Everyman His Own Historian, and Filmmaker, and Urban Planner…

Last fall, Floricane’s John Sarvay casually asked whether the Library of Virginia could supply a staff member who knew something about Richmond for a project he was planning. I distinctly recall the Librarian of Virginia quickly pointing my way. I had just been volunteered, but no problem. After all, I’ve spoken hundreds of times on Richmond and spilled copious ink describing the twists and turns of the cit y’s celebrated and at times tortured past. Piece of cake.

In preparation, I reviewed an entry on Richmond that I had written years ago for the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. I then did what everyone else (the 99.99999%) would do -- I googled the Wikipedia entry on Richmond. Duly ar med with the “official” and the crowd-sourced versions, I ambled out onto Broad Street for the short walk to the Valentine Richmond History Center for our first meeting.

The gathering opened haltingly, as our hosts pressed us for new ways to engage our audience. This was not intended to be the top-down, voice-of-God, Ken Burns THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT style of history telling, but a meaningful and active engagement with the participants.

I thought about Wikipedia’s “Richmond.” Could we crowd source the city’s story at an event? The ideas began to flow.

Christy Coleman, director of the American Civil War Center, wondered if groups could create their own Richmond timelines; what if folks created their own personal maps of Richmond and assembled those into a collaborative cityscape?  Bill Martin of the Valentine Richmond History Center wonder if a call could go out for aspiring filmmakers to document their city? The ideas were limitless.

And out of those ideas came a four-part series of interactive history events centered on the ways Richmond tells its stories, and the changes that have shaped those stories. “RIC/RVA: 400 Years of Revolution, Innovation and Change in Richmond” engaged several hundred people in unique, and very personal, storytelling.

At the first event at the Library of Virginia, I was struck by the wide range of ages in the crowd. As I circulated, sipping wine and chatting up my audience, aspects of this age difference became apparent. Older attendees asked about the “lecture,” while younger people simply assumed this would be an interactive experience.  As striking was the number of folks in attendance who had called Richmond home for only few years -- or less.

Christy and I passed out a deck of cards emblazoned with images and descriptions of key events spanning the breadth of Richmond’s history: riots, disasters, momentous meetings, political chicanery, and cultural milestones -- the good, bad, and the ugly. Groups would take ten of those cards and create a narrative with a “wild card” event of their choosing. They were now the storytellers.

We watched as people swapped ideas and argued themes to create their story. With event lists plastered to the walls, everyone joining together to interpret the broad patterns. There was no single “Richmond.” One was racked by conflict -- bus boycotts, bread riots, political strife, and rebellions. Another focused on culture and arts, a story of creativity. Others focused on Richmond “firsts,” the economy, immigrants, and so forth. Finally, groups sat down with volunteer designers to create posters that encapsulated the narrative ideas. Each subsequent session strove to achieve the same degree of interactivity and engagement.

RIC/RVA reaffirmed my belief that Richmond is undergoing a dramatic transformation in its collective zeitgeist and self-image.

The passion for and innovative thinking about the city that I witnessed in these sessions, often displayed by people who were relatively new to the community, was awe-inspiring. When I first arrived in Richmond more than twenty-five years ago, the city’s history was as a much a weight that dragged us down as it was an inspiration. Today, people look at the past not just as posterity but in search of possibilities. That is an enormous change.

The event also taught me lessons about my primary craft: Public History.  It demonstrated that an innovative, team approach can make history exciting and relevant to a much younger audience than most historical institutions currently enjoy. Success will come if we truly engage people in the real work of history making rather than in the memorization of rote knowledge.

Oh, and I still want to re-write Richmond’s Wikipedia entry by way of a wiki-thon with the public.

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Gregg Kimball is Director of Public Services and Outreach for the Library of Virginia. The Library of Virginia was an organizing partner in the RIC/RVA series, along with the American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar, i.e.*, the Valentine Richmond History Center and Floricane.

The Power of Leadership and Storytelling, and 60 Young Professionals

Everyone loves a great storyteller. I, however, am not a great storyteller, but a great story collector. It is a favorite thing to settle into the fringes of a room andobserve; the people, the expressions, the energy, the connecting, or sometimes the lack thereof. Last Friday at the Bon Secours Emerging Leaders Summit in Williamsburg, nestled into the back corner of the room, I had a prime perch to take in the day's stories. Lucky me - and lucky all fifty of the Bon Secours up-and-comers in attendance - the inimitable Christy Coleman of the American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar, and our own hilariously self-deprecating and poignantly on point John Sarvay, were the day's masterful storytellers. The energy quickly shifted in the room and the engagement of the crowd was palpable, as John and Christy shared their stories of personal growth and triumph, underlining that the journey really begins when we first know ourselves; our strengths, our weaknesses, our values. Though I'm not certain that vulnerability was meant to be the lesson of the day, it is the word that best describes what I observed, as slowly, slowly we were offered the opportunity to see ourselves in each of them. Perhaps the place to begin is with that step just before career trajectories are dreamed of, planned and plotted, at the true beginning, with a good close look in the mirror.

Changing the World by Engaging the Planet

Last Friday I was lucky enough to be part of the Floricane team that lead a staff retreat for the 60 employees of the Daily Planet, a Richmond based nonprofit serving the homeless community.  We were fortunate to get to work with an internal planning team to design a day that was informative, focused and fun.  They asked two big things of us:

1. They wanted to have fun and to laugh and enjoy them selves.

2. They wanted to see a change on Monday.

FUN

I know lots of fun activities, but fun for fun sake isn't really going to cut it for an 8 hour retreat.   Some activities we customize for clients, and some are so awesome that we might use them over and over with the right groups.  The Balloon exercise is one of those.  As members of the VCU Advancement Department and RVA Leadership Lab can attest it is a high energy thirty minute exercise that includes laughter, competition, rules, and change.  With the Daily Planet I was overjoyed to see the teams sprouting unlikely leaders and really getting into it.  But the ah-ha moment where fun becomes purposeful came in the debrief, this group of sixty people got the connection between balloons and leadership and the application of this experience in their daily life more than any group I have seen so far. 

CHANGE

Part of facilitation is the ability to be nimble in the moment.  I always warn our clients that while I give you an agenda, we might have to divert from it if we need to chase a concept or build out an idea.  Usually, this is something we just do, but sometimes the magic happens when we listen. Towards the end of the day a staff member came forward and asked that we design an activity that would capture what people thought was the best idea they had heard all day.  So, we grabbed 10 minutes from the schedule and captured the information.  The answers ranged from hilarious to really poignant.

MONDAY

At the end of the day we asked that every person make a commitment to do something different on Monday based on what they had learned about their co-workers, the Daily Planet, and its opportunities. So what happened Monday?  If you see a staff member of the Daily Planet, ask them. So far I've heard that the building was buzzing and  the Management Team started acting on some of the best ideas the team generated.

All in all, a powerful and fun way to spend a Friday.

Getting More GOOD Ideas for RVA

You can’t turn around in RVA these days without a good idea hitting you on the head – while that can be exasperating at times, it’s an amazing turnabout from the days when everything in Richmond was half-full and the same 35 people showed up in the same rooms to rehash the same perspectives. Fresh, optimistic perspectives seem to be a new normal in the creative and entrepreneurial quarter, and last week’s GOOD Id eas for Cities event at the Virginia Historical Society is a case in point.

More than 200 people – not your usual suspects, for the most part – came together to hear three randomly formed teams of creative, businesspeople and civic do-gooders share their ideas for attracting more people to the James River, getting more tourists to get off the interstate and explore RVA, and repair our struggling middle schools.

Ross Catrow at RVANews was on the team exploring the interstate question (as was I) and provides a solid summary of the event, and the ideas:

The first group was asked to think about bringing people and dollars to the Canal Walk and the riverfront. They decided that one of the obstacles to attracting actual humans to the river is the lack of businesses near the river. Easy to solve right? Just get more businesses down there!

But have you ever tried to actually start a business? It’s a morass of confusing terminology and a web of links to a trillion different city departments. Here’s the current page from the city designed to “help” you start your new business. This could be SO MUCH better!

The team suggested creating a very straightforward, easy to use resource (Pop-up RVA) that laid out the simplest and quickest path to getting your new business up and running. They suggested focusing on mobile and cart-based business, as those would be easier to “pop-up” down by the river.

Ross also spoke about the new vibe I mentioned a bit earlier in this piece:

I… really do think that this is a special moment in time for Richmond. We need to take advantage of the momentum created by things like Art 180, g40, and the RVA Street Art Fest. We need to start implementing creative, diverse, and good ideas throughout the city.

As always, implementation is the key to turning good ideas into good works. Here’s hoping the GOOD Ideas for Cities launch transforms into GOOD Works for Richmond.

Transforming Dental – and Medical – Care Across Virginia

Even as the American health care system snaps in the ever-changing winds of politics, many of our nonprofit clients are trying to read the tea leaves – and anticipate the future. A few, like the Virginia Oral Health Coalition (VOHC), are hoping to shape the future.

VOHC got off to a good start in April when it brought close to dozens of Virginia organizations together for a day-long su mmit to explore ways to better integrate medical and dental care.

The concept is simple – making it more of a norm for dentists to ask basic medical health questions of their patients, and vice-versa; creating a mechanism to allow doctors to schedule dental appointments for their primary care patients, and vice-versa; and so forth.

Led by VOCH executive director Sarah Bedard Holland, and project manager Katherine Libby, we facilitated a series of design team meetings that led to the summit.

Those small group sessions created the focus and framework for the full-day summit on April 20 with its vision of a Virginia where, “Optimal oral health is the norm and achieved through collaboration among patients, healthcare providers and the broader community.”

Under the banner of “Improving Health Through Collaboration” the session featured a compelling presentation by Washington State’s Dr. Russell Maeir on “Engaging Primary Care in Prevention”. And Virginia’s Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Resources presented a set of data that demonstrated both the serious impact of poor dental care on the health of Virginians, and the significant financial costs of poor oral health care.

The 100 participants – representing some of Virginia’s major academic communities and professional associations, and health-centered nonprofits, as well as practicing dental and medical professionals – spent the rest of the day working through the development of a short-term, actionable plan to change the landscape. From the way we teach students in the health professions to the way established doctors and dentists do their work, from redesigned IT systems and modifications to the insurance standards, from the way patients and the community learn about the importance of oral health, no stone was left unturned.

By July, the VOHC team hopes to have developed a substantive plan that will be implemented collaboratively across Virginia with hundreds of partners. The belief is that system-wide change can happen by pulling strategically on three major levers – professional education, consumer awareness, and policy change.

As always, it is powerful and humbling to be able to support organizations that are out to do serious, game-changing work.

Grand Finale of RIC/RVA Brings It All Back Home

Last Wednesday, on the heels of a warm spring afternoon, the final chapter of the RIC/RVA history series was brought to a close. Eight weeks in the making this final eventwas the culmination of the process of discovery, learning, inspiration, and creativity that the series has come to represent. Over the last two months we've been privy to just how much revolution, innovation, and change there had been in the history of RVA. Not only have we educated ourselves i n our city's history, but we've had the rare opportunity to interact with that history on our own terms and discover something about ourselves in the process. It was within the walls of the Library of Virginia that we congregated once again for our final event.

Upon entering the rec eption area for this last edition of the series, you were struck by something instantly gratifying. No, I do no refer here to the free wine and snacks generously supplied by Floricane, but the final product of our first creative endeavor within the RIC/RVA series. As some may remember, and as I mentioned in my first post for the series(LINK), we sketched some ideas for posters that would accurately capture our sense of RVA, something that we would want to share with out-of-towners. After weeks of production and design the final product was exceptional. Clear in the eyes of attendees was a pride and interest that was enjoyable to watch.

After some poster admiration, and a little wine to loosen the gears, the group of near 50 participants moved into the auditorium for the night's main features. John reintroduced the concept behind the series - to begin reexamining the story we've told about Richmond, and to perhaps find a new story to tell. He then engaged the group for feedback as to their favorite events, worst moments, and new discoveries made. Not surprisingly, the response was overwhelming positive.

It was then that the historians had a chance to give their peace on the series as a whole. Bill Martin, of the Valentine Richmond History Center, Gregg Kimball, of the Library of Virginia, and Christy Coleman, of the American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar all highlighted their experiences. Bucking the formal panel seating that was arranged for them, the three sat feet dangling off the stage, a few steps away from the front row. While each gave a wholly unique version their thoughts on the series, most notable was their admission that the events gave them an opportunity to explore history in a different way than they are accustom. It seemed that over these weeks we turned from proper chronology, instead investigating feeling and purpose more than date recollection. The gist, it seemed, was that a new way of telling our story was beginning to form.

The night culminated in a series of eight videos submitted by local Richmonders, highlighting a sense of what their RVA looked like. Peter Fraser, Becky Carey, Myself, Jonathan Hirsh, Sheena Jeffers, and David Kalman all submitted to the nights visual candy. Giving a wide perspective of RVA, we saw kids skateboarding with their dad, an artist at work, a look at a hopeful future, and the last hours at a local bar. Indeed, we had arrived at an interesting story of Richmond. One that was crafted from the unique lives each of us leads, and the community space we share.

Wrapping up the evening, participants were given the chance to give their opinion of the series. There was one unifying sentiment that pervaded the room: optimism. It was clear that this series had accomplished its goal, a new story was indeed developing. With participation and optimism there isn't much that cannot be accomplished, and the RIC/RVA history series was only the beginning.

A Radiolab Lesson in Facilitation

Working for Floricane, you hear a lot about facilitation. You hear a lot about how to engage people, how to lead an interactive conversation, and how to actively arrive somewhere new. I've seen this process at work through the InSights program, the RIC/RVA history series, and in most every conversation I have with John. I was impressed, however, to see it hard at work in a recent lecture given by Jad Abumrad, co-host of the popular NPR radio show and podcast, Radiolab.

Monday night, Abumrad spoke before a packed house at the VCU Common's Theater. He was invited as the keynote speaker for VCU 's Student Research Week, which runs through this Friday.

If you're not familiar with Abumrad's work at Radiolab, you're most certainly missing out. As best described by the show's website: "Radiolab is a show about curiosity. Where sound illuminates ideas, and the boundaries blur between science, philosophy, and human experience." And while this description concisely captures the gist of the show, the experience you receive from each episode is unmatched. Often one finds themselves at once questioning all they've ever known, while finding validation for all their hearts have known to be true. Therefore, it was with avid fan-ship that I was brought to a fourth row seat.

And so it began. Like many seasoned speakers, Jad started things off with that "a-little-about-me" download with which we're all familiar. The thematic element of Jad's introduction centered around the idea of tension. Specifically, Abumrad described the tension he experience in his mid-twenties in which he wrestled with a life-long dream of becoming a musician, and his alternative interest for being a writer. He described his vacillation, noting that when one pursuit would seem to fail he'd turn hurriedly to the other, and then back again. His final resting place, as it turned out, finds him sitting with the tension between those two worlds, neither wholly writer nor musician, but a balance of both.

Abumrad's talk moved forward with an enjoyable journey through clips of old Radiolab episodes and his reflections on the lessons learned from each curious investigation. Yet, as we traveled along this journey there was a mounting expectation for release, that in the description of these beautiful stories there would be revealed some over arching lesson, some comfortable teddy bear of an idea with which to go home and snuggle. However, that moment never arrived, and it wasn't clear why until his talk concluded and the floor opened for questions.

As Abumrad happily and humbly entertained the audience's Radiolab quandaries, he soon had the opportunity to answer what the show's goal had become, and for what purpose the show existed. His answer came without thought: "I just want to lead people to moments of wonder."

The thing about facilitation is that the way you deliver your message should embody that very message. Abumrad did exactly that. The tension it was his life goal to embody was what he gave his audience, bringing us brilliant stories, and leading us to the edge of the ocean, allowing us to gaze at its awe together; all questions unanswered, and conclusions left for another day.

Dr. Strengths and Dr. Weaknesses Or How I Experienced Self-Discovery and Fell in Love with Insights

Going into my first Insights Self-Discovery workshop earlier this week, I wasn't too sure what to expect.Having completed the online evaluator, I felt uneasy about what my Personal Profile would tell me. I felt that my answers were inconsistent and struggled to find a pattern as I was completing the online evaluation. But I kept going and was as honest as I possibly could be in my answers.

I'm 21 years old--so learning how I work with othe rs is still something I'm trying to figure out, among other things!

Sat in a room of about 8 others, my Floricane colleagues Debra, John and Tina began giving me and the other participants some background information about Insights. How they feel that this self-discovery tool is the most effective, the most engaging and the most accurate. John struck a chord when he mentioned the core of Insights Self-Discovery: the wheel. Rather than boxing you into one category or one definition of a type of personality or learning style, Insights appreciated the uniqueness of all of us...everyone embodies each of the four colors! We're all comprised of bits of Fiery Red, Cool Blue, Earth Green and of course, my dominate color, Sunshine Yellow.

After a series of eye-opening and mind-boggling perception exercises, Tina came around with our 32 page Personal Profiles. I watched and heard as myself as well as those seated around me began devouring their profiles. The general chatter was the shock in how accurate their profiles were. It seemed that a lot of the revelations were unexpected initially. However, as we all discussed and dissected our profiles, we learned that most of the information was that of a powerful reaffirming nature. That was something that was really resonated with me. Insights helped to reassure, reaffirm and soothe me and my fellow participants in who we are, how we communicate and how that not only affects our work and professional lives but also our home life. (Many jokes were made about directly handing the 32 page Personal Profiles to your spouse--for effective communication!)

Towards the end of day, a participant from my table asked John and Debra if people who took the Insights evaluation twice at "different stages" in their life ever came up with different results. John and Debra said that while most people make leaps and bounds and adaptions, for the most part people remain true to what that were when they first completed Insights. Talk about a reaffirmation!