Jeff Hicks, MAI President  Dohring Group RealWired!

I attended the Appraisal Institute's annual meeting in Indianapolis recently as an exhibitor and speaker. The tagline of AI Connect is "where people and ideas come together." During the week I thought about this concept. Do appraisers really share ideas and impart their wisdom? People were obviously coming together but being a general skeptic at times, I kept my ears open for the "ideas".

In between my breaks, I attended a few classes that interested me. I found the instructors to be very knowledgeable and provided "real-world" information and meaningful feedback to attendee's questions. I also received good value from the casual networking with other appraisers. It is always helpful to understand how other people in your industry are operating, whether they're a small or large firm, have different expertise than you or have a totally different mindset.

My wife Brenda Dohring Hicks, MAI and I taught a commercial productivity seminar for two hours. I find it interesting that our seminar has been changing each time we present. We try to take feedback from the attendees and change the content to match the interest. I am somewhat surprised to determine that most appraisers welcome the various software solutions, systems implementation and productivity tips that we offer. I think a few years ago the sense of urgency about productivity was much less. Many are particularly interested in how to effectively change their business to reduce the reliance on the owner, facilitate smoother operations and produce a faster better appraisal report.

Notwithstanding our specific productivity content, I think the single biggest take away we try to provide is the concept of change. I certainly don't like the word change; it connotes effort and scary unknown stuff. However, I think many in our class were in the right place in their career to "hear" what we were saying. As competition kicks up in the general commercial appraisal industry, more appraisers are slowing down enough to see what's out there to make them more efficient. Many are becoming open to changing how they create their appraisal product.

Productivity in a general sense provides tools to allow you to better control your work world and facilitate where you want to go.  Mahatma Gandhi said "You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing, there will be no result."

Few people love change. However small adjustments can make a huge impact to your bottom line and in turn your happiness. It's not always about making more money. It could be increasing your hourly wage, working less hours or more free time. The problem is many of us don't make productivity a priority. It's easy to get stuck in the day-to-day busyness of appraising that at times can have an assembly-line feel. Gandhi also said "action expresses priorities", and insightful statement regarding why we do the things we do and when we do them. Our priories are like a roadmap.  Where are you going?