“Values Based Leadership” Pinpoints Core Values

As the newest member of Floricane I am still wrapping my head around the culture of the business. From the intriguing jargon of the InSights program to the oft mentioned planto change the world, it is a true deviation from any company for which I've worked. It's a process to adjust to such a different environment, and sometimes I'm not sure I'm gettin' it. Yet, more and more I am sipping the Koolaid and finding it pretty undeniable. Last night at my first Hype Ed event I had my first opportunity to not only sip, but to really gulp down that sweet fruit flavor, and I must admit, the sugar rush was intense!

In his energetic talk entitled, "Values Based Leadership," Tom Epperson (no relation) encouraged a room full of mostly strangers to ask that most basic and meaningful question: Who am I? It was as uncomfortable as it was exciting. The mere proposal of such an inquiry is, for most of us, something left for the solitude of sun wreathed mountain tops or long drives in the company of John Mayer. Yet, with full exuberance, Tom brought us together with this most challenging question.

His approach was to focus on what we defined as our core values. Not the values we show off at dinner parties or impress our in-laws with, but those basic this-is-who-I-am bed rock aspects of ourselves that make us individuals. With practiced vulnerability Tom detailed his own experience in discovering his core values. From his perception of himself as the relaxed surfer dude to the realization he was more of an A-type educator, Tom brought us into his world of self-discovery. Here was the thing John was always talking about: values discovery, creatively facilitated. As Tom's wife, Susan Epperson, illustrated a visual representation of the talk, we were encouraged to share our values with those around us. It was fun, a bit unnerving, and an eye opening experience.

The goal for Tom was to inspire us to use our core values to guide our work, and be leaders for others to do the same. As part of Luck Companies, as I read in his handout, Tom's goal was to ignite our potential, and as I watched the line of folks wishing to thank him after the talk, I imagine he ignited quite a few of us.

This values based thing is something that led me to Floricane, and it's the juice they got runnin' through the pipes at the office. The message is challengingly simple: Figure out what you feel is important, and let it guide everything you do. What Tom made clear was that with the right process we can all reach that place of fulfillment.

As I adjust to Florican'es values-based culture, I see myself wanting to spark the potentials of others everywhere I turn. I want to fill my days with that message, and do work that will inspire people, businesses, and the world.

The Koolaid is tasting better everyday, and I think I'll have another glass.

All The Right Notes

Take Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, add the personality and passion of the Richmond Symphony’s Music Director Steven Smith, and mix well with leaders and managers from an organization interested in creativity and change. Oh, and don’t forget a splash of design and facilitation support from Floricane.

These are the ingredients for a new collaboration designed to create a powerful and visceral creative experience for organizations and teams.

Participants and performers will sit elbow-to-elbow on stage in the historic Carpenter Theatre at CenterStage during the entire experience. Facilitated discussion about organizational culture and business realities will blend into an appreciative inquiry of classical music and the modern symphony. Beethoven’s Fifth will be put into historic and creative context.

The lights will dim...

The choice of Beethoven’s powerful Fifth is no accident. The Fifth represents a sense of a heroic life struggle, and emerged over four of the most productive years of Beethoven’s career. It’s not a serious leap from there to the intensity of business in transition, or a team of leaders exploring reinvention and change.

The idea of helping a group hear one of the most familiar pieces of music in history in a new way is exciting. Even more exciting is the opportunity of using Beethoven’s Fifth, and the story of its creation, as a metaphor for creativity, challenge and change – and as a vehicle for self-examination for as many as 100 leaders at a time.

At the end of March, the Richmond Symphony and Floricane will facilitate, examine and perform Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony as part of a unique experience for one such organization. We’ll have more details as the date nears, but we can say with some confidence – it’s going to be an intense experience.

Take Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, add the personality and passion of the Richmond Symphony’s Music Director Steven Smith, and mix well with leaders and managers from an organization interested in creativity and change. Oh, and don’t forget a splash of design and facilitation support from Floricane.

These are the ingredients for a new collaboration designed to create a powerful and visceral creative experience for organizations and teams.

Participants and performers will sit elbow-to-elbow on stage in the historic Carpenter Theatre at CenterStage during the entire experience. Facilitated discussion about organizational culture and business realities will blend into an appreciative inquiry of classical music and the modern symphony. Beethoven’s Fifth will be put into historic and creative context.

The lights will dim...

The choice of Beethoven’s powerful Fifth is no accident. The Fifth represents a sense of a heroic life struggle, and emerged over four of the most productive years of Beethoven’s career. It’s not a serious leap from there to the intensity of business in transition, or a team of leaders exploring reinvention and change.

The idea of helping a group hear one of the most familiar pieces of music in history in a new way is exciting. Even more exciting is the opportunity of using Beethoven’s Fifth, and the story of its creation, as a metaphor for creativity, challenge and change – and as a vehicle for self-examination for as many as 100 leaders at a time.

At the end of March, the Richmond Symphony and Floricane will facilitate, examine and perform Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony as part of a unique experience for one such organization. We’ll have more details as the date nears, but we can say with some confidence – it’s going to be an intense experience.

Playground Perspectives: February 2012

This is the moment I've dreaded in parenting - and one I thought that I could somehow avoid. Yes, I am now the proud father of a princess-obsessed daughter.

As she charges toward her fourth birthday in April, a combination of genetic messaging and unintentional influencing from her preschool community have brought us to a bright, sparkly and pink moment.

The Princess Moment. How serious is her obsession? I brought her to tears one recent night when I made the mistake - while composing and performing the obligatory "Goodnight Song About A Princess" - of having said princess climb a tree and splash in mud. Between tearful sobs, I was alerted to a simple fact: Princesses do not like to get dirty. "But I like to climb trees," I protested. "Dad," she replied, between tearful sniffs, "you can't be a princess."

Playground Perspectives Feb 2012

True to form, Thea's version of being a princess is distinct - combine her love for layering clothes, wrists and neck laden with plastic jewelry, and a bright pink head kerchief, and you've got a much cuter version of Johnny Depp, pirate princess.

On another (though related) note, would you be surprised to discover that our active child loves to dance? She walked out of her first dance class (appropriately named "Dance for the Spirited Child") giddy and excited beyond belief.

From the time she was born, I have reveled in long moments of spinning and dancing around the kitchen with our wee (no longer) girl in my arms. We have gone through Ella Fitzgerald, the Clash, Fugazi, ABBA, the Waterboys, Pavement and more. It is a delight to see the same joy on her face as she discovers movement and her body on her own terms.

There are lessons here about change, about influence, and about acceptance. There are opportunities - always, always - to stop and ask myself the most important of questions, like "What's my role in this relationship right now?" and "Is this about Thea, or about me?" Especially that last one.

As Thea continues to step out into the world, and through the many iterations of self that she will embrace on her journey, it will be increasingly important to know when to intercede, or influence, or advise, or get out of the way. While I'm at it, I'll try hard to hit the pause button occasionally and make sure my best parenting moments are about her success, not my own.

Letter from John: February 2012

Exactly 12 years ago, I took my first, my second, and my third yoga class - one right after the other.

The first two classes were disasters, which said as much about me as the instructors; I had spent too much of my life moving to be still, and not enough time understanding the relationship between my mind, body and spirit.

And then I found Kelly Trask, and a home for my practice. Kelly taught me to slow down, and to connect with aspects of my self that had become invisible in the rush of day-to-day.

For six years, I was a weekly participant in Kelly's trave ling yoga classes as they moved through studio spaces in the Fan, Oregon Hill, Downtown and Shockoe Bottom. My practice centered me through divorce and death.

A new marriage, a tough pregnancy, an active baby, and a new business all colluded to push yoga to the bottom of my priorities.

Last month, I returned to my practice. I sat cross-legged on a mat in a Shockoe Bottom studio with my eyes closed, my spine extended.

As Kelly instructed the class to focus on our breath, to gently disengage from the day, and to explore the natural tension between our breathing and our posture, I realized how much I had missed my practice - and how similar our work at Floricane is to the practice of yoga.

That was reflected back to me two days later during a strategic planning session. Our clients were growing uncomfortable with ambiguity; they were hungry for concrete, actionable results. They told us as much.

"Notice what your body is telling you," Kelly says. "Breathe into the tension."

We listened. And we let the tension remain in the room, even as we quietly redirected our approach for the afternoon.

"Respect your body," Kelly says. "Adjust your posture and your practice in response."

During a break, two participants took me aside. "We were just talking about how valuable this process has been for this group," they said. "Taking time to slow down and step out of the game, to reflect on the long-term, is so important for us to do."

"Lengthen your spine," Kelly says. "Deepen your breathing, and let your thoughts slow and focus on the here and now."

Helping organizations slow down and listen deeply is an important part of our work at Floricane. But it's not the only part.

Like good yoga practice, our best work helps organizations slow and center, strengthen and stretch - it takes them into surprising, sometimes challenging, postures. In doing so, it often reminds them that our organizations, like our bodies, need our constant attention.

Fables of the Reconstruction

We’re rebuilding our approach to strategic planning. Call it our 37 Signals play – or just call it strategic.

The folks at 37 Signals, recently decided against upgrading their premiere web-based collaboration tool for a third time. They decided to rebuild it from the groundup.

“About a year ago, we began discussing how we might improve our best-selling product,” 37 Signals president Jason Fried wrote in a recent issue of Inc. “The more we talked, the more it became clear that the only way to significantly improve Basecamp was to start over.”

We’re not quite there, but John, Sarah and Tina are spending the next several months actively rebuilding our strategic planning process.

An influx of strategic plans over the winter has kept a portion of the Floricane team moving at a sprint. Between laps, we’ve discovered gaps in our process, and opportunities to better engage our clients in our work. In the past, we’d tinker and adjust. Not this year.

Polishing around the edges or procrastination aren’t part of our agenda for 2012. That serves no one’s interests – particularly not those of our next 30 strategic planning clients. We’d rather take one or two key lessons from our first 30 strategic plans, and reinvent.

And so during the first part of March, we’re sequestering ourselves away to do a little Strategic Replanning. We anticipate introducing a more robust strategic process this spring. It’s going to be more adaptable, and much more dynamic – and it will allow our team to be more effective using a process that allows our new clients more flexibility.

We think your organization is going to like it.

Letter from John: January 2012

Our team is alternately excited and astounded by the emerging landscape that stretches ahead of us in 2012. It's the 21st Century version of loading everything you own into a wagon and joining your neighbors on a westward migration.

Collaboration will be the appropriately overusedterm of the year at Floricane. There is almost nothing visible on our business horizon that doesn't involve a clear and exciting partnership with other organizations.

• We are at the beginning of a fascinating conversation with the Richmond Times-Dispatch about how to turn extra r eal estate into an active business laboratory that drives new ways of thinking and working downtown.
• Thanks to a willingness to engage in an exploration of possibility, the Richmond Symphony is actively working with us to develop a new concept at the intersection of music, composition and organizational culture. A large leadership group from HCA will be among the first to experience this new way of exploring organizational culture and change this spring.
•     A group of 20 pioneering young professionals, including our own Sarah Milston, are set to begin work in the Greater Richmond Chamber's new Leadership Lab, a collaborative venture with Luck Companies and Floricane. It's exciting to see Luck's decade-old investment in transformational leadership go public.
• We're getting the old band back together, and adding a horn section. One among many projects we're tackling in 2012 related to the I.e.* innovation effort: a forward-leaning series exploring the history of innovation and change in Richmond. Floricane will be joined by the Valentine Richmond History Center, the Library of Virginia and other leading history organizations to shape and deliver this cool program this spring.

Those are just four of a growing handful of collaborative spaces we're entering in the coming year. We're increasingly embracing the old-fashioned idea that many hands make light work, and responding in new ways to a continuously changing business landscape. It's what we've been preaching to our clients for three years running.

We're certainly not standing still. New clients, new projects and new teammates form the foundation for the new year, and all of those demand new approaches to our work.

If you are working with Floricane in 2012, I hope you will actively experience what we've been working toward for more than a year -- a genuine team approach to helping your organization bear new fruit. My challenge in this new space is to let a core group of exceptional performers move into position and apply their unique talents in our work. Scary, gratifying stuff -- and more of what we've been preaching for a while now!

So, welcome to 2012, where collaboration is the new black, and Floricane begins to actively operate like a new business. Here's where our strategy meets reality, and the journey begins anew.

Playground Perspectives: Teamwork (January 2012)

Driving home with Thea from the grocery store recently, we engaged in our typical playful banter.

"Who is going to help me carry these groceries inside?" I plead.

"Dad, I will carry my guys," she says, referring to her armful of stuffed animals. "You can get the rest."

"But they are so heavy," I complain.

"Then we will do teamwork," she says, not missing a beat. "I'll get one handle and you get the other, and you will be okay, alright?" 

Teamwork is a lesson I hope she learns faster than her dad.

My resistance to teams comes naturally - a collision of DNA, terrible youth sports experiences and my Generation X psyche.

I'm genuinely terrible at collaboratively working with others, and spend a lot of energy trying to rein in my instincts to go it alone - or solve the problem before I invite new perspectives.

As she nears her fourth birthday, I think I'm pretty lucky that she even slows down long enough to perceive that other people might benefit from her help. Those rare moments when she's not focused exclusively on her own immediate needs, or testing the law of "cause and effect" have started to increase in recent months.

Psychology aside, it is fascinating to watch Thea begin to reshape her own sense of the world, and understand that she can help shape it. Impulse remains a big driver, but she increasingly slips into these lovely moments of unintentional altruism - whispering sweet nothings into Nikole's ear at unexpected moments, gentle hugs on the playground, offering up teamwork when the groceries are too heavy.

In times of transition and uncertainty - say, moving toward a fourth birthday, or entering a fourth year of economic uncertainty - we all have opportunities to resist our impulses, and to explore the "we" in our work. A wise person in my life once told me that there can be no "we" without a "me" - that effective relationships require all parties to have a clear identity and strong self-awareness. That's true at work, and at home.

But the other thing an effective relationship requires is trust and acceptance of the identity and perspectives embraced by others in the relationship. In other words, meeting people where they are, not where you want them to be. Thea's not there yet. Too often, neither am I.

That, perhaps, is the gap between teamwork and collaboration. It's one thing to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with someone holding back the tide, or carrying groceries. It's quite another to give your trust and respect into the care of another person with the belief that they will treat it gently, and return the favor.

Watching my daughter grow toward Grace is a reminder that my own journey is an important one, that the collaboration, trust, respect - and love - Nikole and I demonstrate on a daily basis shape everything. For now. At some point our lessons will carry much less weight, which makes it all the more important for me to be in the moment now - and to let my child help me carry the groceries.

What’s the Big Idea?

Calling all lovers of language, of competition, of mysteries: this Spring #RVA turns into a three dimensional fund-raising puzzle. 

This puzzle - named The Big Idea Challenge and benefiting the Community Idea Stations - pits teams of smart, provocative or just plain curious people against one another in five challenges: brain teasers, riddles and mysteries related to Arts and Culture, History and Heritage, Science and Discovery, Children’s Education, and News and Public Affairs.

During the Big Idea Challenge, teams will earn points for solving puzzles while fund-raising for the Community Idea Stations. The challenges won’t be easy, but you’ll get clues to help you solve the puzzles. You might find clues online–or discover them within the menu of a local restaurant, in the window of a favorite Carytown shop or even while watching or listening to your favorite shows.

The Big Idea Challenge will take place over five weeks, starting April 29 and concluding on June 2, 2012, when the top teams will vie for the Big Idea Challenge Cup.

It’s exactly the right time to consider sponsoring a clue AND recruiting your smartest and best-connected friends for your own Team DaVinci. Or Team Nancy Drew.