Evening at Mortons: Exploring Richmond’s Neighborhoods

The second Evening at Morton’s discussion was held in April with a stellar panel representing a variety of Richmond neighborhoods and professions – and all focused on the changing character of the places many in Richmond call home.

The Evening at Morton’s discussions usually bring 5-6 people together over dinner to discuss topics of interest or importance to the broader community. I facilitate the discussion, which is “live blogged” and “live tweeted” for people to follow in-the-moment or after-the-fact; there’s also an audio recording, which is usually made available within a few days. The media sponsor for the series is Richmond.com, and they have been doing a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of advance reporting and live coverage of the discussions.

In fact, Richmond.com’s Karri Peifer did such a great job of capturing the neighborhood discussion, that I’ll just let her take it from here. You can read her whole summary at Richmond.com or go read through the live blog transcript. Here’s a taste of the conversation:

The fantastic panel, comprised of realtors, a school board member, a historian and the city's Director of Community Development, brought in voices from all over the city's distinct neighborhoods and by the end of the two hour dinner conversation, which was broadcasted online, one thing was certain: two hours isn't nearly enough time to cover Richmond's neighborhoods.

From moderator, Floricane founder and Northside resident John Sarvay's opening question, asking the panelists to name their favorite neighborhood, it was clear that there's plenty to love about the neighborhoods of Richmond.

Whether it's the spirit of community in the East End, as Don Coleman, Richmond School Board member and life-long East End resident noted; access to a yard, parks, and the river that Jeffrey Ruggles, Curator of Prints and Photographs of the Virginia Historical Society cherishes about his Woodland Heights neighborhood; the diversity in Battery Park that Chris Hilbert, Ginter Park resident and 3rd District City Councilman, loves; or admiration for the civic and community activism that helped to revitalize Richmond's Neighborhoods in Bloom, that Rachel Flynn, Director of Community Development for the City of Richmond and Manchester resident, mentioned, this panel was clearly passionate about their city.

"We are running out of neighborhoods to discover," said Chris Small, owner and principal broker for Small & Associates Real Estate. "All of our neighborhoods have so much potential and so much going for them now."

For Rick Jarvis, owner of One South Realty Group, Virginia Commonwealth University deserves much of the credit for the recent progress and success of the city, though he thinks "without the economic downturn, we might be farther along."

Jarvis also noted that though the areas east of Belvidere have historically struggled, people who have lived in that area for a long time call the improvements "amazing."

The panel cited both First Fridays and Lift Coffeeshop as examples of things headed in the right direction in that area.

Overall, though, for the panel, the key to any current or future success for Richmond is entirely connected to community – to Richmonders themselves being involved and committed to their city.

As usual, the conversation went where it needed to go – my primary job was to make sure the participants all had an opportunity to engage, and that the conversation maintained momentum. And – as usual – the conversation consistently turned back to the idea of community, and its importance.

The next Evening at Morton’s discussion will be held in June.

Join Richmond’s Innovation Celebration on May 19

Hot on the heels of last month’s Creativity Forum featuring Dan Pink comes another Richmond first – focused on innovation in business.

The May 19 innovation event was born from the intersection of history, community and consulting – with a splash of passion and exuberanc e – when conversations between three of Richmond’s “big idea” guys turned into Richmond’s Innovation Celebration.

“It was through conversations with Mark Brady of Alchemy and Bill Martin at the Valentine that sparked this for me,” says Gayle Turner of Catch Your Limit Consulting. “Bill said that we’re not doing a good job – period – of selling the value of creativity and innovation in Richmond. And then Mark came along and pointed out that we keep searching for a national identity… but we continue to be a center that not only cranks out new ideas but also people who do things differently.”

Gayle took those powerful kernels into a discussion with Sara Dunnigan at the Greater Richmond Partnership. One thing led to another, and soon Gayle and Sara found themselves sitting with Ken Kahn of VCU’s da Vinci Center for Innovation and Andrew LeVasseur of the Virginia Productivity Improvement Fund creating an event centered on innovation.

Participants will spend a day not just discussing how innovation happens, but identifying all of the places throughout the Richmond region where it is already happening.

While there will be a handful of speakers throughout the day sharing ideas and perspectives, Gayle insists that it is the small group conversations that will make the day hum.

“We’re going to ask people to talk about what they are doing within their own organizations to foster innovation," Gayle says. "We’re going to ask them what they are seeing in the region, and who is really making a difference.”

Sara Dunnigan will speak to participants about a new tool to measure and monitor innovation across the region.

“One of the places that inspired us was Maine, which identified the things they felt are crucial for innovation in their state,” Gayle says. “What can we find that we’re doing well, but can do more of or pay more attention to around Richmond? Let’s start measuring those things, and let’s test them. If they make a difference, continue them. If not, do something else.”

One paradigm shift organizers are hoping to help create is one where the Richmond region not only begins to see the innovation right under its nose, but to support and encourage it.

“We do a lot of new things worthy of recognition in Richmond, but we don’t seem to acknowledge them,” Gayle says.

The May 19 Richmond Innovation Celebration may play a role in changing that. Registration for the event is open to the public, and details on the speakers and day’s agenda are on the website.

Five Minutes on Innovation with Tom Silvestri

Tom Silvestri became president and publisher of the Richmond Times-Dispatch in 2005 as technology was forcing the newspaper industry to begin thinking seriously about change and innovation. That process was accelerated by the economic recession, and by Silvestri’s own ideas about the relationship between innovation and business. I sat down with Silvestri earlier in April to discuss his views on innovation.

What Richmond Needs Now

It came up at a Greater Richmond Chamber HYPE (Helping Young Professionals Engage) night where they invited me to talk about community and leadership topics. It was really a fun exchange. Somebody asked me, "What does Richmond need," and I had a one word answer, "Innovation." I told them how important they were to the community because innovation feeds off of energy and off of ideas.

Innovation Is A Process, Not An Activity< br />When you get innovation, you’re eager to do it. The first thing you do is set up a summit or a meeting or website. You’re eager to orchestrate this because you’re so excited, but Andy Stevanovich’s [a Richmond-based consultant] three-step process really captured it for me. He put “innovation” on the back-end; he put “ideas” on the front-end; and between the two, he inserted “process.” And you could actually cross process out and put “creativity.” That just said a lot – that to get to innovation, you have to go through a creative process or a period of creativity.

For a mature business, really looking at your processes and how you get stuff done and converting that into creativity is huge, because it becomes cathartic. From the business side, the instinct is to slap a return on investment on that idea. And that usually bleeds the creativity out of it, so there’s no place to flourish it. But if you send it through a creative process, the chances of going through innovation, of testing and trying it out, of conviction and encouragement are all there.

Very few things are profitable at the gate. You’ve died and gone to Heaven, if you find the open space, you have an idea that’s good enough, people are coming in droves and you have money coming out the ying-yang. But that’s a rare occasion. So you have to find innovation that pays for itself. That’s really tough.

Practice Makes Perfect

The first business is to anticipate. You have to practice anticipating to get good at innovation. That is really hard. How do you anticipate? You guess – fiction is anticipation, research can point you, conversations can anticipate.

Anticipation is the greatest sign to the open space where nobody is. But it’s not like you come out of the woods into an open space and you wonder, “How did I get here?” You’ve actually plotted to get there by anticipating. You’ve discovered it.

The next order of business is collaboration. Individually, you can come up with the idea, but that only makes you an inventor. It doesn’t make you an innovator, because an innovator always needs somebody else. So you move from anticipation to collaboration.

And then you have to move quickly to execution, because nobody is excited by all theory. Business people ask what you’re going to do with it. The community goes, “Huh?” And your family wants to know where the money is. So you have to execute it.

This notion of anticipate, collaborate, execute becomes a Wheel of Fortune that you’re constantly spinning. It becomes the basis for your innovation, because then you have to innovate again and you have to lock in that something good actually happened.

If you anticipate, you change the conversation and people start looking forward. And if you collaborate, then you have a place for the conversation to go. And when you execute, you get something done.

How to Get Started...

Innovation literature abounds. It’s all around us.

Here’s what I would do. I would alternate what you really want to do and read something you have no interest in.

For example, the videos from the TED conference. I try to watch one a day. There’s no practical reason for me to listen a 20 minute video about surgical checklists, but the whole conference is about thinking differently and innovation. I find that information fascinating.

I think you have to read history. You don’t have to be a history major. I started to read biographies of presidents, and when you get into them you find out how fallible they were, how crazy the time was, how personalities collided, how things got done. Read histories about your hometown -- you get this new wave of innovation, thinking and thought leaders, but you get it from an historical perspective.

I don’t think you can learn creativity from a workshop.

If you’re interested in it, you’ll always find a way. If you’re not interested, you’ll never do it. So why make the disinterested part of it? Although they play a key role; in fact, they may be the best executors.

I mix my reading up -- business books, history books, magazines. I find myself reading things I never would have read just to understand the patterns of thought.

Who Hid Workplace Motivation? It Lies Within.

If you live in Richmond, and you attended Dan Pink's lecture at the University of Richmond in early April, this PBS NewsHour piece by economics reporter Paul Solmon does an excellent job of walking you through one of Pink's key points about motivation. If you didn't attend Pink's lecture, the nine-minute video segment is a reasonably good substitute for what was an exceptionally good morning.

In a nutshell, Pink uses several decades of solid research to demonstrate that money is not the great motivator. Money matters. We need it to live, and most employees want to see it distributed in two ways – fairly (no huge pay discrepencies from worker to worker) and reasonably (as in "enough money to live reasonably well"). The companies who understand some of the deeper drivers for solid performance are doing things a little differently, Solmon reports.

In Pink's new book "Drive" he makes a compelling case that the three biggest drivers for performance (at work and in life) are autonomy (give me some freedom of choice), mastery (help me get better) and purpose (remind me that my work matters). I think there are a couple of additional drivers, but I wholeheartedly agree with Pink's premise.

Feedback Is The Key To Mastery

Business writer Dan Pink came to Richmond on April Fool's Day, but his message to the crowd of more than 400 business professionals, creatives and students was no joke: If you want to increase engagement and performance (for yourself, your team or your organization) you need to do more than lookover people's shoulders and stroke a regular paycheck.

In fact, Pink strongly suggested that looking over people's shoulders – known as micromanaging in most circles – was a great way to put a drag on engagement, and that linking performance to pay was the motivational equivalent of a pair of concrete boots.

"Management is a technology from the 1850's. There aren't many technologies from the 1850's still in use today," Pink told the audience at the University of Richmond's Modlin Center. (The University of Richmond and the Visual Arts Center of Richmond organized the event; BankAmerica and Floricane were the primary business sponsors.) If you want to motivate people, pay them well and give them room to achieve autonomy, mastery and purpose, Pink told the group.

Mastery is the sense of growth and achievement, of regularly increased competency. Pink said th e biggest motivator at work is the feeling of progress – those days when you've made steps toward a goal tend to be the days we feel the most engaged and successful. The irony is that employees often don't see those daily accomplishments – no one calls their attention to the minor milestones and small steps that accumulate to deliver big results over time.

Which makes the work of managers today something different than simply being bearers of a 170-year-old legacy of directing and controlling the work of others.

The best role for a manager in today's business environment is helping people see their progress – not once a year during a performance review ("Performance reviews are a version of Kabuki theatre where we all read through a script and hope it ends quickly," Pink said.) but on a daily and weekly basis. Helping people see their progress, and celebrating that progress with them, is the most critical task a manager or leader can play day-to-day within an organization.

It's called providing feedback, and it's a way to help people achieve mastery.

It doesn't have to stop at work, either.

One of the most compelling stories about feedback I've ever heard came from a previous employer. He owned the company, and it wasn't unusual for him to spent 14 hour days at the office, especially during the company's peak growth years. He was married, and had three young children.

He shared this story during a leadership workshop we were conducting within the organization as a way of sharing what he wanted leaders in the organization to understand about feedback – and about the values of our company.

I picked my daughter up from school recently, and she was riding in the back seat. I asked her, "What can I do to be a better dad?"

She started laughing. When she stopped, I asked her again. She was quiet for a moment, and then she said, "Do you really want to know?"

What she really meant was, "Is it safe for me to tell you the truth?"

I told her I did want to know.

She said, "You know, when we go behind the house to the creek and we pick up little sticks and throw them into the water, then run alongside them to see which one goes fastest? You could do that with me more."

At this moment in the story, he paused and put a hand over his heart to indicate just how deeply his daughter's simple request had struck.

I asked her what else I could do to be a better dad.

"You could have breakfast with us sometimes," she said.

In the past, I would have immediately started to explain to her how busy I was running a company and how so many people depended on me, that I had to spend time at work and with her mom, sister and brother. I would have told her that one day she'd understand how important my work was.

But a little voice in my head told me to ask for more.

"Is there anything else I could do?" I asked.

"You know how we all played in the yard together last weekend? That was a lot of fun," she said.

There were more than a few damp eyes in the room at this point in his story. What everyone in the room know, and he briefly explained, is that his daughter could have asked for anything – a new bike, a vacation, a shopping trip. But she asked for the one thing she truly wanted, which was more time with her dad.

Someone in the room raised a hand and asked, "So, where did you have breakfast today?" Laughter rippled around the room.

"Well," he said, "I had breakfast here with this group today, but I've had many more breakfasts with my kids since that conversation. And I'd like to think that I'm doing a better job of giving my daughter what she wants from me."

It's a powerful story, especially if you're a parent.

But it's a simple lesson in feedback. Feedback involves simple questions – What can I do better? How can I provide you with the support you need? What else can I do to help you succeed?

Far too often, we avoid receiving feedback. We don't invite it, and we don't realize the power that comes from asking others to provide it to us. No, we tend to corrupt it by offering it to others uninvited, and we justify that action by telling ourselves that we're trying to help that person improve.

Feedback involves simple questions, and it starts by inviting others to provide it to us. (That's called modeling the behavior you want to see in your organization, by the way.) And it gains momentum by creating an environment where you do that often and with many people.

So why not start today? Go ask a coworker a simple question, like "How can I be a better coworker?" Or go home and ask your spouse or partner for feedback. Or your child.

And then shut up. Listen. Ask for more.

Then start changing your behavior. You're on the road to mastery in at least one small corner of your life.

quest

Partnering with Bon Secours in the East End

The Sisters of Bon Secours work to bring "good help to those in need," and the work of the physicians and staff at Bon Secours Richmond Health Systems in the East End of Richmond is a clear example of that work in action. In fact, there is good work happening all over the East End.

I've told several people that I've spent more time in the East End – essentially the northeast corner of Church Hill – this year alone than in all of my 40+ years in Richmond. That's a testimony to the economic, racial and geographic divides that still permeate Richmond. Those divides were illu minated earlier this year when I took a bus tour of the East End with the Peter Paul Development Center, a nonprofit serving the educational needs of young students in the area. Here's what I wrote about that experience elsewhere:

Our 20 minute bus ride probably never went more than two miles from the center itself, but along the way we passed through four of Richmond's public housing communities (seven, if you consider each section of Mosby separately). Which is to say we passed through the highest concentration of poverty in the Richmond region.

The four public housing communities -- Mosby, Whitcomb Court, Fairfield Court and Creighton Court sit in a semi-circle bounded by I-64, Nine Mile Road and Shockoe Bottom. Between them, they house more than 2,000 families with an average income level below $10,000 a year. The sizable minority of the residents in the East End live well below the poverty line (39%) and live in single-parent households (46%). Armstrong High School, which serves the four housing communities and other East End residents has been labeled a "drop out factory" by Johns Hopkins University -- more than 40% of students who start out as freshmen finish their senior year.

But it's been my work with Bon Secours Richmond Health System that has really put the East End – stretching into Henrico, Hanover and New Kent – into full perspective.

For the past month, Juiet Brown and I have been working with a small team from Richmond Community Hospital, a small hospital at the corner of 28th Street and Nine Mile Road, facilitating discussions with local physicians representing different communities connected to the greater East End.

As so often happens when I'm facilitating small groups, I tend to be the person in the room who learns the most. One evening, we sat at a table with nine doctors who collectively had more than 200 years experience serving the residents of Jackson Ward, Highland Park, Church Hill and other Northside and East End neighborhoods. These men and women grew up in the shadow of segregation, and have watched Richmond's social fabric unravel and reweave itself many times over. Their passion – for the communities and people they serve, for their profession, and for Richmond Community Hospital's place in the city – was palatable.

We'll be closing out our physician discussions in a few weeks, and deliver a more complete report to the hospital administration. But I already know that I'll walk away from this experience with a much deeper understanding of and appreciation for the people at Richmond Community Hospital. They're truly doing good work for Richmond

Engage in a Conversation on “The Common Good” at UR

It should come as no surprise that the University of Richmond is hosting so many intense conversations, workshops, lectures and forums on community building and leadership – both are part-and-parcel of the new focus brought by UR's President, Ed Ayers, in recent years. Next week's "The Common Good" open discussion promises to be a great way for folks passionate about the Richmond community to come together to speak their mind about what the common good looks like – or should look like – in our community.

The event will be held Tuesday, March 31, from 8:00 a.m. until 10:30 a.m. at the Jepson Alumni Center (breakfast at 7:30 a.m.); the discussion is free and open to the public, but registration closes on Friday, March 26.

"We try to offer at least one opportunity during the Jepson Leadership Forum season to have a conversation--rather than a lecture--around our theme," said Sue Robinson, who directs the program for the Jepson School of Leadership Studies. The 2009-10 Forum season, has explored The Common Good with internationally known scholars.

The Wednesday, March 31 program is organized by Jepson and the Bonner Center for Civic Engagement at the University of Richmond, Leadership Metro Richmond, and LEADVirginia—all organizations interested in building social capital and furthering public discourse around topics of mutual concern. Professor of Leadership Studies Douglas A. Hicks who teaches, among other courses, justice and civil society, will open the morning at 8 a.m. with brief remarks. Then, attendees will engage in small group discussions about The Common Good in the community. Notes from the individual tables will be shared briefly in a report-out session and later developed into a written report that will be shared with the community. In addition, if there is interest, follow-up discussions will be organized by Leadership Metro Richmond.

The Intersection of Leadership and Philanthropy

An April 8 discussion at the University of Richmond should be of interest to the staff, boards and donors of the Richmond region's countless nonprofit organizations, who do so much meaningful work in our community as a result of public philanthropy. Private Money/Public Causes: Leadership, Philanthropy and the Common Good is part of the Jepson Leadership Forum at UR; the conference will be held on Thursday, April 8, from 10:30 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. at the Modlin Center for the Arts. It is designed to explore the best practices and realities of private funding at a time when limited resources and issues of access confront every organization.

Speakers for the event include:

• Deborah Bial, Ph.D., president and founder of The Posse Foundation, a youth leadership development and college access organization that sends students from diverse backgrounds to selective colleges and universities throughout the United States. She is considered an innovator and is widely respected nationally as a leading educational strategist.

• Patricia M.C. Brown, Esq., president of Johns Hopkins HealthCare, a managed care organization owned by Johns Hopkins Health System and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. An expert on health care reform, she is a 1982 graduate of the University of Richmond, an attorney, and former assistant attorney general for Maryland. She is serving as the 2010 Leader-in-Residence for the Jepson School of Leadership Studies.

• Leigh Carter, founder, executive director and CFO of Fonkoze USA, the U.S. partner organization of Fonkoze, Haiti's Alternative Bank for the Poor and Haiti's largest Microfinance Institute. Carter is a former staff person and board member of the Washington Office on Haiti, a former executive director and board member of Witness for Peace, and a current advisory board member of Partners in Progress.

For details or to register for the workshop, visit the University of Richmond website.