Sustainability has been a buzzword for a couple of decades at least. Each year it grows in scope and breadth as more and more concepts attach themselves to the buzz. In an organization, two of the biggest sources of carbon are travel and real estate. It makes sense that the conversation tends to make its…
You can’t sell your CRE Tech because you don’t understand CRE
One of the best writers in CRE, Mr. Duke Long, has run three posts in a row about selling CRE Tech (shortening the cycle, who makes the decision, ending with the sales pitch). They are very worth reading for anyone that is either planning to buy or sell CRE Technology in the foreseeable future. However,…
There’s a difference between the levers you can pull and the outcomes you want to achieve.
When planning out your actions for the year, it can be very easy to confuse outcomes with actions. Saving money is an outcome, not an action. Changing service levels is an action, not an outcome. Working through this differences is the gap between success and failure in your actions throughout a year. It’s the difference…
Data doesn’t cause bad decisions, people with data cause bad decisions
One of the running themes from the past six months that I’ve been working on is the role of data in decision making. Historically, I’ve been one of the biggest advocates that it is hard to have too much data. Get the data together, test different ways of looking at it, then pick the best…
Strategy starts with being able to tell a good story
In a conversation last week, I made the comment without thinking that: Strategy is built on marketing and stories; tactics is built on actions and deliverables. Since then, the thought keeps popping back in my head. I’ve talked a lot about being able to tell stories before as it’s a concept I really believe in….
Having hard conversations is only a challenge if you avoid them until you have to finally do it.
Being fully honest and direct at work is hard. To varying degrees, most of us want to be liked by our colleagues and employees. Being seen as too tough can feel like you are giving people reason to not like you. Direct feedback is a critical skillset to learn. Telling people what you need and…
2019 CRE Predictions: not much going to change again.
People look to Corporate Real Estate as a huge asset class with some really large Fortune 500 service providers focused on it. On the surface, it shares many similar qualities to fields like Finance and HR where every company on earth requires it. CRE also takes up a huge portion of any company’s balance sheet…
Make yourself replaceable
One of the greatest skills that any employee should learn is the art of making themselves replaceable. This may seem a bit counter-intuitive to many but that’s the power of it. Very few people work to automate their job and make what they do completely efficient. The common refrain is “why put myself out of…
Workplace Experience is to CRE what UI/UX is to software
Software conversations often circle around the concept of User Interface and User Experience. No one uses poorly designed software unless they are forced to (plenty of these examples exist) but plenty of people freely choose to use beautiful, simple software even if it doesn’t do everything they’d expect. An experience is all about how the…
What to do when your direction changes?
It’s been a bit since I’ve posted here. I didn’t go into this slump expecting to not write, I actually have a few queued up. However, I hit an unexpected bump in the road: my mind wasn’t in it any more. I’ve been on the Corporate side of the world for a bit over two…