It’s the season for holiday parties, when we’re often catching up with folks we haven’t seen in a while and meeting a few new faces. It’s a good time to dust off best practices for getting to know people, whatever the setting. Here are a few that have proven most powerful for me: Name recall. …
Switch on the tv, and you’ll hear an almost endless stream of negativity. “Our nation has never been more divided,” they say. I have never felt this way about most of the towns and cities where we build, as the changes I’ve seen have been mostly positive. It turns out that there’s whole movement of …
Several years ago, I wrote a post about Van Halen’s contract with their promoters. They have a clause in their agreements stating that the band should always be provided with M&Ms backstage, and none should be brown. The devil is in the details. At first glance, this may seem a bit eccentric, but if you think about it, the “no …
We have been fortunate to participate in a number of adaptive reuse projects over the years, with the most recent being the conversion of a former industrial warehouse into commercial office space. We’re now in the early stages of converting an abandoned school into a company’s primary office. We’ve learned a lot along the way, …
At some point in life, I feel like many of us are guilty of reaching that “got to have” goal we set for ourselves and then not hitting the “pause button” after we get there. Instead, we just set off chasing another goal. Sometimes it’s hard to stop and reflect on what has been accomplished, …
Each year, we make a pilgrimage to South Dakota, west of the Missouri River, near the Black Hills, to spend a few days with our friends at Lame Johnny Ranch. We spend our days chasing pheasants wherever the dogs’ noses lead us. This was my 30th year to make the trip, and I’ve watched as …
If there is one constant in life, it’s change. When it comes to habits, things swing one way, then another, before finding the equilibrium for a while. Then the cycle starts over. We’re starting to see that trend in retail. For years, we’ve heard “brick and mortar retail is doomed,” but it seems the pendulum …
A Greek poet by the name of Archilochus famously said, “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” In this conflict, a fox would seem to be an obvious winner, “but not so fast,” as Lee Corso might say. Foxes are sleek, quick and sneaky, spending their time devising strategies to be …
I think it’s safe to say that all the lighting and HVAC systems on our projects these days are high-efficiency and have some kind of “smart” element, from lighting controls to building automation systems. We’ve recently been working more with PoE (Power over Ethernet) systems. Oversimplified, the network not only controls the lighting and comfort but powers …
For some, the idea of “sales” is a little too comfortable, and they push products and services before it’s appropriate. For others, making a pitch is uncomfortable. I would argue both sides are approaching things wrong. This week, I had lunch with a friend, a prospect and customer relationship in the making, whose son plays Division 1 …
My FMI buddies always say that culture eats strategy for breakfast. I recently attended a workshop where the topic of corporate culture was addressed and compared to corporate climate, a subject that is perhaps equally important. Here’s the short version on both, a mash up of what was said that day and what I have learned …
In any kind of buy and sell, the customer experience is the differentiator. It’s where repeat business is earned or lost. This sounds simple, but we all know it’s hard to execute. In four decades of construction, I’ve yet to see a project that was delivered without any problems. Some are small, some large, but …