Things Don’t Seem Quite The Same Because BOOM! Everything’s Different! - Tyler Kirshner

Written by 2021 DEI Scholarship Recipient, Tyler Kirshner, CBRE.

Things don’t seem quite the same…. that is because…. BOOM! Everything’s Different!
 
Thanks to the BOMA Seattle King County’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee, myself and two other individuals who represent diversity in our market had the privilege to learn what it means to be an Emerging Professional in commercial real estate at the 2021 BOMA International Conference in Boston. Although we made the most of our free time by connecting with vendors and exploring all the magnificent history and architectural wonder that Boston has to offer, we spent the wealth of our time hearing about the past, present, and future of commercial real estate through a healthy number of educational sessions, committee meetings, keynote and solution showcases at the BOMA Expo.

Some of my key takeaways from those sessions include:
Expo & Networking: The conference allowed us to connect with vendors as well as provided us with an opportunity to learn about some of the latest and greatest products and services vendors have to offer (including fully autonomous disinfecting robots – HOW COOL!) Additionally, it allowed us to connect, collaborate, and learn alongside members from our own market providing different perspectives on how to move forward while innovating during challenging times.

We need to be the change agents if we want to see change. We have made a lot of progress in the past few years of making DE&I a topic of conversation, but we still have so much work to do on truly enacting change toward a more inclusive industry. Some of the takeaways shared with us to make those changes were:

• Educate yourself and be willing to address when you are wrong. We cannot all be right all the time and we do not all have the answers, so be willing to listen to other perspectives, check your privilege and educate yourself on subjects where you may not have the proper knowledge. Before the session “YRU Here? The Search for the Next Diverse Generation In Property Management” hosted by Adele Bayless, I had no idea the limitations residential real estate has on a diverse workforce, this was a truly eye-opening discovery.
• Challenge yourself to rethink the idea of proper “fit” when it comes to hiring. Often, we look for individuals like ourselves when we look for a potential candidate. In order to better serve our diverse clients, we need to first be more inclusive of those voices on our own teams.
• Start introducing the idea of commercial real estate sooner! Many individuals find themselves falling into commercial real estate out of change, so we need to do a much better job with outreach at a younger age (such as middle schools and high schools, especially to underrepresented areas) introducing commercial real estate.
  

Lessons in Resilience: We were fortunate enough to hear from Doris Kearns Goodwin (a world-renowned presidential historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author) about how these leadership principals made a successful leader through her studies and in working with many presidents. The principles she defined that make a great leader are:
1. Ability to grow
2. Self-confidence to surround themselves with those who were experts in other fields (“team of rivals”)
3. Strike the balance of realism and idealism
4. Challenging times demand for plans to change course as needed
5. Accessibility to those they are leading
6. Communicate through stories
7. Control negative emotions and options
8. Self-deprecating humor to ease tension/frustrations
9. Manage schedule to find time to think/relax
10. Transform an ambition for oneself to an ambition for the greater good

The Future of commercial real estate: During the Keynote “Boom! Everything’s Different: How CRE will Recover and Prosper” presented by BOMA International President/COO Henry Chamberlain, we learned what values have become important to our tenants. Surveys presented suggestions for landlords to prioritize and the level of importance they hold:
1. Next level health infrastructure
2. Shared social amenities
3. Improving technological connection
4. Coworking and flex spaces
5. Shared productivity spaces like board rooms
6. Tenant experience programming
7. Social distancing-friendly gym suites
8. Tenant-facing technology

Happiness in the workplace: During the session “Happiness in the Workplace: Why You Need to Care and How to Achieve it Through Design” taught me a lot about the reality of the effects a space can have on one’s happiness. The moderators of this session provided insight into what they discovered to be the most important aspects of happiness in the workplace, which include:
Meaning
Vitality
Freedom
Engagement
Delight

The icing on the cake was the 2021 BOMA TOBY International Awards! It was a pleasure to celebrate all CBRE managed buildings recognized. It was even more meaningful to represent CBRE Seattle while we celebrated the victory of Seattle Municipal Tower as they were awarded with the 2021 TOBY International Award for Corporate Facility. It is extremely important to take a moment to recognize the amazing work that is put into our facilities to ensure they are the best in class and celebrating those victories with individuals from across the globe was extremely powerful.

I cannot thank BOMA Seattle King County and the members of the DE&I Committee enough for the opportunity and I am so thankful to be a part of the push for diversity. DE&I is such a powerful mission that will change the landscape on the industry (and the world) for the better and I feel so privileged to be here to watch the industry move in this direction. For anyone considering applying for the next scholarship or for those considering going on their own accord, waste no time, sign up today! BOMA International is an incredible value you would truly struggle to find anywhere else.  

Tyler Kirshner, Real Estate Services Administrator

CBRE