Innovation Happens Everywhere

Last month I missed i.e*, an innovation event that Floricane helped shape with more than a dozen other Richmond organizations. I followed the Twitter stream and read all of the articles. I was a bit disappointed to miss it – but I know innovation isn’t a one day event.

I missed i.e.* for a good reason -- I was in a room with the staff of the University of Richmond's Bonner Center for Civic Engagement.

The Bonner Center team brought our team in to facilitate a two-day staff planning session; I facilitated the second day while i.e.* was happening.

It was so rewarding to watch this group of passionate people wrestle difficult issues to arrive at a shared consensus. Aside from getting to know each other better and watching programs connect before their eyes, this team did something truly brilliant – they put a stake in the ground. As a group, they began with a statement, “We are going to transform…”

Like I said, innovation is not a one-day event. Over the course of their two days with our team (me, John Sarvay and Cara McDaniel), the Bonner Center team crafted a strategic direction that was robust and scary and exciting. Our team works well together. John is a big dreamer and storyteller; I like to get stuff done; and neither of us minds pushing our clients to go there with us.

Together – teams of people move, change, transform. This past week, we sat down with the Virginia Oral Health Coalition to make their upcoming board retreat extraordinary.

Over the past year of working at Floricane I have learned wonderful things. I have seen first hand the innovative work happening in this region and have been in the room while serious and imaginative work has happened. Sometimes serious work is a staff retreat. Sometimes it's leading a fresh young board through a day of creativity.

No matter where in Richmond it happens, innovative thinking is having an impact.

Innovation Planning Showcases Unique Talent

With the clock ticking down on the June 23 i.e. innovation showcase event -- organized by the Greater Richmond Chamber and a dozen other organizations, including Floricane -- it was fascinating to gather with most of the 30+ presenters and organizers this week on the top floor of Prophet's Richmond offices in Shockoe Slip.

Facinating for lots of reasons -- seeing everyone in the same place, hearing the stories and (ta king a cue from Floricane's marketing guru) checking out the shoes.

Juliet's right. Shoes do offer a glimpse into the personality and diversity of the room.

The Monday night huddle was a chance for all of the presenters -- or provocateurs, as i.e. frames them -- to meet, and better understand how they will engage more than 200 people in a three-floor warehouse space next Thursday, June 23. Over the course of the event, participants and provocateurs alike will be encouraged to connect -- the dots, the stories, the relationships -- and to create -- ideas, connections, next steps.

The i.e. website continues to trickle out snapshots of the provocateur speakers. Names revealed this week include Scoot's Chelsea Lahmers with her demand to "quit sucking!" and writer Anoa Monsho.

Organizers see the June 23 event as the launch -- the Chamber and other project partners have committee to a three-year engagement to identify, encourage and celebrate creativity and innovation around the Richmond Region.

You can check out the details at the i.e. website.

Fulton Rising + Slideshow

Floricane’s first big contract – serious commitment, huge scope, intense deliverables – came our way last fall. Creating a community vision plan for the three East End neighborhoods that comprise Greater Fulton has been a powerfully tough slog.

I’m pretty sure that consultant Peter Fraser and I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

Last weekend, the Fulton community came together to cel ebrate the culmination of a nine-month process that involved several hundred residents and community stakeholders. The amazing level of engagement from the community – and the unflagging commitment of community organizer Jason Sawyer and the Neighborhood Resource Center’s Annette Cousins (our clients) – put our own contributions to shame.

With the completion of the plan, groups of residents are already in full implementation mode – with partners like Virginia LISC, HOME, the Storefront for Community Design Councilwoman Cynthia Newbille and the Valentine Richmond History Center deeply invested in turning the community vision into a reality.

View our slideshow from last weekend’s Greater Fulton’s Future celebration to see what an engaged community of Richmonders looks like.

Discovering Innovation at Your Doorstep

I’ve been reminded in recent weeks that you can’t throw a rock in this town without hitting someone in the midst of doing it their way, beating their own drum, inventing something new. We sometimes forget that the city of Patrick Henry and Oliver Hill has more than a few centuries of revolutionary ideas under its belt.

As a founding partner in a thre e-year collaborative effort to connect creative dots and showcase innovative talent across the Richmond region, Floricane is excited at the prospect of learning from more than 20 largely unsung innovators during a day-long,  TED-with-a-twist showcase on June 23.

Called i.e.– of course – the event will be held in a still-undisclosed downtown warehouse space during the day. In addition to presentations by two dozen “provocateurs”, participants will be challenged to think in new ways and to help shape a three-year drive to celebrate the innovative, creative and do-it-yourself spirit that is Richmond.

Floricane has purchased a handful of tickets to this event to give to its community of innovators and provocateurs. It’s our way of stacking the deck – making sure the room is filled with some familiar, challenge-oriented faces.

We’ll be drawing names from a hat on Wednesday, June 15. If you’re free to attend the event on June 23 – and want to challenge conventional wisdom even as you are challenged by some unconventional thinkers – email us a one-sentence statement that describes your favorite Richmond innovator (person or organization).

(image via ie-rva.org)

Diving Back Into Organizational Engagement

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.

Keeping it Real

What started out as a boring hunt for corporate name tags turned into a rewarding discovery and humble reminder.

A few months ago at a Floricane team meeting, someone suggested we needed name tags for each team member to wear when we host special events or facilitate large meetings. Another simple way to build our visual brand beyond the standard Sharpie scribble on adhesive label.

As the marketing lead, this fell neatly into my bucket. The Floricane logo is always fun to work with and I set out to source a brightly colored, well-designed plastic name badge that wouldn't be unnecessarily expensive. By the time I had run all the estimates and held various samples in my hand, I decided the task had become painfully boring and I didn't like any of the options.

Outside of my work at Floricane, I love to scout great design with affordable (usually!) price tags. I do it for myself all the time, I blog about it regularly, and I even snap photos and text sources to friends on the go!

Well, the beauty of my job with Floricane is that it has never been anything other than me being me, doing what I do, with people I like. So what was I doing shopping for anything but something that I would be excited to boast from my own lapel. By the way, I can't tell you the last time I wore anything with a lapel, which contributes greatly to the aforementioned beauty of my job!

So as soon as I shifted my mindset, I quickly landed at Bullfrog Laserworks on Etsy where Roberto Sand makes gorgeous laser cut wood engravings in his Portland, OR studio. A few e-mails back and forth and Rob and I were on our way to something super cool that would be a much truer reflection of the Floricane brand.

Then somewhere along the way, Rob and I crossed wires -- he read my "receive by" deadline as a "ship by" request. The name tags did not arrive in time for our planned debut at the Greater Richmond Chamber's Schmooza Palooza.

I should also tell you that I'm a certified procrastinator, in addition to which I happened to be in the middle of moving the week this all went down; however, I did have the whole thing scheduled with just enough time to tempt Federal offense by dashing from the front door of a house that was no longer mine to one that was not yet mine in anticipation of Floricane's hot new name badges. Alas, there was no package.

Here's where the lesson in keeping it real comes in. I figured out that the package did not ship in time for our event. Rob might have cried he felt so bad about missing our deadline. He didn't waste a moment to say, "I blew it," and that he would do what he could to make it right, which he did.

There was a choice -- be really mad and and raise a stink in the name of  "good business" or say exactly what was going through my mind -- that I could have made the very same mistake this week. That in my boss' mind, I should have ordered these weeks ago anyway, in which case we wouldn't be racing the clock.

I make these mistakes all the time. And sometimes they're bigger than others. But what I what I really, really admire about Rob was his willingness to say, "I'm sorry I let you down." No excuses. No canned b/s. A sincere human apology.  

Rob responded honestly and authentically, which humbled me to recognize my own propensity for error.

I know we're not talking about brain surgery or tons of money, but it was important to me. It was important to John and the team. All of which made it important to Rob. And, that's good business.

PS: Did I mention his amazingly handcrafted work is half the price of those plastic name tags everyone else is wearing?

Business Dating

The Floricane team recently sat down with a local public relations firm on a quasi blind date.

The goal was to learn if we liked each other and if our services were complimentary enough that we might recommend each other from time to time. It was all about introductions and how we gothere for the first part – then both teams got excited.

As I described our core services and the work we do for groups around town a funny thing happened.

I fell in love.

I have always known that my life’s work was nonprofits. But in those moments of describing our passionate belief that our services were making a big difference in the lives of people in our community I realized that this business where I have been hanging around for a year now – had stolen a piece of my heart.
 
There is a moment when you fall in love where you don’t exactly know it yet – you are describing this incredible person who has turned your life upside down to a friend and you see them realize it a moment or two before you. Because, love is a scary thing, right?
 
How about loving a business? Loving a business is about believing fully in the mission and vision and ideals, having great fun, and for me the extra necessary part – the belief that the work I was doing was changing the world.
 
After our business date, John Sarvay and I headed out to lunch with Chris, a friend of his. Chris had just found out that he was being appointed board president of a thriving and important local nonprofit. For an hour he spoke passionately about the nonprofit and we made suggestions and asked questions.  As he talked I realized, he too was in love. It was infectious – by the end of the lunch he had me convinced in supporting this organization.
 
It was a day packed full of energy. Both dates went well, and I expect more dates in the future. So my big lesson -- I believe in the work that I am doing with Floricane; I know that it is creating change in the community for the better. Consulting with people and organizations who are willing and daring enough to demand change is my life’s work. Change can happen in a public relations firm, a nonprofit, a credit union, or a major corporation – in fact, Floricane can help make that change possible.

It's my life's work, but I am not doing it alone.

The Power of Thank You

When I started Floricane more than two years ago, I made a commitment to myself to regularly write thank you notes – to prospective clients, lunch and coffee dates, people who’ve lent a hand along the way.

I just ordered my third 500 count box of envelopes, and am racing to catch up with a large handful of recently completed clients and coffee meetings.

For all the electronic communication Floricane does – emails, PDF proposals, e-newsletters, a variety of social media – all of us are steadfast fans of a hand-written notes.

A thank you in any form is a powerful thing.

Last month, in Floricane’s regular newsletter, I congratulated Cara McDaniel on her first year with the team; she received a half-dozen congratulatory emails from clients, strangers, my own mother. Cara was surprised, pleased and a bit flattered.

During a recent series of wrap-up sessions with the staff of the Library of Virginia, one of the employee work teams referenced a desire for the Library to create a “thank you” culture. On a whim, as we wrapped up the first session, I asked everyone in the room to take out a piece of paper and a pen.

“Think about our last six months of strategic work,” I said. “Think of one person who has made a difference, connected with you in a meaningful way. Write down their name.”

When those gathered had written down a name, I asked them to write a note of thanks to the person whose name they’d written. Create a culture of thank you today, I said.

More than several people at the Library have commented since on their surprise at receiving a note from a coworker.

I was unable to free my schedule recently to do work with one of my favorite organizations in town – the Bonner Center for Civic Engagement at the University of Richmond. Instead, I met with the Center’s Amy Howard and Sylvia Gale to design a two-day staff retreat that both reflected on the Center’s 10-year history and its future.

One small slice of the retreat involved thank you notes.

I ran into Amy at the South of the James Market recently, and asked her about the retreat. She said several people decided to write personal notes to every person on the team, lingering long after the session ended to pen their appreciation. The letters were sealed, and Amy dropped them in the mail last week.

On the home front, Nikole had the ridiculous idea to ask that we appreciate each other nightly for at least one thing that we did for the other during the day. Six years later, I can count on two hands the number of evenings we’ve missed – and cannot imagine our marriage without this evening ritual.

In our rush for the next thing, to accomplish the next task, how often do we miss the opportunity to appreciate the moment we just left?

Who do you need to thank? What’s getting in your way?