Bookmarks: 5 Interesting Articles That May Help You This Week

Each 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.

1. Don’t Let Uncertainty Paralyze You

When confronting a situation freighted with anxiety and ambiguity — a pandemic, a recession, a job loss, an unwanted family change — most of us can imagine no upside. We become paralyzed, caught in a state I call unproductive uncertainty. But some can see their way through such moments and find a positive path forward. How?

For the past five years I have studied people who excel in the face of uncertainty. My subjects have included innovators, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and Nobel prizewinners — along with gamblers, paramedics, and surfers. I’ve identified the approaches they use to navigate turbulent times and discover the potential hidden within them. In this article I share three habits that can help you develop your own “uncertainty capability.”

Open Your Eyes to All Options, Present and Future

When threatened with unproductive uncertainty, we may become so focused on the immediate situation that we overlook the broader possibilities. This not only creates disquiet but can also lead us to make rash decisions or forgo opportunities because we don’t even recognize them. Psychologist call this tendency to miss the bigger picture status quo bias, big-fish-small-pond effect, and relative deprivation.

2. Rally

It was a beautiful Sunday morning at 7:59 AM. Partly cloudy skies, a soft breeze and cool temps as is usual in December. All was well in the beautiful paradise that is Hawaii. The seas were calm and the sailors were already hard at work cleaning their ships – a process that never seemed to end.

Then as one, they heard the sound. As the clock flipped to 8:00 AM the sailors heard what first sounded like a mosquito, then it got louder. In lockstep thousands realized what was happening. Pearl Harbor was under attack. Immediately, terror broke out as the battle ensued.

The next day, December 7th, 1942, President Roosevelt addressed a nation in panic. The people of the day were absolutely terrified and the economy locked up. It’s hard to understand how terrible things were in the days after the attack – now 79 years later. But make no mistake, every man, woman and child was suddenly thrown into an emotional shock like never before in their lives.

3. What Zoom backgrounds say about our quarantined lives

The owner of your company sits in a mansion during an all-office Zoom town hall. A coworker’s houseplants look unhealthy, their room messy. Your parents cook dinner in your nostalgic childhood kitchen. A friend reclines in bed, talking just before going to sleep, against a backdrop of wrinkled sheets. In COVID-19 quarantine, our constant video chats come with an added, sometimes involuntary, edge of domestic voyeurism and exhibitionism.

Advances in digital technology have a way of inducing new habits that in turn create new forms of social etiquette and signaling, because humanity can’t seem to help itself when it comes to claiming individuality. For early-internet forum posting it was the avatar or the signature; for instant-messaging it was the evocative away message; for Instagram the like-grabbing selfie; and for Slack the emoji response or aggressive DM.

During the pandemic, communication, particularly professional communication, has turned to video chat for many of us. As this platform becomes the new default of interaction, we also have to contend with it as a means of self-expression, which primarily occurs in the background of the window—the Zoom frame or FaceTime square.

4. CRE Firms Step Up During Coronavirus Crisis

During this uncertain time, commercial real estate firms are finding ways to make a difference in markets across the country. Some are sending a portion of rent proceeds to healthcare workers on the front lines, some are donating space for medical facilities and storing supplies, some large corporate CEOs are forgoing annual salaries, and others are encouraging donations to local neighborhoods in need.

On a conference call last week, Prologis discussed how it is contributing to the industry during COVID-19. One of the ways is through its Space for Good program. This program provides temporary rent-free space in its distribution facilities to provide disaster relief and help charitable organizations address seasonal and short-term needs—to the extent it has vacancies in a relevant market. For the past five years, Prologis has donated almost $5 million in in-kind rent through this program, with nearly $850,000 donated in 2018 to 15 nonprofit organizations.

“We are taking an active role in bettering the communities in which we operate. In these troubled times, we’re enhancing these efforts to provide assistance across the globe in the form of direct cash grants, supplies and the donation of space at our properties through our Space for Good program,” says Gene Reilly, Prologis chief investment officer.

5. Virtual Office Tours Gain Popularity as Brokers Try to Adjust to New Normal

Jordan Wade originally planned to spend the past few weeks zooming around the continent to Montreal, Sarasota, Florida, and Denver to join a client hunting for office space. Instead, the office broker is Zoom-calling from his Dallas home after clients canceled because of stay-at-home orders in the pandemic.

Rather than scrapping the tours, Wade works with landlords to set up tenant self-guided tours with an assist using the FaceTime app. Property owners unlock an office space at designated times for the tenant, who enters alone, but while on a FaceTime video call with both the tenant broker, in this case Wade, and a landlord representative. As the prospective tenant scrutinizes the space, the landlord rep can rattle off room specifications, give a sales pitch for the office and answer questions about whether gym memberships or other amenities are included.

"It gives the client the same experience as physically going into the space, which you can’t garner from a building flyer or floor plan," Wade, a tenant representative at Transwestern, said in an interview. "For the right client, it’s very well received and the landlords love it because it is keeping them busy and showing they still have activity in their buildings."

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

Ken Ashley