The Great Real Estate Bubble QuizWritten by Mark Walters
You hear it asked on radio, in newspapers and on TV."Are we experiencing a value bubble in real estate and is it ready to burst?" Do you have an answer for that question? Do you have a guess? Yes, I know so called experts are lining up on both sides of question. But what about you? You're living right in middle of action. You can judge what's happening in your city - your neighborhood. Are property owners going to be safe or sorry? To help you form an opinion of current state of real estate market we have created the... GREAT REAL ESTATE BUBBLE QUIZ... Everyone gets a passing grade and no homework is required, so put your thinking cap on and jump in... True False Question ___ ___ Boston Real Estate values are up 90% in last six years? ___ ___ San Francisco real estate values are up 90% in last six years? ___ ___ Denver real estate values are up 90% in last six years? ___ ___ The price of average home in New York was $50,000 in 1975 and is $325,000 today.. a gain of 550%? ___ ___ The average home price in Los Angeles was $50,000 in 1975. After a gain of 500% it sells today for $300,000? ___ ___ A 6,000 sq ft home in Greenwich, CT. worth $500,000 in 1987 sells today for $4-million? ___ ___ Fannie Mae, largest buyer of mortgages in US, issued a report warning that probability of a housing bust has risen sharply in certain parts of country.
| | The Myth of the Management TeamWritten by Graeme Nichol
Every business has problems. That is why average life span of a large industrial company is 40 years. Some are learning disabilities where companies are not prepared to learn from their mistakes. They insist on doing same thing every time. Even when problems occur no one examines cause of problem. The problem is an embarrassment that should be swept under rug and forgotten rather than be used as an opportunity to learn. Handling these dilemmas and disabilities is Management Team. Below is a quote from Peter Senge’s book “The Fifth Discipline – Art & Practice of Learning Organization.” Does this sound like your company? If it does start worrying! The Myth of Management Team Standing forward to do battle with these dilemmas and disabilities is “the management team,” collection of savvy, experienced managers who represent organization’s different functions and areas of expertise. Together, they are supposed to sort out complex cross-functional issues that are critical to organization. What confidence do we have, really, that typical management teams can surmount these learning disabilities? All too often, teams in business tend to spend their time fighting for turf, avoiding anything that will make them look bad personally, and pretending that everyone is behind team’s collective strategy – maintaining appearance of a cohesive team. To keep up image, they seek to squelch disagreement; people with serious reservations avoid stating them publicly, and joint decisions are watered-down compromises reflecting what everyone can live with, or else reflecting one person’s view foisted on group. If there is disagreement, it’s usually expressed in a manner that lays blame, polarizes opinion, and fails to reveal underlying differences in assumptions and experience in a way that team as a whole could learn. “Most management teams break down under pressure,” writes Harvard’s Chris Argyris – a long time student of learning in management teams. “The team may function quite well with routine issues. But when they confront complex issues that may be embarrassing or threatening, ‘teamness’ seems to go to pot.” Argyris argues that most managers find collective inquiry inherently threatening. School trains us never to admit that we do not know answer, and most corporations reinforce that lesson by rewarding people who excel in advocating their views, not inquiring into complex issues. (When was last time someone was rewarded in your organization for raising difficult questions about company’s current policies rather than solving urgent problems?) Even if we feel uncertain or ignorant, we learn to protect ourselves from pain of appearing uncertain or ignorant. That very process blocks out any new understandings which might threaten us. The consequence is what Argyris calls “skilled incompetence” – teams full of people who are incredibly proficient at keeping themselves from learning.
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