Going to Trial

We had our first hands-on strategic planning session with the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association in the old Miller & Rhoads building (or the new Hilton Garden, depending on your historical orientation) this week. Sarah and I were a bit nervous – it’s not every day we get to go toe-to-toe with a group of lawyers!We started the morning with the 25 staff and board members by asking them to describe why the organization matters. Quick alignment emerged as the group addressed their collective passion for the justice system and the protection of the right to trial by jury, and spoke of a continued need for Virginia’s lawyers to feel connected to a broader community of practice.

We spent a lot of time talking about ways in which the association could engage a new generation of trial lawyers, and identifying a set of strategic drivers for their emerging plan that have the potential to elevate and transform the organization’s work across the Commonwealth.

Our team has a series of working sessions scheduled with the VTLA this winter, and hope to deliver a final strategic document to their board in February.

Four Out of Five Dentists

We’ve recently started strategic planning work with the Virginia Dental Association Foundation, which does amazing philanthropic work providing oral health care to lower-income people across Virginia.

As usual, we’ll start with some discovery – interviewing key staff, board and other stakeholders in an effort to gain a deeper perspective into the organization’s strategic opportunities. In early January, we’ll sit down with the full board and explore the best directions for the foundation to strengthen and grow its programming to reach even more Virginians in need of care. Our plan will be to deliver a final document to the VDAF board by early spring.

Reshaping Culture, by the Book

We’re well into a multi-month organizational effort with the Library of Virginia, and I think it’s safe to say that we’re all learning as we go! Debra Saneda and I have been working side-by-side with the Library for more than a year now on a major organizational change, which included the development of a new vision for the state library and archive:

The Library of Virginia will inspire learning, ignite imagination, create possibilities, encourage understanding, and engage Virginia's past to empower its future.

During recent months, we’ve been working closely with 35 leaders and key “influencers” at all levels of the Library to increase the organization’s capacity to “live into” a very ambitious vision. In addition to using the Insights Discovery® self-awareness instrument to help the group better understand the organizational culture, we’ve worked through the very real impact leadership can have not only climate but also on organizational results. Debra has also been providing individual leadership coaching for a portion of the group.

As organizations like the Library continue to refocus their energies to embrace new technologies, changing demographics and creative ways of achieving their mission, it is increasingly important to ensure key individuals within the organization understand their ability to influence and lead. We’re excited to work with agencies like the Library as they retool for a new century of collecting, archiving, learning and inspiring.

Telling Our Story Through Video

As we close in on its third anniversary as a business, we’ve been focused on the ways in which we tell our story. We’re particularly excited to be working with local multimedia journalist Alix Bryan, who is working on a series of short videos for Floricane.

I recently sat down with Alix and chatted about how Floricane got its start, how its grown and the ways in which I think we bring something unique to our engagements. She’ll also be talking to our lead consultant Sarah Milston, and four of our favorite clients – Robert Dortch of U-TURN Sports Performance Academy; Bill Martin of the Valentine Richmond History Center; Linda Martin of Bon Secours Virginia Health Systems; and Neelam Thompson from the Virginia Credit Union.

I’m excited to see how Alix ties each of the stories she hears into a Floricane narrative, and will be even more excited to share the final video (and the sure to be amusing outtakes) with our clients and partners later in November.

Turning the Page On the Calendar

Seeing a long-time project finally come in for a landing always feels good. Today, I sat in a room at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts with more than 100 representatives from area cultural and media organizations to celebrate the launch of #RVA's first collaborative, regional calendaring system.

A result of the 2008 Cultural Action Plan for the region, the calendaring system is not a public events calendar. Rather, it is a behind-the-scenes repository of regional events and activities -- a one-stop database for organizations holding events, and a one-stop resource for media looking for a comprehensive list of regional events. The new system was designed by a small team at the Richmond Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau (RMCVB) over the past two years.

Their first brainstorming session in May of 2009 pulled together dozens of stakeholders from the cultural, media and technology communities. It was among my first paid gigs as Floricane started to gain momentum. One of the nice things about the process is that the result is far better than we could have imagined two years ago.

The results of the work done by Katherine O'Donnell, Stephanie Kenney and the RMCVB team was in evidence at today's calendar system rollout. And while it should change the way hundreds of organizations share their event information, and give local media a great tool to curate their own unique calendars, it will be almost entirely invisible to local residents -- who will ultimately benefit most from the new system.

Following Through

The Floricane team facilitated a relatively new nonprofit board through a day of organizing and planning earlier this summer. The group ended its day with a laundry list of homework – new committee structures, policies to be written, tracking down new board candidates.

At the invitation of the organization’s executive director, I dropped into their latest board meeting to check in and see how things were going.

Each of the committees had made real, tangible progress. The board came to the table ready to act, voting on committee recommendations. There was a clear agenda. Meeting materials were well organized. The meeting ended on time.

Color me impressed.

There is nothing particularly magical about what this organization has done – unless you count a tenacious executive director, a committed board and a new staff member who pays attention and gets things done.

All of which, when you come to think about it, is pretty magical.

Current Work: October 2011

With apologies to A.A. Milne, the Floricane team is pretty excited to celebrate three years of relationship building and change making in November.

We've worked with more than 100 organizations throughout the Richmond region and across Virginia to help strategize, focus and develop leadership, and create the conditions for positive transformation.

We can't thank you enough for your support during this exciting time, and a special thanks to the following organizations who we're celebrating our anniversary with -- on the job.

• Library of Virginia
• Richmond Association of Realtors
• Virginia Trial Lawyers Association
• Virginia Oral Health Coalition
• Virginia Dental Association Foundation
• Rx Partnership
• Virginia Clean Cities
• Bon Secours Richmond Health Systems
• The James House
• Greater Richmond Chamber
• Bonner Center for Civic Engagement
• Virginia Poverty Law Center

Playground Perspectives: Behavioral Cues (October 2011)

It's a lesson every parent learns. I imagine most of us bat .300 during the 18 seasons our children live full-time under our roofs. That might be generous in my case.

Improving your batting average is important, whether you're raising children or leading a team. Feedback is onetool that is both misunderstood and misapplied in most organizations. At its best, feedback is information. At its worst, it's a distraction from the real levers of change. I learned this particular lesson from Charlie and Edie Seashore, who have been in the thick of organizational change work since the 1940s.

"Feedback," Charlie challenged a group of us several years ago, "is the least effective way to change someone else's behavior."

He waited for that to sink in, and then he repeated himself.

"Feedback," Charlie continued, "is the least effective way to change someone else's behavior. Changing your behavior is the most effective way to change someone else's behavior."

Do as I do. Walk the walk. Model the behavior you want to see. There are a dozen ways to slice it, but each of us have people in our lives who look to us for cues to guide their own behavior.

What's interesting to me is how the cues change over time.

Thea started by watching what her mom and I do, and mimicking and reflecting us. But I've noticed lately that she's charging ahead with her own life, driven by her own impulses. More often than not, when she looks to us now, it's over her shoulder -- and she's looking for subtle cues of permission, approval or dismay. What she sees when she looks back at us has an immediate impact on her behavior.

That sort of makes it important that Nikole and I both manage our emotions appropriately. When we misstep, she stumbles.

I can be pretty terrible at this -- especially after a long week of "being on" at work. When I get home tired, I stop leading with my self-awareness and my core values, and my personality style and emotions jump to the front of the train. I get hijacked faster, and the signals Thea receives trigger her faster -- on bad days, I suspect Nikole wishes I had just stayed at work.

Nikole plays in this space much better than I do. She's more empathetic, and she slows down to be engaged in the moments where I am accelerating. On good days -- and Nikole has more good days than I do -- we can all feel it hum.

Psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi calls that hum "flow". I call it relaxing. My family, my team and my clients all deserve a higher batting average. How's your swing?