Bookmarks: 5 Interesting Articles to Help You This Week

February 20th, 2017

Credit: iStockEach week, I select a few articles that rise above the fray and hopefully help you on your journey in the CRE world. They pull from one of four "corners:" corporate real estate, technology, management science and anything positive. I welcome your comments on these articles and the submissions of others (with credit to you if I post them). I wish you a terrific week!It Only Takes 7 Words to Create the Last Work-From-Home Policy You'll Ever Need"Recently, a friend asked me to review his work-from-home policy. He's tired of being reactive and wants to be proactive. "What am I missing?" he asked. "What should I add?"I didn't even look at his policy."Here are all the guidelines you need," I said.* Get your work done.* Be available.* Overcommunicate.Sound too simple? It's not. Those seven words cover most of the issues you'll face--and if they don't, you can deal with those situations one-off rather than as systemic issues that require a blanket policy." www.inc.com

Want to Be More Productive? Sit Next to Someone Who Is“We saw that neighbors have a significant impact on an employee’s performance, and it can be either positive or negative. In terms of magnitude, we found that approximately 10% of a worker’s performance spills over to her neighbors. Replacing an average performer with one who is twice as productive results in his or her neighboring workers increasing their own productivity by about 10%, on average.www.hbr.0rg

[tweet_box design="box_09" float="none"]10% of a worker’s performance spills over to her neighbors[/tweet_box]

Business travel. It's a killer. Literally."Now I don't wish to sound like some harbinger of doom and put a downer on what some believe is one of the few pleasures they have in their working lives but several recent studies suggest that extensive air travel is incredibly detrimental to your health.." www.linkedin.com

Energy Strategy for the C-Suite"To understand how firms are approaching energy strategy, we surveyed executives from 145 companies with $1 billion or more in revenue from across sectors and geographies. The research looked at the firms’ performance on 15 measures of energy practice, including developing a formal strategy, deploying cutting-edge technologies, and leveraging advanced financing mechanisms. We sorted the firms into leaders, middle tier, and laggards and gauged how well their “energy maturity” drove business value. Drawing on this research and on our decades of experience in energy consulting and management, we have developed a new framework for using energy strategy to drive business value." www.hbr.org

10 Journalism Brands Where You Find Real Facts Rather Than Alternative Facts"One key question for any publication is this: If a reporter gets facts in a story wrong, will the news outlet investigate a complaint and publish a correction? Does the publication have its own code of ethics? Or does it subscribe to and endorse the Society of Professional Journalist's code of ethics? And if a reporter or editor seriously violates ethical codes - such as being a blatant or serial plagiarizer, fabulist or exaggerator - will they be fired at a given news outlet? While some may criticize mainstream media outlets for a variety of sins, top outlets such as the Washington Post, the New York Times, NBC News and the New Republic have fired journalists for such ethics violations. That is remarkable in a world where some celebrities, politicians and other realms of media (other than news... such as Hollywood films "based on a true story") can spread falsehood with impunity.www.forbes.com

Your success blesses others. I wish you a great a hugely impactful week!Ken