Letter from John (January 2021 Newsletter)

Like many of you, I had thoughts of leaping boldly into 2021, and I saw the turning of the calendar as an important reset moment.

Obviously, the world has other plans for us.

We still have opportunities to reset. There is a continued need to assess and adapt. And we can't afford to dawdle, and let these important choices pass us by.

That said, many of us are starting the year with a variable throttle as we try to make sense of the busy, and confusing, intersection where pandemic, vaccine, economic recovery, and political uncertainty meet. The 14th of January is, I'll wryly suggest, the 380th day of 2020.

It's at times like this that we all need clarity, empathy, and purpose.

  • The clarity we need is likely different from the clarity we'd like to have, or to provide to others: Despite all of the continued churn in the world around us, what is it that our organization must do well in the coming weeks and months? How do we strengthen our connection as as team? How do I sustain my energy and passion, find time to recharge or decompress, balance the demands of those around me?

  • The empathy we need is both empathy given, and empathy received. What are the ways in which we can, and should, slow down to connect with our teammates, our clients, on a personal or emotional level? How do we ask or better intuit what people need to feel centered and healthy? And, perhaps most importantly, how do we periodically scan ourselves and reflect on what we need to stay healthy, physically and emotionally? (And to ask others to support us where they can!)

  • The purpose we need creates the fuel for everything else. Why are we waking up each morning and investing our energy in our work, our families, our community? How can we be more intentional and oriented around those things that matter most to us? How do we help those around us orient toward something bigger, and more essential?

Surprisingly, none of these things emerge from whole cloth. They take intention. And they can benefit from inviting others to collaborate, share, or support us in these spaces.

They also require action. If not now, then when? The current environment absolutely cries out for clarity, empathy and purpose, and it is up to each of us to not just find these things within ourselves but to create space and support for those we support and care for to create them with us.

As we move through the coming days and weeks, I am sure we will each encounter many difficult moments around which we have little control. What we do have control over, as you well know, are our choices, our decisions, and our mindset. We have control over our orientation, and how we balance that orientation in service to self and in service to others.

It is, quite honestly, my most essential work right now. It is, quite possibly, your most essential work, as well.

Stay healthy, stay connected with those who matter most to you, and wash your hands.

-- John

New Client: VSCPA

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New project, long-time client. The Virginia Society of CPAs was one of Floricane’s first clients, and we’re excited to be working with them again this spring on a variety of fronts — from a team engagement session using Insights® Discovery to a "Coffee Break” session on organizational culture during times of change.

Birthdays, ER Visits and Business

You don’t have to look far these days to see how connection, action, and emotion thread through our daily lives in the Time of Covid, and how these same impulses shape our work. 

In the span of 24 hours this past weekend, my life at home tapped on three essential things our organizations -- and families -- need from us right now. Neuroleadership expert Dr. David Rock’s message, which my teammate Debra shared with us after a webinar she attended, are simple and sensible. To lead through adversity, you must: 

  • Take care of yourself

  • Look after each other

  • Deliver what matters

Thea was a baby when Floricane was born. She turned 12 this past weekend. And what a weekend it was. 

Her last day of being 11 was more involved than we could have expected. Jack woke Friday with an inflamed eye, so we juggled schedules to get him –- homemade Pokémon mask in place -- to the pediatrician. Diagnosis: unclear. Instructions: keep Dr. Smith updated, as needed. 

The evening brought a quiet stream of visitors – a card here, a vase of flowers there, a wrapped package. Some snuck in and out unseen. A few lingered, physically distant but socially present, as we reconnected – Thea with her friends under the magnolia, parents on the sidewalk. It was nice, this slow distant mode of reconnecting.

Jack’s eye became increasingly swollen and painful as the evening wore on -– Nikole was up with him for several hours around midnight, and I snuggled him with a warm compress as we half-watched cartoons from 4:45 in the morning until sunrise.

Thea woke, we sang happy birthday to her, and I sent our pediatrician a quick message about Jack. Before I could start my first cup of coffee, Dr. Smith texted back, “Go to the ER right now.”

There was more to her message, but the gist was, “Move.”

We all know that everything feels bigger these days, but I literally felt sick as Nikole and I quickly strategized who was going to take him. Jack insisted that Thea open a birthday present before we left, and then we bolted -- a new, fairly irrational fear of walking into a hospital churning in my gut.

Long story short, St. Mary's pediatric ER staff was fantastic. The hospital doctor and our pediatrician compared notes and Jack was released. (And he's fine now.) We were home 45 minutes after we left. Thea was curled on the couch with her new birthday iPhone. 

Later that morning, I called my mom and found myself unexpectedly sobbing on the phone. (Who knew that six weeks of surfing the waves of a global pandemic would lead me to internalize all of my fears and anxieties? BTW, I'm fine now, too.) 

Our family quickly regained our birthday celebration stride. Thea’s lemon-raspberry cake, baked by a friend of Nikole’s, arrived. More friends swung by with cards, and banana bread, books, and notes. We lit candles, and sang an officlal Happy Birthday song. We hopped in the car and safely delivered slices of cake to a few of her friends in the neighborhood. One of her grandmothers dropped by and chatted in the front yard. And then our 12-year-old girl hopped on her bike to go socially distant trail riding with two friends in Bryan Park.

Delivering what matters this past weekend involved connection, action and emotion. It meant shifting gears from anxiety to celebration.

Looking after each other this past weekend was more about the actions, and connection, and emotions of others. The nurses and doctors, our neighbors and friends, invested in small ways to the experience of our children (and our family).

Take care of myself? I'm working on that one. (I had a socially distant yard beer with a friend last week! It's a start.)

Leaning into the Fight

“I’m better in the third round of the fight,” I recently told a friend. I haven’t actually been in a fight since a pre-teen tussle in the middle of Huguenot Road, but I've seen my share of personal, social and economic adversity over the years. Enough to know that I'm not always at my best early in a fight.

In the case of the Time of Covid, what began seven weeks ago as a fast battle is shaping up to be an unpredictable, but long, slog.

In our work with leaders, we often use a model called Situational Leadership (SL2) that helps diagnose Competence and Commitment around a given task.

I won't say I was an Enthusiastic Beginner (incompetent, but eagerly committed) during Round One of Covid. I had some transferable skills from previous disruptions, and entered the fray with a reasonable amount of confidence that our business (and my family) could navigate this challenge. The morning of March 10, I felt like I was ahead of the Covid curve. By March 12, I found myself, dazed and blinking, as the bell rang for Round Two.

Hello, Disillusioned Learner. During this phase of engagement, I find I benefit from two things -- an opportunity to retreat (and pretend the fight has ended), and some guidance and direction from people who are smarter than me.

In the case of the last several weeks, that has meant a lot of walks with my family, planting a garden, girding myself for infrequent grocery runs, meeting with the Floricane, and talking to the smarter people (and smarter organizations) -- Gelati Celesti, Sperity Ventures, Eventful, the Federal Reserve Bank, Elevation Advertising, The Hodges Partnership, Luck Companies, the Community Foundation serving greater Richmond, Smart Beginnings Virginia Peninsula, and others. To say they stretch my thinking would be an understatement.

The breathing space, and the perspectives and guidance of others, means that by Round Three I am more able to set my stance and find my rhythm. That feels important right now when it appears that Round Three may extend for several months.

And maybe that's the other thing I'm learning from the conversations I'm having -- the organizations that are in the Third Round, mentally and operationally, are not staggering around the ring. They are leaning into what's happening with strategic intention andemotional confidence, and they are prepared to adapt to whatever curves lie ahead.

Taking the time to reach out to others and process what's next, to test your assumptions and map out your organization's strategic scenarios, may be the most important use of time you have right now. (Also, walks, connecting with your team, groceries.)

However you are spending your time, I hope that you are well, and you are as centered as the moment allows.

Leading with Intention and Action in the time of Covid-19

As our team has made our own journey from March into April (and from reaction to intention), we've had literally dozens of opportunities to be in virtual rooms with more than 500 people discussing federal stimulus packages, short-term strategic pivots and long-term planning, leadership, employee engagement, stress, favorite recipes, and more. We're finding that we're paying a lot of attention to the organizations who are in motion. 

The truth is that we're all moving through this experience a little differently. There is no right way to respond to the trifecta impact of a global pandemic, a global recession, and orders to socially distance from friends, family and coworkers for weeks on end.

Our growing sense is that organizations who are engaging with this complicated moment with equal parts intention and action may be positioning themselves to emerge from this period of immense change with increased resilience, clarity and purpose.

Acting with intention involves centering around your organization's Mission and Values; getting clear on the needs of your employees, and your clients, customers, and other stakeholders; and building a near-term plan that allows you to act in service to your organization's purpose.

Engaging with action is to make visible a pathway forward, and then to move your organization, as best you're able, through this social and economic disruption. Whether circumstances demand your organization drops anchor, throttles down, or accelerates, part of your job as leader is to act, and inspire your people to act, in ways that bring confidence, compassion, and a firm focus on your mission to the forefront.

If the path we're all on right now is a bridge to what is next, we know at least two things to be true -- we're going to lose the horizon once or twice along the way, and the destination will be more clear as we move forward.

As you move forward, let us know how you're doing -- and how we can help. You can grab time on my calendar this month if you want to catch up, talk through challenges, or explore possibilities. If you're looking for facilitation support (to create order and traction in those endless Zoom meetings); ways to help your remote teams engage, connect and grow; or strategic clarity for the immediate challenges or the what comes next, let's talk.

Until we reconnect, stay well and stay centered.

Striking a balance in the time of Covid-19

Most days lately, I feel like I'm balancing between feeling normal and overwhelmed. Walking the streets of Northside with Nikole and the kids is centering -- especially when the spring sun is shining. Time spent on Zoom calls and diving into Floricane's 9th budget revision in three weeks helps to stretch my brain. Glancing at the daily headlines leaves me utterly drained.

The website CityLabs has asked readers to submit maps that reflect their current quarantined life. The kids and I have started talking about our map. Where once we painted with broad strokes across the whole of the city, we now live compressed. The albino squirrel in our backyard, a patch of buttercups in the field by Holton Elementary School, Jim and Nancy's house, Ruby's house, the urban garden, Becca's house, Senator Kaine waving from his home office. Thea has started taking close up photos of flowers, rocks and sticks on our walks. Jack wants to explore nooks and alleys.

Yet, in that same universe, the five-year-old can't sleep because "there are too many sounds in my head," and he's suddenly terrified of bugs. The 12-year-old misses her friends and yearns for a new puppy. Days can be terribly lonely when you're scared.

My stories mirror many of yours; I know because over the past week I've talked to many of you. Our conversations always start with the mundane, then shift to the overwhelming. For years, Floricane's work has centered on community; Covid-19 has unraveled our very sense of what it means to be connected.

I share these simple observations because we're all pivoting to reinvent -- our lives, our relationships, our organizations, our communities. Pivoting without perspective is reaction. Reaction was March. Pivoting with meaning is strategic. Welcome to April, a difficult month of choices, intention, and action.

For Floricane, that means working with clients to more clearly assess what is needed in this moment, and what emergence can look like when this first wave passes. It means creating opportunities for directed reflection. It means encouraging our clients to focus closely and draw new maps, to more clearly see the landmarks that give meaning and context to the work that lies ahead.

So we walk. We create excuses to connect (at a distance). We remap our days, and move forward in new ways. This is the work of human beings in community. It is our work. It is your work, too, because it is our community we are all holding -- together.

Stay well, stay centered, and stay focused on the things that matter most.