I focus on gathering experience as a center to my career path. My theory is the more things I have dealt with and worked through, the more capable I will be in the future. The game of life sometimes feels like a series of prerequisites. Before you can do B, you must complete A. To…
There a big difference between Workplace and Real Estate but they are directly dependent upon each other
I find a lot of people that specialize in either Workplace strategy or Real Estate strategy. It’s almost as if these worlds are not intended to cross even though you cannot have one without the other. Real estate people typically like negotiation, details, organization, numbers-oriented, and big picture items. Workplace people are typically more creative,…
Sometimes the only action is to play to win.
There are times when you find yourself swimming in open water with sharks all around. The options for victory are minimal. Paths out are not clear. When this happens, the only action left may be to simply play each moment to win, whatever that may look like. It can be surprising how often this strategy…
2 simple things to help with keeping momentum in CRE
As someone who supports a large leased corporate real estate portfolio, one of the biggest challenges we face is how to maintain momentum year over year. Between business changes, budget process, geographic changes, M&A, and “the new thing” it is easy to get distracted from the strategy and onto something new. Any given leased portfolio…
Build out your workplaces to support the activity, not the place
The workplace is the core feature of any corporate real estate group. Our job is to ensure we have places for people to work, wherever people need to work. It should have the technology and office support needed to keep people productive. However, when building out workplaces it is easy to build out the place…
Time is the only resource that you cannot purchase or expand
Time is precious. If you treat it right, it can be your friend. If you neglect it, it will bite you 11 times out of 10. Some people out there may be reacting by thinking they can just bring in additional resources and double the effort in the same amount of time. Realistically, you haven’t…
Real estate and asymmetric information
Back in 2015, I wrote a post titled Taxis, Uber, asymmetric information and disruption. This may be my most popular post ever. I admit it contains some catchy buzzwords. But more interestingly, it’s also one of my favorite posts. Information asymmetry is a fascinating concept. It drives communication (we know what we want to say but…
Always be learning
Learning isn’t something that you do in finite bites of time, it’s a lifestyle choice. Many people think that they should schedule their learning opportunities. They seek out a specific book about a subject. Or they watch an educational video. When you schedule your learning, you miss out on most of life’s lessons for you….
More effort very rarely equals more output
Productivity has been the hot topic in business and workplace strategy for decades. The first person to figure out how to design a workplace that can guarantee higher productivity would win as much work as their heart desired. Yet, somehow, no one has figured it out. Why has productivity failed to fall into a definable…
There’s a gulf between “balanced” and “best”
I keep harping on the theme that real estate is hard. Today’s thought on the topic is about all the times that I’ve heard people say that the goal is to build the best workplace possible when it comes to design. I’ve heard it from PMs, Architects, Interior Designers, Brokers, Consultants, you name it. Everyone…