LCMB Newsletter

Building Performance Insights

Welcome to December’s Building Performance Insights. We have a lot to celebrate – Christmas (of course) and our upcoming tenth birthday.

We share our Christmas plans, and look back at what the world was like ten years ago when LCMB was born.

If you’ve not done so yet, please register for our webinar at 11am on the 27th January: High Performing Buildings = High Performing People. Work in Mind and I will outline some quick and extremely low cost ways to improve your organisation’s working environment and your people’s wellbeing, performance and productivity.

And I warmly invite you to participate in The 2020 Built Environment Impact Study. It’s a seven minute study that will benchmark your organisation and give you actionable insights.

And most of all, I hope you have an absolutely wonderful, superb Christmas and a cracking start to 2020.


John O’Brien
Founder and MD
t: 01295 722823
e: [email protected]
www.lcmb.co.uk

 

It’s our Birthday!

We’re approaching our 10th birthday and while we’ve grown the world has also changed.

How many of these questions can you answer?

1) What was the bestselling album in December 2009? (yes we used to have albums)

2) And the number 1 Christmas single of 2009?

3) What’s the connection between them?

4) The highest grossing film of 2009?

5) Who was convicted of murder in December 2009 but subsequently acquitted?

6) Whose private life revelations in December 2009 triggered estimated shareholder losses of between $5bn and $12bn?

7) What now ubiquitous device still didn’t exist in 2009?

8) What once most visited website in the US, descended into near obscurity ten years ago?

Get the answers and wish us a happy birthday!

Did you get them right? Check here


Christmas at LCMB

We can’t stress how much we love Christmas and we’re delighted to share our Christmas plans, traditions, games, partiality to chocolate and terrible jokes.


Rudi
, what are your Christmas plans? 

I run the Santa Sleigh round all the local towns and villages for the round table, we watch Christmas movie on the 24th – invariably ‘It’s a wonderful life’ (a masterpiece!). We’re at home for Christmas Day, and spend Boxing Day with the extended family.

And what do you most like about Christmas? 
Everything, but the look on the kids’ faces when I do the Santa Sleigh is priceless. And of course, catching up on sleep!


Max, how about you, what are your plans?
We rarely spend Christmas at home. With family dotted all over the country, we do our best to see as many of them as possible.

With our new addition to the family this year, we’re in high demand! Three days with the in-laws in Wales, followed by a family gathering in Devon. It will be the first time in over 5 years that four generations of us will get together at Christmas and I expect a massive family photo will be taken.

What do you most like about Christmas? 
There’s nothing better than being with my nearest and dearest and sharing the presents I’ve been planning for the last 2 months. And it’s our baby Robyn’s first Christmas. She won’t have a clue what’s going on, but she’s my excuse to dial up the excitement.

Your Christmas joke please.
What’s the itchiest thing about winter? – The Eczemas/Xmas!


Joseph, your plans?
We’re with the in-laws in Kettering for Christmas Day, then New Year’s Day dinner with my family in Bristol.

Best thing about Christmas?
Being with the people you love is so precious. It’s the best time of year to catch up with friends and family as most people are off work. I love the inevitable game of monopoly, having a good rest, and the best salmon you’ll ever taste, courtesy of my fantastic wife.

Your Christmas disasters, and how can avoid them?
Check your car tyres! I got a flat tyre on my way to Manchester one Christmas Day. Changing a wheel in the freezing cold is pretty grim.


Jo, your Christmas plans, please?
Well. My Christmas plans are extremely complicated. A mammoth operation of buying, wrapping & delivering parcels for two families and arranging work festivities. All the fun begins for me in October. It’s a two month effort which sounds crazy because it’s just for one day.

What do you most like about Christmas? 
Christmas is my favourite time of year. Time with my family, relaxing at home and of course eating too much! You cant beat putting your feet up in front of the fire watching a Christmas film eating too many chocolates.

Your family traditions?
Christmas Eve, 4pm we go to the Nativity and Christmas Service at our village church. Then a walk home via the pub for several light refreshments…… and then home to wait for Santa.

Your Christmas disaster, and how should I avoid it?
My strong advice: Check your turkey in good time!  Every year we get a fresh turkey from a local farm. But last year when we picked it up on Christmas Eve, it was smelly and off. So yes, I was one of the nutters dashing around the supermarket looking for the last turkey on Christmas Eve. Never again. The supermarket was full of frenzied shoppers with panic in their eyes. But.. every cloud.. I took the opportunity to replenish my chocolate stock.


Cameron, what are you planning for Christmas?
The whole family is in Cornwall for a reunion and a surprise 90th party for my Grandmother, which should be brilliant. Don’t tell her, it’s a surprise.

What’s your Christmas tip?
Don’t waste your Christmas dinner leftovers. We have delicious Boxing Day turkey curry!

Do you have Christmas traditions?
Yes, we do a Christmas morning beach walk. It’s usually too cold to swim, but it’s been known to happen!

We then play Beetle with my Grandmother. We get more competitive every year. Instructions here.

What do you want for Christmas?
Big bottles of Gin are always appreciated (hint, hint).

Please make me laugh
What kind of music do elves listen to? Wrap.


Tom, your plans?
Seeing family in Suffolk and Essex, interspersed with walks and rides. Most people are off work so it’s easy to meet friends, and unlike any other holiday, the work doesn’t pile up in your absence.

Your Christmas tips please
Get outside! Christmas means a lot of time sitting indoors, driving etc. which makes you feel pretty terrible after a couple of days.

What are your family traditions?
Board games! And one long all-day walk with a hearty pub lunch.

Your hopes for this Christmas?
I hope I wake up on Christmas day and the last 3 years of politics was actually just a bad dream. Is that too much to ask for?

Unlike the others, do you have a good Christmas joke?
What’s the most popular Christmas wine? “I don’t like sprouts!”


John, what are your plans?
This year it’s a quiet family Christmas at home, after the two previous frenetic Christmas holidays hosting and visiting family. But we started early this year. We bought the Christmas tree on the 1st December, which was immediately, and beautifully decorated by my two very excited daughters.

And your traditions?
So..
– Late November, my daughters write their wish lists to Santa. We light a fire and the lists are dispatched up the chimney to the North Pole.
– From the start of December, the kids take great delight in eating their daily Advent Calendar chocolates after breakfast, on their way to school.
– Christmas Eve, the local community does a great Christmas carol sing song around the tree in the village square. It’s always bracingly cold, often rains and it’s a great start to the holidays, even for the most Xmas weary.
– Christmas Day, we watch the kids open their presents. I do the cooking then do a quick 10km run for charity with friends. Then it’s back home with a good appetite for Christmas lunch from around 2pm until early evening. Then it’s a lazy evening watching a family movie.
– On Boxing Day we catch up with family and friends over a pub lunch.

You must have a good Christmas joke. Please?
What do sheep say to each other at Christmas time? Merry Christmas to ewe!


Mike, what does Christmas look like in the Kenny household?
The whole family always descends on the Kenny household for the festivities. Each year we alternate Christmas and Boxing Day to fit in with extended families. As this year is an odd number, Christmas Day is on Boxing Day.

The volume on Boxing Day seems to increase to 11 – it’s bustling with activity, loud and great fun. It’s all about family and food here. It’s the same every year and they still never get my charade – sounds like ‘car keys and clutch’.

So this year, on ‘actual’ Christmas Day, it’s just my wife and me, very much the calm before the storm.

When it’s just the two of us on Christmas Day we have a take-away curry so we can focus on preparing the traditional Boxing Day Christmas meal.

What’s the food like?
Boxing Day we start with smoked salmon sandwiches, bucks fizz and present giving.

The Boxing Day / Christmas dinner is turkey, home-cured ham, Brussels with bacon, pig-in-pig, creamed parsnips, 18th Century stuffing, roast potatoes, honey glazed carrots and lots of green veg.

Wow. Thank You and Merry Christmas!

 

 


January Webinar: High performing buildings = high performing people

Register for our 30 minute webinar for 11am, on Wednesday the 29th January 2020. You will learn how and why better workplace environments promote individual productivity, better organisational results, and in many cases, reduced operating costs.

You will learn:

1) real-world examples of success

2) the three simple, low-cost ways to instantly improve the working environment that will quickly improve people’s wellbeing, performance and productivity

3) how to get your people and your sponsors to understand why these changes are vital for your organisation, and get their support for your initiatives to make the necessary changes

The webinar will be hosted by John O’Brien, MD of LCMB and Joanna Watchman, Founder of Work in Mind, the first knowledge platform dedicated to the connection between healthy buildings and workplace wellbeing, performance and productivity.

Register for the webinar now


You’re invited! The 2020 Built Environment Impact Study

Your organisation’s staff productivity, costs, profits, risks, image and carbon emissions depend in part to how well your estates perform.

We want to get a deeper understanding of what works well and what doesn’t for organisations across the UK.

LCMB’s 2020 Built Environment Impact Study. What is it?
Our research programme allows you to benchmark your estates with those of your peers. We aim to identify what sets the highest performers apart and then allow everyone to learn best practise, and how to avoid the pitfalls.

To participate, all you need to do is complete a seven minute questionnaire. We’ll do the rest.

What’s in it for you?
We’ll analyse responses, generate insights, and develop a comprehensive actionable report, available in 2020 and publish to participants in advance of general release.

Your responses will remain anonymous, but we’ll send you a benchmark assessment that compares your organisation’s performance with other participants.

Why do we do it?
We want to equip everyone with the means to improve estates and build a business case for investment if needed, by

  • Identifying the most powerful practices used by leaders to make estates perform optimally.
  • Providing practical recommendations on how to implement the powerful practices identified.
  • Pinpointing the extra value and savings that leaders achieve.

I really hope you can take seven minutes to participate and receive valuable feedback.

Take Part now

 


Last month’s most popular article

LCMB blogs cover a range of building performance and related issues.

Our most popular item in November was: Higher Performing and Healthier Workplaces briefing note published

Case Studies

LCMB's accelerated ROI audit

Too many organisations spend large sums of money on the wrong initiatives that generate a poor return or even a loss.

This is why we created the LCMB accelerated ROI audit. It cuts through the noise and quickly, clearly identifies the untapped performance improvement areas within your buildings.

The audit uncovers operational inefficiencies such as under-utilised space and facilities, as well as cost and energy reduction opportunities, and then provides a clear plan for realising potential.

By implementing the plan, we guarantee the audit pays for itself within 6 months and thereafter generates a positive return.

Contact John O’Brien on 01295 576 000  [email protected] to discuss how the LCMB accelerated ROI audit can improve your organisation performance and return on investment.

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