A floricane is the fruit-bearing vine of a blackberry bush.
 At Floricane, we help individuals and organizations bear new fruit.
 
    
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. 
John Sarvay
MAY 2016



CURRENT CLIENTS

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


 
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.


   



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.)


InsightsŪ Explorations is a new, monthly program for individuals who have an InsightsŪ Discovery profile and are eager to put their self-awareness to work! You can see the entire 2016 InsightsŪ Explorations schedule here.

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.



   

 


$10 TOOLKIT
Building A Better Team Climate

On May 18, Lesley is going to introduce a simple framework to improve your team or organizational results. It goes something line this: Climate drives results. Leadership drives climate.

How you lead your team (or organization) has a direct impact on your team (or organizational) climate. That climate? In the modern political vernacular, a YUUUUGE driver of business results.

Welcome to another $10 Toolkit, an opportunity to quickly fill your brain with a focused piece of insightful content. Join us at 4pm on Wednesday, May 18, and sharpen your professional saw.

THE LEADERSHIP CIRCLE
Invest in Your Leadership

Strengthen your leadership muscle this fall in one of our newly remodeled Leadership Circle groups. Here's the skinny:
  • Nine monthly sessions with other senior level leaders from a wide mix of organizations
  • Each session is two hours
  • Facilitated by our leadership coach Debra Saneda
  • Now with monthly content on topics like emotional intelligence, neuroplasticity, and more
  • Participants shape the second hour of each session with their personal leadership issues
Our next Leadership Circles start in September and run through April of 2017. Registration is now open.

DISCOVER COWORKING
1E Open House Is May 18

What will $10 get you these days? How about coffee, bagels, pizza, and the opportunity to work with some of the coolest people downtown?

Join us on Wednesday, May 18, at 1E -- the collaborative work community in the Richmond Times-Dispatch building downtown. Hosted by the RTD and Floricane, the May 18 event is designed to pique your interest in coworking and introduce our 1E collaborative space to a broader audience. Come solo, or bring a small team (maximum 5 people per organization). Stick around for our $10 Toolkit workshop from 4-5pm (register for that separately).

Email Julie Pence if you want to be notified when registration goes live for the Cowork Discovery Day!


   
  


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.