Building a stronger team at URichmond

We just wrapped up a six-month journey with the team at the University of Richmond’s Office of Alumni and Career Services.

The team came to us initially looking for a couple of hours of team engagement at a winter retreat. The focus was on communication and collaboration.

They invited us back in March, and we introduced the 24 team members to Insights® Discovery and started them on an eight week journey of self-awareness. We sent the team weekly “homework” assignments to help each person dig deeper into their personality profile. The primary goals were to drive conversation within the team, and to increase each person’s understanding of how they were perceived by others.

Our journey ended in June at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts as we explore team effectiveness, and worked with the group on ways they could continue to engage with each other going forward. Progress!

Playground Perspective (July 2014)

A few weeks ago -- in the late morning heat of an already too busy Saturday -- I intercepted Thea as she lugged a table to the sidewalk in front of our house.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"I'm setting up a lemonade stand," she replied, matter-of-factly.

I was torn between our packed weekend agenda and my desire to encourage Thea's explorations. I figured a few questions could steer things in the right direction. The conversation, which became increasingly heated as both of us became exasperated with the other's intransigence, went something like this:

"What are you going to sell?"

"Lemonade."

"We don't have any." (Which prompted an examination of the contents of the refrigerator.)

"Well, then, water. And almond milk."

"Do you have cups?"

"My birthday party cups."

"We used those. At your birthday party."

"Oh."

Moments later, she emerged from our utility room with an armful of black bean cans from the recycling bin.

"What are those for?" I asked.

"Cups," she replied.

"You're going to sell tap water in metal bean cans?" I asked.

"Yes, for one dollar a can," she sniffed, walking out of the kitchen.

If she were three, I would have chalked it up as cute and let it roll. (Actually, I probably would have been both a bigger jerk, and helped her more proactively.) But since Thea is seven -- and not a big fan of things not going exactly as planned (No, I don't know where she gets that.) -- I interceded.

"I'm going to the grocery store," I told her on the sidewalk, surveying her stand. "Can I pick up some lemonade, lemons, cups?"

We agreed that I would buy supplies, and that she would work on a sign and some flyers to circulate around the neighborhood while I was gone. And that once the flyers were out, we would not talk about the lemonade stand until 30 minutes before the advertised sale time.

At 4:00, she was sitting at her small table ready to go. At 4:05, she was dejected. And then our neighbor walked by with her daughter. Moments later, a Twitter follower pulled to the curb and ordered a cup. By 5:00, she was out of her lemonade. It was time to count the coins.

"Twenty seven dollars!" she exclaimed. "That's a lot!"

I pulled $10 out for the change I spotted her when she started, and then another $5 for supplies.

"But now I barely have any money!" she said. "I was going to send it to pay for a cure for cystic fibrosis!"

Thea's five-year-old cousin, Caroline, lives with CF. It's a cause close to home for all of us.

We agreed that $12 was a solid amount to send to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and that the next time she holds a lemonade sale she should let people know in advance, and that she is raising money for a cause.

Fast forward to this weekend. Thea is holding another lemonade sale to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. She'll also be selling slices of watermelon. Stop by...

#WotWW Recap: I get it already!

Clients, I finally get it. It is hard to facilitate your own team!

The Floricane team just spent the better part of four days locked in various rooms focused on big strategic business goals. Despite a periodically bumpy ride, we landed some very solid outcomes.

Our Work on the Work Week, or #WotWW as we have somehow hashtagged it, started two years ago as a way for our team to dig into some serious planning work for our own business. No clients, just Floricane.

To keep it interesting this year, Julie organized a series of six meeting locations over the four day stretch – the Gather coworking space; the Robins Foundation’s relaxed meeting room; the Valentine museum; VCU’s renovated trolley Depot; One South Realty; and Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. We finished it off with lunch at The Daily, and three hours of relaxed cocktails and conversation at Amuse in the VMFA.

To keep it focused, we had each member of the team facilitate sections of the week – financials, business development, our team culture, Floricane’s brand, our client engagement model, and refining a half-dozens tools and processes.

It was the worst of times. It was the best of times.

But mostly it was needed time. By the end of the week, our team felt more aligned and better prepared to increasingly deliver a consistently strong Floricane experience for our growing roster of great clients.

As we look ahead to our next #WotWW (typically scheduled after Christmas) we're already thinking of ways to make it more fun and more effective. We'll probably start by hiring a facilitator...

Being A Better Boss: Do the Work. Care for the People.

I like the way Wally Bock describes the work of every manager in his blog:

“Accomplish the mission

Your team has to get the job done. Your part of that is to do everything you can to make it possible. Remove obstacles and don’t be one yourself. Facilitate good work.

Care for the people

You’re the one responsible for keeping your people safe. It’s your job to help them succeed today and also tomorrow.”

That's how Floricane's new Manager Development Program sees things. Our new six week program for managers and supervisors is designed specifically to help "bosses" coach, develop and engage the people they support.

Over the past seven years, we've seen countless organizations -- from small nonprofits to large corporations -- under-invest in their managers and supervisors. Initially, the recession limited the capacity to invest in people development. But as managers aged in place, and younger people gravitated into roles with supervisory responsibility, it is as if organizations simply forgot that people are their most valuable asset.

Bock continues in his blog post to describe the three kinds of work every manager should do all of the time:

1. Leadership work, which is about modeling the right behaviors and setting direction.
2. Management work, which is about process and priorities.
3. Supervision work, which is ensuring your people are capable of doing good work -- and supporting them.

Is your manager engaging in all three levels of work? If you manage people, are you? Being responsible for the work of an organization, and the health and welfare of a team of people, is not easy stuff. Join us in September as we help a cohort of managers and supervisors map their way through a set of personal solutions.

Finding Doors in Richmond

When the Floricane team was strategizing early in July at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, we were greeted by a door. A painted door standing curb, waiting for passers-by to pause and reflect – and perhaps read a detailed sign that explained its purpose.

The door, it turns out, is one of 40 painted doors scattered around Richmond. Each features the work of local artists, and each helps tell a story of homelessness – and solutions to the plight of the homeless in our region.

A few days later, Richmond Magazine spotlighted the doors in an article, and described the idea behind the Virginia Supportive Housing/Art On Wheels collaboration:

A sign is placed at every painted door, telling stories about formerly homeless people who benefitted from VSH. The signs also provide information about the artist who painted them. 

“A sign is placed at every painted door, telling stories about formerly homeless people who benefitted from VSH. The signs also provide information about the artist who painted them.

Each door will have a sign that will tell a little bit about the person behind the door...,” [VSH’s Andrea] Butler explains, “and about their journey to get out of homelessness.”

She hopes the installation will correct common misconceptions about homelessness. “When you read the stories, you realize [these homeless individuals] were teachers, and homemakers and professionals,” she says.

The artists were not asked to paint with any theme in mind, nor are the doors explicitly tied to the stories that accompany each door, but the message remains the same throughout this family-friendly activity: “We want people to know there is a solution to homelessness,” Butler says. “Supportive housing works, Ninety-five percent of those we serve do not become homeless again.””

The Find Art Doors self-guided tour is accessible through an online mobile site and interactive map at findartdoorsrva.org.

Letter from John: July 2015

Some of you may remember a bleak confessional in these virtual pages way back in late 2012. Four years into the business, and every turn of the wheel invited a new ditch. Realizing that there are some chapters in life that call for competent co-pilots, I scheduled lunch with Jim Parker, the retired CFO of Luck Companies. He spent the next year on the periphery of the business, providing me with good counsel and challenging my approach to the financial side of Floricane's practice.

We had lunch last month. As I got Jim current with the state of the business, and regaled him with heroic stories of hard decisions, near misses and a slow, but steady, crawl toward a sustainable structure, he struck.

"So," my too-wise mentor and friend said to me, leaning forward, "it sounds to me like you're exhibiting the same behaviors -- you're just working with bigger numbers now. If we get back together a year from now, what's going to be different?"

“This, my friends, is why you don’t let people smarter than you play with your stuff.”

One of the most challenging aspects of personal development is the sobering recognition that you are who you are. Self-awareness, coaching and mentoring, training and development -- in most cases, they help us see the gaps. Sometimes, they even help protect us from the gaps. In rare, and usually finite, moments, they help us change behavior and close the gaps.

“But our gaps, almost always, remain our gaps. Wherever you go, they say, there you are.”

Jim's point wasn't to tell me, "Great job treading water, John!" (Or maybe it was and I've missed the point. Again.) No, Jim was reminding me that I have gotten better at paying attention to what Benjamin Zander calls "the long, long line from B to E" -- from the present reality to the future, aspirational vision. And he was warning me that in my persistent rush to the more majestic notes in the symphony of Floricane, I can gloss over the workmanlike moments that hold the entire composition together.

How's that for stretching a metaphor?

Jim and I talked after lunch about a set of targeted financial goals we've established for the business, and what it will really take to reach them in the balance of 2015. We chewed on some emerging solutions to managing the workmanlike corners of the business differently. And we acknowledged that I've already taken steps in that direction -- for instance, hiring Terri Andrus, the bookkeeper who has pried my fingers from the tactical corners of Floricane's financials, and expanded my view of the business rhythms from weekly cycles to quarterly cycles.

But what Jim really did was reassure me. Blunt, but caring, confrontation has a way of doing that.

By every measure, Floricane is a successful company seven years into what should be a 25-year journey. By most measures, I have learned volumes -- about myself, others, our community. By some measures, I have grown and strengthened my personal capacity for ambiguity, change and challenge.

But in the end, given the choice between the future and the present, between the big idea and the workmanlike task, between acting and investing, I'll almost always pull the cart the same direction. Which is why some carts have drivers, and others have teams. And maybe why Google is now inventing driverless vehicles.

#WotWW Day 4: Readiness, or Red Reeds?

We kicked off our last day of Work on the Work Week by having breakfast with several members of the team at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. As the food and conversation wound down, John dashed off to take care of business related stuff and left the rest of the team to talk about 3 of our key internal business processes. We joked before he left about the ways in which the conversation would be different without him.

Theran provided excellent facilitation. He had a clear agenda. He balanced the right amount of direction and support. He gave us a starting place with each topic and then opened up the conversation, debate and dialogue. All the while, capturing next steps and salient points visually for all of us to see.

As I reflected upon the morning and why it felt like we “got so much done” the easy answer is, “the boss wasn’t there!” But there was another dynamic at play, we were ready to have the conversation. The topics included tasks, activities and communications that effect what we do everyday.  We were all invested in the topics.

In all honesty, we also knew that our day would end in the afternoon at Amuse! I thought to myself that perhaps it was the thought of seeing the red reeds and some much needed, relaxed time with the team that really propelled us to be so effective in the morning! Who’s to say? Readiness or Red Reeds? Perhaps it was both, but I can’t help but reflect that readiness and effectiveness have a significant connection. 

WotWW Day #3: More Laughter, Please

Sometimes space makes all the difference.

Sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees.

Sometimes you can think too much.

Sometimes you need to be really tired before you start making sense.

These are a few lessons I’ve drawn from the first three days of Floricane’s Work on the Work week, or as Lesley calls it #WotWW.

This is the fourth #WotWW at Floricane since we stumbled upon the idea of spending a week without clients to focus on our business a few times a year. We’re not even finished with the week, and I’m ready to chalk it up as the hardest.

When the team wrapped up day two yesterday, we were spent. And we had a much deeper appreciation for our client teams – circular conversations, spinning wheels, the words being spoken not equaling the words being heard. (Note to future self: Sometimes you just need a good, neutral facilitator.)

Today felt better.

The space was better today. We started in the VCU Depot building, an amazingly restored urban trolley station blessed with Alchemy Coffee as a tenant. The space felt good, the coffee was excellent, and we laughed more.

To regain traction, we began with a look at our 60 Day Sprint – the 21 key projects and initiatives that we need to land exceptionally well by Labor Day. Many of these emerged as action items from our first two days of #WotWW. Forest, trees, actionable progress.

Did I mention we laughed more? We laughed about quail hunting. Also book clubs. And then we spent time deconstructing the Floricane brand. We identified some aspirations, some areas we want to be have a more palatable presence in the Floricane brand – Fun, Challenging, Authentic, Relational. There was thinking going on, but it was more relaxed. Maybe less guarded. More authentic, even.

We end #WotWW tomorrow – fortunately for our emotional energy, I’m running a statewide Sister Cities International annual meeting on Friday.

We’re ending with a few high notes – a celebratory team lunch at The Daily, followed by drinks and dessert at Amuse. Hopefully, we’ll laugh more.