Greg Owens
That’s great. It reminds me I’ve been painting since I was 16 years old and and back when high rises had file cabinets. You don’t really see file cabinets in these buildings anymore. I remembered officially facilities manager he was walking through and he’s like, I just did this thing, because they told me to find more room for more people like and what are we not using the water we’re using. And he did this brilliant simple move, is he changed all the locks because everybody was saying they needed their file cabinet. I need my filing cabinet. I have to have my filing cabinet. So he went through and systematically floor by floor part by part department by department would change their locks and then wait and see when when people started to complain that they couldn’t get into their file cabinets, and it turned out like nobody was complaining. And he came back with that data and said, Look, I’ve had your file cabinets lock for the last three weeks. Nobody’s used them so we’re worried we’re now getting rid of them. It’s such a simple such a simple clever tool right but we don’t have file cabinets anymore now everything’s much more. Yeah, your eyes
Lorri Rowlandson
were for like I don’t want to go with my files. You can’t take them away, and then you prove that they don’t Need to access them very often, or demonstrate the cost of the filing versus sending them to records retention and having them available within 24 hours is perfectly acceptable for a fraction of the cost rather than paying, you know, $40 a square foot for a filing cabinet in your office. So yeah, that’s a great, it’s a little little tricky, but it’s a it’s a good tactic.
Greg Owens
What do you seeing, as far as strategy and innovation now, though, because everything’s been turned upside down, as I talked to building owners and facilities managers and, and they’re having to relook at every step of the way, especially in certain markets for sure, like San Francisco, companies like Twitter and Google and Facebook. They’re not even going back to their offices until 2021. What are you seeing, like from a global perspective, and then, you know, a little bit more like what you guys are doing or innovation around that?
Lorri Rowlandson
Yeah, I’m seeing if two things. The first is I would say organizations are rationalizing their portfolio, how much space that they do need and how they use their space. So people there was some salacious, you know, articles that came out death of the office. I absolutely don’t believe in that. But I do believe people will rationalize how much space they do need. And I think that they will also rationalize how they use that space. So one of the things I think people have realized over the last few months, people have been working remote is work is what you do, not where you aren’t. And I think that we miss being in the office and that collaboration, but I also don’t like being in the office if I have to do heads down work. So I really see in the future, I think that there the portfolio overall will shrink slightly. But I think we will use the office more as an innovation center and ideation center like that’s where I will go, if I want to meet people and you know that norming, forming, storming, you know that the stages of team it’s a forming, storming, norming performing that’s it. So at the beginning it’s better to be in person so that you build that chemistry and rapport and that high performing culture. And then afterwards you can zoom call or do phone calls after you’ve made that sort of social investment in your team. Right? You need the the you need the office as a way to collaboration center and Innovation Center, celebrating you know Katrina’s birthday, so let’s all go in and then we’ll celebrate something else. So it’s a it’s a great place when you want to get together for team building team meetings, co creation, when I have to read a contract. I don’t want to do that at the office. I my best my favorite place to work is Starbucks. I love the the public privacy and I love the good coffee and I love the buzz and then noise and, and that’s where I would go now I’m extroverted. So your it’s very personal where your productivity time is and where you would go to do work. But we’ve realized over the last month is work is what you do not where you are. So portfolio rationalization, I think the composition of space and furniture in the office will change and enable more ideation and more agile work. We started on that before COVID. But I think that’s gonna just blow the doors off the concept. So works. So offices will be very hackable and very conducive to agile work. Right? I think you’re gonna see a lot of touchless offices, so a lot more. A big focus on fit well, or the well building standard, as a commitment to employees is a symbol from the employer to the employee that I care about you and I care about your health. And I want to make sure that when you come to the office, we take your health and safety very, very Seriously, so a lot of touchless standards and just well being like a lot of people gained 20 pounds or so working at home for the last five months. So making sure you’re not creating more stress on your health and benefits and the cost of health care to your employees and, and also using fitness and camaraderie is a way of team building for that distributed workforce. So I think we are going to get on steroids, really different focus of how we’re supporting a distributed team wherever they work. And we’re going to have these things that bring us together, whether that be in the office, sometimes, but a lot more like online collaboration tools, and just community challenges and just a different type of virtual teaming is really going to get way better. So those are just a few things off the top of my head and I talked about them in my book, too.
Unknown Speaker
Oh, tell. Tell me about your book.
Lorri Rowlandson
I wrote a book called The new Normal predictions on how the future of work will change forever. And there are actual case studies, examples of real companies, not ideas, real companies with statistics and examples and links of real companies of how they pivoted and change it change during the COVID. Time. And not to not to be a it’s available on Amazon.
Greg Owens
Did you write this book? I’m in this debate, right to start at this pandemic, or no, this?
Lorri Rowlandson
Yeah, I was. In fact, I was in the middle of writing another book on technology and real estate and how technology is changing each of the different asset classes of real estate and facilities management. And then when I realized I was getting, I normally do about 30 speaking engagements a year and I think I had done 30 by the end of March already. Mm hmm. So a lot of thirst for this type of information. So I just decided instead of repeating myself, just to create a book and a mastery community, just to To be able to serve people and go along with the journey, because I don’t think the changes are finished yet. But just to provide an extended family support structure for all those people that have questions around, you know, what trends are going to stick and really talk about that was it was inspired by Believe it or not a 12 year old boy scout, who had a 3d printer at home. And he 3d printed these ear guards for healthcare workers. And I realized some of these concepts that were maybe a few years out, were going to accelerate during a period of COVID. And I did start hearing more stories about 3d printing of of items that were in constraint of supply. Yeah, wow, this would not have really taken off for a couple more years. Meanwhile, he’s actually here doing it. And so I really thank him for the 12 year old boy scout for inspiring the idea of collecting this collection of stories of how either technology is accelerating, you know, virtual reality. contract signing and just different things that people are doing that I think are going to probably stick around in some form or fax fashion in the future.
Greg Owens
Yeah, I agree completely and I’m just blown away that you pivoted so fast. That’s it. That’s a that’s a kudos to you to like, make those changes and, and write a book at this time. And
Lorri Rowlandson
yeah, later weekends, because my day job was pretty busy too. But I felt it was important. And honestly, at the end, I think it’ll save time instead of answering the questions one at a time. The mastery community that comes with the book will allow us to do support each other as a group, and I’ve just such enough. I have a wonderful following on LinkedIn. And I’m just so proud that they inspire me every day and it was a way to really rally people together and us to help each other.
Greg Owens
And what’s the name of the book again, so we can get it out there too.
Lorri Rowlandson
It’s called the new normal, informed predictions on how the world of work will change. forever.
Greg Owens
All right, and you can buy this book on Amazon
Lorri Rowlandson
on Amazon. And it includes a mastery community online with all the ongoing resources because once we publish the book, it would be out of date. So we have all of the ongoing resources in this members only community. So if you buy the book, you get the membership for free. And so all of the ongoing content that would would have gone into the book in version two, version three, instead of buying another book, it’s all there in the community.
Greg Owens
That’s great. That’s wonderful. I’m so part of this podcast. I also like to ask like, for people that are coming into facilities management or the facilities management industry and that kind of thing, any words of wisdom from you like a little bit about how you got your start in it?
Lorri Rowlandson
Yeah, I would say this is the most exciting time to be in facilities management. I can’t ever remember a time It was so exciting. There’s so much change happening. It’s such a great career path because one of the most common denominators we have in our society is buildings and building serve everything that we do. And we spend most of our time in buildings. And for some purpose, whether it be you know, hospitals or offices or homes or whatever the whatever the kind of building, it is a common denominator and there is so much technology coming into buildings, buildings are getting way more sophisticated. It is such a fascinating profession to be in the next 10 years is going to be a wild ride even more technology converging in something that, you know, is a common denominator in our society. So I would say it’s a very exciting profession to be in I guess I don’t sound objective, but I think it’s amazing. And I would say be a continuous learner. Honestly, I would say that for any career you’re in right now, but make sure you develop a love of learning. Find what, especially if you’re early in your career, it’s really important that you continuously retread I talked about earlier. You need to continue to love to learn. So whether that’s audiobooks or reading or participating in industry associations, you need to be there, you have to be constantly learning. So find a way of learning that you love and just keep doing it because you need to focus on evolving your abilities to keep up with the amount of change that’s coming out. And if you do, you will be ahead. But if you don’t, you might be behind. And so please continue to learn because it’s such an exciting profession with so much in store that I think, you know, that’s a way for you to continue to be relevant in your career, and make sure you don’t get left behind.
Greg Owens
It’s so important in your, your thoughts around the building and the environment because like if the building is built, right, it sort of dictates the type of work that happens there. Right. And a lot of for a lot of people they don’t, they don’t even realize how important that is. But if you think about it, when you walk into a doctor’s office, or you walk into a federal court building, or you walk into Google, it’s they each one of them has a completely different feel to it and the culture. And then there’s this legacy, like, so many buildings are so far behind, as you know, technolog technology and that kind of stuff. But they the way technology has changed. They don’t have to tear the whole building down to implement so many new technology ideas. So it’s not, it’s not as cost inhibitive as it once was, when they had to rewire the whole thing and that kind of stuff.
Lorri Rowlandson
And you just said something really important because if you do if you do an iteration of changes, you don’t Have to go through a big capital, like injection. So if you make little changes incremental according to roadmap as you go, you don’t have to do big burps of capital change or worse that they don’t happen at all. So, yeah, those iterative changes, it’s really a great suggestion.
Greg Owens
And that’s where they need somebody like you to come in and help with the strategy and innovative ideas and helping to make that roadmap that makes sense to them. You got it. Yeah. And how did you get into this?
Lorri Rowlandson
Many of us are accidental real estate professionals. But I was always involved with big outsourcing arrangements. I started my career at IBM. And I had the privilege of working with some really incredible people. And I learned a lot about outsourcing and it just so happened that when I when I worked on a outsourcing project that was about real estate, I think just loved it. And I realized the potential. So I crossed over I went back to school later in life and got a number of degrees and certifications around real estate. And just to be able to further specialize, and just continued that down that path, and I’ve been on the real estate side of the fence for probably 20 years, and then prior to that just busy, good business experience.
Greg Owens
Yeah. And Have you always been this high energy in your life? Or is this something you’ve worked on? Or a little backstory because you mean you are dynamic and how many things you’ve gotten into and how much learning and how much changes and how much stuff you’ve been able to do and in writing a book at this time?
Lorri Rowlandson
Yeah, I would say, when you really love what you do, it doesn’t feel like work. To me. It’s so exciting and I love serving the people in our community. I don’t have kids have a little bit of a personal story yes for something personal. So I view my legacy is not biological it’s through touching the lives of the people that I work with in my industry. And I really love the our industry, I love the people in it. I do think it’s fascinating. And if I can give back to that and make a difference in somebody’s life, that’s, that’s a that’s a legacy. And I’m just curious, I think if I could be an avatar probably would be Alice in Wonderland and you fall down the rabbit hole, you don’t always know where you’re going. But if you really love it, then you keep an open mind and you can continue to learn and, and that’s always been my my mindset is just do what you really, really love to do whatever that is, and just keep doing it because people see that energy and that positivity and that enthusiasm. So I do a lot of work like people would think it was work but for me, it’s just So fun. I really do love what we do. I’m a super nerd. When I go on holidays, you know, to Mexico or something. I read business books because I love it and people will see me in the pool, reading a business book and go, why are you working? It’s like, no, look at this. This is so amazing. Look what this says. So I’m a bit of a super nerd, but it’s when you love what you do. It doesn’t feel like you’re working.
Greg Owens
Any book recommendations that you’ve read time besides your book, of course, oh,
Lorri Rowlandson
my God, I’ve so many book recommendations. And actually, one thing people ask me about a lot, so I do have a page on my website dedicated to that. Uh huh. I would say if you really love this field. Yeah, there’s two books. There’s two authors I would recommend. One is Yuval Noah Harari, who wrote a book called Sapiens. Yeah, and in Deus and I just love the way he tells a story about humanity and where we came to now and where We’re going to so those two books are amazing. And the second
Unknown Speaker
one was the second book
Lorri Rowlandson
that he wrote two books,
Greg Owens
two books back to back, because the second one is about like the future sort of, I can’t remember the name.
Lorri Rowlandson
Yeah. Sapiens is amazing, is the one that goes from like our origins. And he talked about the different species of humans and how we came to where we are today, and how we evolved to today and who we are. It’s fascinating. And and then then he wrote another one called Deus, and he wrote a third one called, I think, 21 technologies for the 21st century, something like that. Yeah, they’re both good. And they talk about from today going on and what will happen in the future, all fantastic. And then if you’re looking for something a little less, you know, out there, it’s Dror Poleg wrote a fantastic book on technology and real estate that just was released last year, and you He’s a terrific author and it’s a little closer to the real estate and FM profession. But his book is fantastic as well and I highly recommend that as well.
Unknown Speaker
Oh, that’s great. I’ll check that one out.
Greg Owens
Yeah, the Harari, I saw Harari and Sam Harris speak after I read Sapiens. And it was out you know, there’s those two guys are just incredible. And they are the questions that Sam Harris and you know how they got into debating things and that kind of stuff was absolutely just, it’s unbelievable. You have 5000 people in an audience, right. And we’re all riveted to a two hour discussion between two men in the United States right? who think I would never think that that would be like a riveting thing but it was like you were just on the cityview seat edge just going like wanting to hear what happens next, right.
Lorri Rowlandson
Yeah, he’s amazing. I would love to see him live. I would be riveted as well but his books I’ve recommended and gifted There’s so many people and I love how he takes it into kind of plain language. So if you haven’t read those books, there are New York Times bestsellers many times over. So really great, and they’re on audiobooks, too. So if you have no time to read, when you go to walk when you’re commuting in your car, you can listen to little snacks of information on audiobooks do.
Greg Owens
Are you reading books, or mostly audiobook these days?
Lorri Rowlandson
I do a little bit of both. Lately, I’ve been writing so I haven’t. I used to publish. I used to read a book a week. And then I would let my audience know in social media, what I was reading and what I was recommending, but just over the last few months, I haven’t been reading as much. And I’ve been writing so I’m going to get back into it. I just, I just read a book called I’ve started to get back into it called spark which talks about the relationship of fitness and Education and Learning and that was kind of cool.
Greg Owens
Yeah, it is. I it’s not that’s on my list. I read the one before that. And I can’t remember the name of the writer that way. But this has been wonderful. Thank you so much for being on our podcast, any parting thoughts and how people can find out more about you?
Lorri Rowlandson
Yeah, thanks, Greg. If you can go to lorrirowlandson.com L-O-R-R-I-R-O-W-LA-N-D-S-O-N.com And you can follow, you know, link into social media. I’ve got tons of free stuff in there. Again, I like to give things openly and freely, you can find links to my latest things like books and things like that. But mostly, there’s a lot of really great free content in there. And I have amazing social media following. I’ve got probably about 35,000 followers now and we share an exchange great cool free stuff in there. So If you’re not connected to me on LinkedIn, you can follow me there as well.
Greg Owens
Oh, that’s great. Thank you again for being on our podcast Watching Paint Dry. This has been a real pleasure.
Lorri Rowlandson
Thanks, Greg and Katrina. It’s been a pleasure. Thank you for having me today.
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