Making A Play for Change

Consultant Andy Stefanovich not only talks a mile a minute, but he’s a non-stop ball of action when it’s his turn on stage. He recently took a turn on stage – and turned on his strategic charm – as part of Richmond C3 (Creative Change Center) Breakfast Break, a monthly conversation with local change agents and creatives.

Stefanovich, who co-founded the rule-breaking and highly successful consultancy PLAY two decades ago, spoke to a group of more than 100 on the top floor of his firm’s old Richmond headquarters in Shockoe Bottom. Coincidentally, the space was home to C3 during that organization’s early years.

PLAY has since been acquired by San Francisco-based Prophet, and Stefanovich now finds himself roaming the world doing client work, and thinking about big ideas. He’s set to publish a book on some of those ideas this spring, and talked about a few of them at the C3 event.

“There’s a really interesting thing going on in the world today called a Wicked Business Challenge,” he started off.

“What’s a Wicked Business Challenge? A couple of criteria make up a WBC,” he continued. “It’s a leadership moment for someone. Someone will seize the moment. It will not go undone. And you will find yourself talking about it with friends and family over dinner. These challenges will show up in your dreams.”

“We are in the middle of a human energy crisis,” Stefanovich continued. “We are not as filled up and energized as we’d like to be right now. The world wants to be personally and professionally inspired.”

“Gen Yers are asking for meaning. They’re asking our generation, ‘Please give us meaning, help us find meaning.’”

He went on to talk about the 5 M’s – two of which are Mood and Mindset.

Mood, Stefanovich says, is one of those things that helps us create. Mood is purposeful disruption. Mood, he says, is cultural.

Mindset, on the other, is very personal. “Do your people have the mindset to do great things?” he asks. “Which of our barriers are real, and which are articifial?”

In his call for “passion in action”, Stefanovich took the group from corner to corner of the three-floor building – leaping on tables, giving countless verbal nods to his hometown crowd. As he always does, he catalyzed people’s thinking and created space for relationship and discomfort.

All in a day’s work for one of Richmond’s creative talents.

Passion, Purpose, Giraffes…

From the start, it was clear that the Brown Bag lunch at the Pediatric Connections’ Manchester offices would not be a normal business sit-down. The colored markers and sketch pads were one indication. The plethora of colorful giraffes and artwork littering the bright, modern office space were another sign that business was unusual.

The company’s co-founder, Beth Bailey, brought it all home with her high-energy, effusive delivery. She kicked off the Greater Richmond Chamber lunch with a rapid-fire introduction to the business she founded in 1998 with Bruce Green.

“In 1998, the Pediatric Connection was born,” she said. “We had a small office in Crozier, Virginia, and it was so much fun because you just did everything – because that’s what you do when you are a start-up. And then we started adding people, and we were all in one room, and everyone knew everyone’s business.”

“When we started, we said there were no rules,” she continued. “When a patient called, we got them what they needed, no questions. We got our name out. It worked.”

Too well. Years of fast-paced, start-up growth were accompanied by several physical moves and all the ups-and-downs of running a new business, Bailey continued. But what held it together was simple – a committed staff, a helpful consultant and a willingness to try something different.

“Our staff is extremely important to us,” Bailey told the packed room. “Every day since 1998, we have worked to make life better for our staff.”

That included welcoming new perspectives.

“We worked with some consultants who said, ‘Hello, you need processes.’ So, we sat in a room and wrote processes for days,” Bailey continued. “The change that we rolled out in 2004 is what made us successful as a company – not just the process and role clarity, but the accountability. After that change, we were not only getting a lot of business, but we were able to handle the business we got.”

Bailey's comments were echoed in short order by the company's marketing manager, human resources manager, one of the two consultants who is now along for the ride as an employee, and by her co-founder, Green.

If anything, their comments mirrored her energy – and echoed her theme. The Pediatric Connection is about children first, staff second and passion all the time.

Today, the Pediatric Connection provides home health care services to children and their families throughout Virginia. More than 170 employees work at several organizations in Richmond and beyond, and the organization is passionate about creating the best working environment for each of them.

The commitment to people is built on a belief that climate and culture are the most important people drivers – a positive emphasis on the events, activities and relationships that shape employees’ perspectives, coupled with a set of shared beliefs and values that drive everyone’s actions.

At the end of the day, however, it really is about the children.

“We’re able to care for all of these families and keep these kids out of the hospital,” Bailey concluded.

The organization has been recognized by the Greater Richmond Chamber’s IMPACT Awards, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts’ Muse Awards and many other organizations for its creativity and business success.

Spring Forward with Work

The Floricane team is excited to see a new roster of partners on our calendars as we move into spring. As we move into the first week of spring, we’ve got a full plate of work, including the following projects:

• Long-range strategic planning efforts with Southside Community Partners and the Virginia Poverty Law Center
• Strategic planning support for Community Idea Stations
• Team-building with the Virginia Credit Union’s IT department
• Regional tourism vision planning with the Richmond Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Center
• Continued engagement work with Bon Secours Virginia Health Systems, the Library of Virginia and the Middle Peninsula Planning District Commission

Shaping A Regional Vision

Stop me if you think that you've heard this one before...

With apologies to Morrisey, we're growing increasingly excited about the regional tourism vision plan that we've been asked to develop with the Richmond Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau (RMCVB). We're about halfway through the process – hundreds of interviews and surveys, tons of research and a series of theming conversations – and we feel like we're landing something that is both familiar and transformational.

That balance is important, and challenging. Richmond is a city in transition, and finding a narrative that feels both familiar and fresh is tough. We described it in a meeting with design firm JHI last week as trying to write and design a college catalogue that convinces young people that your school totally rocks and reassures their parents that the school takes learning seriously.

We'll be spending the next three weeks submerged in half-shaped themes and ideas with a project team before delivering the final draft plan to the designers, and the RMCVB Board of Directors. The final vision plan is expected to be unveiled during National Tourism Week in May.

The Music Paradigm: Behind the Scenes

On March 22, Floricane and the Richmond Symphony will be bringing The Music Paradigm to Richmond. As many as 100 Richmonders from all walks of life will have an opportunity to immerse themselves in a joint lesson on leadership and performance – sitting in the orchestra as conductor Roger Nierenberg connects the dots between great music, great performance and great leadership. Tickets for the event are now on sale at http://www.richmondsymphony.com

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Getting To Sesame Street, And Beyond

Our opportunity to partner with the team at the Community Idea Stations (public television and radio in Central Virginia) began exactly as my young daughter would imagine – a meeting with Big Bird.

A small, stuffed Big Bird that now sleeps in Thea’s bed.

A closet filled with toys and the station’s physical location on Sesame Street aside, the Community Idea Stations has serious ideas about their future. A small team has been working internally on the organization’s first iteration of its strategic plan, and we’ve been invited to come in to facilitate a creative session with the staff and board to ensure that the plan is both as ambitious and as focused as possible – and that there are measurable outcomes in place.

Sarah Milston and I will work closely with the strategic planning team at the station to design a full-day session, and will then facilitate the organization through a process to effectively “land” their plan.

Thea’s hoping there will be an Oscar the Grouch in it for her.

Celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.

Last month, a few hundred friends of Floricane received postcards giving voice to an icon in American history. The postcards, designed by Floricane’s Juliet Brown, featured a photo of Martin Luther King Jr. and his quote: “Our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change.”

The idea for the postcards came during the holiday season. As Floricane began receiving holiday cards from other organizations, the team began to think about the idea Floricane holiday card.

“My mind immediately went to Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Our work is so connected to the ideas of community and service – it just made sense,” said John Sarvay, Floricane’s founder.

During the research and design process, Juliet was inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision for a colorblind society.

“Whether it’s community, religion or race, we’re all in this together. So, from a design standpoint, I thought I should pursue this project subtly as something colorblind,” said Juliet.

As a result, the final design used a color palette that was optimal for colorblind people.

With this postcard, Floricane hoped to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s powerful vision while showing an appreciation for the Richmond community and the people who are working to change it.

Planning for the Peninsula

A new area of work for Floricane over the past year has been with community organizations and local governments. As a result, we’re particularly excited about the opportunity to facilitate a strategic planning initiative for the staff and Board of Commissioners of the Middle Peninsula Planning District Commission (MPPDC).

The MPPDC is one of 21 planning district commissions (PDC) in Virginia; these groups represent local governments on a regional level, and are made up of public officials and citizens. The MPPDC stretches from the Chesapeake Bay through the incorporated towns of West Point and Tappahanock to the west; it is

bounded by the Rappahanock and York rivers.

In March, we’ll spend a day with the staff and commissioners of the MPPDC talking about the region, and ways to strengthen the focus and effectiveness both of the staff and the board. We’ll follow that day with a working session with a smaller project team to build alignment and clarify details before submitting a full

report back to the MPPDC team.