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OCTOBER 2011
FEATURING: Between Iraq and a Hard Place Building the Leadership Lab Bearing New Fruit
Playground Perspectives
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IGNITING HUMAN POTENTIAL.
Here's a shout-out to the team at Luck Companies on their mission to Ignite Human Potential. Check out their thoughtful website focused on Values Based Leadership, and its ability to transform your work.
"This is your life, and the life of those you love, and those you don't yet love..."
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Last month, our team gathered around a table with the creative wordsmiths from Zuula Consulting. We've known Deanna and Meghan for several years, and were excited to engage their talents as we to develop a shared language around our business, our community and the work that we do.
We started with music. Seriously. The Zuula team asked each of us ahead of time to identify a song that represented our company, and out popped the very eclectic mix of U2's "Elevation"; the iconic "We Are the World" from the 1985 USA for Africa effort; and the peppy but political "Dream Machine" by Mark Farina. Can you see a common thread in the three songs? We did.
We migrated from music to explore some deeper concepts: emotion, connection and transformation. We explored what we collectively imagined Floricane to be at its best. In short order, a real sense of shared perspective began to emerge in the room.
A few discoveries (or rediscoveries) from our time with Zuula:
- We bring meaningful connections, a relevant process, fresh perspective and the freedom to dream to our engagements.
- Our biggest competitor? Surprise. Our own egos, and that difficult tension between hubris and self-doubt.
- A gift we bring? Intentional space that can create a shift for individuals and teams. Opening windows of possibility, provides our clients a glimpse of a different future.
- Our aspiration: To help our clients dream, leap and change - and by doing so, change our community, and the world.
It was refreshing to hit the pause button during what turned out to be our busiest month of the year, and to allow someone else to do the facilitating. Our brief time with Zuula opened new windows of possibility for our team, and we think you'll be excited by some of what's already drifting from the room (see below, for instance).
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BETWEEN IRAQ AND A HARD PLACE: Social Media Lessons for the Nonprofit Community
We're partnering with five of Richmond's most dynamic organizations to create a social media event like no other. On Tuesday, November 29, join hundreds of #RVA nonprofit, social media and young professionals for a half-day mash up of hands-on workshops, networking and keynote lessons from two of the top social media professors in the U.S.
A collaboration between Floricane, the Social Media Club of Richmond (SMCRVA), Connect Richmond, Helping Young Professionals Engage - Richmond (HYPE), The Library of Virginia and The Hodges Partnership, the event is designed to introduce #RVA's nonprofit community to the world of social media -- and vice versa.
It's a three-part event:
- Social Media Workshop: A dozen social media experts will work in small groups with nonprofit participants on ways to incorporate a range of technology tools into their marketing, fund raising and community building. (The workshop is open only to nonprofit professionals.)
- Networking Reception: Workshop participants will join the SMCRVA and HYPE communities -- and the general public -- in The Library of Virginia's Grand Hall for hors d'oeuvres and a cash bar.
- Keynote: VCU journalism professors Marcus Messner and Jeff South will share their amazing experience of guiding 100 Iraqi and VCU students through two summers of hands-on social media projects with almost two dozen local nonprofits.
Join us -- and a few hundred of your closest friends -- for this amazing event. Stay plugged into the SMCRVA Facebook page or Connect Richmond for registration details.
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 At the heart of great leadership is the capacity of leaders not only to understand what motivates others, but also to understand their own motivation. In a unique partnership, Floricane, the Greater Richmond Chamber and Luck Companies have created a new leadership program to provide a focused, practical leadership development opportunity for area companies and organizations. The Leadership Lab is designed to develop leaders with the capacity to effectively influence and lead within their organizations. Launching January 2012, the Leadership Lab is a seven-month program that features four full-day workshops and three half-day coaching sessions. The sessions will be co-facilitated by Floricane's John Sarvay and Luck Companies' Tom Epperson. It will change the way you think about - and act on - your leadership. Applications are due November 18. Candidates will be notified regarding selection on or around December 2, 2011 For more information on qualifications required, dates, fee, application and program details, please visit RVA Leadership Lab online. |
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JOIN US!
Saturday, October 29 is HandsOn Day 2011. Click here to volunteer. Search "Team Floricane" to join our team with a Church Hill gardening project!
SPEAK UP!
In addition to some great teaching opportunities with Nonprofit Learning Point and Southside Community Partners, John and Sarah have both been on the lecture circuit. Sarah is speaking at the Virginia Poverty Law Center's annual statewide conference in October, and John is heading to Hanover to talk about creativity in the workplace to members of the Hanover Business Council.
TURN THE INNOVATION FLYWHEEL. We have our shoulder to the creative wheel, and are in the planning stages for another exciting slate of SHOP CLASS sessions with our friends Peter Fraser and Ansel Olson. We're also hip-deep in top secret discussions with a group of local historians to launch a winter series on the history of revolution, innovation and change in #RVA. And we're talking to the City of Richmond about their own opportunities to support innovative businesses. Get connected at www.ie-rva.org to stay current with innovation and creativity in the area. |
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NOW WE ARE THREE!
With apologies to A.A. Milne, the Floricane team is pretty excited to celebrate three years of relationship building and change making in November.
We've worked with more than 100 organizations throughout the Richmond region and across Virginia to help strategize, focus and develop leadership, and create the conditions for positive transformation.
We can't thank you enough for your support during this exciting time, and a special thanks to the following organizations who we're celebrating our anniversary with -- on the job.
Library of Virginia
Richmond Association of Realtors
Virginia Trial Lawyers Association
Virginia Oral Health Coalition
Virginia Dental Association Foundation
Rx Partnership
Virginia Clean Cities
Bon Secours Richmond Health Systems
The James House
Greater Richmond Chamber
Bonner Center for Civic Engagement
Virginia Poverty Law Center
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It's a lesson every parent learns. I imagine most of us bat .300 during the 18 seasons our children live full-time under our roofs. That might be generous in my case.
Improving your batting average is important, whether you're raising children or leading a team. Feedback is one tool that is both misunderstood and misapplied in most organizations. At its best, feedback is information. At its worst, it's a distraction from the real levers of change. I learned this particular lesson from Charlie and Edie Seashore, who have been in the thick of organizational change work since the 1940s.
"Feedback," Charlie challenged a group of us several years ago, "is the least effective way to change someone else's behavior."
He waited for that to sink in, and then he repeated himself.
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"Feedback," Charlie continued, "is the least effective way to change someone else's behavior. Changing your behavior is the most effective way to change someone else's behavior."
Do as I do. Walk the walk. Model the behavior you want to see. There are a dozen ways to slice it, but each of us have people in our lives who look to us for cues to guide their own behavior.
What's interesting to me is how the cues change over time.
Thea started by watching what her mom and I do, and mimicking and reflecting us. But I've noticed lately that she's charging ahead with her own life, driven by her own impulses. More often than not, when she looks to us now, it's over her shoulder -- and she's looking for subtle cues of permission, approval or dismay. What she sees when she looks back at us has an immediate impact on her behavior.
That sort of makes it important that Nikole and I both manage our emotions appropriately. When we misstep, she stumbles.
I can be pretty terrible at this -- especially after a long week of "being on" at work. When I get home tired, I stop leading with my self-awareness and my core values, and my personality style and emotions jump to the front of the train. I get hijacked faster, and the signals Thea receives trigger her faster -- on bad days, I suspect Nikole wishes I had just stayed at work.
Nikole plays in this space much better than I do. She's more empathetic, and she slows down to be engaged in the moments where I am accelerating. On good days -- and Nikole has more good days than I do -- we can all feel it hum.
Psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi calls that hum "flow". I call it relaxing. My family, my team and my clients all deserve a higher batting average. How's your swing?
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