It’s great to get back to my roots, so to speak, to come full circle.
I spent the last chapter of my corporate career helping shape a new culture, focused on organizational and leadership development.
In recent months, Floricane has been getting back into that business – balancing our strategic consulting work with new projects targeted at shaping and strengthening organizational cultures.
I’ve been learning a lot in the process.
The work we’ve been doing around leadership and employee engagement with Bon Secours Virginia has been both deeply informative and inspiring. Bon Secours is one of a handful of large organizations in the area to seriously invest itself on so many levels to building a culture that is aligned with its vision, mission and values. Every time I sit down at a table with an engaged leader in that organization, I walk away with another nugget of wisdom and knowledge.
I’ve been sitting down with familiar faces, as well.
Tom Epperson, my old boss from Luck Stone, and I are working closely to put shape around a leadership program for another local organization. We sat down at a table a month ago to start the conversation, and we didn’t miss a beat – true to our old dynamic, I floated the ideas and concepts; he nailed them into a plan. We both expect to be riding shotgun with this new program for months to come, and I’m truly excited to learn from and with Tom once again.
I’ve been able to create, as well.
Later this month, another former Luck Stone colleague and I will pick up where we left off with the Library of Virginia. After helping the Library craft a new vision and strategic plan, Debra Saneda and I will be guiding 30 of their key leaders and influencers through an eight-month development program. Our primary goal is to help this group of experienced professionals develop a deeper understanding of their opportunity and responsibility to support, shape and drive change in one of the Commonwealth’s oldest institutions.
We have more irons in the organizational engagement fire – in fact, Floricane’s own emerging strategic plan calls for us to create a core team dedicated to this work over the coming months.
It fits our passions and our mission. One of my mentors, the consultant and community advocate Peter Block, says that the most important role of a leader is to bring the voices on the margins into the center of the conversation. Partnering with some of Richmond’s best organizations in this space is deeply rewarding.