Letter from John: November 2011

My new favorite quote comes from a fellow entrepreneur and blogger, Tara Hunt.

"If nobody shares they are struggling, nobody will know anybody else is struggling. That results in a bunch of people feeling isolated and scared and like big, fat losers," she shared in the latest issue ofInc. magazine.

I think it's a particularly good thought for this post-recession generation of entrepreneurs and creators to keep in mind. If the past few years are an indication, starting a business is tough work!

I've done a lot of unusual things in my life. I& #39;ve backpacked Europe, explored slices of the Middle East and North Africa and slept in fields and train stations. I've hunted raccoons, gigged frogs and strung barbed wire. I've written poetry, tried to teach myself Arabic and started the hard work of raising a small child. But I've never really run a business.

That changed, of course, three years ago this month when I walked out of Luck Stone at the peak of the recession and decided to start my own consulting company.

People told me that the first and third (and second, fourth and fifth) years would be the hardest.

And yet the first year was easy, perhaps because we were perpetually broke. The second and third years got bumpy - our positive trajectory created a new set of challenges. I found myself grappling with foreign concepts like managing growth, managing cash flow, and forecasting. (Advice to new entrepreneurs: Hire a good accountant. Learn yoga. Don't look up.)

As our fledgling team looks toward 2012, we're doggedly optimistic. And as I meet with other new businesspeople - especially those just getting started on their own journey - I try to remind myself to bring a balance of encouragement, optimism and pragmatism. I throw in a few Floricane hard luck stories to keep it real.

I also remind them to be open with those who help them along the way - especially their families, friends and partners - and to let them know about both the peaks and the valleys. If they don't, no one will know they are struggling. And if no one knows you're struggling, no one knows how to help you move forward.

Teaching Nonprofits to Fundraise

I really enjoy speaking engagements and teaching. When Urmila Oberoi, Development Director at Virginia Poverty Law Center and a client of ours, asked that I give a presentation on Fundraising for Legal Aids across Virginia, I jumped at the chance. The Annual conference hosted by VPLC is offeredfree for legal aid attorneys and serves as their primary educational event for the year.

During introductions I learned that we had a moderately experienced fundraiser in the room but everyone else had only the very basic fundraising program in place. So I focused my talk on the basics – Asking, Thanking, Staffing, Evaluating.

I told the group that when setting up a development office it is important to focus not on events or grants but on individual fundraising. It is the most economical way to raise money. If you believe in your mission, just ask someone to fall in love with it too – they will want to give money.

At the end of the day, nonprofits must not let any opportunities to authentically and genuinely ask for money go by uncaptured.  Even more important, they must say thank you, more than once and in more than one way.  If nonprofits ask and thank – they are guaranteed to raise money. 

Keep checking the Floricane newsletter for information on where you can hear a Floricane staffer speak next.

Playground Perspectives: Daylight Savings Time (November 2011)

I have a Moleskine notebook with pages of scattered notes from conversations I had a few years ago with a consultant from Texas named Guy Clumpner. He taught me a few things along theway.

One page of notes is pretty straightforward. "Adaptability," they read, "equals flexibility plus versatility."

Flexibility, essentially, is being open-minded. Versatility is the ability to demonstrate other behaviors; it requires self-awareness and a commitment to change.

I've been talking a lot about this model with clients, even as I live it out at home. My daughter, Thea, is not particularly versatile. She's only three. And I periodically have lapses -- large, yawning gaps -- in my ability to be flexible or versatile. I'm a bit older than three.

The arrival of Daylight Savings Time is bad news for those of us with small children, cats or dogs. If it can't tell time, odds are it has little or no respect for artificial adjustments to arbitrary times.

For instance, our early riser rousted us at 4:40 a.m. under the new time regime. She was wide awake, ready to roll.

Guess who suffers toward the end of the day?

Right -- everyone. It's likely no coincidence that our flexibility and versatility suffer under stress, or from a lack of sleep.

Managing organizations during times of stress and change is the organizational equivalent of a family with no sleep.

Stressed organizations with low self-awareness are filled with people eager to make the problem about someone else -- it's management or the economy or those roustabouts in accounting. It's easier to make it about someone else when we hit those vast lapses of control (or good parenting or leadership).

Stressed organizations with high self-awareness have leaders who walk around with mirrors at the ready; they know that it's all about them -- their self-awareness, their leadership, their adaptability. There's a high willingness to be accountable, to make the changes necessary and to adapt to new conditions.

Thea's not ready to carry her own mirror. In fact, it's part of our job as parents to keep her from needing one for a while yet. So we help her manage her stress, her lack of sleep, as best we can -- managing the difficult rhythms, being more mindful of our own behavior, accepting that we can help her through this transition. And in doing so, understanding that we are helping ourselves through the transition as well, and strengthening our family's adaptability.

The other thing I learned from Guy Clumpner? The power of storytelling, and the effectiveness of using parenting as a leadership tool.

Getting Our Hands Dirty

It’s 39 degrees and raining on a Saturday morning.

Tired from a very busy week, I contemplated rolling over when I heard my alarm go off. Instead of going back to sleep, I got dressed in my warmest clothes, and added a waterproof layer. It was October 29, 2011 -- the Fourth Annual HandsOn Day in Richmond and I was headed to meet the Floricane team to volunteer in an outdoor project!

While I really wanted to climb back into bed, I had signed up to volunteer for the Chimbarazo Secret Garden Clean-up. One of only two outdoor projects that day, it was a very cold bonding experience for the Floricane team members who were not sidelined by pregnancy and sickness. We pulled weeds, laid cardboard, and improved the overall health of the garden.

The thing that kept me going was knowing that I was part of a much bigger movement that day. A movement through Richmond to catapult the region into a volunteer friendly town.

It felt amazing to be part of a community of more than 970 people around Richmond, all of who were giving up a Saturday morning to make our town a better place. From the HandonRVA blog - “What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.” – Albert Pike

Find out more about the volunteer opportunities with HandsOnRVA, including their planned activities for this January's Martin Luther King Jr. National Day of Service.

Going to Trial

We had our first hands-on strategic planning session with the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association in the old Miller & Rhoads building (or the new Hilton Garden, depending on your historical orientation) this week. Sarah and I were a bit nervous – it’s not every day we get to go toe-to-toe with a group of lawyers!We started the morning with the 25 staff and board members by asking them to describe why the organization matters. Quick alignment emerged as the group addressed their collective passion for the justice system and the protection of the right to trial by jury, and spoke of a continued need for Virginia’s lawyers to feel connected to a broader community of practice.

We spent a lot of time talking about ways in which the association could engage a new generation of trial lawyers, and identifying a set of strategic drivers for their emerging plan that have the potential to elevate and transform the organization’s work across the Commonwealth.

Our team has a series of working sessions scheduled with the VTLA this winter, and hope to deliver a final strategic document to their board in February.

Four Out of Five Dentists

We’ve recently started strategic planning work with the Virginia Dental Association Foundation, which does amazing philanthropic work providing oral health care to lower-income people across Virginia.

As usual, we’ll start with some discovery – interviewing key staff, board and other stakeholders in an effort to gain a deeper perspective into the organization’s strategic opportunities. In early January, we’ll sit down with the full board and explore the best directions for the foundation to strengthen and grow its programming to reach even more Virginians in need of care. Our plan will be to deliver a final document to the VDAF board by early spring.

Reshaping Culture, by the Book

We’re well into a multi-month organizational effort with the Library of Virginia, and I think it’s safe to say that we’re all learning as we go! Debra Saneda and I have been working side-by-side with the Library for more than a year now on a major organizational change, which included the development of a new vision for the state library and archive:

The Library of Virginia will inspire learning, ignite imagination, create possibilities, encourage understanding, and engage Virginia's past to empower its future.

During recent months, we’ve been working closely with 35 leaders and key “influencers” at all levels of the Library to increase the organization’s capacity to “live into” a very ambitious vision. In addition to using the Insights Discovery® self-awareness instrument to help the group better understand the organizational culture, we’ve worked through the very real impact leadership can have not only climate but also on organizational results. Debra has also been providing individual leadership coaching for a portion of the group.

As organizations like the Library continue to refocus their energies to embrace new technologies, changing demographics and creative ways of achieving their mission, it is increasingly important to ensure key individuals within the organization understand their ability to influence and lead. We’re excited to work with agencies like the Library as they retool for a new century of collecting, archiving, learning and inspiring.

Telling Our Story Through Video

As we close in on its third anniversary as a business, we’ve been focused on the ways in which we tell our story. We’re particularly excited to be working with local multimedia journalist Alix Bryan, who is working on a series of short videos for Floricane.

I recently sat down with Alix and chatted about how Floricane got its start, how its grown and the ways in which I think we bring something unique to our engagements. She’ll also be talking to our lead consultant Sarah Milston, and four of our favorite clients – Robert Dortch of U-TURN Sports Performance Academy; Bill Martin of the Valentine Richmond History Center; Linda Martin of Bon Secours Virginia Health Systems; and Neelam Thompson from the Virginia Credit Union.

I’m excited to see how Alix ties each of the stories she hears into a Floricane narrative, and will be even more excited to share the final video (and the sure to be amusing outtakes) with our clients and partners later in November.