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3 Office Relocation Blunders That Will Stress You Out, Demolish Your Budget And Set You Back Hours, Days Or Even Weeks…And How To Avoid Them
If you’d rather have a root canal than move your office, you’re not alone…
The No. 1 lament from anyone who’s ever gone through a stressful office move is “Sheesh – I never would have guessed THAT would happen!”…followed closely by “Yikes! We have to wait how long for our cable to get hooked up?!?”
A smooth move requires careful planning. And a critical part of your planning process is knowing what pitfalls to avoid. Here are three things to NOT do when moving your office:
Moving Blunder #1: Letting your staff try to move your computer network just to save a few bucks
Your computer network is a complex, delicate and mission-critical system. You wouldn’t let your dentist’s receptionist pull a tooth or fill a cavity for you, would you? Allowing untrained staff members to move your computer network almost always leads to unexpected glitches, frustration (on your part, and theirs…) and added expense. Even professional movers can mess things up – they simply are not specialists in computer networks…and neither is your staff.
Moving Blunder #2: Hiring the WRONG IT firm to move your network
There are several warning signs that you may be dealing with an inexperienced or downright incompetent IT firm to move your network. If you don’t see these in the IT firm you’re considering to run your office move, then run away:
● A systematic, well-organized approach to moving your network
● References from other clients whose networks they’ve moved
● Proof of liability insurance
● A service-level guarantee limiting your potential downtime
● A policy in place that will apply the charges for conducting a site survey against the total cost of the move if you choose them
If they don’t INSIST on visiting your current location as well as your new one to conduct a detailed site survey, beware. And NEVER hire anyone who wants to quote moving your network over the phone.
Moving Blunder #3: Not giving your electricity, phone, Internet and cable vendors sufficient advance notice of your move
Waiting ’til the last minute to map out a moving plan for your computer network virtually guarantees you’ll be dealing with emergency rush fees and band-aid fixes to make things work…
An estimated 80% of unexpected communications blackouts and cost overruns during a network move can be avoided simply by planning your voice, data and electrical transfers ahead of time. Internet and telephone connections require as much as six weeks’ notice to be installed, tested and ready the day you move in.
And if you are building a new office, leaving it up to the builder to decide how many power outlets and network and phone connections you get may leave you woefully shorthanded. Consult with your IT provider during the design phase to ensure that you have what you need before the drywall goes up.
When it comes to moving your office, it pays to remember that Murphy’s Law prevails (in spades).
Your best defense against the painfully unexpected is to invest the time it takes to map out your game plan before the fun begins. It’s easy and all too tempting to underestimate how much time it takes to create an effective plan. Yet it’s the one thing that controls whether your move is a success – or disaster.
The key to a stress-free move is to plan well in advance. Avoiding pitfalls with careful planning will ensure that your calls and connections don’t get crossed – or worse yet, lost – in the transition.
Hire Us For Your Next Office Move And Get
A $500 Office Move Toolkit…FREE!
If you – or someone you know – is planning an office move, contact us for a FREE Office Move Toolkit. You’ll receive:
• “The Office Relocation Planner”: This step-by-step guide for relocating your office – and keeping your data systems intact – could save you untold hours of downtime and frustration.
• FREE Office Move Checklist to make sure you don’t miss the critical action items, dates and deadlines you’ll need for a stress-free move.
• FREE Site Survey and Network Move Plan. At no charge, we’ll map out your move to help you cut costs and minimize downtime.
To Receive Your $500 Office Move Toolkit – FREE! – Call Us Today At (610) 433-1000.
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The Government Leadership Challenge:
I have a challenge for you.
If you are a business leader at the very top of your game, it will help you avoid career stagnation. And in so doing, it will also contribute to solving a broader problem: broken government.
A recent Gallup survey shows a record-high 81% of Americans are dissatisfied with the way the country is being governed. So here it goes:
I challenge you to do a two-year, full-time stint in government leadership, and to do it before your 70th birthday.
“What?” you might be thinking. “I would never work in government.”
That is what I used to believe.
Then in December of 2010, I received an e-mail that changed my perspective, and my life. It was from a client who was running the transition effort for the newly elected governor of Colorado, John Hickenlooper, who is a former entrepreneur. He asked if I would be willing to donate some consulting time to assist in selecting top leaders for his cabinet. I nearly said no, because I thought it would be an exercise in futility. Weren’t all cabinet hires just political decisions?
What I discovered, much to my shock, was that at least in this one case, a governor wanted to make hiring decisions based not on politics, but on leadership talent. I also found that a private-sector leader who goes into government does not necessarily have a miserable time. Rather, a stint in government leadership can be the most fulfilling and exciting leadership adventure of a lifetime.
I’m not here to urge you to do a stint in government because others will benefit. There will be no “Do your patriotic duty” platitudes from me. As a corporate leader, you have already contributed value by building successful businesses, bringing innovative and high-quality products and services to market, and creating jobs. You have paid far more in taxes than the value of services you have received from government. You don’t “owe” your country anything at this point.
So let’s say you are finally at the head of the boardroom table, finally calling the shots, finally making an impact on a global scale. This is the moment when you should be detecting the landmine lying hidden ahead. You find yourself beginning to wonder, “Is this it?” Or worse yet, “Gosh, what am I going to do next?” If that prospect of career stagnation is looming, make the Leadocracy Pledge today. It is a commitment to yourself to do a two-year full-time stint in an appointed role in government by your 70th birthday.
To help make that plan a reality, I’ve created a non-profit, The Leaders Initiative, which matches private-sector leaders with government roles. It’s modeled after Teach For America, and the flagship chapter is up and running in Colorado, in service of Governor Hickenlooper.
Just agree to do a stint in government because it will be one of the best experiences in your life.
Geoff is Chairman & Founder of ghSMART. Geoff is co-author, with his colleague
Randy Street, of the New York Times bestselling book Who: The A Method for
Hiring and the author of the #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller Leadocracy: Hiring
More Great Leaders (Like You) into Government. Geoff co-created the Topgrading
brand of talent management. Geoff is the Founder of two 501c3 not-for-profi t
organizations. SMARTKids Leadership Program™ provides 10 years of leadership
tutoring and The Leaders Initiative™ seeks to deploy society’s greatest leaders into
government. Geoff earned a B.A. in Economics with Honors from Northwestern University, an M.A., and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Claremont Graduate University.
Your Goals
“SMART” goals can actually be kinda dumb. So says author and leadership consultant Mark Murphy. He argues that leaders like Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos don’t ask employees to set goals that are “Attainable” and “Realistic” – things they already know how to do. They insist that employees set goals starting with customer needs in mind first, then work backwards from there. It can be uncomfortable, even nerve-wracking, because it may require gaining new skills. But companies – and leaders – who seek to, as Steve Jobs put it, “make a dent in the universe” stretch themselves and their employees to acquire the skills needed to delight their customers. Most people are capable of doing amazing things – they just need gutsy, challenging goals to get there. – Forbes.com
Your Commute
Do you love your commute? I didn’t think so… Here are a couple of ways to make it more productive – and maybe even fun. 1) Tweak your to-do list for the day. Top to-do list apps Wunderlist and Evernote make it easy to get organized across all your devices. And if your commute involves drive time, Dragon Dictation can help you keep your eyes on the road as you plan your day. 2) Clear your in-box. Gmail lets you do e-mail on any device with a web connection. If you’re driving, you can use ASAM, a free app that reads your e-mails word-for-word – and lets you dictate a reply. There’s nothing quite like arriving at the office with a clean in-box! – Blog.Hubspot.com
Your Workspace
What can we learn from companies like Google, Facebook and Apple about office design? Plenty, according to a study published in the Harvard Business Review. As it turns out, chance encounters at work affect the bottom line. In a good way… An engineer chats with a sales pro, and a successful new product is born. Or a better way of serving customers takes hold. One company tore out tiny coffee rooms in each department and replaced them with bigger, company-wide open areas. Now marketing folks talk with operations peeps; accountants chat with customer-service reps. Ask yourself, what kind of outcomes would you like to improve? Redesigning your workspace could transform your real estate from a passive asset into a powerful profit-builder. – Harvard Business Review
Your Body
Okay, so your Numero Uno resolution this year is to get fit and lose weight… You may be tempted to “cleanse” your way to a tiny waistline, just like they do in Hollywood… Well, before you buy that new skinnier pair of jeans, here’s a reality check on a couple of common myths that marketers promote about juice-cleansing your way to a sleeker, sexier you. Myth #1: “You must detox to get fit.” No. Your body cleanses itself naturally, thanks to your liver, kidneys and gastrointestinal tract. Myth #2: “Cleansing is a good way to lose weight.” During the first few days of a juice fast, your body burns stored glycogen, which can show up as weight loss. Yet once you come off a cleanse, if you go back to eating Twinkies and tacos, that number on your scale has a nasty way of popping back up again. Remember, just because Oprah mentions it doesn’t mean you’ll enjoy long-term health benefits. – LiveScience.com
Your Family Time
You may be spending way too much time with your kids. That’s the surprising outcome of a recent study about the quality versus quantity of time we spend with our children. It revealed that the sheer amount of time parents spend with their kids between ages three and 11 has zero effect on how they turn out. What does matter is the state the parent is in when they’re with the child. Time spent reading stories, at dinner or just playing with them makes for happy kids. Time spent watching TV or doing nothing, or when a parent is upset or stressed, has the opposite effect. Bottom line? Don’t count the minutes – make the minutes count.
– Washington Post
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