Kill the Doom Loop: a New Year’s resolution every building operator needs

Almost every building we walk into is stuck in the same pattern. A chiller fails, a sustainability rating drops or a major tenant complains, and the team immediately shifts into crisis mode. These fires are real, and solving them feels productive, even essential. But while the urgent gets fixed, the important gets ignored.

Preventative tasks are skipped. System tuning is delayed. Small improvements are pushed aside because budgets are already blown on emergency repairs. Before long, the lack of prevention creates even more failures, which creates even more firefighting. That repeating cycle is what we call the “Doom Loop”.