Richard Jordan's blog

Ben Franklin once said “When you're finished changing, you're finished.”  I wonder if he had to deal with generational changes in his workplace.  Out with the old king, in with the new king- that sort of thing.

One of the hottest topics in workplace discussions is the value of proximity in collaboration.  The two extremes are “Everyone has to be here for any meaningful collaboration to occur” and “Our whole team has never been in the same place at the same time”.  There are examples of success and failure on each end of the spectrum.  There are teams that never meet as a group but seem to be highly productive, and there are whole organizations that are crowded into vast tracts of cubicles, yet despite their being packed in like a box of hamsters, never seem t

With all the hype of Social Media, and the constant refrain of “we have to start using this Social Media stuff”, it might help to start to build an understanding of what can be done within the context of a corporate real estate organization.  The three key words are Connect, Communicate, Collaborate.

What’s wrong with this picture?

The people are gone, but the building remains.

The advancement of social media and networking has changed the way that real estate professionals communicate and interact. I think we all know this intuitively, but many folks – including key leadership – are not really clear on the how, why, or who of this change.  As you might guess, this is partly a generational & perspective issue.

I know, I know.  It all seemed so simple when it was all about trust.  It is, but that trust has a price.  You had to give permission, and then you needed to provide choices to support that permission.  Guess what?  Choices  provide a myriad of opportunities for problems, and those people you trust now trust that you will support the choices you gave them.  Don’t give in to the notion that it would be easier if we just went back to the old ways.  You will not be happy with that decision, and neither will your employees. 

Mobile workers execute their work in different ways.  Two employees who have the same job description will exhibit remarkably different work patterns.  Providing choices gives the employee freedom to select those things that make the most sense for their situation.  What modern HR department would dream of saying “this is the one benefit package we offer”?.  Progressive firms offer a selection of priced options to the employee to meet the medical, dental, compensation, retirement, and insurance needs.  The employee is given a number of dollars and then m

In my previous post I wrote about permission.  I put that first, but the reality is that permission and trust go hand in hand, and depending on the individual, either one can come first.  But for the sake of this series of posts, let’s assume that permission is formalized, and a document defines the parameters of participation; a “Formal Agreement” per se.  What comes next?

In order for a mobility program to truly be successful, there are four things that must be in place: Permission, Trust, Choice, and Support.