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The degree of change we are currently experiencing has another name: Revolution. Not the violent type, but the transformative. The kind that throughout history has unleashed massive social change as people and ideas migrate away from the status quo to seize and occupy areas of emerging opportunity. Think Industrial Revolution. Today, it is hard to imagine the impact on American culture and values that stemmed from the migration from America’s farmlands toward the newly forming manufacturing hubs. History books and documentaries tell the stories, but they struggle to convey the uncertainty, the emotion, the fear and, yes, even the excitement of living the experience.
Contents
Rick Thomas
Editor
Nance Larsen
Cover Story Photo
Keith Barraclough
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Scott Mlynarczyk
The STRIVE Group, LLC
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s a keynote speaker, I often mention our family-owned winery, Hacienda de las Rosas, which translates to “Big House of the Roses.” The audience lights up as they ask incredulously, “You own a winery?” Questions usually follow: “How long has your family been in the business?” or “Did you inherit it from your parents?” Frankly, when we started our business, we had no background in viticulture, nor a long family history of winemaking. However, we figured that if others could do it, why not us?
Starting a family winery is not as romantic as it sounds. There is an overwhelming amount of work involved – installing fencing, fixing irrigation, purchasing equipment, creating batches of wine that don’t always pan out, and dealing with regulatory requirements. And harvest time? While the movie industry illustrates a day-long party filled with background music and hundreds of extras, reality can be quite different. Harvest generally occurs during the hottest time of the year, with a pre-dawn wake-up followed by hours of picking grapes, hoping that a few friends will show up to help!
When we eventually opened a tasting room in historic Old Town San Diego, the country was in the middle of a deep recession. My employer was considering layoffs and issuing pay cuts. It was a very scary step, and we had moments of insecurity. But we pushed through, learned new skills, and found people to help guide us when we got stuck. The expression “fake it until you make it” was a regular mantra. It didn’t mean being insincere; it meant acting courageously, even when there were doubts. Our winery was eventually chosen as a top-five winery for San Diego County, and won a Chamber of Commerce Small Business award – all started from an idea, a bit of luck and a lot of hard work.
OMNIA Partners, Public Sector is the nation’s largest and most experienced cooperative purchasing organization dedicated to public sector procurement.
ave we ever thought about all the positive energy we extend as we capture and maintain customers? That momentum, adrenaline and skill a sales team utilizes as they close business? During this time of change and upheaval, I have contemplated if there are consistent ways to capture this same energy throughout an organization so that it permeates every corner of the business.
While we all may strive for that customer-focused mindset with our employees, in this rapidly changing world how can we ensure that everyone is focused on understanding how the customer is changing and what they need from our organization? As we continue to look for ways to motivate and retain our employees, is there a simple way to teach employees one common language that will unify them around the customer?
e have all lived what feels like a decade throughout the last year and half. Many are feeling exhausted, burned out, on the edge, and are having serious reconsiderations of their careers, locations, and what aspects of life and work are individually important. These questions and dilemmas are all understandable because we have been living through a wicked problem. The COVID-19 pandemic is just the latest in a series of wicked problems facing the world.
Wicked problems were first defined in 1973 by Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber. Unlike tame problems, wicked problems don’t have definitive, testable or true solutions. The solution to a wicked problem may just lead to another problem needing another solution. Wicked problems also cannot be tested through trial and error. These types of problems are notoriously difficult to solve.
There are many wicked problems facing us today. Climate change and disinformation, for example, are wicked problems that have contributed to the current pandemic. Climate change is expected to contribute to future pandemics as loss of habitat increases the probability of zoonotic diseases. Likewise, disinformation is a rampant “infodemic” impacting all of society. These three issues alone demonstrate how wicked problems are often intricately intertwined. Because of the deadly consequences that wicked problems can impose, it is imperative that we gain a better understanding of these types of problems and work to construct solutions.
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After navigating so many challenges, what have we learned?
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This I Believe
This I Believe
t’s easy to sit back and fret these days about the state of our world and wonder how we’re going to make any progress if we can’t even agree on what’s for dinner (never an argument in this house, as I decide and you eat or don’t). What’s more challenging is deciding how you’re going to make a difference in your community so we can begin to change the state of the world.
Leaving the world a better place is something I’ve worked on all my life. I learned by example from wonderful parents who stressed the importance of giving back to others. They taught us, through their example, how to leave a place better than it was when we arrived. Among other things, my parents started the first neighborhood association, worked to put a freeway underground and changed the location of a light rail line. In short, they put their energy where their mouths were, and so do I. Whether as a Sunday school teacher or a Red Cross volunteer in high school, a leader in my fraternity in college or member of the many nonprofit boards I’ve served, my focus has always been on improving community.
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Embracing Inclusive Entrepreneurship
he word entrepreneurship often invokes an American romanticism of living the dream. For some, it is power and others wealth. For me, entrepreneurship means freedom. Freedom to choose my path, pursue my passions and do my laundry at a convenient time. Even more significantly, it is the freedom to determine the role I will play in the world, today and in the future.
Throughout America’s history, entrepreneurial freedom has been an economic driving force that has created jobs, spurred innovation and provided a path to build wealth. There is opportunity in entrepreneurship, and, as an entrepreneur, I answer the call to create new, productive opportunities for myself, my team and my community. As a Black American, I know and see how access to good jobs, entrepreneurial opportunities, and wealth creation have consistently and significantly lacked for diverse communities. As a Black entrepreneur in America, I’ve adopted a leadership thesis built from lived experience of entrepreneurial freedom, and that is rooted in empowerment: If every person is offered the agency to build a career around their passions, every person will experience entrepreneurial freedom.
Embracing Inclusive Entrepreneurship
he word entrepreneurship often invokes an American romanticism of living the dream. For some, it is power and others wealth. For me, entrepreneurship means freedom. Freedom to choose my path, pursue my passions and do my laundry at a convenient time. Even more significantly, it is the freedom to determine the role I will play in the world, today and in the future.
Throughout America’s history, entrepreneurial freedom has been an economic driving force that has created jobs, spurred innovation and provided a path to build wealth. There is opportunity in entrepreneurship, and, as an entrepreneur, I answer the call to create new, productive opportunities for myself, my team and my community. As a Black American, I know and see how access to good jobs, entrepreneurial opportunities, and wealth creation have consistently and significantly lacked for diverse communities. As a Black entrepreneur in America, I’ve adopted a leadership thesis built from lived experience of entrepreneurial freedom, and that is rooted in empowerment: If every person is offered the agency to build a career around their passions, every person will experience entrepreneurial freedom.
“Vulnerability is not a weakness; it’s our greatest measure of courage.” – Dr. Brené Brown
n December 2000, as a busy orthopedic surgeon in the prime of both my life and my career, I was neither ready nor willing to accept a breast cancer diagnosis. Devastated by the news but fiercely determined to expeditiously get my life “back on track,” I immediately scheduled my surgery. Two weeks post-mastectomy, and against my surgeons’ strict orders, I was back at work, completely immersed in my private practice while deliberately avoiding any thought or discussion of my cancer diagnosis. I was naively relieved that my life had seemingly picked back up right where it had left off.
Although I was not aware of its importance at the time, creating the time and space for pause and reflection is a critical leadership practice that is often unrecognized and underutilized. Had I taken the time to simply be in the moment and introspectively reflect on the dramatic events that had taken place so suddenly in my life, I might have learned sooner from my experience and chosen to create a healthier and more satisfying work-life balance moving forward. As a leader, there will always be incessant distractions and demands on your time, input and expertise. Prioritizing the time to pause and reflect on what’s really important will provide clarity and purpose for what comes next.
hile some people prefer jelly over jam, I prefer jam. Honestly, I can’t tell the difference; I just like saying the word “jam.” Whenever anyone asks me what I think about mentoring, I always reply, “That’s my jam!” Although I am a professional executive-level coach and have coached many executives on how to improve their leadership abilities and performance, it is working with aspiring leaders that really inspires and motivates me to be a better leader.
Mutually Beneficial Relationships
Mentorship is hard work. I know this firsthand because I have mentored countless others throughout my human resources (HR) career. My interactions have been formal, informal, and sometimes a combination of both. Whatever the situation, for me the outcome has always been the same: gratitude. Gratitude that someone thought enough of me to ask if I would provide them with guidance on how to progress their career. Let’s face it: Not everyone is meant to be a mentor, and that’s hard to admit, especially if you’re in a leadership role. I take this thing called mentoring personally and take great pains to keep it sacred.
Cultivating these environments is the responsibility of supervisors and managers.
• Foster relationship building • Develop empowered teams • Enable performance
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- Creating and Enabling an Effective Remote Workforce
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- Safety Matters, Even Remotely
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- I Can Do It!
- Communicating Effectively Over Distance
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- Tips to be Effective and Productive While Working from Home
- Maintaining Mental and Emotional Wellness Through Challenging Times
- Using Brain Science to Maximize Your Effectiveness Working Remotely
Successful Environments
- Creating and Enabling an Effective Remote Workforce
- Communicating Effectively Over Distance
- Facilitating and Mastering Effective Virtual Meetings
- Tips to be Effective and Productive While Working from Home
- Safety Matters, Even Remotely
- There’s an App for That
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Photo courtesy of The Martin Institute – University of Idaho.
ou should be a diplomat,” observed one of the Martin Institute’s Advisory Board members following a conversation about efforts to raise the organization’s profile at the University of Idaho. We had come a long way in a handful of years, but challenges remained. While there were good people all around me, they didn’t trust one another, and the relationship had devolved over time to the point where both the Institute and the University were thinking about dissolving the partnership. This held true for the first couple of years of my tenure as director, which were spent building relationships of trust, and during this time I constantly thought of myself as a diplomat.
Diplomatic leadership is not an unfamiliar concept to most leaders, even if they do not refer to it by that name. It focuses on honesty and integrity, openness in dialogue and discussion, inclusiveness, and slow but sure progress. Whether or not one subscribes formally to the tenets of diplomatic leadership, many leaders include one or more of them in their own leadership ethos as a matter of course. In my case, I needed each of those diplomatic skills. With the relationship between the Martin Institute and the University at its nadir, I needed to be deliberate about my leadership.
here is symbiotic relationship between innovation and adoption. The work of innovation can only go so far until it must wait for adoption to catch up and create the next opportunity for innovation. I have personally experienced this circular relationship, which is especially prominent in the education field. While technical innovations in the classroom have been available for some time, it is the onset of the pandemic that has moved innovative ideas designed for the classroom into the adoptive phase.
As a teacher I want to give students the best experiences and opportunities possible. I know technology enables novel experiences unthinkable to most teachers. One of the technologies I find most fascinating and promising is video calls. I envision expanding my classroom beyond the walls of the school into an ever-shrinking world, connecting my students to experiences normally out of reach. Travel policies and costs make it impossible to take my students beyond an hour’s drive, and budgets prohibit me from bringing in experts with travel requirements. Today, both are accomplished virtually through video calls.
Ironically, the closing of schools was the catalyst for opening classrooms to the world.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought a huge disruption to every facet of life. Most notably it changed the way we connect with people. Being in the physical presence of work colleagues, friends, and even extended family no longer was an option.
Measuring Success
by Heather Kinzie
“In it to win it!”
“Do or die!”
have been hearing these idioms for my entire career; these mantras shaped who I was and influenced what type of entrepreneur I would become. For quite some time, these concepts defined success.
While these phrases can motivate some people, they had an unfortunate side effect for me. For years, I wasn’t, and my business endeavors weren’t, successful in the traditional sense. Too often, I felt I needed to pack up and go home, concede the loss, admit I wasn’t good enough, and otherwise deem the experience, and myself, a failure.
Measuring Success
by Heather Kinzie
“In it to win it!”
“Do or die!”
have been hearing these idioms for my entire career; these mantras shaped who I was and influenced what type of entrepreneur I would become. For quite some time, these concepts defined success.
While these phrases can motivate some people, they had an unfortunate side effect for me. For years, I wasn’t, and my business endeavors weren’t, successful in the traditional sense. Too often, I felt I needed to pack up and go home, concede the loss, admit I wasn’t good enough, and otherwise deem the experience, and myself, a failure.
Searching for Success
In the summer of 2014, Alaska’s economy, which had shown some concerning plateaus, began a sharp downward trend. As a sole proprietor offering strategic planning, organizational design and professional development, I felt defeated every time a client called to abandon a project, batten down its hatches, or cancel one, if not all, training sessions. I perfected the feeling of failure each time. Thankfully, I had the courage to share my concerns with a dear friend. Through thoughtful discussion and reflection, he helped me identify other measurements of success. In due course, these discussions strengthened my resolve, boosted my confidence and, ultimately, inspired new ideas.
Measuring Success
by Heather Kinzie
“In it to win it!”
“Do or die!”
have been hearing these idioms for my entire career; these mantras shaped who I was and influenced what type of entrepreneur I would become. For quite some time, these concepts defined success.
While these phrases can motivate some people, they had an unfortunate side effect for me. For years, I wasn’t, and my business endeavors weren’t, successful in the traditional sense. Too often, I felt I needed to pack up and go home, concede the loss, admit I wasn’t good enough, and otherwise deem the experience, and myself, a failure.
Measuring Success
by Heather Kinzie
“In it to win it!”
“Do or die!”
have been hearing these idioms for my entire career; these mantras shaped who I was and influenced what type of entrepreneur I would become. For quite some time, these concepts defined success.
While these phrases can motivate some people, they had an unfortunate side effect for me. For years, I wasn’t, and my business endeavors weren’t, successful in the traditional sense. Too often, I felt I needed to pack up and go home, concede the loss, admit I wasn’t good enough, and otherwise deem the experience, and myself, a failure.
Searching for Success
In the summer of 2014, Alaska’s economy, which had shown some concerning plateaus, began a sharp downward trend. As a sole proprietor offering strategic planning, organizational design and professional development, I felt defeated every time a client called to abandon a project, batten down its hatches, or cancel one, if not all, training sessions. I perfected the feeling of failure each time. Thankfully, I had the courage to share my concerns with a dear friend. Through thoughtful discussion and reflection, he helped me identify other measurements of success. In due course, these discussions strengthened my resolve, boosted my confidence and, ultimately, inspired new ideas.
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