Page 12B —
COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL
— September 16-October 6, 2015
Spotlight
hirty-two years.
That’s the length of
my commercial prop-
erty management
experience. How things have
changed. In 1983, our budgets
were prepared on ledger sheet
paper, typewriters were used
for all forms of communica-
tion, and the telephone and
face-to-face interaction served
as our connective link to
building tenants and clients.
Energy management systems
performed as a monitoring
tool for basic building opera-
tions. Engineers carried paper
preventive maintenance forms
on clipboards. Some building
personnel carried “state-of-the-
art” pagers or beepers in order
to be alerted to building emer-
gencies. We focused our efforts
on nurturing our interactions
and relationships with tenants
and landlords and to deliver
quality service. We provided a
safe and comfortable working
environment for our tenants,
and we diligently sought out
ways to make our buildings
efficient and marketable. Our
days were always busy and it
was not unusual to actually
get away from the office for
lunch.
Thirty-two years later and
the core industry really has
not changed. Enter computers,
smartphones, sophisticated
building automation systems
and analytic software tools
that can tell you the real-time
status of building operations
at any given point within
the building at any time.
Innovative preventive main-
tenance software programs
track everything from basic
inspections and inventories to
providing mobile access man-
agement of building opera-
tions that can be performed
from anywhere at any time.
Connectivity between man-
agement, tenants and clients
is 24/7. Tenants communi-
cate through email, building
websites and, unfortunately,
texting. In this hypercon-
nected environment, gone is
the need to get up from your
desk to facilitate a face-to-face
meeting with your tenant. To
ensure the
email recipi-
ent receives
the intended
tone of the
message,
we can use
emoticons.
The human
touch has
become digi-
tal.
Sounds
like progress.
Technolog-
ical tools
allow us the
opportunity
to handle
and process a larger volume
of data more quickly, be more
responsive to the needs of
our tenants and clients, and
expand the breadth of our
industry knowledge so that
we are always apprised of the
latest operating innovations.
Due to the ease of immediate
access enabling immediate
performance, there should be
little conflict between work
and life balance. But, we are
never disconnected.
So, are we more produc-
tive? I’m not sure. We’re
actually more scattered.
Multitasking has become the
norm. When was the last time
you participated in a meet-
ing where at least one or two
individuals weren’t distracted
by responding to an email or
text? Studies on the subject of
multitasking indicate that, on
average, employees who rou-
tinely use computers for com-
pleting their daily tasks are
distracted every 10½ minutes
resulting in lost productivity.
Correspondingly, multitasking
by being distracted by email
during the workday can lower
IQ points by 10 percent.
Recognizing the problem is
the first step in taking back
our productivity. Restricting
“pop-up” email alerts was the
first step in my personal bat-
tle with distracted multitask-
ing. Since I’m not an emergen-
cy responder in a triage unit,
I think I can go for 30 to 60
minutes without responding
to an email. Secondly, when
in meetings, our property
management and engineer-
ing teams turn down smart-
phones and radios to avoid
distractions. The meeting is
focused and productive. The
number of necessary meet-
ings is reduced. We also have
recognized that an individual
employee may be productive
at different times of the day.
Try to assess what time of the
day is most productive and
schedule around that time and
attempt to limit disruptions.
Ironically, technology also pro-
vides various tools in which to
limit distractions. Anti-Social
is one app that can be used
to limit or block disruptions.
Software tools such as Rescue
Time can actually show where
your time is spent. But these
tools can’t work without self-
discipline and boundaries.
Ultimately, we need to re-
evaluate our time-manage-
ment skills and take a proac-
tive step in recapturing our
productivity.
T
Judy
Purviance-
Anderson,
RPA
Cushman and
Wakefield of CO
any new projects are likely to
be replacement facilities with
fewer beds than the originals.
“The need for hospitals will
always be there,” noted Jeff
O’Neil, director of Engineering
Services for Pennsylvania
Hospital. “But with so many
advancements, they might
evolve into being more like
long-term acute-care facilities
where patients will recovery
after accidents, serious ill-
nesses or transplants.”
Nemours Children’s
Hospitals, for example, which
has facilities in five states, is
expanding its use of telemedi-
cine and growing its ambula-
tory network of clinics to be
within 15 minutes of where
patients live in order to grow
its business, said Jeffrey Kent,
managing director of Facilities
for the Nemours Foundation.
For more great insights on
the healthcare real estate sec-
tor, make plans to attend the
2016 Medical Office Buildings
and Healthcare Real Estate
Conference May 3-5, 2016, in
Orlando, Florida.
About the Author: John
B. Mugford is the editor
of Healthcare Real Estate
Insights magazine at Wolf
Marketing & Media LLC.
Visit
