KI, a leader in education furniture recently put out a great article on the changing classroom.  Many of the initial thoughts were based on the Harvard Education Department's study, The Pathway to Prosperity-preparing young Americans for the 21st Century.  Harvard's study learned that there are over 1 million dropouts from high school in the United States every year, and only 40% of Americans receive a Bachelor or Associates Degree.  Clearly something has to change for our students to compete in a world job market.  One interesting piece of feedback they learned was that current education does not resonate with students as it relates to the job market.  One of the biggest issues they feel is a major change on how classrooms and campuses are designed.  Also, to bridge the digital way young people live their lives now, classrooms must change.  Also, an updated curriculum must drive planning.

Some of the keys to start are, Incorporating informal learning spaces, enable and support technology, deliver versatility, and advance environmental objectives.

To read the entire white paper, go to KIeducation.com, click on education trends,education articles, and Learning per square foot.

Hopefully you had an opportunity to visit Neocon , but if not, Environments That Work was there in full force.  We were very excited for Teknion winning a Silver Best of Neocon Award for Interpret which is a great product that bridges systems furniture and desking systems within a single correspondence offering.  Manufactured globally, Interpret allows standardization for global companies as well as offering a positive environmental impact, a speedy delivery, and reducing the carbon footprint.  It was designed specifically using DfE (Designed for the Environment) principles.  Interpret is totally reconfigurable and able to be built onto in the future.  You can also mix in wood components to dress up the look.  Also, Interpet works perfectly with Teknion's award winning Mast product, a leading flat panel monitor arm.  Please contact us at Environments That Work.

Changes in the Workplace

I recently attended a seminar at Neocon regarding the many changes in the workplace.  This particular seminar was based on our government workplaces but it mirrors what is happening in the corporate world as well.  It all started with President Obama's infamous edict of 2010 to all government agencies that all of them will immediately dispose of unneeded real estate and reduce square footage in all departments.  The government found that, like the corporate world, people are not at their desks approximately 40% of the day.  This in combination with the younger workforce who does not need or want a fixed workplace, allows for shared work areas and mobile workers allowed to work from home a certain amount of days a week.  In addition, a shared conference room and meeting room arrangement among departments was worked out so that conference rooms could be eliminated to better utilize the ones that stayed.  One side benefit that was discovered was that when people were also allowed to work from home, a 16% jump in productivity was realized.  That was something no one expected.

One of the additional hopes by the presidential memo was to turn governmental offices into a more environmentally friendly scenario.  This was done by not only using more eco friendly materials, and other green building standards, but also realizing a great savings in overall CO2 reductions by so many employees working from home and not using their cars on the roads.  In addition, car pool programs were set up to further this goal.  As far as the furniture, since the overall height of the furniture was reduced, natural light was brought into the workplace, and a sound masking system was installed to take care of any additional noise created by the open environment.

If you would like any additional information on how to create this type of environment in your workplace and save your real estate dollars, please contact us at Environments That Work.

With NEOCON 2012 fast approaching, many of you might not be aware exactly what it is and where it is.  NEOCON , which is somehow short for National Exposition of Contract Furnishings, is the largest and most prominent furniture show in North America.  It is held every year in the 2nd week of June at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, this year on June 11th-13th.  What used to be a full week of showroom visits and seminars has been reduced to three days, and many vendors would tell you 2 days. It used to be that the manufacturers complained that friday afternoons were slow.  Now, with travel being curtailed for many visitors from out of town. most every manufacturer has there gala parties and events on Monday nights in fear of everybody flying out of town on tuesday afternoons.  If you haven't ever attended NEOCON, you really should invest a day and walk the halls and visit the showrooms.  It is an outstanding level of excitement and collection of new products in combination with being able to rub elbows with many of the high ranking management of the manufacturers and designers who actually design the products you use and sit in.

Bring your walking shoes because the Merchandise Mart, the world's largest commercial building coming in at 4.2 million square feet, is a challenge for sure.  While you will think , the 10 million people that visit the Merchandise Mart during the course of every year are all there on Monday June 11th, in reality it is only about 40,000-it's just that they are all doing exactly what you want to do.  If you are thinking about joining in the festivities for this 43rd NEOCON show, please give me a call and I will be glad to show you around.

I recently attended a seminar that Patrick Lencioni spoke at, and if you are not familiar with Pat, his company consults with all types of companies regarding teamwork and developing successful organizations.  He had numerous great ideas, but I thought his ability to communicate dysfunctions in a company that hinders teamwork and team building were quite good-maybe you will recognize some of them from your company.

1) Absence of Trust-trust needs to be not only between employer and employee, but viceversa as well.  At all levels of the company people must be able to feel free to ask for help, admit they are not sure of what they are doing, or just be able to speak freely. A leader also needs to show vulnerability to his employees.

2) Fear of conflict-too many times people just nod their heads in meetings or collaborations as they are afraid to question something or feel they will be taking up too much of the bosses time. Leaders need to demand input.

3) Avoidance of accountability-this is mostly on the bosses.  Too many times a leader feels they do not have the time to handle behavorial problems but they can undermine a team's whole efforts.

4) Achieving commitment-If you are not completely satisfied that everyone on your team has bought into the plan, it's not going to have a successful result.

5) Focusing on results-employees have to be trained to realize that is ultimately the teams success that matters-not individuals.  If they cannot, you might have the wrong people on your team.

Space does not permit the real flushing out of these ideas but I highly recommend you get Pat's book on the matter.  Pat additionally talks about building healthy and smart companies by creating a moral atmosphere that is consistemtly fair through hiring, firing, meetings, etc..You must build a cohesive leadership team, retain key employees, and overcommunicate your organization's goals.

Made to Order

If you've ever purchased commercial office furniture then you've probably heard the term: made to order. But what does made to order mean? To begin with; commercial furniture, by and large, is not stocked. There is no mammoth warehouse that contains every furniture component a manufacturer offers in every available finish. Logistically, it would be impossible to stock all of these items, and that doesn't even take into consideration multiple quantities. So, what "made to order" means is it is literally made only after it has been ordered. In fact, most manufacturers practice what is known as "just in time manufacturing". This means they don't even stock the raw materials for their furniture. They obtain them only after a customer has placed an order and then your furniture arrives "just in time" for your requested delivery date. So, how does "made to order" differ from "custom"? Made to orders means that all of the engineering review has been completed and the tooling is in place to process your order. All you have to do is place the order and it will arrive "just in time". Custom furniture means non-standard, such as a non-standard dimensions or even finish color. Custom furniture is still "made to order" it just takes a little longer because it has to be reviewed and approved by an engineer before it's produced. The concept of made to order is designed to benefit both the manufacturer and the customer. The manufacturer can minimize the size of their operation by not having to maintain a large product inventory; and the customer has the opportunity to select the exact furniture and finish they want. Just make sure you plan ahead to account for the lead time.

Our company recently started representing Spacefile's Asset Management and Tracking System. This RFID based system is the most comprehensive, easy to use and reasonable full featured system I have seen. It's simple software based system benefits so many types of businesses and organizations. It allows you to index vital assets, Identify asset location, track assets whenever they change hands, find missing files and assets, and gives complete audit trails. Whether you are a company simply trying to keep track of furniture, to sophisticated file systems, or perhaps a law enforcement organization trying to control evidence, this system works great. It also supports video and camera surveillance. For more information, give me a call at 630-338-0162 x301.

If you are not considering demountable walls, you should be

Demountable Walls have been around for a very long time, but many Facility Managers and Owners still consider them cost prohibitive. Based on the record sales of these walls recently from various manufacturers, I believe this theory is beginning to change. So many times in the past people have only evaluated them based on their ability to be reconfigured. What often gets overlooked is the following additional benefits:

1)Reconfiguration Demolition- The cost of demolition of drywall and disposal.

2)Carpet matching-Demountable walls are installed on top of carpet-no patching required

3)Employee's Health and Lost productivity-Demountable walls are often reconfigured in 1 day with little to no disruption or dust.

4)Depreciation-Demountable walls are considered furniture and can be depreciated significantly faster than drywall and in 2012 can be depreciated in only 1 year.

5)Disposing of Drywall-The amount of drywall that is dumped in landfills is becoming a staggering number and needs to stop-Demountable walls are very recyclable.

6)Real Estate considerations-A space that has demountable walls is significantly more attractive to prospective clients than drywall. Also, the walls can be taken to a new space by a client and reused.

7)Construction Time-The construction process of drywall includes many trades, is very messy, and takes weeks to complete holding up other parts of the project. Demountable walls arrive on site virtually finished and can be installed in a fraction of the time.

Please let us use our simple budget estimator to help you and your facility be smarter for the future.

Smart Phones

I recently watched a show on the History Channel about the 101 greatest inventions of all time. Number 1 on that list was the smart phone. The smart phone combines several of the other items from the list of greatest inventions: the phone, an MP3 player, a camera, a video recorder, a GPS, e-mail, and the internet. (I'm sure you're phone has other functions, but you get the point) In a nut shell, I'm sure we can all agree that the smart phone has revolutinized our lives. The world is at our fingertips and, at the same time, we are always available to the world. Fast forward a week and I find myself having lunch, alone, in a cafe, checking e-mails (on my smart phone, no less) between sales appointments. As I sit there it occurs to me that I've uncovered the single greatest attribute of the smart phone; the ability to disconnect and shut out the world. That's right, the piece of technology I use to always be in contact with the world allows me to bury my head in an e-mail and avoid communicating with anyone else around me. I looked around the cafe and found further evidence to support my claim in 3 other people eating by themselves and never looking up from their smart phones. I couldn't help but laugh. What a great world we live in. My smartphone makes it no longer uncomfortable to eat, alone, in a resturant. I can walk down the street listening to my I-tunes never have to acknowledge anyone I pass. I can pretend to be on the phone and avoid that pesky co-worker who always wants to actually answer the question, "How are you?". The possibilities are endless. The smart phone really is the greatest invention of all time.

Depreciation Stimulus Act extended

Good news for you smart business people who realize the many government programs that are trying to assist you while stimulating the economy. One of the best ever for small to medium size businesses is the Section 179 Act. I highly recommend you google it or ask your accountant how it can impact your business, but basically it allows you to buy or lease furniture or equipment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and write in all off in the same year, and not have it drag out over the standard depreciation rules. This act was expected to end in 2011, but was extended through the 2012 tax year. And as stated above, this does include leases. This act can be a big profit builder for the bottom line, so again, please contact a tax professional for the particular benefits for your business. And give us a call at Environments That Work, we would be glad to assist you with other cost savings ideas to build that bottom line.

Please read this valuable article from one of our trusted partners. Jim Christensen with JCBCM Consulting helps business owners protect against damaging events that can interrupt a businesses lifeblood. If you do not have a business continuity plan, please contact Jim.

Make your worst nightmare merely a bad dream!

Fires, power outages, your network is hacked, rains cause heavy flooding, a hazmat accident near your facility, a construction back-hoe rips up the fiber-optics going into the building, disgruntled employees steal intellectual property, the list goes on and on. Disasters happen every day. Check out any news source today…bad things happen to good companies. It is an unfortunate fact of life.

After a disaster strikes your company, your clients may be sympathetic, but your company will still be expected to meet its critical business objectives in order to stay successfully in business. That is your bottom-line no matter what else happens. “Being down” puts you at risk of losing current clients, potential clients, your revenue stream, your future, and your business. The ostrich approach of “it won’t happen to me” is a bad strategy.

Having a solid, pretested Business Continuity Management Program in place is smart for any company. A Business Continuity Management Program uses business common-sense and applies prevention, mitigation, and pre-planning to assure that your company can competitively survive any unplanned business disaster…WHEN it comes your way.

The basic components of a solid Business Continuity Management Program:

· IDENTIFYING THE ESSENTIALS: Determine which of the functions/products/services that your company provides are absolutely critical to your clients, your revenue stream, your stakeholders, your regulators, and your continued successful business existence.

· DETERMINE all the internal and external resources and processes that are required to either maintain or restore each of the functions. Determine how soon each must be available.

· PUT A PLAN in place that will maintain or restore your critical functions even after you have lost your facility or lost your IT environment or key staff or key vendors or power or other company-killing disaster scenarios. Where are you recovering to? Have you backed-up what you need? Does your back-up work as planned?

· CREATE A CRISIS COMMUNICATION PLAN. Determine how you will communicate with all the key people after the disaster has struck. “Key people” defined as employees, clients, customers, patients, vendors, media, regulators, stakeholders, etc. It will be important to keep them in the loop as the disaster unfolds.

· IDENTIFY THE RISKS to your location and your organization. Determine and implement how to protect your critical functions through prevention and mitigation.

· REVIEW AND UPDATE. Your Business Continuity Management Program should always reflect the needs of your company. It evolves and changes as the company evolves and grows. Be prudent; keep the program current and useful.

· TEST TO CONFIRM: And finally, test your plans every year. It is your company’s lifeline. Make sure that they will work when you need them.

I invite you to contact me if you have any questions concerning Business Continuity Management Programs.

Jim

Jim Christensen
JCBCM Consulting, Ltd.
Jim@BusinessContinuityMgt.com

815-477-3655 [office]
815-342-0415 [cell]
1460 Parkridge Drive
Crystal Lake, IL 60014-8694
www.BusinessContinuityMgt.com

change management

Several years ago I had a client move from one office building, in Chicago, to another. They moved into a furnished space, however, they decided to purchase new desk chairs for all of the employees. In an attempt to keep all the employees happy my client purchased the same chairs they had previously. We upholstered the chairs in a different fabric to complement their new office and we even upgraded the chairs with a few more ergonomic adjustments. In a nut shell, our intentions were good. After my client moved in, one weekend, I went over to see how the new office was working out. In the middle of walking through the office the facility manager and I were confronted by an woman who was very upset that we had replaced her very comfortable chair with a cheap one. She made us throughly aware that she was unhappy with the way we had wasted the company's money on inferior chairs when we could have easily moved the old ones to the new office. Needless to say, I was in disbelief. So much so that the woman stomped away before I even had the chance to tell her that she was sitting in the same chair.

I used to tell this story to illustrate to customers just how adverse people are to change, however, I recently realized that my job should be more than just preparing clients for change. My job is to help my client's manage for these changes by developing a change management plan. In my opinion the biggest piece of a change management plan is communication. Let your employees know what is going to change in the office; and more importanly, let them know why these changes are taking place. Getting employees to buy into the change is a lot better than them feeling that management is indifferent to them. In addition, give your employees the opportunity for input; or at least allow them to express their opinion. Yes, this may take up a lot of your time up front, but people who are unhappy after the office change are still going to corner you to express their displeasure and then they are more prone to try and drum up fellow employees to support their opinion. So, send out e-mails with updates on the project. Have an office town-hall meeting. Let them see their new space while it's still under construction. Create some enthusiasm for the impending change. The better you communicate with your employees on the front end the more likely you are to minimize their disappoinment on the back end.

Save your real estate dollars

With more and more companies looking very hard at their real estate expenditures, we have found that there needs to be a more in depth look than just rearranging the furniture and jamming more people into smaller spaces.

Environments That Work has partnered with Condeco, the leading space scheduling company. Condeco offers a range of products from software to hardware to improve efficiency and maximize their real estate. They have minimal systems for small to mid size companies, as well as very sophisticated systems to control usage of conference rooms, hoteling stations and other spaces on an intranet system that allows every employee to see what spaces are available. It also allows for everyone to see at a glance when a meeting didn't happen in a particular room, or when a meeting ends early to free up valuable space. This allows companies who utilize the system to greatly reduce the amount of conferencing and meeting areas. In addition, if you have mobile workers or salespeople, who are not in need of permanent space, to have an orderly and easy to use system to manage hoteling or touchdown areas. This again reduces the wasted space of having idle workstations or work areas.

This system alleviates the need to have someone manage your conference rooms or meeting areas freeing them up for additional needs. It's touch screen and swipe card technology interfaces seamlessly with Outlook, other scheduling software, or even manage your video conferencing.

It may sound expensive or more than your company would utilize, but Condeco can personalize systems to fit any company's budget and when you consider what real estate and furniture is costing you, it is a tremendous value.

I encourage you to check out all of their capabilities at www. condecosoftware.com.

BIFMA

Every once in a while the question is thrown at me, "why do your chairs cost more than the big box store down the street?" And the short answer to that question is BIFMA. BIFMA is the Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturer's Association and they "develop voluntary product and industry standards that support safe, healthy and sustainable environments", according to their homepage. In a nut shell, BIFMA has created standards for furniture and those standards must be met in order for the furniture to be labeled commericial grade. For example, a commercial grade chair must be able to support a minimum of 225lbs. So, chairs are loaded with lead weights to make sure they are up to the standard. Weights are also dropped on to the seats to simulate a person falling into the chair and bouncing that little bit we all do. Ultimately, this means commerical grade chairs are the product of significant reasearch, design and engineering. They have to been tested and approved by an independant lab and they are constructed with high quality parts. These factors directly affect the cost of the chair but you have to look at the big picture; a $500 chair that lasts 10 years is a better investment than the $99 dollar chair that breaks after a year.

Schafer Condon Carter project

One of Environments That Work's more exciting projects in 2011 was assisting one of Chicago's top marketing firms, Schafer Condon & Carter renovate their new home on West Madison in Chicago. SCC purchased the CCP Holden building in the West Loop neighborhood. CCP Holden was a major part of rebuilding Chicago in the late 1800's after the Chicago fire. This building is a 140 year old building that SCC has helped restore to landmark status. SCC hired Widler Architecture to assist them in making a modern, sustainable, conservation-type building while keeping the amazing features of this classic old structure. Environments That Work and Teknion provided the furniture expertise to fit the latest in furniture concepts with some very challenging hurdles from this older building. SCC chose Teknion's Leverage and District product along with their Altos architectural wall system and conference furniture. Some dramatic photos of before and after construction/installation were taken and will be added to our website, www.et-work.com shortly. In addition, Environments That Work put together a special lease package to meet the financing requirements of SCC with our leasing partner CPR Finance. CPR Finance and Environments That Work forged a partnership several years back born out of a networking meeting which we discussed in our last blog. Many times in Networking, developing a trusted vendor partner is as important as finding a new customer.

Networking

Networking, a word many of us have become familiar with in the last 4 year's economy. Many have turned to networking out of desperation, or possibly just because they unfortunately have more time to do it with business slowed. But what is networking really? Is it just going to a social get together and running up to everyone you can find and telling them your 30 second elevator speech. Hopefully not. One thought process I have found helpful is to really determine what your goal is for your networking activities. Of course you want to increase your business, but should that be the goal you have foremost in your mind?

One of my first ideas since I had not done too much networking in the past, was to listen more than talk. Let others discuss what they have to say, learn about their business, and then introduce yourself not with some canned elevator speech, but rather with a directed benefit or thought towards the person's particular business that you are speaking to. It might not even be about your business, but maybe passing along a name or thought from someone else you know or recently met that might benefit the person you are speaking to. I have found that when you sincerely listen and care about another person's thoughts and ideas, you typically will develop a better relationship and lay a basis for further discussion. Many people who have not done much networking in the past are apprehensive about going up to a stranger and just starting to talk. Try listening first.

Also, remember, do not have the "I need to get business out of this conversation" thought in your mind as you meet people. You never know how the person you are about to talk to could impact your business. Sometimes finding a vendor or trusted partner for your business is just as important as finding a customer. My next blog will be a success story right along that thought process.

Communication

When we discussed having a blog I was a little apprehensive. I've never blogged before. I'm not sure what to write. What will people think when they read it? My whining could go on forever. However, once I got tired of my own complaining I figured I'd give it a try. After all, how difficult could it be. Enter obstacle number one; to whom do you address a blog? I'm writing to someone. The idea is that someone is supposed to read this. Who that someone is, though, I have no idea. I don't even know who would be following my blog. (And again, I'm whining.) So, to help overcome my insecurity I stockpiled a bunch of articles that I've read that mean something to me. If I don't have any ideas of my own I can surely comment on others. (I'm really good at this; just ask my wife.) One such article is from Fast Company (1/25/11). The article is about how we routinely miscommunicate simply because we under-communicate. (Is under-communicate a word?) How many times have you written an e-mail thinking that it was a masterpiece of American literature? It was direct, precise and spell checked multiple times. You made your point, you gave direction, there was no way it could be mis-interpreted; and yet the recipient responded with a simple...Huh? Have you experienced this feeling of deflation? Is the other person a moron? In most cases; the answer is "no". You, as the sender, assumed (and we all know what happens when you assume) too much communication. You left room for interpretation thinking that the other person could read your mind. (And I can tell you, firsthand, that I'm not a mind reader). Don't make assumptions in your communications. Take the time to spell things out. (Literally spell the words out. Don't use text shorthand) Saying exactly what you mean and asking for exactly what you want will get you exactly what you need. You know what I mean???