Say "six simultaneous strategic sprints" at once, fast

During the first part of the year, I started new strategic projects with the American Civil War Museum, Blue Sky Fund, Byrd Theatre Foundation, Equality Virginia, Virginia Bankers Association, and the Virginia Mentoring Partnership. Boy, are my arms tired.  

Tackling six simultaneous strategic projects at one time is asking for trouble. (And it makes for many late nights of writing. Hence the tired arms.) And yet, working with a slate of organizations as vastly unique and different as the ones we're currently winding down is a powerful reminder of why I love the work I do. 

Each day at Floricane is different. When we were recently interviewing candidates for a new role with the team, almost every person asked us what a typical day at Floricane looked like. It was all we could do not to laugh. (I might have cried once or twice, actually.)  

A typical day at Floricane looks like a team of passionate people working closely to help other people, and organizations, uncover and live into their best selves. Which is to say that no one day looks or feels anything like another. 

I feel fortunate -- even when I am staring at strategic gobbledygook on a computer screen at two in the morning -- to have stumbled into a career where the content of every single day changes. From the positive impact of community banks on the lives of Virginia's small towns to the aspirations of a small, single-screen theater to transform the Big Screen experience to educating kids, ensuring the rights of all Virginians, and telling the story of a conflict that shaped our nation -- it doesn't get much more diverse. 

Often, it's only when I slow down from a sprint like I experienced in March and April that I am able to reflect on what I've learned. This spring, once again, I learned (or affirmed) that every organization who works with Floricane is staffed by people with passion who are genuinely committed to doing great things within and for their organization. At our best, we help them to see their vision more clearly, increase their shared alignment around it, and engage more effectively in the construction of the future.

You say goodbye, and I say hello (Chicago!)

A bit less than three years ago, Floricane was hiring a part-time project coordinator. We were confronted with a tough choice -- three candidates that we all really loved. Two had amazing qualifications, and all three had great energy. 

We chose the one with great energy and fewer qualifications. Oddly enough, we went with the Millennial because we felt like she would be excited about the entire job description -- not just the parts she knew she liked from past experiences. 

Caroline Moyer was absolutely the right person for that job. She was conscientious, eager to learn, and our clients liked her. She took copious notes, and could hammer out client reports that made sense. 

Six months after she started, another team member left. After three minutes of mulling, I took Caroline to lunch and offered her a full-time position that blended her project coordinator position with an ill-defined events and marketing role. She almost jumped out of her seat with excitement, and said yes. 

Caroline Moyer was absolutely the right person for that job, too. In two years, she took an ill-defined role and turned it into a critical cornerstone of Floricane's work. You've experienced her magic touch if you've attended an event or workshop, received a strategic planning report, visited our collaborative space in the Times-Dispatch building, or read just about anything we've published on our blog, in our newsletter, or on social media.  

To paraphrase Johnny Cash, she's been everywhere. 

Except to Chicago. She hadn't been there until just recently. 

This summer, our newly-engaged superstar is leaving Floricane, and headed to Chicago on an adventure of a lifetime. Her fiancé Samantha is leading the charge, as she pursues her master's in fine arts in the Windy City. They're going to have a blast. 

Two years ago, we were working with Steve Rosser and the team at Gelati Celesti. Steve said that he wanted Gelati Celesti to be a place where his employees would look back in 20 years and say, "That was the best job I ever had." That's one lofty aspiration. 

I'm banking on Caroline looking back one day at her first full-time job and thinking, "I can't believe I learned so much about business, about Richmond and about myself at Floricane." 

I'm already looking back and thinking that I am so lucky our team made the choice we made in November of 2012. Caroline has done more to grow and strengthen Floricane than I ever could imagine, articulate or thank her for. Watching her fall deeply in love with Samantha, with Richmond and with great work has been such a treat. 

And if you can help her find her a job in Chicago that's almost as great as the one she's leaving in Richmond (and pays a bit more), drop her a note. 

One Reason, and Five Ideas, to Develop Your People

“‘But what if we train them and they leave?’ is a question I often hear. ‘What if you don’t train them and they stay?’ is my answer.”

The old "damned if you don't" adage about training isn't new. But it continues to surprise me how often I have to pull it out on an unruly client. Typically, the decision maker in question is stuck between two unruly waves -- they are experiencing real pain from developmental gaps, and are afraid of the investment pain (time, money, personal follow-up) that comes from helping their people grow skills and competencies.

As the economy accelerates and a generational employment shift builds, the composition of our organizations is changing. Employees are testing the mobility brought on by a warming economy even as an aging workforce is forcing change at multiple levels – Boomers are aging out of the workforce, Millennials and Gen Xer’s are sliding into roles of increased responsibility, and younger Millennial employees are entering the labor market. Talk about churn!

All of this is creating a major developmental gap for many organizations – a brain drain as seasoned veterans retire and take all of their knowledge and relationships to the golf course; new managers lack critical skills; and new workers are bringing new ideas to the table.

Providing effective training and developmental opportunities for employees at all levels, and career stages, is a key to organizational sustainability.

Developing people and growing talent internally is the important thing that great organizations do.

Here are 5 types of professional development that create huge and positive impact for organizations:

• Comprehensive Orientation and Onboarding: Start the way you want to finish. If you want new employees who are passionate, committed, effective and aligned, you need to be intentional about how they experience their very first weeks on the job. Notice I didn’t say days. Weeks. Months are even better. Carving serious time into the calendar for your new hires to provide exposure to all corners of the organization, relationship-building, and skill development are all critical to ensuring that your Enthusiastic Beginner doesn’t quickly devolve into a Disillusioned Learner.
   
• Peer-Based Group Coaching: Coaching can be expensive, especially for managers and leaders. Peer-based group coaching is an effective (and more affordable) way to bring small groups of peers together regularly to increase alignment, context and professional development. Groups of 3-7 employees (who don’t have reporting relationships) come together at least once a month to discuss their work challenges, share organizational observations, and hold each other accountable. You can make these experiences as structured or informal as you want, and run multiple groups simultaneously for maximum impact. (For best results, hire a coach to facilitate and guide the discussions.)
   
• Management Skill Training: Organizations hire people for technical job skills, and run into trouble when they are promoted without proper development into roles where they manage other people. Failing to provide supervisors and managers with the awareness (of self and others) and skills they need to be effective, is a common mistake. It’s a costly mistake. It is a serious disservice to your managers, and to the people for whom they have responsibility. Self-awareness, effective communication, giving (and receiving) feedback, difficult conversations, situational leadership, developing others and long-term organizational planning are among the critical skills for people who supervise other people.
   
• Emerging Leader Development: How do you quickly cultivate new leadership for your organization as the Boomers leave and a new generation steps into roles of influence – often with much less experience than their predecessors? There are a plethora of leadership and young professional programs out in the world. Some are fun. Many are interesting. A few are excellent investments. Some of the best we’ve seen are managed internally, and provide a mix of leadership development, business skill building and industry-specific training. They push young leaders to identify their personal vision, deepen their appreciation for their teams and consistently engage with more alignment and inspiration.
   
• Mentoring Programs: Before all of the sage elders flee your organization, find opportunities for them to teach the young whippersnappers about the people, values and powerful experiences that mattered to them. Whether you establish a formal mentoring program with specific outcomes, homework assignments and deliberate pairings of mentor and mentee, or create regular, informal opportunities for senior employees to spend time talking with newer workers, mentoring makes a difference. And it ensures your organization doesn’t lose an entire generation of knowledge as you move forward.

Join the Floricane Team

That's right, we're looking to add a new member to our team. The ideal candidate for the Experience Coordinator role is detail-oriented, loves planning events, and able to tackle administrative work with their eyes closed (if hired, you're allowed to keep your eyes open).

Go to floricane.com/jobs for more information!

Manager Development Program: That's a Wrap!

Last week we wrapped up the first running of our new Manager Development Program - a six week program designed to help managers have a greater impact on their teams and organizations. We had a great time creating and delivering MDP, but now that it is over we are quickly shifting our focus to the future and making the program even better.

With all of our work at Floricane we try to help folks identify and leverage their strengths. As we continue to gather feedback from participants and begin an in-depth post-mordem on MDP, we've realized we need to do the same with ourselves. It has already become clear that there is some content in this program that we need to jettison. Not because it isn't useful, but because it just doesn't play to Floricane's strengths. Likewise, we have heard from participants that the content with the most impact is firmly seated in Floricane's wheelhouse. 

We're looking forward to rebuilding MDP and keeping in touch with the 28 managers who took part over the past six weeks. We'll be running a new and improved version in the fall, so keep your ears to the ground.

On the last day, participants were asked to creatively display their own personal management vision, developed over the course of the program. 

Star Wars Personalities

Disclaimer: At Floricane, we've fallen in love with Insights® Discovery, which is a kind of personality/personal preference evaluator that is similar to Myers-Briggs/MBTI, yet different in huge, important ways (that's a blog post for another time). Insights is all about stretching outside the box that some other tests might try to put you in. Insights would say, "Don't worry, Jar Jar Binks! You definitely know when it's time to put on your Darth Vader mask and get. things. done."

As a psychology major, I'm super into these kinds of charts. When I come across a new one, I typically seek out the characters that represent me and my favorite people. Of course, as I'm doing this I'm also loosely converting the Myers-Briggs types to colors on the Insights wheel... #Insights4Life

I found this chart especially interesting because of how it illustrated the personalities of my group of best friends and me. Background: these are the girls I've been best friends with since age 8; so they're basically my sisters. Here we are making up the most hilarious Star Wars foursome:

So proud of my motley crew.

Let's ignore for a moment that I'm the hideously ugly, super-evil, Frank-Underwood-of-Star-Wars character, and let's pretend that Palpatine used his powers for good. Now, how great is this group of best buds? They each have vastly different character strengths, which can come into play at different times. The best part is that the diversity among the group means that one's strengths can almost definitely compensate for another's weaknesses. That's the definition of a great team! 

The same thing can be said about teams in the workplace. If everyone had the exact same outlook on things, or the exact same skills, the team would probably be critically weak in some key areas. Not to brag, but let's be honest: they'd have nothing against my fearsome foursome. 

It's so important that we appreciate those differences in others and recognize how our differing strengths are a huge benefit to all of us! I'll try to remember that when my more optimistic friends (I'm talking about you, Jar Jar) are dragging me kicking and screaming out of my pessimism camp.

And I'd also like to mention that I just got engaged to a Chewbacca, and I'm overjoyed about it.

Photos from Tilted RVA III: Small Business Unconference

Tilted RVA III was this past weekend! Floricane had been working with other small businesses to bring this small business unconference to fruition for the third time, and we had such an amazing time with the group of participants. 

To see a crowd-sourced social media story of the day via Storify, click here!

To read John's thoughts on the day, click here.