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IN THE NEWS
Our lead nonprofit consultant, Sarah Milston, was spotlighted in January by the new small business publication, Work It, Richmond. Click here to read the Q & A, and learn more about how Sarah's passion, nonprofit roots and progressive skill set are key to Floricane's success.
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CONNECT|DISCONNECT We appreciate all of our clients, partners and friends - and see our monthly newsletter as a way to keep you informed about our work throughout the Richmond region. We work hard not to overwhelm you with too many emails. It seems appropriate to start the New Year with a clean sweep of our online email contacts. Please take a moment to update your email address and preferences. If you would prefer not to receive our emails, you may unsubscribe at any time using the links at the top and bottom of the newsletter. You can also invite your friends and colleagues to learn more about our work by forwarding the newsletter at the link just below. |
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Dear ,
Exactly 12 years ago, I took my first, my second, and my third yoga class - one right after the other.
The first two classes were disasters, which said as much about me as the instructors; I had spent too much of my life moving to be still, and not enough time understanding the relationship between my mind, body and spirit.
And then I found Kelly Trask, and a home for my practice. Kelly taught me to slow down, and to connect with aspects of my self that had become invisible in the rush of day-to-day.
For six years, I was a weekly participant in Kelly's class. In time, marriage, an active baby, and a new business all colluded to push yoga to the bottom of my priorities.
Last month, I returned to my practice. I sat cross-legged on a mat in a Shockoe Bottom studio with my eyes closed, my spine extended.
As Kelly instructed the class to focus on our breath, to gently disengage from the day, and to explore the natural tension between our breathing and our posture, I realized how much I had missed my practice - and how similar our work at Floricane is to the practice of yoga.
That was reflected back to me two days later during a strategic planning session. Our clients were growing uncomfortable with ambiguity; they were hungry for concrete, actionable results. They told us as much.
"Notice what your body is telling you," Kelly says. "Breathe into the tension."
We listened. And we let the tension remain in the room, even as we quietly redirected our approach for the afternoon.
"Respect your body," Kelly says. "Adjust your posture and your practice in response."
During a break, two participants took me aside. "We were just talking about how valuable this process has been for this group," they said. "Taking time to slow down and step out of the game, to reflect on the long-term, is so important for us to do."
"Lengthen your spine," Kelly says. "Deepen your breathing, and let your thoughts slow and focus on the here and now."
Helping organizations slow down and listen deeply is an important part of our work at Floricane. But it's not the only part.
Like good yoga practice, our best work helps organizations slow and center, strengthen and stretch - it takes them into surprising, sometimes challenging, postures. In doing so, it often reminds them that our organizations, like our bodies, need our constant attention.
Namaste.
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FACILITATING A GLOBAL CONVERSATION
We're spending the week with a global organization from the comfort of Richmond.
As ChildFund International continues its work of improving the lives of children around the world, they've brought a group of managers from two dozen countries together to build relationships and align their work. Our team is spending this week facilitating about 60 members of ChildFund's extended sponsorship team as they map out ways to strengthen and enhance their impact on children, sponsors and communities.
There are many things about this week that excite our team, but the opportunity to watch our American sensibilities get challenged by 23 very different cultural perspectives ranks pretty high on the list. It's already proving to be an exciting and intense experience. Check our blog over the next several weeks for photos and stories about our week at ChildFund.
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CHANGING OUR STRATEGIC STRATEGY
We're rebuilding our approach to strategic planning. Call it our 37 Signals play - or just call it strategic.
The folks at 37 Signals, recently decided against upgrading their premiere web-based collaboration tool for a third time. They decided to rebuild it from the ground up.
"About a year ago, we began discussing how we might improve our best-selling product," 37 Signals' Jason Fried wrote in a recent issue of Inc. magazine. "The more we talked, the more it became clear that the only way to significantly improve Basecamp was to start over."
We're not quite there, but John, Sarah and Tina are spending the next several months actively rebuilding our strategic planning process. Read more on our blog.
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DISCOVERING THE VALUE OF SELF-DEVELOPMENT
In today's business environment, whitewater is the new normal. The economy remains turbulent, and the competition fierce. You, and your people, remain the most important edge your organization has - and you're spending more time reacting to change than initiating it.
If you want to make an impact, if your team is ready to make a difference - it's time to look in the mirror. The only thing you can directly control and influence is yourself. Change begins with you. An investment in your potential today will pay life-long personal, and professional, dividends.
The Greater Richmond Chamber, Floricane and Insights Discovery® are partnering to offer Chamber members a significant discount on our favorite self-development tool. Insights Discovery is an in-depth personality profile built around a simple eight color model to help individuals increase their self-awareness, and strengthen their ability to create and lead change.
Starting February 20, Chamber members can send employees to our public workshops - or bring an Insights workshop into their company - at a significantly reduced rate. We'll even be offering reduced rates on individual coaching sessions for individuals looking to development grow.
The buzz begins February 20. Or contact Tina Pearlman at Floricane for details today. |
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LAUNCHING THE LEADERSHIP LAB
What's more fun than facilitating a leadership development program with your boss? How about facilitating one with your former boss - and with three of your clients, and your lead consultant at the table?
The new RVA Leadership Lab - a collaboration between the Greater Richmond Chamber (GRC), Floricane and Luck Companies - launched last month with 20 mid-career professionals leaning forward to identify and hone their personal leadership visions at a prime career moment.
Floricane's John Sarvay co-facilitated the first session in the seven-month program with Tom Epperson, leadership development manager (and John's former colleague) at Luck Companies. Also at the table, as participants, are Floricane's Sarah Milston, and three of our favorite clients - the GRC's Richard Wintsch, Library of Virginia's Jane Williamson and Virginia Oral Health Coalition's Sarah Bedard-Holland.
The first session was focused on self-awareness and emotional intelligence as key tools for effective leadership development.
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REVOLUTION, INNOVATION AND CHANGE IN #RVA
It's going to be a busy spring for the i.e.* initiative, and Floricane is partnering with Peter Fraser, the Library of Virginia, the Valentine Richmond History Center and the American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar to make keep the energy high.
RIC/RVA, a four-part series on innovation and change in Richmond, is coming in March. A multi-week interactive series of community engagements, RIC/RVA will blur the line between past, present, and future; between presenter an audience; between expert and layperson. Experts from the city's leading historical institutions will introduce participants to a complex and compelling story of Richmond's long history - with an emphasis on conflict and contradictions, innovative achievements, and artist opportunities both seized and missed. From propaganda to travel films, from statues to maps, participants will revisit our curious past and take a new look at Richmond's creative potential. Stay tuned for more details, and get ready for a series of events that will challenge preconceived ideas, and reawaken your creativity.
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This is the moment I've dreaded in parenting - and one I thought that I could somehow avoid. Yes, I am now the proud father of a princess-obsessed daughter.
As she charges toward her fourth birthday in April, a combination of genetic messaging and unintentional influencing from her preschool community have brought us to a bright, sparkly and pink moment.
The Princess Moment. How serious is her obsession? I brought her to tears one recent night when I made the mistake - while composing and performing the obligatory "Goodnight Song About A Princess" - of having said princess climb a tree and splash in mud. Between tearful sobs, I was alerted to a simple fact: Princesses do not like to get dirty. "But I like to climb trees," I protested. "Dad," she replied, between tearful sniffs, "you can't be a princess."
True to form, Thea's version of being a princess is distinct - combine her love for layering clothes, wrists and neck laden with plastic jewelry, and a bright pink head kerchief, and you've got a much cuter version of Johnny Depp, pirate princess.
On another (though related) note, would you be surprised to discover that our active child loves to dance? She walked out of her first dance class (appropriately named "Dance for the Spirited Child") giddy and excited beyond belief.
From the time she was born, I have reveled in long moments of spinning and dancing around the kitchen with our wee (no longer) girl in my arms. We have gone through Ella Fitzgerald, the Clash, Fugazi, ABBA, the Waterboys, Pavement and more. It is a delight to see the same joy on her face as she discovers movement and her body on her own terms.
There are lessons here about change, about influence, and about acceptance. There are opportunities - always, always - to stop and ask myself the most important of questions, like "What's my role in this relationship right now?" and "Is this about Thea, or about me?" Especially that last one.
As Thea continues to step out into the world, and through the many iterations of self that she will embrace on her journey, it will be increasingly important to know when to intercede, or influence, or advise, or get out of the way. While I'm at it, I'll try hard to hit the pause button occasionally and make sure my best parenting moments are about her success, not my own.
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