February 10, 2010: An Historic Day in Sonoma County

Nearly Forty Professionals Do Something Absolutely New: An Organic Process

February 10, 2010

Rohnert Park, California -- Sixteen (16) professional consultants and twenty (20) non-profits come together to: give the consultants some challenging work, and; provide some needed support and help to the non-profits who are serving social change initiatives; the disadvantaged, etc.

All of this was done without: government support; grants; a supporting non-profit organization or corporate sponsorship.  Refreshing?  You can do this too! Go to The Minerva Project Blog for more information or contact the founder, George Moskoff.

Using a variant of Open Space Technology to create a "marketplace" and encourage connections between Non-Profits and Consultants, the Group's members produced new alliances. 

Sonoma Mountain Business Cluster a Minerva Project client and emerging non-profit, was the host site for this endeavor. 

Purpose of Minerva Project is to:

provide an opportunity for undermployed consultants to share their expertise ...while keeping their skills sharp

 
Our Partner: The Minerva Project is a collaborative, an effort. 
It is governed by ethics and integrity and a belief that teams are
smarter than individuals.  It is a partnership with the Center for
Community Engagement (CCE) at Sonoma State University.

Minerva Project on Google Groups

Minerva Project on LinkedIn

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Tough Times? Turn Inward: A Report

"Hunkering Down:" Our Natural Response?

Richard Harwood of the Harwood Insitute reveals the results of his latest study, sponsored by the Kettering Foundation: The Organization First Approach: How Programs Crowd Out Community.  (Go to Harwood's Report: The Organization First)

"Just when leaders and organizations need to turn outward toward their communities, they turn inward toward their organizations."

Is this something we naturally do...as a sort of self-protection?  Like some suit of armor that, while providing some protection, ironically leads us away from opportunities?  I believe it is.  So, just as it is the human to be compassionate in the presence of anger or evil, this is another skill we must acquire: looking outside when we're scared.  For opportunities and partnerships with others who...are scared, too.

My own informal analysis leads me to conclude that this trend proves true for both non- and for-profit organizations.  intuitively, it's understandable: "things are bad...I'll just focus on what's going on inside the company...looking outside could be...risky..."

Harwood's study reveals the flaws in thinking: the leaders gave explanations of the various internal barriers to an expanded role in their organization's efforts in community engagment: "A lack of funding was typically the first obstacle they mentioned; the lack of appropriate skills was second; for others, internal interest presented yet another barrier."

This response reminds me of Peter Drucker's admonition back in the early 90's: in his gravelly, German-crusted accent, he offered: "...nothing is more ineffective than to make efficient what should not be done in the first place..." 

Are these -- are most of them -- organizations engaging in a vicious cycle of fear-based introspection that is encouraged by the terror that is the "outside world?" 

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Minerva Project Hosts Second Confab

February 10 Confab for Non-Profits and Consultants
Uses Elements of Open Space Technology

What: An opportunity for Non-Profits to get help from underemployed professional consultants.

When: Noon to 2pm.  Lunch is $10. 

Where: At Sonoma Mountain Business Cluster, 1300 Valley House Drive, Rohnert Park.  Luncheon workshop and connecting session.

Our Goal: We envision each consultant attending (12 are now signed up) will walk away with one Non-Profit to whom s/he will be engaged to conduct some pro bono work.  A project. 

How: Introductions, facilitated experiences.  Agreements provide the framework for Consultants and their clients, the NP's, to become successful in their professional relationship.

Our Partner: The Minerva Project is a collaborative, an effort.  It is governed by ethics and integrity and a belief that teams are smarter than individuals.  It is a partnership with the Center for Community Engagement at Sonoma State University. 

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What Do YOU Do? Not.

A Small Suggestion...

...that could change the world!

Instead of that archaic and backward business conversation starter, "What do you do?," can I propose a new, different question?  Why couldn't we ask: "Who are you?" 

This is another volume, a different perspective, on the piece I posted a few weeks ago:
For the New Year: Be Yourself, Upset the Experts In that piece, I suggested that "we crave connectedness but we settle for transactions." 

This different perspective comes out of two influences: 1) my experience attending an Institute of Management Consultants (IMC) workshop over the weekend.  (In the hallway of a hotel banquet area, we did our best to network; we were all forced into the "elevator speech.")

The second influence is driven by Meg Wheatley's book turning to one another: simple conversations to restore hope to the future.

So, when you meet me, do me a favor: don't ask me that worn-out, generations old and hackneyed starter "what do you do?," ask me "Who are you?"  Don't be surprised if I smile.

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(How) Words Make a Difference

Why must we wordsmith the best parts of our enterprises?

"Talent management" is a term that has been irritating me for...at least a year.  It's time for me to say something.  And, say it loud and well: we're wordsmithing the best parts of our enterprise.

Do you recall how the Bush Administration / Rove was so clever with words?  They took "global warming" and softened it to "climate change."  When asked, directly, whether there were some errors with the oxymoronic "war planning," he confessed that "mistakes were made."  Notice, he didn't say that "I made mistakes."  No, that would be sobering, to accept responsibility. 

This post is not about polticis; I'm trying to point out how powerful our wordsmithing can be.  I'm referring to "word craftiness."  (Is that a similar word to Stephen Colbert's "truthiness?")

Well, there's something that's been going on in the Corporate world analagous to all of the design folks choosing colors for the next few years (you didn't think that the colors of chocolate and light turquoise just poppped up, did you?)

My beef is with deflection via wordsmithing; getting less close, less intimate, more institutional.  The wrong approach: this is a time when we need to be more genuine, more vulnerable. Look at the history: in the 60's and 70's, it was called the "Personnel Department."  Then, in the 80's, it became "Human Resources."  As opposed to "Industrial Resources," the other, non-human side of the enterprise. 

Now, it's "Talent Management."  Huh?  Like a "Talent Show" or "American Idol" with the grimacing Simon.  As if the guys in the upper or middle echelons really believe they're "managing talent."  (Let's just agree to be real and cynical as opposed to buying into the idea that all these terrified people, regardless of rank, can't find enough courage to care.)

I like what Max DePree at Herman Miller called it back in the 90's: Vice President for the People.  People.  What a novel idea.

What is it about we humans that requires us to complicate so many simple things?  Is there a gene for it, a location in the pre-frontal cortex?

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For the New Year: Be Yourself, Upset the Experts

We Crave Connectedness But We Settle for Transactions

I've got a new thought for the New Year: tell the experts they're nuts.  Well, on just one subject: explaining yourself...in business.  For the New Year, commit to "be yourself" and to hell with the so-called authorities and all their fancy "service platform explanations."  (Does that make any sense?  I didn't think so either.)

In the process, you just might find that you like yourself, and others, just a wee bit better.  And, that you're not always measuring yourself against an untenable yardstick of "professionalism" and "propriety." 

OK, if someone is explaining his/her business service to you, hang in for a minute: you can do it.  Don't assume s/he will get it all laid out quickly, efficiently and elegantly; sometimes, the smart ones need time, you know.  And, this is how we build connections: what we crave.  We listen.  (Ask the expert, pensive, in the picture; he knows.)

If you're in the professional service business, you've been told -- how many times? -- how important your "elevator speech" is to promoting your business.  (I've got news for you: you could be the Bill Gates of Consultants right now: you ain't gonna sell nothin' because no one's buying nothin'.  Just the way it is.  [Excuse all of my colloquial double negatives, please.]  Well, they're not buying much!)

What spurred this counter-revolutionary theme? (Some think it was my birth!)  I got to hear an "award-winnng" journalist and consultant speak recently on the subject of partnerships. The talk was a "blur" but I seem to recall a strong emphasis on the "message;" saying what one does in a specific format so that she, the speaker, or some prospective partner, could understand quickly.  Transactions not relationships: isolated vs connecting.  The old industrial model: we are "units of labor."  Not my cup of tea.

From now on, I'm going to revolt against this type of "packaging:" I really don't need someone to explain to me his/her business to know whether or not I'm going to like that person and can possibly do business with him or her.  (You know that language is less than 10% about words?)

Some call it the "elevator speech" or "escalator speech."  I call it "deadsville" because it seeks to package what is hard to wrap: my passions, my expertise, my life. 

So, if the experts suggest you have ten seconds, tell 'em off and use thirty, hell, use sixty, instead.  I'll listen and if I don't, I'm not being respectful.  How's that for a New Year's resolution: I will behave more respectfully in 2010.  Towards others, the planet, my clients/customers, my colleagues.  I'll listen: I'll make more of an effort to connect.

I'm being encouraged, no coerced, to commoditize myself so that you can understand, in an instant, whether or not I have anything to offer you, as another business person, potential partner, etc.  How have we arrived here?  Slick commercialism?  Greed?  Fear?  Whatever it is, I don't want to buy it: if you want to tell me about your work, your livelihood, I'll wait to hear what you've got to say: I've got plenty of time: I am interested in connecting.

So, when I'm told that I have to explain my work in the "right format," (What do you offer?...To Whom?...How do they hear about it?...) I'm being told to state my rank and serial number.  I'm being told I'm a "thing."  Corn, soybeans, crude oil: I'm a commodity.  Trade me on the Mercantile Exchange.  That's not connecting!  But...it is safe.  (We crave safety, too.)

If I'm a "thing" to you, a tool of some sort that seems to fit your current conundrum, don't buy me.  If you want to know who I am, great.  I'll tell you.  But, it will take more than ten seconds.  Sorry, just the way it goes if...you're interested in connecting.  How's that for a New Year's resolution?  We're not in an economic crisis...we're in an emotional crisis: a lack of meaningful connection.

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For the New Year: Be Yourself, Upset the Experts

We Crave Connectedness But We Settle for Transactions

I've got a new thought for the New Year: tell the experts they're nuts.  Well, on just one subject: explaining yourself...in business.  For the New Year, commit to "be yourself" and to hell with the so-called authorities and all their fancy "service platform explanations."  (Does that make any sense?  I didn't think so either.)

In the process, you just might find that you like yourself, and others, just a wee bit better.  And, that you're not always measuring yourself against an untenable yardstick of "professionalism" and "propriety." 

OK, if someone is explaining his/her business service to you, hang in for a minute: you can do it.  Don't assume s/he will get it all laid out quickly, efficiently and elegantly; sometimes, the smart ones need time, you know.  And, this is how we build connections: what we crave.  We listen.  (Ask the expert, pensive, in the picture; he knows.)

If you're in the professional service business, you've been told -- how many times? -- how important your "elevator speech" is to promoting your business.  (I've got news for you: you could be the Bill Gates of Consultants right now: you ain't gonna sell nothin' because no one's buying nothin'.  Just the way it is.  [Excuse all of my colloquial double negatives, please.]  Well, they're not buying much!)

What spurred this counter-revolutionary theme? (Some think it was my birth!)  I got to hear an "award-winnng" journalist and consultant speak recently on the subject of partnerships. The talk was a "blur" but I seem to recall a strong emphasis on the "message;" saying what one does in a specific format so that she, the speaker, or some prospective partner, could understand quickly.  Transactions not relationships: isolated vs connecting.  The old industrial model: we are "units of labor."  Not my cup of tea.

From now on, I'm going to revolt against this type of "packaging:" I really don't need someone to explain to me his/her business to know whether or not I'm going to like that person and can possibly do business with him or her.  (You know that language is less than 10% about words?)

Some call it the "elevator speech" or "escalator speech."  I call it "deadsville" because it seeks to package what is hard to wrap: my passions, my expertise, my life. 

So, if the experts suggest you have ten seconds, tell 'em off and use thirty, hell, use sixty, instead.  I'll listen and if I don't, I'm not being respectful.  How's that for a New Year's resolution: I will behave more respectfully in 2010.  Towards others, the planet, my clients/customers, my colleagues.  I'll listen: I'll make more of an effort to connect.

I'm being encouraged, no coerced, to commoditize myself so that you can understand, in an instant, whether or not I have anything to offer you, as another business person, potential partner, etc.  How have we arrived here?  Slick commercialism?  Greed?  Fear?  Whatever it is, I don't want to buy it: if you want to tell me about your work, your livelihood, I'll wait to hear what you've got to say: I've got plenty of time: I am interested in connecting.

So, when I'm told that I have to explain my work in the "right format," (What do you offer?...To Whom?...How do they hear about it?...) I'm being told to state my rank and serial number.  I'm being told I'm a "thing."  Corn, soybeans, crude oil: I'm a commodity.  Trade me on the Mercantile Exchange.  That's not connecting!  But...it is safe.  (We crave safety, too.)

If I'm a "thing" to you, a tool of some sort that seems to fit your current conundrum, don't buy me.  If you want to know who I am, great.  I'll tell you.  But, it will take more than ten seconds.  Sorry, just the way it goes if...you're interested in connecting.  How's that for a New Year's resolution?  We're not in an economic crisis...we're in an emotional crisis: a lack of meaningful connection.

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