Photos from SHOP CLASS 2014!

[Photography by Ansel Olsen]

SHOP CLASS RVA was revived this past August, and three new (free!) one-time-only classes were offered at the Marvin Lang Building and Studio Two Three. John and I were two of the organizers this year, along with Lauren Boynton, Peter Fraser, Ansel Olsen, and Lauren Stewart. We had a blast!

Click through the gallery to see photos from the entire 2014 series, including:

• Aug. 7: From Farm to Table to Thesaurus featuring Ellie Basch and Amy Hicks
• Aug. 13: The RVA Graphic Project featuring Carrie Walters and Studio Two Three 
• Aug. 26: The Skulls of Human Kindness featuring Patience Salgado and Noah Scalin

The Glorification of Busy

I saw this quote floating through the internet a few months back, and it's stuck with me ever since. The quote, by Guy Kawasaki, is from this HuffPo article promoting Arianna Huffington's book Thrive. Guy says the two main metrics for success in our society are money and power, which can lead to a culture of over-worked, over-stressed, and downright busy people. A third metric, according to Arianna Huffington, should be to thrive-- taking care of yourself, slowing down, and not letting your entire world revolve around work.

“There’s no place on your resume to put ‘I said no to [some great opportunity] so I could cook dinner with my girlfriend in the evenings.’”

I haven't read the book, but I've been thinking about this idea a lot lately. Especially for young professionals like me (whoa, I've never called myself that before), staying busy is simply expected. There's no place on your resume to put "I said no to [some great opportunity] so I could cook dinner with my girlfriend in the evenings." Full-time work, professional associations, volunteer work, networking, clubs... We're sort of led to believe the more you can pack into your schedule, the better. At one point I even felt it was necessary to have a part-time job on top of my full-time job at Floricane. What was I thinking? 

I should put Downton Abbey GIFs in all of my blog posts from now on.

Here's what I think is important: don't get so burned out being *busy* that you can't dedicate yourself fully to the important things. Maybe turn your phone off. Say "thanks, but no thanks" sometimes. And when you do say yes to extra commitments, make sure it's for something that you truly care about and to which you're happy to give your time and energy.

Side note: I recently decided to take an indefinite break from what was basically a full-time hobby (competitive roller derby), and while it was a tough decision to make, the time that it's freed up in my life has been the hugest gift (I actually get to see my girlfriend now! Hi, Samantha!).

Ice Cream Leadership (and other tips to create great employees)

A recent Inc.com piece describes 10 characteristics and behaviors of truly great employees – and what managers can do to enable or catalyze engagement by employees. Referencing Jim Collins’ seminal work, “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't,” the piece is full of common sense. And hard work.

Finding that special employee who walks onto the job ready to dive in, learn and contribute is not easy. We’ve been working with several clients recently who realize the value of finding the right people the first time, and of supporting them from the get-go. Walking clients through the day-to-day activities of their key roles to craft clearer job descriptions; getting past the competencies and into discussions about attitudes; crafting developmental programs that help new employees grow – these are a few things we’ve done with our partners.

But I continue to point to our old friends at Gelati Celesti’s “Building A Great Culture” work as a simple, but powerful, model for finding, growing and keeping great people. They not only captured the characteristics of their best employees, but they also mapped out specific expectations every employee should have of the Gelati Celesti management team. The question owner Steve Rosser asked? “How do we treat every employee like gold?”

It’s a question each of us should ask more. Acting on the answers is equally important.

The Inc.com piece illustrates ten ways great employees show up, and great organizations support them:

• If you want employees who are enthusiastic to learn about all areas of your organization, create opportunities for them to engage in and learn about all areas of the organization. Make it part of their schedule, and talk to them about what they’re learning.

• If you want employees who treat the company like it is theirs, and make good decisions about resources, be more transparent about your financials – and explain how the business makes, and loses, money.

• If you want employees who generate happiness as they go about their work, create an environment where they can express themselves – and encourage them to chase their dreams and passions.

The last item hits home – facilitate amazing bosses. Amazing employees help their managers grow. I see it every single day at Floricane. My employees, my teammates, make me want to run a better business, be a better boss, and contribute more to their success. Because they come to work with high standards, I want to do better work. As a result, we all do better work.

Cultivating New Leaders

Organizations are in the midst of a “leadership drought” right now. The smart ones are starting to do a rain dance.

The leadership drought that we see with our clients and partners in the community is not just a question of demographics, but also one of development.

Starting with the recession in 2009, an ever-increasing wave of Baby Boomers began exiting our organizations. Initially, they were the unfortunate victims of corporate downsizing. More recently, as their retirement investments stabilized and their own clocks have started ticking more loudly, they are simply retiring.

In their wake, they are leaving our organizations with younger leaders who have less experience, less context and less confidence in their ability to lead. This is all happening at a time when our organizations have had significantly less capacity – time and money – to invest in the professional development of new managers and leaders.

Why does this matter? Because these young leaders are the emotional thermostat of your organization – we know that they have a 70-80% influence on the climate of their teams (and that climate has a 20-25% impact on the team’s results). If they are struggling, your organization will be struggling. 

That’s why we’re launching a series of new programs at Floricane this year:

• The Leadership Circle: We’re excited to be able to launch our new program with two cohorts of leaders, who will come together monthly for facilitated, small group discussions led by our executive coaches. The Leadership Circle is designed for peer-to-peer exploration of challenges shared by leaders who often lack a place to turn inside their organizations to diagnose and discuss their work.

• Management Series: Our new five-part workshop series will provide managers and supervisors with a core set of skills that are critical to their long-term success – effective communication, performance management, team assessment, giving and receiving feedback, and more. Each monthly session will be a deep dive into a critical management learning topic.

• Custom Leadership Development Programs: In September, we’ll be start promoting a five-month leadership development program for emerging leaders in Chesterfield County. Designed with the team at the Chesterfield Chamber of Commerce, the program will combine leadership development with a healthy dose of Chesterfield 101. We’re designing three similar programs for other clients to launch in 2015.

Public Libraries: The Next Big Coworking Space

Photo by Phil Freelon

In college, the library was the place we went when we wanted to get work done, but didn't feel like sitting in our cramped dorm rooms. Honestly, I rarely used the library's books or online resources, except for the rare occasion when I had to look up a scholarly article on a university database. The real reason we went to the library was to sit in a quiet space with other students, feeling a sense of focus as well as a sense of community. 

Fast Company recently posted an article called "The Public Library Want To Be Your Office," in which it discusses the evolution of public libraries from book houses to community workspaces. For me, this idea feels familiar. It's something that I truly miss from college: having a quiet community space to study, read, or do work, without having to stake out a table at Starbucks at 8 AM (and order something out of guilt) or become a member of a local coworking office.

Not every library is set up for this kind of thing, but if it the trend continues, libraries of the future will have a lot more spaces like the one in the above photo.

Read the full article, "The Public Library Wants To Be Your Office," on Fast Company.

Playground Perspective (August 2014)

Click through to read our entire August 2014 newsletter.

So, my daughter threw her first baby shower last week. It was sort of a big deal for her, and I worked hard to treat it very seriously. Being a big sister is going to be a jolt, and while she's truly excited, I think that Thea intuitively understands that her world is about to be rocked.

When she told me for the ninth time that she wanted to throw a shower for her mom, we arranged a secret breakfast date to make plans. I told her that she had to pick the date, decide who to invite, create and send the invitations, and select and prepare the menu. She was, mostly, unfazed.

The first challenge came in the form of a text message from one of Nikole's friends who made the assumption that the invite was for the mothers and their daughters. Nope, Thea said. "I think it would be too crazy if all my friends were there, and also this is about celebrating mom, not me," she added. Because our daughter is really a sixty-three-year-old sensei.

Obviously, the secret didn't last long. In fact, I think I spilled the beans when I texted Nikole a picture of Thea diligently drawing the invitation. (The handwriting was mine, but the puns were all hers!)

It didn't occur to me in the moment that I was engaged in the important work of ritual. We didn't have a baby shower when Nikole was pregnant with Thea, and while she hasn't asked to have a shower for this second child I'm going to guess that the ritual of gathering with important women in her life - including her daughter - is an important one.

It's certainly important for Thea, who had an opportunity to be a hostess for an Event of Some Significance (as Winnie-the-Pooh would say). We woke early and made scones, arranged the table and cleaned the house. She greeted each guest at the door. The highlight of the morning? She read two children's books to the gathered friends and family -- certainly not the traditional baby shower entertainment!

It has made me think about the role of rituals at work - especially at Floricane, where we spend so much time discussing culture and engagement. Our team doesn't have significant rituals to make important passages and milestones. Perhaps we should.

Nikole is a big fan of totems and small rituals. It's nice to see our daughter following in her footsteps with such attention to the important role that gestures play in our relationships. It's even nice to see that some of their sensibility is rubbing off on me just a little.

Solidify Your Footing with The Leadership Circle

The team at Floricane is excited to introduce The Leadership Circle, a new leadership coaching program we're launching in September -- and facilitated by Debra Saneda and Anne Chamberlain. As the application deadline (August 8) nears, we're excited by the response The Leadership Circle has received. We're looking forward to diving into this new program with a small group of local leaders interested in peer-based dialogue, learning and support.

The Leadership Circle is a confidential space for a small group of local leaders to gather and discuss topics relevant to leading a team, department or organization. We're targeting senior leaders from the for-profit, not-for-profit, higher education and association space. We believe that a mix of leaders from a range of sectors and areas of professional focus will make for impactful discussion. The Leadership Circle is not a leadership development program, but rather a peer-based, professional coach-led space for people to discuss and resolve serious issues confronting their leadership, or their organizations. The group will consist of 8-12 leaders (we may have multiple groups) who will meet monthly from September through May, discussing a list of topics generated during the first session.

You can learn more and complete the brief application on the Leadership Circle webpage:  http://www.floricane.com/the-leadership-circle

The Other Side of Fear

I'm using this quote as inspiration this week. For me, the fear of not being good at something often paralyzes me, keeping me from trying new things. This week, I'm going to be trying ONE of those new things I've been wanting to do: rollerskating outside, with full protective gear (roller derby has trained me well). I just got my new outdoor wheels and I'll be fighting the fear of falling down and looking silly so I can exercise in what's quite possibly the most fun way ever. Maybe you'll see me around Byrd Park!

My challenge to you this week, if you choose to accept it, is to try to overcome one fear and go out and do something that you've really been wanting to do. I hope it's as fun as rollerskating.

a real-life photo of said rollerskates.