There was a recent event involving Google running a silent test on some stable Chrome environments. This test ended up completely breaking several corporate deployments with no clear way of detecting the cause. The natural reaction from many is that Google is clearly in the wrong because you don’t put customers at risk. However, the…
Should your workplace try to draw employees back into the office?
One of the regular questions I hear among corporate real estate professionals is how to bring employees back into the office through workplace design. It’s a fascinating question to me because it assumes a couple of interesting beliefs: It is better for employees to be in the office than out of the office Workplaces should…
Workplace design trends- 2010s: Flexibility. 2020s: Balance. The next decade will focus on the search for balance.
There is no question that the modern corporate workplace environment has changed significantly over the past ten years. Out are the private offices and cubicles. In are open environments and collaborative spaces. I’d argue the past ten years of workplace design has been dominated by the chase for a single word: flexibility. Looking forward, I…
Real decisions are the combination of Hot Takes + Arguments + Discussion + Forgiveness + Scotch (as needed)
Twitter has conditioned a large part of the world to condense their thoughts to 250 characters. That’s two sentences. Maybe 10 seconds to consume. Yet some people have been so taken by Twitter-culture that they see this as a forum for real thought. Twitter is a forum for ideas and introductions. It’s where conversations should…
A few thoughts on the impact of stepping back in 2019.
2019 was the year that I realized sometimes change is good. I’ve posted a lot less than ever before. Down to an average of a bit more than 1 per week where I was closer to 3+ in the few years prior. But with lower volume, I feel that quality has improved. This is the…
How you frame a situation is not how others frame it.
I love the concept of framing in communications. It’s one of the key messages in the Undoing Project (which you really should read if you haven’t already). But for those here for just this post, framing is putting communication within a broader context. Workplace Experience is a wonderful example of this principle. Some people may…
Decision-making processes start and end with understanding how to design your filter
I was scrolling through my LinkedIn feed earlier and came across a post that stated something along the lines of “your resume clearly states what you offer.” This statement made my brain skip because it’s just completely wrong. No resume in the world can state who a person is, what they’ve done or conveyed what…
Sometimes the most strategic action you can take is to focus on day-to-day tactical items with complete focus
Everyone in the business world wants to be the “Strategy” person. Everyone wants to brainstorm the next big idea. They want to ooo and aaah over the cool new technology. They want to imagine what three years from now could look like if they are given a blank check to “do the right thing.” Strategy…
Landlords, WeWork, asymmetric information and disruption
Four years ago, I wrote a post which continues to be one of my most read titled Taxis, Uber, asymmetric information and disruption. I really love that this keeps coming back up because the concept of asymmetric information is predominate in so many areas of the world. One of the great things about many new…
A handful of thoughts on the ballad of WeWork – the role of Space and Time on real estate
I have been avoiding discussing WeWork here. As a topic, it makes for a thrilling spectacle and there is no end to the angles a person could take to provide their opinion. But this also means that plenty of others are addressing the many facets of the rise, fall and rebirth of the most recent…