineering and maintenance staffs have faced typical — albeit in some cases magnified — situations this year. Some examples are:

• Another bitter winter with record snowfalls especially in the Northeast
• States in the South and Southwest hoping their air-conditioning systems don't fail
• Those in the Midwest concerned with stormy weather — have you ever seen so many tornado watches in the Chicago area before this year?
• Flooding in the Louisiana-Texas-Oklahoma area of the country
• The West and Northwest concerned with fire protection (without water) and smoke ejection

But this article is not about weather, global warming or climate change. Obviously, facilities folks experience more problems than weather-related ones. We could call them "everyday" situations or problems. I certainly don't have to lecture you about any of these everyday situations.

We're here to talk about knowledge. And today's maintenance professional needs more knowledge than our fathers and grandfathers.

All of us are exposed to education every day of our lives. We're constantly learning — from learning as a toddler that some pots sitting on the stove are hot to the touch to learning later in life that "you know what" runs downhill.

These are sometimes hard lessons learned from experience. On-the-job training is another form of learning from experience but most times involves a mentor. Some of us are continuing to learn even after our careers have ended in retirement.

There is also that knowledge gleaned from outside the job. High schools, vocational schools, community or junior colleges offer some of these opportunities. But, once on the job, most workers are subject to the previously mentioned OJT and work-experience lessons — some learned the hard way and some even learned incorrectly.

After a few years, this might serve them well in performing their job and staying employed even though that new-fangled machine does take a little longer to figure out. It might even cost a few burned-out parts before they're comfortable enough to work on it confidently.

Putting this into other words, your workers come to the job every day and look at the same four walls, rarely seeing/learning what's outside those walls. Again, knowledge needs to be acquired from outside the job. "This is the way it's always been done" just doesn't cut it anymore.

There's a saying going around the industry that I'm sure you've heard. Someone asks, "What if we train them and they leave?" to which the punchline reply is "What if we don't and they stay?"

But let me ask this: "If you train your entire workforce, will you have a super-team?” Of course not. Why? Because some will sleep through the training, some are too embarrassed to ask a question to clear up a point they don't understand, and some just won't "get it."

This tells me effective training is tied to motivation. Salary and job security are good motivators but not the overriding ones to me. Both pride and self-esteem are tied together as the number one motivator to me. Being able to do an outstanding job and knowing how to do it are key.

Many people get these attributes from associating themselves with their peers outside their daily world.

When I was a maintenance manager, I remember thinking our internal processes and procedures were sorely lacking until I attended some chapter meetings and larger conferences, such as AFE's Facilities America. With this networking, I quickly saw we weren't doing so badly. More importantly, it also gave me the motivation to go back to my team and to start implementing some improvements I'd picked from different conversations.

Continuing education is crucial for gaining knowledge in the field, but you can also "train" year 'round through chapter meeting presentations, monthly webinars, networking and even through certification review classes.

Does any of this take the place of formal schooling or OJT? Not directly, but isn't networking with peers a form of OJT? Expos, webinars and chapter meeting presentations serve as refreshers, a way to learn of new products/processes, a chance to clear up a work problem otherwise unsolved.

But, most importantly, they motivate us to excel in our duties.