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November 10, 2009 - Vol. 8, No. 34 |
Colorado Springs Professional Forum Updates
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- Only 21 business days remain on the Super-Early Bird registration discount, which is available through Nov. 30. Register online.
- Register now for IAMC's Spring 2010 Professional Forum in Colorado Springs, entitled "Positioning for Growth: Value Demonstration in Challenging Times," which happens April 24 - 28, 2010. The Super-Early Bird registration discount is available through Nov. 30. Register online.
- The Broadmoor is the headquarters for the Spring 2010 Forum. For room reservations, call 1-800-634-7711 and request the "IAMC room block." To register online, click here and enter "IAMC10" in the password box.
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Hiker's view of North Cheyenne Canyon near Colorado Springs
Source: Sierra Club, photographer Laura Silsbee |
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Prioritizing Projects When You Know Important Work Will be Left Undone
You've heard the joke: "If I continue doing more with less, pretty soon I'll be doing everything with nothing." All who work in environments where the workload grows as the resources to accomplish it shrink are paid to set rational and defensible priorities. More complex work environments require more rigorous work prioritizing tools. In complex environments like public health, medicine, and managing within large companies, the right priorities may not be obvious or intuitive. You'll need a method for evaluating decision criteria and weighing solution options. First, try using decision-making rules, as suggested in "10 Ways to Set Priorities" by Lisa Kanarek. If you need more rigor but still want a simple tool, try the four-quadrant action priority matrix, which was reportedly used by President Dwight Eisenhower. The public health arena is fertile ground for development of priority setting methods. The Public Health Foundation advisory entitled "Choosing a Priority Setting Method, describes three tools: "discussion and consensus," a 1-10 rating scale and a "priority setting matrix." Collect and track data to help you make these decisions. But maybe the most important lesson when you work in difficult circumstances is to use a defined method so that your priorities are both consistently drawn and defensible.
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Example of Matrix Method for Identifying Priorities
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Participate in IAMC's Online Business Networking
Stay "linked in" year-round with fellow IAMC members through IAMC's LinkedIn online business networking group, which is open exclusively to members. Once you join, you can post discussion items for group input and share your knowledge by answering others' questions. If you're not periodically checking IAMC's discussion group, you're missing some great CREM Q&A. In answer to Tom Eickhoff's question about charging operating units for space, Lu Ann McHugh writes:
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... we took the total cost of all space and divided the cost by headcount. ... We charged space this way to create synergy instead of operating in silos. This encouraged all business units to look at other company space before they moved forward with getting new space or renovating existing space. |
To jump to the LinkedIn logon screen, click here. Once logged on, go to the top of the left-hand column and click on "groups." For more information on LinkedIn or the IAMC Group on LinkedIn, click here. |
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Find a Real Estate Job; Post an Opening; Post a Resume
 Go to the IAMC Career Center to read about dozens of corporate real estate, economic development and real estate service provider jobs. Here's an example: Regional Real Estate Director for Advance Auto Parts. The job description says the position is "responsible for the management and supervision of a team of real estate representatives, developing and executing a strategic market plan, real estate site selection, and procurement for new stores and relocations within a specified geographical area. [The incumbent] must be able to work in a fast-paced, multi-tasked environment." |
Short Subjects
Chicago Landmark Gets Major Tenant and Green Redo
- Chicago's Willis Tower, formerly Sears Tower, recently signed a lease with United Airlines for space to accommodate as many as 2,800 employees being moved from other sites in the city, according to a Site Selection magazine article by Adam Bruns. At the same time, the Tower is being renovated to reduce energy usage. Bruns writes, "Modernization strategies designed by Chicago-based Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG) include window efficiency and glazing improvements similar to those being pursued simultaneously by the Empire State Building in New York; upgrades of mechanical systems, elevators, escalators and lighting systems; water savings; and installation of customized wind and solar systems."
Economic Globalization Continues Apace
- The McKinsey & Company brief entitled "Globalization: Slowed but Not Stopped" reviews the current status of the globalization process as it is affected by the worldwide recession. The article says, "The greatest danger to globalization today is the possibility of an economic crack-up in China. The country has grown at miraculous rates for many years in an unprecedented fashion. No country has gone from poverty to wealth without having significant volatility along the way. The Chinese financial system is of unclear quality, commercial practices in the country lack transparency, and so much of what goes on there is 'sub-prime,' so to speak."
Machine Tool Demand Drives German Manufacturing Upsurge
- The manufacturing sector's prospects are looking up in the United States. Recent data show the same is true of Germany. The cause for both is rising global demand for machine tools and similar investment goods. The Industry Week article "German Industrial Output Makes Surprise Jump" says, "The data are the latest in a series pointing to brighter times ahead for Germany, Europe's economic powerhouse and one of the world's leading exporters. Germany has a particularly strong reputation for making and exporting machine tools and machinery, and a rise of activity in these sectors is a signal that demand for investment goods, a fundamental factor of world growth, is picking up."
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Click here to write your questions, suggestions and comments. |
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