Out-of-the-box training sees property managers collaborate on crime solving
Laing+Simmons has had great feedback from its training and teambuilding session that harnessed the skills of a former detective.
Luke Taylor, the founder of Crime Story who once undertook the work he now uses as an exercise to build team skills, delivered a successful session to the property managers of Laing+Simmons.
The out-of-the-box training event involved an immersive workshop that tasked participants with investigating a mock crime scene, including identifying and reviewing evidence as a way of honing critical skills in attention to detail, analytical thinking and effective communication – skills that the network noted are “all essential in effective property management”.
After building a case, the property managers were then called to interview supposed “witnesses” and comb through red herrings to ultimately solve a complicated constructed crime.
Laing+Simmons head of property management, Michael Anania, commented that the unique session acknowledged that property managers operate in an environment that calls for many different types of skills to solve issues and challenges for the stakeholders with which they interact.
“Our collaboration with Crime Story will upskill our property managers when it comes to communication with tenants and landlords, help them establish clear pathways to efficiently expedite solutions through asking the right questions, and better handle difficult circumstances,” Anania said.
“Feedback from our participating property managers has been overwhelmingly positive,” he added.
The session followed on from network CEO Leanne Pilkington’s acknowledgement that real estate professionals tend to deal with people when they are “at their most stressed – and that’s not easy”.
She affirmed that the agency adopts a mentality of approaching relationships with transparency and truth telling, so that they’re setting and meeting reasonable expectations.
The network has long stressed the importance of offering robust property manager training to ensure that the professionals in its network are aligned with the company values and equipped to handle the challenges of the job.
