Going Bold

I’m proficient in chess but no expert. Or maybe I’m not really proficient. Let’s just say I enjoy playing chess. I taught my son when he was little and it was one of the few games we have continued to enjoy together into his teen years.

When he was learning the rules I would help him, making my move and then working with him to outfox me. Once he became proficient he was on his own. For a long time I still usually won. The day he beat me was a happy one (really). The day he beat me twice in a row I doubled down. I got careful. It got personal. And after he beat me three times in a row I didn’t want to play for awhile.

There were a few years where we played very little. I would ask to play but he didn’t want to. He said I took way too long to make a move. I was slow because I was being careful. I plotted every move as if my life depended on it. Or at least my self-respect. The problem is that it didn’t make me any better of a player and it made the game less fun.

Then this past winter we went on vacation and over the long flight I suggested we play chess. It had been a long time - maybe six months since we last played. He was bored enough to say yes. And something changed for me. I got back in touch with the fact that it was only a game. I knew if I lost there would be another game. I also knew if I continued to plot and plod he would get annoyed (happens easily at 16) and it wouldn’t be as much fun. So I got bold. I worried less about defense. I worried less about all the what ifs.

We played many games. His crowning glory was getting me into checkmate in 4 moves. Mine was giving myself the freedom to fail. And in doing so I won more. We played more, I won more, and lost more, and we both had more fun.

I came home thinking this might be the lesson I took from vacation this year. To be bold. I’m over 50. What really do I have to lose? I want to do something for the greater good. My accomplishments are small but I’ve helped bend the arc in my own personal way. I don’t want to let other opportunities pass me by while I play defense. Against what? Failing? Being laughed at? Financial ruin? It’s time to let go of fear and be brave enough to be bold.

Robert Frost said “Freedom lies in being bold.” So does fun, and so does progress. We live in a time that needs bold ideas, bold people, bold moves. There was a time where perhaps caution was advisable. If I didn’t play my cards right I might lose the opportunity to try again. Today there are fewer opportunities to go big and so I will swing for the fences.

Next month is my birthday. My gift to myself will be the freedom to be bold - for all the right reasons. That, and to beat my son at another game of chess.

To the men (and women) in the arena

My 16-year-old son David hobbled out the door on his way to a whitewater kayak competition. He made finals after competing in three events: downriver, slalom, and freestyle. I cheered him on from the shore back home he dragged himself off to bed shortly after dinner. But he was up and out again the next morning by 7 a.m. without complaint, even though he was limping on a sore foot that he had somehow injured on one of his runs and his hands were bandaged in an attempt to protect skin cracks that won’t heal in the constant exposure to cold river water. Bowed but unbroken. Damaged but determined. I don’t know if he’ll win today, and I don’t really care. I’m more proud of his dedication, his passion, and his dream than I am of how it all ends. And I recognize in my son a kindred spirit

We have different reasons for doing what we each do. He does what he does for fun. When I suggest more sleep, cross-training, or a better diet to help give him a more competitive edge, his 16-year old voice drops an octave and he says, “Mom, don’t make this not fun.”  

I get it. I started my business with the idea that it would be fun. And it mostly was (in some twisted way), though  eventually, for me, fun wasn’t enough. At some point the concepts of meaning and legacy became more important motivating ideas. That’s when I decided to convert Walker to a social enterprise, committing a third of distributed profits and a minimum of 2% of revenues to community. It was also the beginning of reSET which is a nonprofit I started at about that same time to advance the social enterprise sector. And while running a business-or two-is still often fun,  it feels meaningful to have a more important goal to work toward.

The challenge of growing a business or rising up through a sport requires focus and a dogged, sometimes zombielike persistence. Teddy Roosevelt summed it up beautifully in a speech he gave 100 years ago:

“It is not the critic who counts;

not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles,
or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena,

whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;
who strives valiantly;

who errs, who comes short again and again,
because there is no effort without error and shortcoming;
but who does actually strive to do the deeds;

who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions;
who spends himself in a worthy cause;

who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement,
and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly,

so that his place shall never be
with those cold and timid souls
who neither know victory nor defeat.”

The first time I read this ode, it made me weep.  We had just tasted defeat at reSET, having failed to pass our package of social enterprise legislation for the second year in a row.  I felt played out. But anything worth doing is worth failing at again and again. So we picked ourselves up and started anew.  And that next year, we finally got our legislation passed. I know there are other fights out there. I know it’s more likely that I’ll go down in the ring rather than retire, and  when I do there will no doubt be critics ready to point out the things  I could have done better. But I’m ok with that, because I’m proud to be in the game.

more on David and freestyle whitewater kayaking

David has now left again to compete in the National Team trials and a chance to go on to the Worlds.  I wish him  luck , but he’s already a winner in my book, as are all the warriors for good -those who are willing to wake up every morning with aches and bruises and too little sleep, but ready to step into the arena and fight the good fight.

Here’s to all the men and women in the arena!

Bonny's Dream

When do you tell a fun, talented, passionate, loyal employee who happens to have a rare and scary heart condition to take a hike?  When she asks for it!

Our own Bonny MacInnis is leaving us to hike 500 miles along the Appalachian Trail, raising awareness and funds for  Left Ventricular Noncompaction Cardiomyopathy (LVNC).

I’ve gotten to know Bonnie at Walker where she works on the on-call team supporting our clients and leading our community service team.  She is a generous, kind soul who laughs easily and often.  She’s the kind of employee that makes being boss easy:  She is appreciative, reliable, team-spirited, and always looking for ways to contribute.

Bonny found out she had LVNC a few years ago and after having a pacemaker implanted she lived in fear -  until she decided not to.  She hatched the idea for her hike as a way to raise awareness and funds for LVNC and to not let a disease define her.  This was the beginning of hiking4hearts.org and Bonny’s dream.

She worked incredibly hard to get into shape for this hike, losing over 65 pounds and working out for a couple of hours before and after work.  On weekends she took practice hikes.  And planned her trip.  Now she’s ready to go.

We talk a lot about leadership at Walker, and at a recent gathering we agreed on several of the attributes of a true leader:

• Initiative

• Dedication

• Drive

• Vision

• Dependability

• Follow-through

• Courage

Bonnie has all of these.  

We wish her well!  

There’s an Irish blessing that comes to mind:

 

May the road rise to meet you,

May the wind always be at your back,

May the sun shine warm upon your face,

May the rains fall softly upon your fields…

 

And might we add:

 

May the critters you meet be friendly and small

May your blisters heal without pain

May black fly season be over by now

And may your tent not leak in the rain

 

May you inspire us to wonder

As you wander the wood

What dreams we might reach for

If only we could!

But we can’t 

Because

Well

Frankly

Someone has to work 

While you’re off

Wandering  the wilderness

But that’s ok

Really!

Still,

 

 

Go knowing we will miss you

And your warm, bright, kindly sass

And we’ll pray every day for our

Brave, Bonny Lass

Nancy P. Roberts Award

The Connecticut Council for Philanthropy presented the 2015 Nancy P. Roberts Award to THE WALKER GROUP. The award honors a grantmaking organization for demonstrated innovation in philanthropy.  This means a great deal to me as the founder and CEO.  We’re in the technology business so innovation is in our DNA and having started Walker almost 30 years ago I’ve seen my share of transformation:  Today we offer Internet Security Planning, Web and App design and other services that didn’t exist 30 years ago.  But the transformation that I’m by far and away the most proud of is our conversion to the social enterprise model.

I’m deeply grateful to the Connecticut Council for Philanthropy for the recognition that social enterprise is an innovation in philanthropy because it is every bit as much a new twist on philanthropy as it is a new twist on business - It’s a hybrid.  It’s an opportunity to harness the mission of philanthropy to the engine of commerce.   Mohamed Yunus, grandfather of microfinance once said “show me a problem and I’ll show you a business opportunity!”   

We are living in a world full of problems and opportunities and I’m thrilled that we’re waking up to the power we have as human beings to tap our creativity to help the world around us.  I’m thrilled that through Walker’s support of reSET we hare helping to launch the next generation of social entrepreneurs who will turn these problems into opportunities.  Supporting social enterprise is an investment in impact driven businesses who use profits as a means to greater good, because business is a very powerful force in our world today and it can be a force of great good!

https://www.ctphilanthropy.org/news/council-presents-award-walker-group

Come check out the new digs

1429 Park Street - with plenty of free parking!

reSET has a new home at 1429 Park Street in Hartford.  Our entrepreneurs wanted more space for co-working, private offices, a media lab, a cafe, more programming, more access to mentors, experts, and funding to help launch and scale their businesses.  It will all happen here and with free parking to boot.   We’re a hop away from the Parkville Fastrack stop, it’s bike friendly, and near some great eateries!  It’s the perfect place for entrepreneurs of every stripe to call home.

Come visit!  Become a member!  Get involved!

• If you’ve got an idea for a new business we want to hear from you!
• If you’ve got skills or services that an entrepreneur needs we want to hear from you!
• If you’ve got investment dollars, we want to hear from you!
• If you just like the idea of using business to solve community problems, we want to hear from you!

Come visit!  Become a member!  Get involved!

We’d like to give a special shoutout to the Walker Group our founding partner, Connecticut Innovations, DECD, all of our sponsors and to our newest partner  The MetroHartford Alliance for helping to make this possible.

Our grand opening will be on June 18 starting at 4:30 so mark your calendars, or join us at any Open House Orientation on the  third Wednesday of every month at 4pm.

Check it out!  

Flat is where it's at!

We’ve been looking for a Senior Vice President at reSET for some time now.  We needed someone to manage the day-to-day operations and oversee the talented work of the team that’s in place, freeing me to concentrate on strategic development.

In the months of searching, a funny thing happened: The team stepped in, stepped up, and kept moving the ball forward. In the absence of a leader, they took the lead.

Program manager Rosie Gallant pulled in Ben Simmons-Telep to assist her in delivering the programs she leads, giving her bandwidth to start developing new programs. Ben didn’t just step up and help with the existing work, he took on a whole new initiative - setting up an Internship program - and saw it take off. 

Ojala Naeem, who has been managing the day-to-day operations of our co-working space, took it upon herself to research several co-working spaces from here to Toronto. She then put together various space crawls and surveys to find out what local entrepreneurs are looking for and conducted an exhaustive search in the Hartford area for suitable spaces for us to relocate to.  We signed a lease earlier this week and will be open for business at our new location-where there will be easy, free parking-May 1 (more to come on that!).

James Woulfe, who was instrumental in helping us propel the nation’s most comprehensive social enterprise legislation through the Connecticut Senate and House of Representatives (while at the same time working his way through law school), began establishing the connections we need within the city to help entrepreneurs navigate through and connect with the resources they need to succeed.

And Joanne Donaghue continued to plug away at sowing the development seeds, applying for grants, and developing relationships that will support our efforts.

Meanwhile, the search continued. We interviewed many strong candidates. But as the days became weeks and weeks became months, the perfect match did not emerge. And then the reSet team approached me to suggest that perhaps we didn’t really need to find a single leader. Perhaps, they ventured, they could lead together.

Yeah, but… I felt the need for a right hand to take details off my plate. (My other important role is as CEO of The Walker Group, a large and growing technology services firm. It’s my day job and takes at least half of my 80 hour week.) I don’t have the time to not have strong leadership…  I don’t have time to take on that leadership role I explained. I wouldn’t have to, they explained…

And here’s what happened: They created a tight-knit team that got the job done. They met among themselves to figure out what was needed and made it happen. They pulled me in for the high level discussions or when a tie-breaker was needed but for the most part they figured it out on their own. For my part, I found myself enjoying my time at reSET more than ever, because watching a well-oiled team at work is a thing of beauty, and because I was increasingly able to work at the strategic level that interests me and where I can add the most value. There’s respect and silliness, hard work and ping pong, planning and follow-through action. What we’re distinctly lacking is petty BS.  There is no whining, no games of one-upmanship, no grand-standing, no turf wars, and no passing the buck. The work is getting done. And then some.

So as of April 1 (no fooling) we’ve decided to forgo the position of Senior VP.  Instead we now have a team of directors who will blow you away:

• Joanne Donaghue will continue as Director of Development
• Rosie Gallant is now Programs Director
• Ojala Naeem is now our Director of Operations
• James Woulfe is our Director of Advocacy and External Affairs

And Ben Simmons-Telep -  our new Program Manager

 

When you next see one of these guys - congratulation them on their well-earned new roles. I am grateful and inspired to be working with them and excited to explore the possibilities of this flat, nimble organization that’s trying to do so much for a community that’s ready to rise.

 

Opposable minds want to thank David Brooks!

Opposable minds want to thank David Brooks for his editorial How to Leave a Mark editorial in the New York Times on January 27, 2015.  He talks about changing the way we do business by having “opposable minds: part profit-oriented and part purpose-oriented.”

I started one of these hybrids,  The Walker Group, a technology services firm, 30 years ago; it is  now one of the largest in Connecticut. I restructured it as a social enterprise in 2007.  Among other commitments, The Walker Group now  gives one third of any distributed profits to community, one third to employees, and one third to shareholders.  I also founded reSET (SocialEnterpriseTrust.org) to protect Walker’s status as a social enterprise and to promote this new business model.

Today reSET is the largest center for social enterprise in New England. It offers programs in social enterprise development, an investment fund to help startup social enterprise, co-working space, and other resources to help social entrepreneurs get the resources they need to start, grow, and flourish. Last year we awarded more than $50,000 in cash and prizes  to startup social entrepreneurs.  We also spearheaded  passage of the most comprehensive social enterprise legislation in the nation, which makes it easy for companies not only to establish themselves as a social enterprise but to protect that status in perpetuity if they want.  

For the skeptics who say we’re better served by having business focus only on the profits I suggest telling your kids the only thing in life that counts is grades.  Tell them nothing else matters and however you manage to get the A’s is fine so long as you get them.   Try that and let me know how it works out.  I’ll give you hint from the business world - Enron.

All market innovation is a response to a problem.  And while we can argue about the reasons for the number and depth of the problems we face today, nobody denies that we’ve got problems.  And when the problems confronting  a company, a country, or a species get big enough the only choice left is evolution or extinction.  Steady as she goes becomes less and less of a viable option. 

Alternative solutions are springing up but many require complicated, long term-fixes and cooperation from factions so dysfunctional they make the Hatfields and McCoy’s look like bosom buddies.  Social enterprise is different. To start a social enterprise you only need an idea and social entrepreneur who wants to bring it to life.  And a social entrepreneur is just someone who is looking to make a positive difference in the world and who is willing to build a business to help make that happen.  

We’re waking up to the fact that we can build a businesses to be  something more than a money making machine.  We can ask for a double or even triple bottom line; and while measuring social and environmental impact is tricky, it doesn’t make it any less important.  As Einstein wisely put it - Not everything that counts is countable.

And to those out there who say that the business of business is solely  to make money for shareholders, I say - “it’s a free market!  You have your goals, we have ours.  May the best business win.”   Increasingly, customers, employees, and investors are saying they want more than just a financial return.  They want to be part of the solution rather than a cog in someone else’s money making machine.

Social enterprises  are impact driven businesses with  a  purpose beyond profits.  Profits are important, but as a means to an end.  It’s like our health.  We work hard to stay healthy, not because health itself is nirvana, but because it enables us to do all the other fun/important/fulfilling stuff we do.

Will there be problems and abuses?  Of course.  Greenwashing is rampant - expect the same for goodwashing.  But when you get people talking the talk, then they’re increasingly inclined to start walking in the right direction.  It’s a start.

No single fix, no single model, no single law will solve every problem.  The road to equality for non-white, non-male people did not reach it’s desired goal with the passage of a law and the road ever since has  been fraught with speed bumps, detours, and highway robbers, but that’s how it works.  We start where we can and tweak as we go.   Martin Luther King taught us that the arc of the universe is long, but bends toward justice.   Social enterprise helps bend the mighty arc of business toward something that better serves us all.

That’s evolution.  And it’s working.  Momentum is picking up.  If our social enterprise bill had passed the first year we introduced it just three years ago we would have been the 8^th state to recognize this new business type.  When it passed just last year we were the 26^th state to do so. That’s momentum. 

Business is arguably the most powerful force on the planet right now and through social enterprise it can be a force for great good.

The social entrepreneurs we see and serve at reSET are every age, from kids coming out of school who want to make a difference with their business degrees to encore entrepreneurs who have retired or been retired from traditional businesses and are looking to do something meaningful with the next chapter of their lives.  We also see a lot of women including mothers returning to the labor force after raising a family but not wanting to return to their old unfulfilling jobs.  This kind of entrepreneurship is not limited to young white men of means.  These are people of all stripes who are passionate about a particular social issue and who are willing to  work hard, using business as the engine for change.

At reSET we’re teaching people with a dream how to make it happen in Connecticut.   Other states have similar programs.  And soon this way of doing business will become less alternative and more mainstream.  

We tend to think that “business as usual” is how it has always been done and the way it must continue.   But business is culture and paradigms change over time - slavery was once acceptable business practice, as was child labor, as was firing airline stewardesses on their 30^th birthday.  

Someday we’ll look back on the single-minded focus on profits that characterizes business  today and will regard that era with equal parts disbelief and dismay. Really?  Were we once so limited that our only tool for measuring success was money?  Thank god we evolved those opposable minds!!!

New Year's Resolution Habit

How are you doing with those New Years resolutions?   If you’re struggling  or already defeated stop beating yourself up. Your lack of success may not be the result of a character flaw but simply a lack of understanding of how to build or break habits.  

Last year one of the most useful books I read was The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.  He explains the anatomy of habit, showing us where its secret power comes from and how you can use it to change your life.  Duhigg breaks down the anatomy of a habit into three simple steps:  Cue - the thing that triggers the habit (you’re frustrated); Routine - the thing you do (light up); and Reward - the result (ahhhh).  It’s simple and it’s very powerful.  

Once you understand the Cue, Routine, Reward recipe of any particular habit you can change a bad habit by identifying the Cue Routine Reward combo and  then while keeping the Cue and the Reward the same change the Routine (go for a walk).   To create a new habit you identify a new cue (you put your shoes on, the alarm goes off, you open the door, the clock strikes noon…) which will trigger the new routine (run, go to the gym, write) and supply a reward if the routine doesn’t provide it intrinsically.  Rinse and repeat.  Repetition creates habit and the more you repeat them the more likely you are to continue repeating them.  Simple and powerful.

Before reading this book I thought of habits mostly as something to kick through planning and willpower.  Every New Year’s I would choose one bad habit to kick for the year.  I’ve given up diet soda, sugar, caffeine, and meat for a year and felt pretty righteous for the exercise.  I tried a few times to add a new habit, like running, but that never worked.  The minute I failed once I let it go with a rush of  guilt and relief.  After reading The Power of Habit I was ready to try again but wasn’t sure where to begin.   I understood the theory but felt I needed some more practical help.

Then I read  Mini Habits by Stephen Guise.  His advice is to start small - so small it’s impossible not to succeed.  And one mini habit leads to another and before you know it you have a cascade of positive effects.

Here’s an example.  I get tremendous value from even a short meditation in the morning.  The reward is intrinsic.  The only trick for me is getting to the mat which is upstairs in a corner of the guest room.  When I’m downstairs in the morning sipping my cappuccino, writing in my journal, and reading the NY Times it just feels like too much effort.

Now I understand why.  According to Guise it’s simple resistance.  It’s  related to  Newton’s theory regarding objects at rest on the couch.  The trick is to make the first action as easy as possible so you become an object in motion.   So rather than thinking about heading upstairs to meditate I think about doing the laundry.  For some reason this does not create resistance for me - I like doing the laundry (I used to hate it but that’s another story).  But really the laundry is a ruse - it puts my body in motion.  And the laundry room is only a few steps from my mediation pillow.  It sounds stupid… but it works.

The other trick I learned from Guise is to make the new habit so simple as to be ridiculous not to do it.   I don’t require myself to sit for an hour, or even 10 minutes.  I simply commit to sit and welcome in the day with a moment of silence and a statement of gratitude.  If that’s all I do that’s great.  I feel good about fulfilling my commitment and that good feeling reinforces the habit loop.  But more times than not, once I sit I find myself drawn to the silence and a longer meditation ensues.

Guise explains that habit cues can be time based (I will run every day at 6am) or activity based (after I do laundry I meditate) which I prefer because it feels more organic, and makes it easier to link habits (laundry cues meditation cues  setting my clothes out for the day, cues getting dressed for a run, cues a run, cues hot shower…). 

In a recent conversation with friends we talked about the idea of New Years Resolutions.  We discovered that some of us make them, some of us don’t, some of us are planners, some of us aren’t, but all of us, regardless, have habits, routines that drive our days.  Some make us happy, some not, some are healthy, some not, some are conscious, some not.  These two books helped me understand the habits I already have and most importantly they gave me the tools to be the architect of my habits which, as it turns out is an incredibly powerful tool.

I have been cultivating the habit of gratitude for awhile but now I can make it more intentional, identifying the cues I want to use (when I sit, when I greet a friend, when I open a door), and defining the routine (simply acknowledging my gratitude in the moment).  The reward is intrinsic so that part is easy.   

Right now I’m feeling grateful to Guise and Duhigg for sharing their ideas with us.  

Happy New Year & Happy New Habits!

10 New Years Resolutions for the Mindful CEO

As business leaders we are given the responsibility of minding and managing the health of our companies.  Your financial bottom line is a clear and simple gauge of it’s fiscal wellbeing.  But there are other spheres in which a mindful leader can create a healthy community - a workplace that is respectful of each member and helps bring out the best in us all.  Here are ten ideas for leaders who want to create healthier, happier companies at all levels.

1. Celebrate the small -  We ring the bell for the big sale, but what about the little things, like Fridays, birthdays, meeting a deadline, or getting a coveted certification?  Every Friday at any moment past 4:29pm, anyone with something to celebrate can ring the beer-thirty bell.  Then, once 10 or more of us are gathered in the kitchen, the bell-ringer makes a toast.   We celebrate the large and the small things that happened during the week - some of them are business related and some of them are personal and it’s a great way to wind up the week, keep us connected and to help us celebrate the little things in life.

2.  Tear down that wall!  Let’s stop pretending that people’s lives outside of work have no place in the office.  First of all it’s ridiculous to presume we can shut them off.  But even if we could why would we want to?   Community is created through sharing and connecting in meaningful ways.  Bring your children to work.  Bring your art.   Bring your dogs.  Yes there are business reasons to do this, but there are other reasons too.  Reasons of the heart.  No one questions coffee.   

3. Take a break -  A small group at Walker started planking every other hour on the hour.  That’s five one-minute planks a day, and when I join in I find that even after one short minute I go back to my desk oddly refreshed.   Some of our team take regular walks around the grounds.  Step away, move, breathe - it works on so many levels.

4. Wait for it - A group of scientists were hiking in the jungle with an indigenous tribe when all of a sudden, for no apparent reason the locals all stopped and sat down.  The scientists were baffled and agitated, but nothing would stir the group until after a time, just as suddenly,  they rose and began walking again.   It wasn’t until later that evening around the fire that the tribe’s leader explained:  They had been moving too fast for their souls to keep pace so they stopped to give them time to catch up.  Make sure you don’t outpace your soul.  Make a habit of checking in now and again, and if you notice you’ve left it behind stop, rest, and give it a minute to catch up. 

5. Practice Happy Tetris - In a recent experiment students were paid to play Tetris for several hours a day (I know!) revealing that in a matter of days the students’ brains rewired themselves and they began to view the world through Tetris eyes.  Students described walking out of their apartments and immediately seeing how to arrange the skyline tetris fashion.  Ditto with cereal boxes at the grocery store.   So how about we practice Happy Tetris every day and rewire our brains?  Find moments to feel grateful, find opportunities to laugh.  The more we do that the more we’ll see opportunities for gratitude and happiness.

6. Track your KII - We’re good at identifying our Key Performance Indicators, which are important but do you know what your Key Impact Indicators are?   Figure out how your business is making a positive difference in the world and start tracking it.  Measuring the money is important and easy.  Measuring impact is more difficult (As Einstein told us, not everything that counts is countable) but just as important.  Discussing your KIIs as a group is a healthy way to uncover your mission and core values and and finding ways to measure your impact can help you drive your company not merely toward greater profitability but also greater good.

7. Tune to AM -  Dave O’Brien, author of The Navigator’s Handbook talks about  the idea of paying attention to whether you are tuned to AM (Appreciation Mode) or FM (Frustration Mode).  Leaders are trained to be on the lookout for what’s wrong and what can be done better, which trains us to tune into FM.  And some of us are just naturally tuned into the FM station.  But by making a conscious effort to tune into AM a few times a day will result in you and those you spend time with being happier and that’s tremendous ROI.

8. Let the Arts In - If you need business justification there’s ample and growing evidence that creativity is the key to innovation and a critical differentiator of leading companies’ success.   But it’s also fun and good for the heart and soul of you and your team (which in turn, if you need another reason, is good for business).   Set up some meetings with your local arts community to find out ways to collaborate.  Find out who the artists are among your team and ask them to share, teach, and celebrate.  

9. Create community - Community is created through shared caring.  Pick a topic you feel strongly about and invite a few like-minded people from inside your company and among your customers and peers to discuss it.  Get together for lunch once a month and dig in.

10. Practice power control -  Emotions are like electricity.  When we’re in a leadership position and are upset, angry, or frustrated it’s easy to pass it on.  It feels good in the short term - getting it off your back - but what you’re really doing is sending along (and sometimes amplifying) an ugly current that zaps the next in line who in turn will pass it along in a depressing circuit of bad vibes.  But you also have the power to send that energy to ground rather than passing it along, and in so doing you stop the flow of whatever negative energy came to you.  Strong emotions can carry important and instructional opportunities but when they are just bad juju try letting it go.  When it’s positive, pass it on.  When it sucks, send it to ground.  That’s true leadership power!

What will be your New Years resolutions? Just  deciding that you will be more mindful will put you and your business on  a happier healthier path.  I hope these ideas provide grist for your planning.  Happy 2015!

Solstice Gifts

On the 21^st of December my youngest sister will call, as she does every year, to remind me that the days are getting longer. The call is in mock homage to my father, who every year insisted on spoiling an otherwise wonderful early summer picnic dinner by announcing that the days were getting shorter. We’d all groan - the corn wasn’t even out! - but he considered it his duty to remind us, in the middle of our hopeful June high, that winter would return. We hated it, but it did make the warm evening seem more precious.

My sister’s call is a gift reminding me that even as the days get darker and the nights colder, the turning wheel of the cosmos will soon bring us back to sunshine, warmth, and renewal. Cycles are nature’s way. Humans often forget this, particularly those in charge of making business projections. Give us two data points and we’ll extrapolate an arrow pointing ever upward. Or down.  But even hurtling comets yield to the pull of gravity. They circle as they flame, retracing their orbits across the millennia, just as our lives, our businesses, and our relationships hurtle through their own seasons and cycles.

Seven years ago a meteor shower of cataclysmic power blasted my world. At work it came in the form of betrayal, arrests, and law suits. Then the bottom fell out of the economy and the greed-is-good fairytale blew up, and the fallout destroyed many good people. Collateral damage. Closer to home, my mother - my rock, my most loyal fan, my supporter, my confidant, my confessor, my role model, and my coach - began to fail.   

These were my dark years. But even in the gloom of despair, unbeknown to me as I was consumed with fighting to save my business and my sanity, the seeds of a new beginning were sown.  

At Walker the pain of those years was hard. The company shrunk, withered by the chill of the assault and the icy economy. But even in the grip of that wintry   aftermath, we found our way toward a new spring. We learned from the pain. The lull gave us an opportunity to re-imagine who we wanted to be as a company, as a social enterprise, and as a community. Since then, we have grown anew in size and maturity. Now we are stronger, happier, and healthier than ever.   The excitement is palpable.  Innovative ideas and enthusiasm are popping up like crocus in spring.  

We even discovered a silver lining in the economic collapse. People in large numbers began to recognize that businesses without accountability to society or a purpose beyond profits are a threat to all of us and to our planet.  Social enterprise as a movement began to pick up momentum and reSET, as an organization dedicated to promoting a new way of doing business in Connecticut, found fertile soil in which to grow.

Hardest of all was losing mom. But she left on her own terms, at home, surrounded by her kids and grandkids, using even her parting as a gift, teaching us in her dying just as she had when she was alive. She died in late December of 2011. She had stopped her medications in October not wanting to prolong the inevitable - she understood cycles and seasons. In November, toward the end, there was an unseasonably warm if overcast day. She was weak, but up for a  slow walk down into the field where we’d walked so many times over the years.  It was a gift as we knew the cold was coming. It was our last walk. But just the other day I learned that this spring will herald in the next generation - children of her grandchildren. She would be ecstatic.

I love the message of the solstices: That to each of us there are seasons and cycles. That even in the darkest cold, the seeds for a warmer season are readying.   And to always be on the lookout for a warm day, the miracle of friendship and the opportunity for a walk, as these too shall pass.

Feeling grateful for leaders!

Thinking back over 2014, I am most grateful for the leaders among us.  Some have come into my world with already impressive skills and others with more potential than practice, but what has become increasingly apparent at Walker and at reSET is that leadership is the key to opening the door to our future.

Our search for leaders begins with assessing a candidate’s potential before they are even hired. Then once they are on board, we help encourage, train, and support them to reach the next level of leadership and, after that, the next.

As children, and as new members to a team, we are pre-leaders.  At this stage we are doers.  Pre-leaders and doers follow orders ably enough, but are not yet comfortable thinking creatively on their own to seek solutions in new situations.  Even the most seasoned leaders need to begin their tenure in a new organization at this basic level, where they can absorb the new culture and process, and get to know the people before flexing their leadership muscle.  To do so before you have a lay of the land is presumptuous.  Waiting too long however is equally unproductive.

But once a doer has learned the ropes, they’re in a position to improve things.  The moment someone looks up from the doing and says, “Wait, this doesn’t make sense,” they show a potential for leadership. This initial spark may sound an awful like like criticism, complaining, or whining, but if they follow up with a solution, the fire of leadership can be kindled. 

By asking those inquiring doers a simple question: “What do you think we should do about it?” we can start to develop solutions-oriented leaders. Not those who just notice what needs fixing and then dump those problems on someone else’s desk, but those who figure out their own way to solve the problems they face. These people are powerful and important to any organization. The more leaders we have at this level the more our potential grows.

Then, as solution-driven leaders develop the people skills to lead a team, they can begin to move mountains.  Team leaders harness the collective intellect and energy of a group to get jobs done that couldn’t be accomplished individually.  The best are flexible, and comfortable moving between the roles of leader and doer, as the situation demands.

And finally, visionary team leaders can shape the culture of their organization’s culture and help it forge its way to a new future. I’m proud to work with a number of visionary team leaders and it makes me very very excited about where we’re going from here!

There was a time when I would have said it’s not possible, necessary, or even desirable for everyone on the team to be leaders. Now, I would argue that we can’t become a great organization without every single person pushing ahead rather than waiting to be pulled forward. Things change too quickly, and the landscape is too complex to give anyone the luxury of waiting around for someone to tell them what to do, or to continue rotely doing what they’ve always done.  

But as a team of leaders we become unstoppable. That’s just how it feels right now at Walker and reSet. And for that, I am very grateful!

"The future of organizations is the growth of the people in them. "  - Leadership  Freak

Connecticut - The Social Enterprise State

Connecticut has been searching for an identity that will help us emerge from the shadow of New York and Boston to become a magnet for business and job growth. Social Enterprise could be our secret sauce.   

Social enterprise is a huge and growing movement around the globe, an idea whose time has come. And while many states are working to develop social enterprise ecosystems of their own, no other state has laid claim to this identity - yet. So let’s grab it quickly! 

There’s a number a reasons it makes sense for Connecticut. 

We have a rich history of social innovation. We’re the home of the first written constitution. And the home of Harriet Beecher Stowe, who is credited with singlehandedly raising the conscious of a nation to recognize the immorality of slavery. Connecticut can boast the country’s oldest continuously published newspaper, its first public art museum (The Wadsworth Atheneum), and its first public park (Bushnell Park). 

  

We have an impressive number of highly respected, socially progressive colleges and universities, many of whom are now offering programs in social enterprise and are increasingly graduating students who are not just interested in but insistent on meaningful work. 

We have a tremendous amount of wealth in our state, held by corporations, foundations, and individuals who are interested in going beyond socially responsible investing to making “impact investments” and measuring the return on their investments on multiple bottom lines. 

And most recently, on October 1^st of 2014, we passed the most comprehensive social enterprise legislation in the United States. It not only recognizes Benefit Corporations, but enables shareholders to voluntarily elect a preservation clause to protect a company’s status as a social enterprise in perpetuity. 

On the first day it was possible to do so, more than 20 companies, including The Walker Group, registered to become the state’s first social enterprises. Even before the legislation passed, Connecticut was home to some of the best known social enterprises in the United States: Newman’s Own, one of the oldest and most recognizable social enterprise brands, and Jackson Labs, a nonprofit which generates a significant percentage of its operating revenues from the sale of lab mice. 

Social Enterprise is complementary our public policies and to the sectors we are working to develop, such as biosciences and green technologies. And social entrepreneurs start the kinds of companies that people are proud to work for, proud to patronize as customers, and proud to invest in. 

Let’s capitalize on these strengths! In doing so, we can hold onto our young graduates, who may stay in Connecticut to start their career or to set up their own social enterprise. We can attract social entrepreneurs from other states who come here for training, resources, and to join a community that understands and supports the idea of building businesses focused on making a better world for us all.  And by developing our social enterprise ecosystem, we will attract impact investment dollars to further benefit the state. 

ReSET (SocialEnterpriseTrust.org) has helped to build an engine here in Connecticut that can spearhead this effort.  With programming aimed to help launch new social enterprise, co-working, space, mentors, funding, and the social enterprise challenge which gave out $50K in cash and prizes this year there’s a lot of support to help make it happen.  And with this progress we’ve seen increasing support from the municipal and state governments as well as business and the nonprofit community.  It could happen!

It’s revolutionary, it’s evolutionary, and it’s sexier than being known as the “Nutmeg State” or the “Land of Steady Habits.” 

Let’s be the state that encourages businesses which create jobs to solve community problems.   

Let’s make Connecticut the social enterprise state.