The return to Petersburg

Floricane's first strategic planning client was The James House, a non-profit in the Tri-Cities (Hopewell, Petersburg, and Colonial Heights, along with Chesterfield, Dinwiddie and Prince George counties). We've followed that work up with engagements with a half-dozen Petersburg-area organizations. 

We spent a lot of time in recent years learning about the unique political, social and economic landscape of the Tri-Cities, and we've enjoyed getting to know Petersburg better. 

Last week, it felt like we relocated the business to Petersburg. As part of an engagement I've made with the Partnership for Nonprofit Excellence's Organizational Solutions arm and the Cameron Foundation, I've been interviewing for two organizational assessment projects in Petersburg. I brought our new consultant, Lesley Bruno, along for both meetings to listen and learn. 

Our first meeting found us meandering through the residential and commercial edges of Petersburg, as we found our way to the Crater District Planning Commission offices. Our second meeting took us into the heart of Old Town Petersburg, and to an old-time lunch at the veritable Dixie Diner. (I had the chicken-and-dumplings with collard greens, y'all.) 

We talked about the unique environmental, educational, political, workforce development, and health care challenges of the region with our two prospective clients. Along the way, I rediscovered some of the things that make the Tri-Cities so uniquely important to the larger identity of Central Virginia. 

It's a shame that more Richmonders don't spend time understanding and exploring this corner of our region. It's exciting to have the opportunity to deepen my own understanding once again. 

We're all about the integration

I spent some time on the phone recently with a prospective client in Washington, D.C.

Two things were interesting to me about our discussion – she was calling from a major, national association, and she was attracted to Floricane by what she perceived to be our integrated services.

I made a conscious choice way back in 2008 not to actively pursue work outside of Central Virginia. My daughter was eight-months-old, and I wanted to be active and present as she grew up. In fact, Floricane’s first three significant opportunities were in Tennessee and Wisconsin, and I turned them all down.

But it was the integrated services piece that really caught my attention.

Our team has spent the better part of a year discussing the evolution of our business, and of Floricane’s brand. And when we look at some of our bigger clients, and projects, we see the delivery of integrated services – strategic planning, organizational development, leadership development and coaching as one rich tapestry of organizational change. From Bon Secours to the Library of Virginia, from ChildFund to VCU, some of our best, big work is a blend of services, not simply a line of service.

Take coaching, as an example. Leadership coaching as a stand-alone activity has its merits. There are leaders in organizations who need, and benefit from, regular conversations about their challenges, opportunities and professional growth.

Sometimes, in our experience, such coaching engagements trigger real, significant and lasting change for the individual being coached. It’s good for the individual, and it sometimes benefits the organization. But is individual change, not systems change.

Leadership coaching integrated in larger change initiatives? That’s a different story with clearer, broader impacts. We’ve seen it with large clients, and we’ve seen it in smaller engagements such as the American Civil War Museum and Draper Aden Associates.

Identifying a strategic future state with and for an organization, and then investing time and energy into ensuring that change takes root, is where we engage best.

Floricane Has traded up

Floricane almost feels like a new business. Again.

This month, we brought on two new employees. They've already changed the way we do business. 

Julie Pence is replacing Caroline in a newly titled role. As experience coordinator for Floricane she's in charge of making sure that our collaborative space in the Times-Dispatch building, and the more than 100 discrete workshops and events we hold each year, reflects our brand -- and leaves every client feeling well-engaged. 

Lesley Bruno is coming on board as a consultant -- a new role for the former marketing all-star. Floricane has known Lesley for a long-time. She was at The Valentine when we did strategic planning for the museum way back in 2009, and a few years later I tipped her off to a job at the Greater Richmond Chamber. I let her stay there for four years before luring her to Floricane with Dan Pink's three keys to engagement -- a job with purpose, the opportunity to master new skills, and the autonomy to create a role that really works for where she is in her life. 

Last week, as our team -- five full-time employees, one departing employee, a dedicated contractor, and a new intern -- walked out of the building together for lunch I was a little overwhelmed. Almost seven years ago, I sat in a basement office with my new business' advisory team and said that my vision was to build a team of passionate, smart people who cared about changing our community and people's lives. And here they are.  

As we look ahead at Floricane to a future that is different from our past, I am most excited about my own growing edge -- which involves getting out of people's way. My role in the business continues to evolve and change. My new team relies on each other to deliver great work for our clients more than they rely on me, and that's a good thing. 

We tell our clients all of the time that they need to hire great people, clear a path, and let them run. Lesley and Julie are collectively three weeks into their new career marathon, and they've yet to hit their stride. This is going to be a fun race. 

Orange is the New Black

Hello, my name is Lesley, and by the time you read this I will have been at Floricane for three weeks. In what was no doubt an effort to get me out of his hair, John asked me to reflect on my short time here at the ‘Cane: what I’ve learned, what I’ve seen, how I feel, etc., and the following is my attempt at doing just that. 

My first thought is this: I’ve never been asked to share my thoughts on a new employer, for a new employer, as well as for all of its blog readers. Kind of daunting, but completely expected from a place like Floricane, which is all about relationships, self awareness, reflection and development. Joke’s on you, Bruno!  

Some background: After 12 years of promoting the fantastic work of a diverse mix of organizations as a “marketing & PR professional,”  I’ll now be helping local nonprofits find their true north and chart a way to get there via Floricane’s unique and people focused strategic planning process. Floricane serves all types of organizations, but I’ll be focusing primarily on nonprofits. 

Here’s why this appealed to me. I’ve been on the client side of this equation, both with Floricane and other consultants, and enjoyed it tremendously. For some reason, herding people into a room and asking them to consider the future of their organization and, by extension, themselves is fun! So, I took the leap. And as my friend Anedra says, it’s always handy to have marketing tools in your back pocket. 

As far as what I’ve learned and seen and done in the last few weeks, it’s been a lot of following John around, eating lunch and introducing myself to people. He knows a lot of people, and I’m eager to meet all of them. But the process of transforming from a marketing person to a strategic planning consultant is nascent at best, so I offer the following rudimentary observations of my time thus far and promise a more cerebral update in the coming months. In the meantime, I look forward to meeting all of you and possibly working together on something awesome. 

Lesley’s Thoughts on Her First Few Weeks at Floricane/in a New Career

  • There are more nonprofits in this town than I had ever imagined.

  • You can try all you want to leave the Marketing/PR world behind, but the urge to post things and rewrite websites will never ever go away. 

  • Orange truly is the new black. 

  • Working in a collaborative environment is a challenge for me but one that I’m eager to tackle, as soon as I learn how to tune out people. (JK JK JK, new teammates!). 

  • Sometimes it’s okay to head over to the comfy chairs during business hours and read up on organizational development. 

  • With the exception of the Vertical Horizon song that is playing currently, my coworkers have great taste in music.

  • Almost everyone here has kids, so it’s fun to make the non-kid people uncomfortable with talk of unspeakable bodily functions. 

  • Greens* can and do Get Things Done.

  • As an ex-PR hack, I find it oddly thrilling to run into RTD newsroom staff in the cafeteria.  “Look, everyone, it’s Michael Martz. MICHAEL MARTZ!”

  • These people will allow me to wear jeans to work, as long as they are high rise editions. It’s in my contract, and I’m okay with that.

  • I still need a Diet Pepsi and a salty snack at 3pm each day. Some things don’t change. 


*What’s a Green you ask? Register yourself and 5 of your colleagues for our Insights workshop on June 11, and find out. It’ll change your life. 

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

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“‘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.