A floricane is the fruit-bearing vine of a blackberry bush.
At Floricane, we help individuals and organizations bear new fruit.
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LETTER FROM JOHN
For perhaps the only time in my professional life, I find myself repeating the words of musician Billy Idol -- "Your generation don't mean a thing to me." (A very young, punk Billy Idol, that is, singing in 1977. He's a Boomer, by the way, believe it or not.)
As part of the sandwich generation -- yes, the latchkey Generation X -- I sometimes get tired of the generational discussion taking place in organizations these days. Before I air my grievances, there are important facts and realities to acknowledge.
Nationally (and globally), we're smack in the midst of the largest generational transition in history. The largest. In history. Ever.
Some 74 million Baby Boomers (born roughly between 1946 and 1964, or ages 52 to 70) are slowly relinquishing control of 80% of all personal financial assets, half of consumer spending, and a third of the American workforce.
On the receiving end?
 Not the "middle child" of the generations, Generation X, whose dominance in the American labor force lasted all of three years (2012 to 2015).
Generally, the Millennial generation is benefitting most from the transition. Millennials now represent the largest share of the American workforce, and are increasingly pursued by cities, advertisers and corporations as their own share of the wealth, and their social impact, climbs.
Statistically speaking, it's an important moment for our communities and our corporations. It's also an important psychological moment, because these generations think and behave differently, and each collectively pushes their social energy toward different agendas.
So, are generational trends worth knowing? Absolutely. Worth worrying about? Perhaps.
"How do I manage my Millennials?" is a question I get asked constantly. when I'm working with organizations. It sort of drives me nuts. My typical answer, not entirely tongue-in-cheek is, "Just manage them like the other human beings in your organization. Feed them, nurture them, occasionally let them out to play."
At a macro level, it's probably worth spending some energy reflecting on recruiting practices, benefit packages, and organizational culture in this changing environment. But it's also worth remembering that every generation of worker is ultimately looking for a job with meaning, that pays reasonably well, that offers opportunities to learn and grow, and that doesn't involve a micromanaging boss. And that within every generational cohort, there are between 44 and 54 million individuals who each need (and want) individual attention and opportunity.
If you're managing Boomer workers, sit down with them, one-on-one, and understand their skills, their passions, their motivations. If you're managing Gen X workers, same thing. Millennials? Ditto. (And get ready for the post-Millennial generation. They're already serving ice cream at Gelati Celesti.)
If you understand the personality and work style of each employee, and adapt your leadership style to their competence and commitment, you're well in your way to creating a work environment that works for any generation.
The truth of the matter, you're not managing generations. You're managing individuals.
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American Civil War Museum
American Council on Education
Auditor of Public Accounts
Beautiful RVA
Chesterfield Chamber of Commerce
ChildFund International
CODE Virginia
DJG Engineers, Architects, Planners
Draper Aden Associates
Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce
Housing Opportunities Made Equal
LEAD Virginia
Richmond Association of Realtors
Richmond Symphony
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Smart Beginnings Grassroots Oral Health Initiative
Smart Beginnings Virginia Peninsula
United Methodist Church (Virginia)
University of Richmond
VCU Development and Alumni Relations
VCU Injury and Violence Prevention Program
Virginia Bankers Association
Virginia Beer Wholesalers Association
Virginia Department of Taxation
Virginia Oral Health Coalition
Virginia Society of Association Executives
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Building a Strategic Home for HOME
Lesley and John are waist deep in fair housing issues these days, as our team starts to do some strategic due diligence with Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME). After two days of strategic work with their staff and their board, we are now turning our attention to stakeholder conversations and input. With HOME, we've added an interesting twist -- sitting down with a half dozen of their peers in the housing nonprofit sector to better understand HOME's current, and potential future, role in the community's infrastructure. The organization is interested in asking big, bold questions about where it can aspire to have impact and affect change after it celebrates its big 5-0 in 2021. It also recognizes the value of tending its own culture, and continuing to develop and grow the people who create the impact internally.
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Insights Explorations: Creating A Personal Vision
Friday, May 20, 9am until 11 am
Do you have a vision for your career? Have you built a runway that will allow you to gain both altitude and velocity in your life? Is their an opportunity to strengthen your focus on the future?
Join us the morning of Friday, May 20, for our next InsightsŪ Explorations workshop -- Creating A Personal Vision. Over the span of two hours, Kathy Greenier will help you make a connection between your personal style preferences (or your colors!) and your personal vision. The morning will be fun, lively, interactive -- and may involve glue. You'll leave with a more concrete sense of how to build the life you want, and tools that will help in the day-to-day construction of your vision. (We'll also energize you with coffee and great morning snacks during this 9am to 11am event.)
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InsightsŪ Discovery is our go-to self-awareness tool, designed to help individuals better understand the way they communicate, make decisions and interact with the people around them. Four times a year, we offer a public workshop to introduce Insights to new clients, and to give existing clients an easy way to expose new employees to Insights.
Our next InsightsŪ Personal Effectiveness workshop is on the books -- so, mark your calendar for Thursday, June 23. Join us at the full-day InsightsŪ Discovery workshop, deepen your sense of who you are, how you communicate, how you work best, and what kinds of things really throw a wrench into your productivity. You'll walk away with a comprehensive InsightsŪ Discovery personal profile, and concrete ideas on how to approach your work in new ways.
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When I started Floricane, Thea was seven months old and the world felt very different. We were smack in the middle of a major recession, and starting my own business seemed like a reasonable response to corporate downsizing. Everyone else was struggling to stay afloat -- unemployed, underemployed and nervously employed alike -- and it struck me that my infant daughter would never know if her first few years were spent eating pasta, beans and other staples.
Playground Perspective was part of Floricane's very first newsletter. There have been almost 90 Playground Perspectives since early 2009, each sharing a different perspective on parenting -- often with a loose connection to leadership, organizational change or self-awareness.
A lot has changed over those seven years, including the fact that Thea has discovered free will. (She has always had it. Now she's consciously asserting it.) Continuing to share her stories without consent probably violates some sort of parental copyright law. Besides, she's perfectly capable of sharing her stories on her own.
I considered abandoning this column. My mom would certainly appreciate it -- she's a bit horrified that I'm so open and transparent about everything, my parenting, my business struggles, my challenges with formal business attire.
But storytelling is how I make sense of the world, and how I process information. And reflecting month after month on how I parent, and what I learn from the children who are so central to my life, helps me be a better father, and a better consultant.
Which brings us to the other carefree, whimsical kid in my life. I know when Jack was born that his personality was as different from his sister's as could be. Put two pictures of them at the same age together, and you'd be hard-pressed to tell the two peas-in-a-pod apart, but watching them in action is another story entirely.
This is, I suppose, the central challenge of parenting more than one child. Call it Situational Parenting, a logical riff on our favorite management tool, Situational Leadership. (I'm 1000% sure this is not an original idea.)
Not only do my two kids, ages 20 months and 8 years, have different needs -- developmental, emotional and situational -- but I have different parenting capacities eight years into this parenting gig. I'm older, which means I am both more seasoned and more weathered. Nikole and I have to juggle more - there's a lot more tag teaming happening in our household with two kids. And sometimes, we all just compromise.
In the end, there is never enough of me, or of Nikole, to go around. Which is another way of saying there is exactly enough of both of us. Whether we are parenting children, or managing a team at work, there is always a need to do more, do different, do better. It can be awfully tiring.
Until you slow down and watch.
A few weeks ago, we had a couple of frantic days on the home front that forced me to punt on three major work meetings. The four members of my team handled them masterfully. They didn't miss a beat. It was not unusual -- their own unique brand of collaborating and performing is on display as often as I allow myself to slow down and watch it happen.
And then there is Jack. Watching this little guy take shape is sweet. He's so damned chipper, and already demonstrates the sort of peculiar eccentricities that will endear him to the nursing home staff when he's 80. Above, witness a normal day for Jack -- mismatched boots, buttercups at the ready, charging ahead with joy.
No matter where we are in the world, learning and growth happen. The opportunities for discovery are endless. The need to adapt and stretch our approach is constant. All we have to do is slow down, watch -- and participate.
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