What’s the purpose of an office? It may seem straightforward at first, but for many an office can have a lot of negative connotations. If we don’t step back and define it, by default it can just become whatever the work dictates: frustrating, hard, trapped, boring.

For us, offices aren’t just a means to the end and a place where people have to “clock-in” to get work done. Offices have to be a catalyst for great work. Don’t get us wrong, offices aren’t the only way for us to get our jobs done. We all travel a lot and at times find our best inspiration while visiting a coffee shop, sipping on a cocktail, or sitting on a beach.

However, when work is scheduled to be at least 30% of our day (the 9-5), where we work needs to be exciting, encouraging, and inspiring. That way we can do better work while at the office and be excited to return to the office (Sunday Scaries shouldn’t be a thing). We’re not saying we need to work 24/7, but we are intentional about the way an office looks, feels, and motivates for the time we are there.

As you might be able to tell, our current office doesn’t exactly fit the definition of a great office as described above. It’s been a great springboard to our Orange County home, but it’s time to announce the countdown and excitement about our new office (or for as much time as we spend there, our new home).

This is a place I designed to inspire great work for our clients and a great work environment for our team. The new office may only be across the street, but it seems like a huge upgrade to the top of the cool street.

To help celebrate the countdown and official move-in, we’re launching a ’New Office Giveaway’. All you need to enter is guess how long it takes our 6’4” CEO Jeffrey Bates to run from the current office front door to the new office front door. He’ll be the first to admit he’s not an Olympic sprinter (or even a jogger), but he does have some long strides.

Winner will receive a gift basket of some of our favorite OC products! 

We’ve provided a cheat sheet below, but research the coordinate, confirm satellite images, and enter your best guess in the form below (or by clicking the link here):

• • Point to point distance if taking a straight line is roughly 750 feet
  • Following more of the ‘legal’ pedestrian rules, it measures roughly 845 feet (pictured below)
  • Jeff is 6’4″
  • The last time Jeff ran or jogged for fitness or leisure was 10+ years ago.

*Limit one entry per person

There’s a classic quote that business leaders and managers love to throw around (and spoiler alert, I’m about too as well). It comes from Peter Drucker, one of the original management gurus. He classically states that “what gets measured gets managed.”

Before you roll your eyes and cringe from hearing this quote again, let me tell you that it’s most often taken out of context. It’s typically used as justification to eliminate measuring tasks that cannot easily be quantified. However, there’s a big difference between a business quote, and the application to business.

The ‘business application’ that Drucker was addressing was identifying the difficulty in measuring work and making sure the right work was getting done; right work being defined as work that contributes most directly to the bottom line.

The real challenge in business is identifying the tasks and activities that, when tracked, provide the greatest business insights and ROI possible. To further quote Drucker, “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” Finding the appropriate measurement is hard work, and often executives apply simple concepts for complex decisions; utilizing models that include straight line metrics for everything from staff reductions, to increased sales, to expense reductions.

In an industry fueled by people with detailed expertise and an extensive knowledge of the product and process, how do we blend that passion and knowledge with data and strategy to quickly evaluate our most profitable systems, processes, and products?

Data can’t be the final decision maker, but with so much time spent in front of a screen and in software applications, are we missing potential opportunities and threats by not better leveraging data points that are easily accessible? You think Customer X is so profitable, but do you know how much time it actually takes to complete their work? Do you know how rude and unprofessional the customer is to your employees and what this costs in production time? Do you know how happy your employees are at their jobs? Do you know your ‘compliance confidence score’?

In order to find the best answers, we first need to identify the right questions to ask and then we can effectively use data at our disposal to provide better insights and decision making.

This post was co-authored by Andrew Acker and Tish Bush. Andrew is the Chief Operating Officer at D. Bello Associates; Tish Bush is the Founder and Principal of TBD Advisors.  They'll both be speaking on this topic at ALTA ONE, the week of October 9-12, 2018. Make sure to attend their session if you'll be there. Check out the schedule here! Or contact us for links to their content and presentation!