Conscious Business

Broken Window Theory and Managing: Deceptively Simple, Vexingly Difficult

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Libby) — Sun, 01 May 2011 13:55:00 +0000

Over at my other blog, feedback and workplace relationships.

Graffiti Tags, Corner of Chambers and Broadway, April 2011, all rights reserved.

Ruby Slippers, Broomsticks, and Sponsors: (Some) Leadership Lessons From the Wizard of Oz

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Libby) — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 13:54:00 +0000

A post over at my other blog, on the topic of "sponsorship". Come on over!

I've been lax about posting here, and even sending news over from my other blog...which begs the question of how much longer I should maintain this one!

Photo by mollypop, used under Creative Commons license.

Urban Legend: "Temp to Perm"

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Libby) — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 15:38:00 +0000

I've posted over at my other shop -- about a practice that isn't often as "sustainable" as it appears to be on the surface -- hiring temporary workers as a dry run for the permanent hiring process.

(Temporary Elation, by emilio labrador, used under Creative Commons License. Wow, emilio's photos are awesome! I love flickr.)

Stories, Not Trends: Watching Management in 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Libby) — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 03:59:00 +0000

Management stories I'll be watching next year, over at my new blog.

What stories will you watch in 2011?

4th of July -- Waco, Texas by Bo Nielsen, used under Creative Commons License. Check Bo's blog, Exposure of Life.

Meaning, Performance, and Leadership

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Libby) — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 21:08:00 +0000

Over at my new shop, a post on creating meaning as a critical skill for managers. And a bit on my virtual course, Managing for Managers.

(Photo by lissalou66, used under Creative Commons license.)

Elegance

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Libby) — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 14:17:00 +0000

What do elegance, managing people and your neighborhood firehouse have in common? Check in with me at my new blog.

And Happy Thanksgiving!

Photo adapted from by Photo by zenera, used under Creative Commons license.

What Not To Wear: Don't Get Hooked!

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Libby) — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 20:02:00 +0000

On getting hooked, and addressing resistance at work. New post over at my other site. Can I reel you in?

The photo is Velcro, by fellow U of C-er Quinn Dombrowski, quinn.anya, used under Creative Commons license. And according to Velcro, Velcro the product does not exist -- Velcro the corporation exists to manufacture it. Glad to clear that one up for you.

William Gibson, Creativity, And Twitter.

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Libby) — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 14:48:00 +0000

Over at my other space...

Photo by etharooni, used under Creative Commons License.

What's A "Bad Manager"?

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Libby) — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 13:27:00 +0000

Much to my own surprise, I don't think that it's the Miranda Priestly character in the film The Devil Wears Prada. Check my other place for more on this...

Are Smart Phones Making Us Dumb?

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Libby) — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 03:14:00 +0000

New post over at my new shop...www.annelibby.wordpress.com Hope you'll stop by!

Thanks for visiting.

Photo, adapted from “what, no cell phone?” by Beth Rankin, used under Creative Commons License.

New Post Over at My Other Shop

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Libby) — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 15:43:00 +0000

In the land of self-management, still trying to figure out how to address this space, my much loved old blog, while writing with keener focus on the art of managing people over in my new shop.

Thank you for stopping by!

(Photo by Carly & Art, used under Creative Commons license.)

It's Not Exactly Sundown...

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Libby) — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 23:04:00 +0000

I'm going to start blogging in a slow, steady and focused manner on the topic of managing people at work in a new spot, experimenting with a different blogging platform that I'm already finding vexing:

http://annelibby.wordpress.com/

If you've been reading my extremely sporadic posts here, you will find me more often over there...and possibly back here on occasion. And I've taken some of this content, including your comments, with me.

Hope to see you soon.

(sundown flowerfield blue by mindfulness, used under Creative Commons license.)

Summer Streets

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Libby) — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 16:21:00 +0000

I was skeptical when a colleague told me that Lafayette Street would be blocked off today for NYC's Summer Street's program.

Though I assumed that it would be one of the ever-present "street fairs" -- the same mystery meat, "Peruvian" sweaters, and pickpockets following crowds of tourists from one neighborhood to the next on summer weekends -- after an early yoga class this morning, I investigated.

It's great! The most amazing thing is the quiet, which extends even downtown to the courthouse area (it even seems quieter west of Broadway). Many of the Soho sidestreets are also blocked off, adding to the quiet and relative calm.

Another good thing: the tented booths lining the curbs seemed to represent local businesses. The bike shop was packed! In Soho, Lafayette Street houses more smaller businesses than Broadway, which is a sea of big box and chain stores.

I stopped to talk about the calm and quiet with a women who works for ACE, an organization that sends good people out to our sidewalks and streets to clean up after all of us.

"Less garbage, too," she said as she moved on down the curb, sweeping up a bit of paper.

She was absolutely right. Now, maybe the city sent street cleaners in beforehand. But the streets were sparkling. If you've lived or worked here long enough, you've seen people dump garbage out a car window -- could it happen so often that it's part of the impact of car traffic here in the city?

If you were driving, you might be annoyed by Summer Streets. But if you're walking, biking, or cleaning the streets...maybe not so much.

(And Summer Streets will continue on August 14 and 21.)

Viktor Frankl on Why To Expect The Best From People

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Libby) — Sat, 15 May 2010 14:48:00 +0000

Currently, I'm reading Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl.

So when this video came across my field of vision on Twitter this morning, I was hooked. (Thanks, @tedtalks. Definitely worth 5 minutes of my time, hope you think so, too.

In the book, Frankl addresses why it's important, on a very basic human level, to connect our actions to values that are bigger than ourselves.

When we can do this at work, with authenticity and integrity, we're tapping into something far more powerful than the simple energy of commerce.

Original post at TED: Viktor Frankl: Why to believe in others | Video on TED.com
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Values In Action

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Libby) — Wed, 05 May 2010 15:35:00 +0000

One Sunday morning last month, I observed an extraordinary interaction on Facebook.

A Facebook group administrator decided that a member's comment was inappropriate. The admin deleted the comment, and described his/her reasoning based on his organization's core values.

The organization? The National Museum of the Marine Corps. The values: "Honor, Courage, and Commitment."

The museum's Facebook administrator was able to directly relate action to each of these values. This took place over a brief period late one Sunday morning...I'm doubtful that the admin held a meeting, made a call to the boss, or mobilized a PR agency.

Later that week, the museum started a discussion about censorship. You can read it here.

Leaders, what would it feel like to be able to trust your your people to respond like this? More to the point: can you connect your values, precisely, to your expectations -- of others, and of yourself?

Do you?

Photo: "Giant Value" by flickr's Matt Biddulph, used under Creative Commons license.

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Creativity and Context

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Libby) — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 13:15:00 +0000

Harvard Professor Youngme Moon's "Anti-Creativity Checklist", a thought provoking to-do list for playing it safe at work.

My Anti-Creativity Checklist from Youngme Moon on Vimeo.

A couple of Moon's checklist items wink at those who use history and experience as soul-crushers.

Yesterday, I heard a radio story about the folks responsible for administering the Lehman bankruptcy, who are in the process of selling office furniture and art. This takes me back to when Drexel failed, seemingly over a weekend in early 1990. Afterwards, friends who worked there talked about selling off plants and office furniture.

Context matters. In an organization, creativity is a tool, not an end in itself.

To paraphrase, in the irreverant spirit of Moon's video: creativity doesn't blow up markets. People do.

(And if you can't see Moon's video, click here to view it at her blog post on the Harvard Business Review.)

Angela Lee Duckworth: Academic View on Success, Expertise

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Libby) — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 14:33:00 +0000

This short video is worth watching, if you're contemplating what it takes to develop expertise.

And my experience/opinion? The 10 year rule definitely applies with regard to developing world class general management skills -- but someone ascending the learning curve can definitely make a solid contribution on the way up.

Adventures in Learning

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Libby) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:30:00 +0000

The thermometer read 7 F, and a magnificent full moon was setting as I arrived at "0-dark-thirty" in New Paltz, New York one Sunday in late January for a one-day ice climbing course.

The class was small, four students and an instructor. I was pleased that the luck of the draw had put two first responders into my class: this gave me a comfort about our well-being beyond my confidence in the EMS Climbing School, and their excellent instructor, Eric. Nobody has your back like a first responder.

Our gear: boots and crampons (extremely sharp spikes that clip to the sole of the boot), a harness; and two ice axes. (And most important of all, helmets.) Eric set us up to "top rope" -- a rope threaded from our harnesses, through an anchor at the top of the wall, and back down to a partner who would belay us, or hold our rope, as we climbed.

All of the students had all been on indoor climbing walls; we all listened to the instructions, checked and double-checked our gear, and watched Eric's demo. The action: reach well overhead with an ice axe (at right, photo from the EMS website); use a hammering motion to drive the point of the axe into the ice, deep enough to bear weight; and repeat with the other axe/arm. Hanging from the axes, step one foot up, kick the crampon points at the toe into the ice. Repeat with the other foot, ending up feet secured to the ice by crampons, several feet off the ground, in a squatting position; the next step is to stand up.

Repeat. And repeat. And repeat. In this way, you inch up the wall.

Well, I started up the wall. It didn't take long to notice -- to my great surprise, oddly enough -- that I didn't know what the heck I was doing.

Regular yoga practice keeps me pretty spry. On an average day, I can achieve a handstand: under the right conditions, I can stay there for several minutes: I'm strong, too.

So. I was shocked when I didn't scramble right up that wall. So shocked that I came down, had a hot drink, ate something, and thought about it.

I had completely forgotten how many hundreds of times I had to practice that handstand, how many times I had fallen out of it. Also forgotten, my learning style: some learn by hearing, others by seeing a demo. Others, like me, learn by doing -- by actually putting ourselves into the situation and trying it.

I shared this observation with Eric. On my next attempt, he climbed up the wall next to me and talked me through it. (Thanks, buddy. That's good teaching.)

By day's end, temperatures had soared into the 30s, and I had climbed up and down that wall. (And had fallen not a few times trying, and without any fear: with a skilled instructor and trusted climbing partners, I knew that I was okay.)

As a manager, I've climbed with great people on the other end of my rope. And I've learned by climbing and falling, hundreds of times, for well over 10 years.

The only way to learn is by practicing. Jim Collins calls this "fallure", the commitment to continuing on up a climbing route until you fall. Penn psychologist Angela Lee Duckworth uses the word "grit" to describe the characteristic that gets you back up again when you've gone down.

Subject matter expertise doesn't always translate into other domains. The example often bandied about in the financial world is that great traders aren't often great people managers. (They might clamber up that wall quickly, but maybe they can't stick a handstand. By the same token, I'm currently falling out of bakasana, or crow pose a couple of times a day -- it takes a different je ne sais quoi than handstand!)

One of the things that I ponder as companies grow and shrink, thousands of people coming and going, is what it means to be an institution. At my last corporate job, it took me a while to figure out how to get people to show up for a meeting.

Ok, that's a slight exaggeration. Point: participating in an organizational culture is a way of being that is unique to that ecosystem.

Whether it takes 10,000 hours or 10 years to master a skill, what do we do, as managers, about certain skills that are very sensitive to the setting they're used in?

I don't have an answer -- it's something I'm pondering.

I've been off-line for quite some time, practicing my skills in the "real world". Ack, I haven't even opened my feedreader in so long I'm wondering -- do people even use them any more? And I can't remember how I set the Facebook settings to suck blog posts onto my page; friends and family who get my newsletter will see more than one version of this article. And I changed the look and feel of my blog, which I'm still pondering, too.

Onwards!

(Bakasana In The Smoky Mountains by flickr's kmh1967, used under Creative Commons license.)

Everything's An Algorithm

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Libby) — Tue, 26 May 2009 13:50:00 +0000

A recent Wall Street Journal article caught my eye. Scott Morrison writes that Google is using algorithms in their efforts to manage and retain talent.

When you have a really big data analysis hammer, do even your people look like a nail?

Smart people have been talking about something that makes intuitive sense: it takes 10,000 hours of practice to master a subject.

That's 3 years of full time effort.

Organizations need people to master their jobs. So it's important to hire good people. But that’s not enough.

Beyond mastery of basic job skills, people also need to practice navigating your organization (and an industry's culture).

In a big or complex company, can take years to log the hours of practice required to master the firm's particular code of etiquette. When you're writing code, you're getting better at writing code. Not politics; that's a separate practice.

If the organization itself has any meaning at all -- retaining people is important.

Some readers seemed to feel that Google's methods were a bit cold. Really?

An algorithm is "a step-by-step procedure for solving a problem or accomplishing some end especially by a computer," per Merriam-Webster.

On Saturday, I went out at 6am for coffee here in Lower Manhattan. Scanning the streets, quiet because of the holiday, I saw a man. Was he crazy looking? Yes. Did he appear motivated to bother me? No. Was there sufficient traffic nearby should my last determination be incorrect? Yes. Should I proceed to my coffee destination? Yes.

It's an algorithm.

We run algorithms in our heads all the time. I ran this one in about a second. ("The heels or the flats?" is a complex operation and may take longer.)

The algorithm is not the problem.

Problems: the wrong variables, assigning incorrect yes/no values -- and possibly most important, but least transparent: when we’re not sufficiently aware of how our algorithms work.

Which leads me to the dreaded "bad fit". The hire we never should have made.

It takes time, and costs money, to bring people into your ecosystem. When someone doesn’t fit, it's rarely pretty. And that costs you more time, and often money.

To hire the right people, you have to know what you want. The Google story caught my eye because we make our best hiring choices by being very clear with our algorithms.

Unless we're self-aware, our constantly running programs may not contain the correct variables. A degree from a particular school may not be a true indicator of success. We might misinterpret a line on a resume. Or we may not interview strategically.

Hiring the right people requires practice.

While interviewing skills are important, the more important work happens before we even talk to a candidate: practice selecting the correct variables.

When we select a particular degree to indicate that candidate can do a job, we may be right. And also dead wrong. It’s not whether he can do the job. It’s whether he will do the job. In your firm, and on your team.

That's an answer to a different question, or questions -- different pieces of the algorithm.

Were there other steps in my coffee algorithm I couldn't see, like whether I thought I could outrun the crazy guy to my neighborhood firehouse if I needed help? (Was I correct?)

The discipline of identifying the correct questions offers the opportunity to practice a kind of self-awareness. Not just a navel gazing exercise, because some unconscious steps in our algorithms (age, gender) might put our firms at risk.

And if you hire well, then you'll have Google's challenge: who to retain, and how to retain them.
Last year, at a panel discussion on talent management, I heard an executive from a global Fortune 500 consumer goods company say that his firm was investing 80% of the firm's training and development resources in 20% of their people -- the "high performers".

This doesn't sound like an investment to me. It sounds like a gamble.

It all boils down to what you want, and whether you want the right things.

(Photo: Jared's "Engraved Invaders", used under Creative Commons license. His beautiful algorithmic artwork on flickr sent me to his profile, which notes that he's a founder of Etsy. (If I had time, I'd be obsessed with Etsy.) Thanks, Jared.)

Paying Attention

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Libby) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 14:25:00 +0000

I'm visiting family in the suburbs. This morning when we stepped out for coffee, the woman making our drinks was taking multiple orders.

Wearing a headset, she simultaneously juggled our drinks and asked a drive-through customer to repeat their order. I usually wind up amazed by the listening skills of the young people who make my coffee.

Today, we arrived home to find that we had gotten one drink that we hadn't ordered.

When we think we're "multi-tasking," we're actually quickly shifting our attention between multiple things. Sometimes this does not end well. (In the scheme of things, the wrong coffee was hardly an issue.)

Online today at Guardian.co.uk Peter Walker writes about introspection at business schools about their place in the credit crisis. The lede:

"When the former bosses of HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland were called before the Treasury select committee a month ago to explain exactly how their institutions got into the current mess, one question concerned formal banking qualifications. Just one of the four possessed anything remotely relevant: the Harvard MBA earned by Andy Hornby, the deposed HBOS chief executive."

Financial institutions used to provide lengthy and competitive credit training programs for people on banking tracks. In all of the finger pointing, the business press seems to have missed at least one interesting point: there has been a decline in credit training programs at financial institutions.

I studied finance at Wharton: that this was not, nor was it intended to be, a credit training program. An MBA is not a "formal banking qualification."

I've been paying attention, offline, to gathering background and content for the series on fear in the workplace (thus absent here). On deck: 3 posts on the media, including the financial media, and what contributes to their erroneous belief that an MBA might be a "formal banking qualification."

(And speaking of paying attention, I recently succumbed to Twitter. Frankly, I think that the crisis of attention today dwarfs the financial crisis...so I'll be interested to see how this whole thing works, and how the business case that keeps getting Twitter funding could possibly play out.)

(Photo: "paying attention", by flickr's zachstern used under Creative Commons license.)

Hope

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Libby) — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 12:51:00 +0000

New Yorkers participated in a shared dream yesterday. In a luminous confluence of talent, compassion, right effort, and what some would call karma, Circle Line and New York Waterway boats were alongside FDNY and NYPD, aiding the crew and passengers of the US Air jet that miraculously landed on the Hudson River.

The water temperature (as I heard on the news) is around 40F; if you're in that water, you lose mobility after a few seconds. By the time I was on my way home, it was clear that all were ok, and I stopped to chat with a local first responder, saying, "It's a miracle that you guys made it there so quickly." Characteristically, he responded that the Circle Line had gotten there first. We then agreed that people are good. (Generally.)

I spent the rest of the evening at a local restaurant with some neighborhood moms, gathered to support JustTell, a young non-profit led by Vivian Farmery. Some of the women's teenagers studied and ate at tables nearby as the group brainstormed about pulling together resources for a fundraiser and local outreach. (It's true, if you want something done, give it to a busy person!) One kid matter-of-factly spoke into his cell phone, "No, it wasn't a terrorist attack."

Before dawn this morning, I prepared for 11 degree (Fahrenheit) temperatures by donning layers (enough to prevent me from raising my arms above my shoulders) and walked over to the Hudson where the plane was tied up along the waterfront. I don't know what I expected to see, really.

I guess I was looking for hope realized.

What I saw was a bunch of news vans and emergency response vehicles, what I heard was a local newsperson rehearsing her pitch about a miracle, and what I felt was -- cold.

Ducking into the World Financial Center dressed for a hike in the Himalayas, I grabbed a double espresso, chatted briefly with an NTSB guy, and walked up to look out across the street at the construction on the World Trade Center site.

Warm and hopeful, and holding news images of people standing on the water outside the aircraft, I walked home. Grateful that lower Manhattan smelled like coffee and discarded Christmas trees, and not like tens of thousands of burning computers.

(OK, I'm feeling all arty and abstracty with my iPhone -- the photo is actually construction at the WTC site, with palm trees from the World Financial Center and my Himalayan silhouette reflected in the window.)

The Business of Creativity, Part I

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Libby) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:36:00 +0000

The handmade movement here in the US links and aligns sustainability, authenticity and the infinite human capacity to create. All things I love to celebrate here.

New industries start on the fringes. (As I learned from Wendell Dunn, in the early days of the internet.)

After seeing a wide range of Americans -- mostly women, many with an agenda to recycle and consume less -- creating small home businesses from making and selling craft and art works, I started to watch.

I came across an excellent podcast episode, Craftypod's Making A Creative Career, With Kim Werker. Kim talks with Diane Gillieland about following her creative love as a career path.

If you're starting a business, invest 30 minutes to hear Kim's archetypal story of the ups and downs of making her avocation into her profession.

Please stay tuned, there's a more in-depth post on handmade in the works. And an update on another Conscious Business project -- I'm excited by the responses from some great people I've approached on the topic of fear as it operates in the workplace.

(Hat tip to Kim Fraser, Spoonflower's crafter-in-chief, for the heads up on Craftypod. Spoonflower produces print-on-demand fabric, with a potentially great business model combining elements of Threadless, Etsy, and Lulu. They use online so skillfully to tell their story that I wanted to hop on a plane to Raleigh-Durham for a visit. Fascinating.)

(and the photo -- a work in progress, I'm getting crafty myself and learning how to crazy quilt!)

Brownie Points: Wrapping Up the Holidays (and 2008)

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Libby) — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 20:49:00 +0000

Sustainability was entering the mainstream conversation when I started to write here at Conscious Business.

189 posts later, this space has been a laboratory for my learning, and a place to share what I’ve learned. Meandering and returning to one theme: how does our behavior at work matter?

Early on, I used my own experience to explore basics of environmental sustainability. In 2008, a few things converged in my on-line and off-line lives.

The sheer volume of media coverage on sustainability has both encouraged and disenchanted me. And I became more engaged in off-line sustainability efforts.

And my focus shifted to subtler views, particularly the ideal that sustainability means not wasting people. This past spring, I started a consulting business to help business owners and managers to engage optimally with our employees and colleagues.

Diverted by my non-virtual efforts, and encouraged that topics like water conservation will be amply covered by journalists and bloggers who have both passion and bandwidth, I’ve shifted some of the creativity and attention I once directed to blogging into developing my consulting business.

What a ride!

It has been challenging to stay out in front of people this fall. Many friends and clients are in financial firms; it has been tough to imagine how to connect with people when they are fearful of being booted, bought, or bailed out (or not).

Everyone is stressed, and I’ve started to offer workplace stress management programs. This has been an easier topic of conversation.

But with some people, and some firms, silence and compassion have seemed like the best approach.

And, brownies.

Baking is an excellent science for left brainiacs. Predictably delicious outcomes are almost assured when you use the best ingredients, measure and mix them correctly, and use the right tools.

I’m a pretty good baker, and home-baked breads, cookies and granola have been frequent gifts for my friends and family members.

In past holiday seasons, I’ve sent tins of Dean and Deluca cookies to business friends and clients. People seemed to love them. But this year, the faux homemade cookies in the elegant silver tin looked a little cold.

I intend for my business services to be handmade with good ingredients, and with care for how they are presented. So this year, I decided to bake that metaphor into brownies.

It was great fun to select and source the ingredients, tins, ribbons and cards. (Readers who know me may smile to hear that I used an excel spreadsheet as a project planning tool.)

I fell into a rhythm of baking early in the day, letting the brownies cool while I worked. In the afternoons, I’d construct the packages and schedule deliveries based on where I had other afternoon appointments.

(Knowing that recipients would have an abundance of available holiday sweets, the packages were petite, just enough for a couple of people to share a snack or two while they were fresh. And to avoid raising either the Grinch's ire, or true ethical concern, in firms where gift policies prevail.)

After all of this holiday fun – and it was fun -- it was heartening to see press coverage about home-baked gifts. The health blog at The New York Times, Well, posted at least two items.

Commenters on one NPR story shared my dismay with Claire Crespo’s suggestion that we use cake mix and canned frosting to make good looking gifts that make people smile.

Our willingness to value things that look good, but lack substance, has contributed to our current problems. And it literally feeds our health care challenges.

(Is canned frosting even food?)

I felt more aligned with Nicole Spridakis, who spoke of the pleasures of baking gifts from scratch; her results sound far more elegant than my simple brownies.

Holy Zeitgeist Batman, could home baking be an antidote to the financial crisis?

It seems that the raves I’ve won relate less to my baking prowess, and more to the power of a humble, but well constructed, bakery item to speak to a place in our hearts that can’t be touched by the markets.

That’s the kind of leadership we need -- in abundance -- as we approach this next and very hopeful new year. Eyes wide open.

(The photo is a few of my finished gift packages...I had a heck of a time keeping the ribbons tied onto the round tins. Sigh.)

Business Partnership: Interview with Virayoga's Elena Brower and Lynn Hazan-Devaul

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Libby) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:00:00 +0000

The most frequently "hit" post on this blog is an article on business partnership.

Precious little information you find out there on partnership relates to what is -- in my opinion -- the most important ingredient of a partnership: the way that the partners manage the interpersonal nature of their business relationship.

Here's an article about an exemplary partnership in my circle, that of Elena Brower and Lynn Hazan-deVaul, owners of NYC yoga studio Virayoga. This article was posted this past spring to a website that serves the Anusara Yoga community in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut -- hence some of the yoga terms! (I'm cross posting here because it has been replaced by fresh content!)

(And on another yoga related update, I got a lovely note from Marsha Nieland of Fusion Studios in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. After flood waters subsided, they offered services to a member of the National Guard there helping in recovery work. They are on their way to rebuilding and reopening their business. You go!)

Here's the article.

(I think we called it "Elemental Truths about Yoga and Business Partnership".)
Anusara yoga teaches Universal Principles of Alignment by linking metaphor with physical action. The principles also provide powerful images for our lives off the mat.

Working relationships are fertile ground for practice -- particularly our close working relationships.

There's no closer working relationship than a business partnership.

Business partnership offers a seemingly simple and elegant support. When you're not feeling strong, someone else will be there with you. You'll have someone to lean on, a complement, shelter from the storm.

"It's like a marriage," says Virayoga's Lynn Hazan-Devaul. And like marriage, partnership is far from simple.

Virayoga has served the tri-state Anusara community since 2002. Its heart is the strong business partnership between Lynn and her partner, Vira's founder Elena Brower.

Consider the elements of this successful business partnership: actually, consider the elements, and the principles.

Space. Open to Grace.
Lynn and Elena joined forces shortly after Elena opened Virayoga's doors.

Lynn had been a devoted yoga student for many years, and a student of Elena's. Months into Vira's new life, Elena was overwhelmed by the behind-the-scenes work required to keep the business running. A friend who knew both women thought that Lynn's financial and management expertise could help. He suggested that the women meet, so that Lynn could take a look at the business.

Over a weekend, Lynn sorted through receipts and bank statements. By Sunday, Elena and Lynn were discussing partnership.

"It's about desire. You know, ask for what you want?" Lynn comments. After leaving a music industry job, she had told friends that she'd like to own a yoga studio one day.

Elena says that she saw Lynn as the perfect person with whom to join forces, “I was awestruck by Lynn’s deft embodiment of both business professionalism and spiritual awareness, for lack of a better phrase.”

And both shared a clear drive to serve. “Service is really the heart of teaching, and particularly of overseeing a studio." says Elena.

Earth. Muscular Energy.
The choice to proceed as partners emerged from that weekend. The women spent several months working together to develop a legal operating agreement that supports the partnership today.

The key to crafting a grounded agreement was honesty. Elena and Lynn each knew, and could clearly state, what she wanted and needed; each was willing to articulate these details and commit them to paper. The individual requirements were used to create their roles, and written into the partnership agreement. For example, the agreement states that part of Lynn's role is to manage and further Elena's career.

The partners also intended for the agreement to balance responsibility between them.

Each listened, and aligned with what was important to the other. The women also came to the partnership with shared values. Most obviously, they wanted to center Virayoga in Anusara Yoga.

Freedom to make this, and other choices was partly possible because Virayoga was neither the primary financial nor social means of support for either partner. "Elena and I both had outside interests, so it was about desire rather than need to form the partnership – we didn't need to do it, we wanted to."

Honesty, shared values, balanced responsibility, and sufficient external support provided stable ground for the business, the partnership, and each partner.

Water. Inner Spiral.
More than a legal agreement allows this partnership to flow. Lynn describes the unconditional respect the women share, “It is a respect for the other's whole being. Even the things that bother us!"

Along with shared values and respect, the women have evolved a conscious process for making decisions together. Not every decision comes with complete and total agreement: sometimes one partner makes the ultimate choice. But when a decision has been made, both partners move ahead in support of the choice.

Respect, balanced responsibility and conscious decisions create the opening for each partner to fully offer her unique gifts.

Fire. Outer Spiral.
Each partner can thus place attention and effort on the work she loves. Elena manages the teachers, crafts the schedule and flyers, seeks substitutes as needed and teaches weekly classes. Lynn takes the lead on all things business, such as where to grow and where to spend.

"We are very clear in our delineation of roles, and we don't try to do each other's jobs," Lynn comments.

Elena adds, “The boundaries of our agreement have opened a great deal of clarity within the partnership, wherein each of us can really do what we do best.”

Air. Organic Energy.
Elena and Lynn's activities outside of Virayoga can make scheduling time together a challenge. Sometimes they don’t talk for a week, yet the partnership continues to work. Lynn says, "We're in a groove."

Partnership has allowed Elena and Lynn to build a solid, stable and highly skilled staff, which permits the business to operate smoothly.

Both partners offer additional kudos to Virayoga’s new manager, Kiriaky Binihaky. “Kiri has essentially taken on the studio as her baby, which has allowed us even more freedom and trust."

Choice, honesty, respect, balance, and love are elements of a partnership through which Elena, Lynn, and Virayoga’s staff manifest their desire to serve, touching the lives of thousands of students and teachers in our community.

The partners report 2008 as their best year ever. Virayoga has expanded, moving into larger space in the same location, and opening a new "Healing Annex" for semi-private classes, workshops and bodywork. The business has flourished; six years of partnership have also deepened the women’s friendship.

Lynn says, “You don't have to love your business partner to have a good partnership. I'm lucky that I do."

(photo of the lovely Virayoga snagged from their website, in hopes of being able to ask for forgiveness instead of permission!)

Leading Amidst Fear: First Post in a Series

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Libby) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 15:33:00 +0000

Over the years, I've studied a bit about leadership. Though I haven't always been the best student, I've had some of the best teachers -- in business school and beyond.

These great teachers have never held up fear as a leadership virtue.

Early in 2008, I pondered the perception that many people are afraid at work, all the time.

And I don't mean firefighters, police officers, and people in combat. Or illegal immigrants. Or doctors and nurses. Or teachers in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

I mean highly paid "knowledge workers".

Back then, I asked a good friend what he thought about fear at work. A friendly, churchgoing guy with exquisite manners, a great sense of humor and capacity for joy, my friend has held lofty executive positions in a service industry where people don't routinely die at work. Like people do in fires, or in the ICU.

He told me that fear could be a good thing -- that it could provide motivation to achieve.

This surprised me. And shook my slender thread of composure, which had grounded me enough to start a polite conversation about a negative emotion. I surrendered to my own social fear, and changed the subject.

But I decided to invest more time in what I started to call my Fear Project. Since then, I've been reading, talking with friends and colleagues...and contemplating my own relationship with fear, and how my reactions have shaped past business decisions.

This study was timely, because I was once again leaving the perceived safety of corporate life to start a consulting business. And the volatility and uncertainty of the past few months have offered excellent ground for study.

As 2008 draws to a close, I'll start sharing a bit more about this here: opinion, perception, analysis.

The next phase of the Fear Project is to reach out to people with differing stakes in workplace fear. You'll see some of them here, either via interview -- or if I'm fortunate, via guest posts.

And hopefully in the comments, too. Are you afraid at work? If so, why?

Clay Irving's photo Wat Plai Laem, Koh Samui, Thailand, downloaded from flickr, used under Creative Commons license. Hopefully the license extends to the ability to quote from Clay's caption. This beautiful photo is a Buddha demonstrating the Abhaya mudra, or hand position, “by raising the hand, palm facing outward in front of the chest. The left hand hangs down at the side of the body… It represents granting protection of dispelling fear.” (Thanks, flickr and Clay. I love Clay's colorful Halloween photos, too!)