Cambridge’s annual Property Management Seminar took place February 8th-10th in Dallas. Property teams from around the country gathered for three days of training, teambuilding and awards. This was the first year property managers, tenant service coordinators, and building engineers were all in town for seminars at the same time, and the new format proved to be quite a success.
Lean On Me: Jo Clare Sullivan (San Diego), Nancy Clayton-Ross (San Diego), Sutton Callison (Dallas) and Laura Williams (Nassau Bay) make their way down an icy Dallas street during the seminar.
The managers & TSCs met on Tuesday, we had a joint session on Wednesday, and then we wrapped up with our building engineers on Thursday. Our agenda included property budgeting, how to communicate effectively with tenants and coworkers, working through leasing and tenant build-outs, and the fundamentals of managing a property from property inspections to tenant events. We were able to discuss important issues, share ideas across properties and departments, and establish some new and improved procedures on the spot as a result of the open dialogue.
Listen Up: Pedro Cantu, Jr. (San Antonio), Bud Hicks (Southlake), Wendy Pearson (Dallas), Rich Richardson (Rogers), Juan Cardenas (Rockwall) and Charles Johnson (Dallas) participate in the Engineering portion of the seminar.
One of the most important aspects of this year’s seminar was the participation of the entire company (including corporate departments). This setup allowed us to receive and give feedback which will help us grow together as a cohesive team. As part of our teambuilding, we had planned an off-site bowling outing for the entire company. Unfortunately, the weather had other plans for us. Not only did we have some travel challenges, thanks to record freezing temperatures and snow in North Texas, we were unable to travel to the bowling alley. With some quick and positive thinking, we moved our bowling field trip to the 60th floor of Cambridge’s headquarters office. We worked together and came up with a plan – bowling with weight-training balls and half-full water bottles as the pins. Talk about teamwork!
During the seminar, we joked about overusing the word “collaborative,” but I can’t say it enough…and our seminar is proof that collaboration works. It’s about putting the individual skills and talents of our property and corporate teams together behind our collective commitment to excellence – that’s what gives our tenants and patients a level of service they won’t find anywhere except in a Cambridge healthcare property.
