There are several views of management coaching and what it is supposed to accomplish for clients. I’m excited to contribute to the larger discussion by giving my take on the subject of management coaching. Let me start by saying that I’m not fond of the title of “coach” for those in my profession. To explain: When I think of “coach,” I think of that person in sports who tells his team what to do to win the game. It is a bit of a misnomer, because it is unlikely that any good management coach would tell his client what and how to do his or her job. The client knows best how to do their job! In any case, “coach” is the title given to those in my field.

Now that I got that out of the way, what is my job as a management coach? Simply put, my job is to help you remove the barriers that keep you from doing your job well and achieving your potential. That’s it. As I mentioned above, I can’t tell you how to do your job, but I can help you figure out what is holding you back from reaching the next level by harnessing your strengths and potential. This is done using any or all of the following methods:

• 360-degree management evaluations
• Following you around for half-a-day to observe you as you work
• Observing your patterns during one-on-one sessions
• Observing your fit with your job and organization
• Assessing your strengths
• Assessing your performance trends
• Finding ways of recovering your past successful behaviors
• Developing strengths
• Disrupting self-defeating patterns

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but these methods tend to be my favorites and those I have had the most success in helping my clients.

If you have any questions about coaching, or would like more clarity about what it is, email me at anthony@bishopandknight.com. I will be sure to respond as soon as possible.

Anthony C. Ferreras

Founded in 1937 on the progressive principles of protecting our freedom of speech and of opposing discrimination in all of its forms, the National Lawyers Guild (N.L.G.) has a more than 60-year history of fighting for social justice. Throughout the Guild’s existence, the organization has actively opposed governmental abuses of our individual and collective rights. In the process the Guild has helped to shape legal precedents, protect civil liberties, and is on the vanguard of creating a more progressive society; one in which “the emphasis is on human rights over property rights.”

Ernesto, of Bishop & Knight, has been aware of the work done by the National Lawyers Guild and has supported this work through collaboration as well as through donation.  Recently, he came across a post requesting expertise in re-launching the Guild’s web site. Excited about the possibility of working with the Guild, he contacted Paige Cram, Communications Coordinator and being such a strong supporter of the Guild’s work, he and Dan offered to direct the re-launch pro-bono.

Ernesto recently chatted with Ms. Cram via email and to mark the re-launch of the site wanted to share the conversation. We are sure this will be an on-going conversation, and look forward to our future collaborations.

1.  Tell us a little about the history of the Guild.

The NLG was founded in 1937 as the first integrated bar association in the United States. Since its inception, the Guild has condemned the infringement of First Amendment rights on a variety of fronts. The Guild opposed the federal loyalty program instituted by the Truman Administration and the F.B.I.’s use of wiretapping, mail tampering, and illegal searches to pry into citizens’ beliefs and associations during the McCarthyism era. Guild members also defended many of the men and women who were subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee. Despite being labeled a “Communist front” by HUAC in the 1950s, the Guild remained strong and continued its work. The NLG responded quickly in support of the civil rights movement by establishing its Committee for Legal Assistance in 1962 to provide legal resources for those fighting racism and injustice in the South. In the 1970s the NLG was actively involved in the struggles for affirmative action and women’s and gay rights. Guild members organized defense teams for Native-American defendants from Wounded Knee and prisoners charged in connection with the Attica Prison uprising. Then the organization began growing to include international interests as members supported self-determination for Palestine and opposed apartheid in South Africa. Most recently the Guild has turned its focus to anti-terrorism legislation and the attempts to silence domestic dispute. Our Center for Democratic Communications committee has also begun taking an interest in the growing media democracy movement.

2.  It was our pleasure working with you on the re-launch of the NLG site. As the Communication Coordinator for the NLG how do you see this new site affecting the Guild?

It has already made a world of difference! At this point in time, a company’s web site is its most important asset and its first impression. It used to be that companies used business cards and letterhead to demonstrate their professionalism, but now the web site is the first place people look to get a sense of who you are as an organization, what you do, and how you perceive yourself. I would say that before, our web site and the actual essence of our organization did not match up. Now we can show people what the NLG is really all about! And the response so far has been tremendous. We’ve received a number of questions through the new contact forms on the site, which demonstrate that people are finding us more accessible now. We’ve also seen a big increase in people paying online since that whole process is much simpler on the new site. I hope that, ultimately, the new site will be the springboard for many other projects. Now that we have this great new site, we can feel comfortable reaching out to other organizations, grant providers and media contacts, knowing that when they go to check us out, they will be impressed.

3.  How long has the position, Communication Coordinator been an aspect of the NLG? How long have you held this position and can you describe for us what you are ultimately responsible for?

The Communications Coordinator position began about two years ago when I began the job. Before that the position was “publications manager” which focused mostly on the NLG publications and subscriptions. When I started at the NLG, the position expanded with an eye toward larger ideas like brand and reputation management. I still design and edit the publications, and manage our subscriptions, but I try to spend more of my time on ways to improve the image of the NLG and gain more media and public attention for the organization. I’ve also spent a lot of time trying to streamline many of our communication systems since the structure of the Guild often makes communicating on a national level a challenge.

4.  Now that the site is launched what is next on your plate as Communication Coordinator?

Good question! Well I was going to take a vacation, but the volcano in Iceland had other plans for me. We’re starting to get into planning our convention, but my next big projects will be making the National Lawyers Guild Referral Directory available online and establishing an NLG panel of experts who can be available to speak to law schools and media on a variety of topics in which the NLG is involved.

5.  In your opinion what are the largest challenges the Guild faces in the next few years and how do you see your position helping to navigate those challenges?

I think the biggest challenge is navigating the changing media landscape. The NLG does amazing work, but the problem has always been in explaining that work to others. It could be that the rise of social media will really benefit the NLG in helping to get the word out about its work, but as an organization with limited resources, it can sometimes be a challenge to keep up with the pace of the change. I hope that, as Communications Coordinator, I’ll be able to help the Guild find its place with futuristic communication like Twitter and whatever will come next.

http://www.nlg.org/

I find it funny that the proverb “patience is a virtue” permeates our culture, yet many of us quickly forget it in moments when its powerful message would be of most value. When we are not patient, we tend to act impulsively and erratically. Sometimes, we become frustrated and then angry like the client mentioned in my last blog, “Turning ‘Red Hot’ Might Drag You into the ‘Red’”. Frustration and anger occur when we want things to happen immediately and/or in the way we expect them. Many of us are guilty of being impatient.

In a way, this blog is an extension of my last, “Turning ‘Red Hot’ Might Drag You into the ‘Red’”. In that blog, I talked about the importance of keeping cool when things don’t go our way, because anger often makes things worse. If you haven’t already, read it to give yourself context before continuing with this one: “Turning ‘Red Hot’ Might Drag You into the ‘Red’”.

I can think of several instances when friends, family, and past coaching clients complain to me about something not happening their way when they need it to. They end up acting impulsively and often erratically to get what they want. Here, I wanted to expand on remembering to use patience as a tool to avoid frustration and to avoid unproductive haste. In the work setting, these things often lead to performance-hurting consequences.

Patience itself is difficult to learn quickly, but there are things we can do to curb frustration, and erratic and impulsive behaviors. The first suggestion I offer I mentioned in “Turning ‘Red Hot’ Might Drag You into the ‘Red’”, i.e. take a moment and breathe deeply to slow yourself down to think. This is important, because by definition, when acting erratically and impulsively, we are not thinking at an organized pace. Second, after slowing down, make a list of the negative outcomes that could result from thinking impatiently in that moment. What are the positives? Are the positives worth the risk of bringing about the negatives? If you can’t think of any negative outcomes, you haven’t slowed down!

If, for whatever reason, you can’t slow down and write the list, ask yourself questions out loud. I know this might appear strange and uncomfortable in public, so go somewhere private and ask yourself questions about what is going on. For example, “Why do I need this now? Why must it be this way?” and so on. This is a good exercise to force yourself to stop and think because you are forcing yourself to respond to your questions.

Remember, patience is a virtue! And it is one that will bring about consistently higher results in whatever you do.

Tell me about your experience both with patience and impatience. Also, give me your ideas for a blog topic important to you. Email me at anthony@bishopandknight.com.

Anthony C. Ferreras

One of the most sensitive topics I have encountered with coaching clients is anger. For some, the issue just cannot be approached. For others, there is no problem. And for many, the topic can be frustrating. Nevertheless, when it affects leadership performance of those it inflicts, the topic must be confronted and dealt with. Whether you want to admit it or not… it does affect performance!

How do we get angry, anyway? There are several ways I can answer this, but leaving the physiological and developmental reasons aside, there is one way that is important here. Anger results from a buildup of frustration. Frustration happens when things don’t go the way we would prefer. For example, some managers become frustrated when their employees misunderstand directions or do the work their own way. Add several of these instances together and for many managers and people in general, it may grow to be anger.

An early client of mine, a b-level executive at a consumer adhesive company, came to me with the goal of increasing his direct reports’ motivation and communication. About five months prior, my client’s departmental numbers were steadily declining and his boss was on his case every week. This was when he’d had enough and came to me for help.

Long story short, it turned out that at the same time his department’s decline began, my client began having problems at home. These personal issues shrank his patience at work and, literally, anything that didn’t go his way set him off. To avoid his wrath, his employees started keeping potential problems from him. I’m sure that I’m exaggerating the degree of anger and frustration he exhibited, but to its recipients, a reliable supply of loosely warranted, anger fueled reprimands can be perceived as wrath. Information and reports were kept from him that would have helped him and other employees make performance-enhancing decisions. So the problem wasn’t a lack of motivation, and poor communication wasn’t completely his direct reports’ issue. The problem was that his recent epidemic of frustration and anger was creating an employee-relations issue. No one wants to interact with someone like that, and one of his best performers even quit during those months.

A bigger problem is that many people think that angry reprimands help increase employees’ motivation and productivity. The funny thing is that they’re right, but only initially. Eventually, good employees will quit or withhold information that might prove crucial to organizational numbers. It’s difficult to control frustration and anger, but keep this blog in mind when something is not going your way at work. Instead, talk to your employees about their performance and work with their strengths. Importantly, take several deep breaths before talking to your employees about issues that bother you. These are just some of the things you can do to keep your employees’ trust, keep the communication flowing, and retain your most valuable employees. Stay out of the “red!”

Hope this blogs helps with your business or personal struggles. If you have any questions or have a blog idea for me, email me at anthony@bishopandknight.com.

-Anthony C. Ferreras

Remember when you learned the safest way to cross the street? You were told, “Look both ways, then cross when it’s clear.” Walking to the cleaners to pick up my dry cleaning recently, I noticed a woman in her 30s apply this safety rule just before quickly crossing a fairly busy street. Don’t worry! She made it! Only moments after this event, a man in his 40s fiddling with his Blackberry looked up from his device just long enough to witness the woman halfway across the street. He then turned his attention back to his important message and began crossing the street. He had barely taken two steps in the street when a whole dramatic commotion erupted with screeching tires, blaring horns, and drivers yelling at this lucky man who barely escaped injury thanks to the drivers’ quick reactions.

The moral of the story:

It’s ok to trust the judgment of others when they are aware that we are depending on them and their actions. Team members are a good example of this. However, we may often do things, like the man attempting to cross the street, because we see others do them and succeed. As organization leaders, for example, we often implement professional “best practices” without adapting them to our organizations’ mission, goals, and culture among several factors that could cause the effort to fail. To take advantage of these practices or any effort at increasing organizational performance, however, we need to look in all directions before stepping out with a new leadership technique or organization development program. Otherwise, we might get hit by all sorts of problems (e.g., decreased morale and productivity among the staff).

Before implementing a change in your organization, study its features. Then study your organization’s elements, including its mission, goals, culture, and employees to understand how the “best practice” will fit and if adaptation is needed before applying it to your organization. Each organization is unique and just because one thing works for others, it doesn’t mean it will work for yours!

Hope you enjoyed this one! If you have a topic you would like me to address in future blogs, or if you have any questions, email me at anthony@bishopandknight.com.

-Anthony C. Ferreras

Bishop & Knight had the pleasure of working with Divine Monkey Homeopathy for a second time. Our most recent project was to redesign the Divine Monkey website. Prior to this, we worked with Sandi utilizing coaching techniques and created a business development plan to help with growth management.

Each time our paths cross we realize the wonder that is homeopathy! In describing homeopathy on her website, Sandi tells us that “The body knows how to heal itself… [but] the society in which we live now doesn’t allow our bodies to heal themselves. Homeopathy reminds the body how to heal itself.”

Homeopathy is a holistic system of healthcare that treats the whole person. Symptoms of illness represent the body’s effort to express that it is not well. Treating these symptoms with western medication eliminates the body’s greatest form of expression and can drive disease further inward. A Homeopath strives to treat the complete person, rather than attempting to treat the symptoms or come to a standard single diagnosis. Since homeopathy is used to heal the person rather than the illness, anyone – regardless of diagnosis – can benefit from homeopathic treatment. Homeopathy is effective in a wide assortment of chronic and acute problems. It also can help prevent future disease by increasing an individual’s strength and resistance. Divine Monkey Homeopathy follows the basic principle that true healing must come about swiftly, gently and permanently. I am dedicated to working with people of different ages, cultures, economic backgrounds, gender expressions and lifestyles. I strongly believe quality healthcare is the right of all people.”

Sandi believes that “Everyone has the right to quality health care”. If someone is in need of Homeopathy, but the fee is too high for them, we will lower our fee, create a payment plan or utilize a bartering system. If people feel strongly about… getting healthy with Divine Monkey services, we feel strongly about accommodating the possibility. She continues, “I am much more dedicated to people having the health care they need, then to a specific way of receiving payment. Anybody who feels the need to work with me should be able to access my services, regardless of their income.”

We were curious about what homeopathy looks like, so Sandi gave us an example:

“In homeopathy, for example, an ulcer is one symptom in the broad spectrum of diseases. If people go to the doctor to take care of an ulcer, the doctor will give everyone the same medication to treat it. When the medication wears off, however, the ulcer comes back. The problem is that the way it is now, symptoms are treated and not the problems creating the symptoms. In homeopathy, I would look at this person emotionally, psychically, spiritually, physically, and look at all of the other symptoms their body has. Maybe they are also allergic to walnuts. Get migraines. Maybe they check their email so often that they can’t get anything else done. I look at all of these things as one disease. The ulcer is one of a set of symptoms. I look for what links all these symptoms together. What is that core disease that is creating all of these things? Then I administer a remedy that wakes the body up to heal itself.”

One of Sandi’s early success stories was with a two-and-a-half year old child who had severe food allergies. Since birth, the child could not have breast milk and other foods like soy milk and bread. The child was small, could not talk and walk like typical two-and-a-half year olds. Attending other children’s birthday parties and eating cake were just some of the things that were out of the question. This kid’s quality of life was being undermined by the disease. Sandi tried one remedy, which didn’t work, but the parents were persistent. After a couple of months, Sandi tried another remedy and after a couple of months, this kid was sneaking cheese out of the refrigerator! After six months, this child was walking, running, jumping, talking, and eating things like bread and muffins, not to mention birthday cake.

We commented to her that this must have been exciting to see. Sandi agreed that it was exciting for her to witness, but as a homeopath, she humbly declined to take credit for it. From her perspective, it was the child’s body that healed itself and she prefers to commend the parents for giving her enough information to administer the correct remedy to help the body regain its healing power.

We also wondered about her motivation to become a Homeopath:

According to Sandi, she has always enjoyed watching people’s lives change and she wanted to make that her career, but she didn’t know what it would look like. After trying a few things to help empower others in their lives, give them quality of life, and find their passions, she had an accident that disabled her for four years. Western medicine gave her little hope for regaining her physical abilities. Faced with few options, she turned to alternative healthcare. Homeopathy was one option that proved successful. Homeopathy helped her heal enough to play soccer for 15 more years.

As she was searching for her vocation, she maintained her focus on her larger goals. “I want to nurture people. I want to empower people. I want to listen to people. I want to make a difference in their lives.” As she spoke with more people involved in the field, she decided that homeopathy was her calling. Finding homeopathy was like falling in love at first sight. Homeopathy, she found, was the vehicle that helped her serve this calling to make a difference in people’s lives combined with an occupation that she loves and that brings her great satisfaction.

Her advice to people, who are struggling to find their place in life, is to “Listen to your inner voice about what you want or need to do in this world and your calling will show itself to you.”

Her initial work with B&K included a process of self-evaluation that was similar to her evaluations with patients. Through this examination, she learned that she was preventing herself from moving forward and reaching her goals. Ernesto encouraged her to view her work in a different light, and to see that her calling, helping others, should have precedence over her internal struggles. He assigned her to write down every fear she had in one column and in another column to write something positive, a mantra she could use to help minimize the fear. “I am a successful homeopath and help people heal. It was beautiful because I was left with this mantra. I still refer back to the exercises he had me do.”

In the end, Sandi found that her work with Bishop and Knight was similar to the role of homeopathy in her own and her patients’ lives – change came about mildly, rapidly and permanently.

Here are some more exciting websites about natural healing:

National Center for Homeopathy

Natural Medicine

Homeopathic vet nurses injured hawk back to health

Even if you don’t often lose your keys, you probably have at one time or another. Sometimes losing your keys is frustrating and can affect the rest of your day! You’re late dropping off the kids at school, which makes you late for a meeting at the office, making you miss some important information said early in the meeting. Having our keys available to us at the right time helps us avoid these problems and others. In many cases, the keys are the solution to preventing that series of awful events. What many of us don’t realize is that misplacing our keys can be a metaphor for other parts of our lives.

Think of your job as a compilation of solutions. Good interpersonal skill, like keys to start your car, is the solution to close big sales opportunities. The ability to look beyond the present is a great solution to prevent potential business interruptions. Like keys, however, we sometimes lose the certain solutions needed to perform those jobs effectively. This tends to happen after some time of not using those particular behaviors that make up the solution. Sometimes, new events, such as a new boss or merger can interrupt the way we normally supply the solution. Often, we try new things believing they will make us more effective leaders, for example, but may actually cause problems that we don’t see.

If you find that your job is becoming more difficult to produce the results you once had or your team is not producing as it once had, do something us leaders rarely do – pause. Take a break in your hectic day and try this:

1. Think of when you or your team was producing desired results.
2. What did you do to produce those results? Think of the steps. (Does this remind you of retracing your steps to find your keys?)
3. Now, think of the things you do now.
4. Compare numbers 2 and 3 above. What are you doing differently? For example, do you have less face-time with your team? Is the stress or the awkwardness of having a new boss causing you to spend more time perfecting presentations and less time focusing on other duties? List the things you do differently.
5. Solutions are often composed of several behaviors. If your typically successful solution is a combination of the examples in number 4, focus on one at a time. For example, take less time perfecting your presentation. Often, you will find that restoring one behavior will have a snowball effect on restoring the other lost solutions. Less time perfecting your presentation might give you more face time with your team.

There! You’ve retraced your steps and found your keys just in time to drive the kids to school, make the meeting on time allowing you to catch all the important information you’ll need for the day or week.

Tell us about the types of “keys” you’ve lost and how they affected your work.

Food is a necessity, for some it is a simple pleasure. Yet, behind the simple fact that we all need to eat, there are many complex issues. The issues surrounding the production of food – labor, the environment, health and how to help in making sustainably grown, healthy food more accessible to as many people as possible – intersects with many of our concerns as socially conscious people. To inaugurate our blogs featuring community leaders, Bishop & Knight spoke with Ann Forsthoefel, Executive Director of the Portland Farmers Market, about her thoughts on the role of food in the world and the impact of our individual choices on society. She was generous enough to give us an interview in the midst one of the fundraisers for the Portland Farmers Market. The fundraiser helps Portland Farmers Market to function as a non-profit, keep vendor fees low, provide entertainment, and continue to expand the programming that educate people about the local food movement.

Farmers markets allow people in a community to buy directly from those who grew the food. This means that the food is produced locally, and so shopping at this type of market benefits the environment and benefits the community it serves – your money stays in your local area. Ann elaborates with, “Spending your dollar at Farmer’s Markets is an investment going toward paying livable wages and maintaining good soil to produce good and healthy foods. Agricultural practices that produce cheap food rapes the land of its worth and denies people livable wages. It also wreaks havoc on our collective health.”

Ann was raised on a farm in rural Ohio, and it was there that she first learned to work with the land, and with food. Her family made fresh food, and ate seasonally in what might now be termed sustainable. At the time, she was not aware of her family’s economic status and it wasn’t until she went to university that she began to make connections between food, class, and on the effect personal choices have on the environment and on the world. She was first introduced to farmers markets while living in Colorado, where she worked for a university teaching sustainable agriculture and selling produce as a vendor at a local market. When Ann moved to Portland she felt compelled to continue her involvement in the local food movement. Initially, her involvement was shopping the market. Then, she began working for the Oregon Food Bank, which she found rewarding. One day, she came across a posting for a new executive director for the Portland Farmers Market, and this created a dilemma for her about whether to apply for the job or continue her work at the food bank. “My true love is in farming and the social movement behind local food influenced me to take the job over staying at the food bank,” says Ann.

Ann’s role as a leader in her community

Ann makes the connections between the shoppers and the farmers to “…educate how critical local food is and how [shoppers’] dollar spent at the Market is critical to supporting local people and… how the land is farmed.” Ann wants people to understand what is happening in the larger world. She does “lectures and [is] a member of panels to make people understand that agriculture as is is a system that doesn’t work and is detrimental to many people.”
In Ann’s view, there is a lot of mis-information from powers that be, who say that food should be cheap. This denies the effort taken to produce food, and produces a system that disregards the health of the land in order to produce crops for the highest dollar amount possible. It is detrimental to our national health to think this way. Instead, we should want to pay less for health care and pay more for food.

“To make food cheap, we have monoculture (this is a system where farmers produce one or two crops year after year rather than diversifying what is grown on the land.) When we get away from monoculture, pay a person a living wage, and pay them to take care of the soil, because we’re actually growing soil, not food… healthy food will be the result. Everything has been done to take that cost away, making rural communities close up. There is so much [..of a connection..] around food justice and environmental justice and social change just for the plate of food in front of you that it is amazing.”

Access for those who can’t afford quality food

Portland Farmers Market with Ann at the helm worked with local community leaders and a neighborhood coalition in the socially and economically diverse area in the northeast of Oregon to establish a matching token program. Five years ago, they began trading food stamps for wooden tokens that are used to purchase produce from Market vendors; the vendors trade back those tokens later for money. Now, this can also be done by swiping any credit card at the main booth in the Markets to receive these wooden tokens. In the northeast area, a fund exists that provides five extra dollars in tokens for free, and they are looking to start this program in all the markets. Moreover, Ann is working with a local woman who is interested in this issue to get it on legislation and make it federal.

Ann’s vision for the future of the Portland Farmers Market

She is committed to creating access to healthy food for everyone, not just those who can afford it. To that end, Ann is working with community leaders and neighborhood coalitions and is doing work to educate kids and get them involved in gardening and producing food. Kids can help influence their families’ choices regarding healthy foods and supporting local Farmers.

Ann wants to increase food purchased at farmer’s markets in the Portland area from 3 to 10 percent. This will result in more land being converted to farmland, which will lead to the creation of more jobs. She also wants to dispel myths about food such as that organic foods and farmers markets are exclusively for the people who can afford them, essentially that eating well is a luxury. Good food should be available to everyone not just the upper class. There is a cost in producing food and this unfortunately can’t be avoided. But she wants to help people to understand and to come to believe that the best way they can spend their money is by spending it on sustainably grown, high quality food.

The GreenVille Project has a revolutionary idea about the way we construct and relate to retail environments: building spaces that are responsive to the needs of their community and that use green building practices at every step of the project. With these values at their center they are taking the development industry into their own hands and are effectively hoping to put it back into ours. According to thegreenvilleproject.com, the model it proposes will save its tenants at least 30% in energy consumption costs through various optimizations (e.g., well insulated and renewable energy contribution) compared to traditional retail properties.

Bishop and Knight Consulting had the pleasure of working with The GreenVille Project early on during the development of both their Business and Strategic plans, later in the process we also worked with GVP in creating a branding package. Jae Larsen, CEO of The GreenVille Project, was generous enough to speak with us.

Jae had been working in construction for many years, and had noticed flaws in how we design and build retail and commercial spaces.

If you look at energy consumption as a whole in the United States, over 30 percent of energy consumed is on behalf of the retail and commercial built environment.”

Given her optimistic take on life, she saw these problems as an opportunity to change the industry. She started with a simple idea: improve the energy consumption of retail spaces, lessen their negative impact by choosing energy saving and environmentally friendly building materials. She began talking with people and quickly realized that the time had come to bring this idea to life.

Her idea began to expand, as she realized that there were challenges throughout the life cycle of retail spaces. It wasn’t just in how they were built, but in what happened after they were built. In her view, it is essential to embrace each community and one way of doing this is to start the conversation by asking,

‘Hey, what do you all need in your neighborhood? What are the things you need that will help to support, enhance, and create a more sustainable lifestyle?’ So what we’re trying to create is an interesting mix of folks that all rotate around the hub of sustainability.”

Asking these questions at the very beginning stages of planning, ensure that the community is not merely involved with the space, but they have an avenue to become invested in the process. The GreenVille Project is about combining forces – individuals, community organizations, local governments – and tackling some of the big issues of our day. Jae’s enthusiasm and love of the work is apparent throughout the process.

B&K: What will a GreenVille look like?

JL: Ideally, this is something that is on the neighborhood scale. We’re not trying to be a large regional model. We really are conquering this thing a neighborhood at a time. So within the context of about 65,000 square feet, on about three to four acres, we are looking at having a hybrid organic grocery anchor. So the grocery store would be your main anchor tenant, and around that are all the types of goods and services that you would want to have within walking distance from your house.

We are working with a company called the Micro Green Gym, so instead of a Gold’s Gym or a 24 Hour Fitness, we would partner with a sustainable gym where they have created cardio equipment that uses less energy to run the machines and exercise on the equipment actually feeds that energy to the building.

The fun part of my job is [that] we have the intense privilege of coming across tons of amazing people who are doing incredible work that are in their own little corners of the planet. Our goal is to pull them together – what makes sense in the regional context – and give them one kick ass platform to work out of. By pulling everyone together in a unified environment, it strengthens everybody. It [brings] these little entities with smart ideas, …[struggling] out there on their own, …together under the GreenVille umbrella to strengthen the whole process.“

B&K: What will the experience be for the consumer?

JL: On the consumer side, we offer something that they actually want and need. The way we do that is to actually sit down with them and find out. (Editor’s note: GreenVille has meetings with neighborhood organizations based in the area they are planning to build.) If you ask the question, it’s amazing the amount of information you can get. People know what they want in their backyard. They know the kind of things they do and don’t need. Some neighborhoods [might need] access to health services and child care. There are other neighborhoods that want better and more interesting food options. It depends on where you go and what you’re looking at. Everybody is pretty clear about what they wish they had in their little corner. So we’re trying to put a tremendous amount of forethought into figuring out what that looks like [for the consumer].

So there are three major pillars of GreenVille: there’s (1) the built environment, (2) our unique relationship with the tenants, and (3) the community we are a part of.”

By addressing all three of those in a really holistic way [we are trying] to challenge, change and inform how, what, and where we are buying our goods and services, so that we can inspire people to really think about how they’re using their resources. You have to offer a model to show that it’s possible, and we’re willing be that initial offering in the marketplace that says that there’s a better, more thoughtful, more compassionate way to accomplish this.

BK: What was the path for GreenVille to get to the point where it is now?

JL: I think that it’s been a fascinating path. My background… I come out of a very strong, design/build/construction background. I accidently ended up doing early green building work before we even had any clever names to call it. We were trying to figure out better, more interesting, and more responsible ways of moving our clients in a process of construction. For me, I was an accidental player. I never really set out to be a sustainable builder. It was what made ultimate sense in how to conduct business.

Alongside that, I have always been pretty passionate about my politics, about committing to the communities I lived in, and wanting to be an active participant in shaping those communities. Along the way, I was fortunate enough to create some wonderful friendships and partnerships in my business life. It really was as innocent as a small group of friends, literally three of us, trying to figure out how we can combine our forces to do something in the world that actually felt meaningful. There was a little bit of talk about what sort of legacy are we to leave, and what we can do by joining forces to bring our unique skills, talents, and our abilities to do something that was going to have impact.
In some ways, the fact that we ended up on this path of sustainable retail development is bizarre at best. I’m never going to invent some crazy, you know, alternative energy source. I’m never going to probably roam the halls of government as an elected official. There’s a lot things that I can’t do. There are a lot of things that my partners can’t do. But what we did is sat down and stripped away and asked what can we do? What are we good at? What are we passionate about? What is it that we think we can elicit the change around? And this is kind of the basis of how that evolved. But you never know how things are going to manifest.

One of our joys is that as we’ve gone down this path, we realized that we have come up with a formula and a model that is really about the right place and the right time, just that right moment in history, when we are poised at this precipice where I think there is so much potential for change on a broad, broad level. People are really ready for something that is different and better.

If anything, GreenVille isn’t embarking on doing something New. We are actually leading people back to a path where the world made a lot more sense. If you can genuinely support people and encourage them to make choices for themselves, then you’re doing something worthwhile. The partnership that we currently have – and we’re blessed with some really unique combinations – [for example] by having Eva [Longoria Parker] in our camp, we can shine a really bright spot light on a very small nimble endeavor. We make an impact.

So in terms of the path, I think the exciting part is that there has been such an embrace. The people that are important to our progress, I think, are generally, on board with what we’re doing. And that’s nice, because even three or four years ago there was a sense that you were out there on your own chipping away at it.

Now, there is a much broader sense of awareness and community, and a general level of support and encouragement.”

B&K: Tell me about your collaboration with Bishop and Knight.

JL: That was one of those fortunate products of fate. I have had a long friendship with [Ernesto’s] wife, and I happened to be in Los Angeles for a minute. We were sitting around and I threw the idea at them because I was having a meeting about funding and was {in the beginning stages of} working on this… and Ernesto’s eyes lit up, like “Oh my God!” It’s really one of those things that’s a fortunate twist of circumstances.

I think what was really great in having somebody like Ernesto from the very early stages is that there wasn’t that sort of base level of having to convince or educate or pitch why GreenVille was a good idea or that it should exist.”

I think for me personally, being embraced by Ernesto and Jack, and using them as resources assisted me in figuring out how to transition into the leadership role that I’m currently in and helped move me towards feeling empowered in that role… I come from a background [of] working in very nontraditional fields [for women] in a very male dominated world and I’ve been fine with that – just assuming any role I needed to assume – but when you start on a project as big as this you can start to question yourself, you need people who will help you see your way through [and] that help support you in claiming your role. It’s a process. [They] helped me to see that I don’t have to fit in that conventional mold; that I can bring all of my skills and assets; I can package them in any way that I want to and still obtain a tremendous amount of success for myself and for the company. I think that was really great. They were able to provide encouragement and support on lots of levels. That was tremendously helpful.

B&K: What advice do you have for someone or an organization that is interested in going a similar direction that you and GreenVille have gone?

JL: I think that the main thing is that there has to be an absolute passion and conviction. Not every door is going to stay open. Not everybody is going to have an easy path for this. You have to be right with yourself and know that this is the work you are needing to do.

For me, this is about creating a life’s work. My stance is that if you can accomplish it within the course of your life time, then you haven’t set your goals high enough. We talk about climate change, and global warming… the path that we’re moving in as a planet… it’s not work that we can unfold over the next couple decades, or quarter century, or the next 50 years. We have to start making radically different decisions and choices and commitments, yesterday. If I sound like a gal whose hair is on fire, it is! [Laughter] So my advice is to say: be bold, be brave, and be shameless in your passion and approach. We can’t do this work fast enough ~ the work it takes to turn away from the path that we’re on. [In] whatever capacity we are capable… I don’t care if you’re an accountant, or an artist, or a widget maker, whatever it is that you do, figure out now how to do it more responsibly, sustainably, and inspire as many people along the way to join you in that mission, because that’s what it’s going to take.

**Just in: Jae Larsen of the GreenVille Project speak on a Panel with Mr. Al Gore and Mr. Bill Bradbury on Thursday November 19th in Portland Oregon! Go to www.bradbury2010.com for more information.

Bishop & Knight was fortunate to have recently collaborated with Amy Andre, consultant, activist, and published author on an exciting new workshop for Strategic Planning. The goal was to create a dynamic exchange between the presenter and the participants. We started with the premise that all companies regardless of size or structure can benefit from embracing the planning process. Our brainchild, titled “Strategic Planning: A Journey, Not a Destination,” was received enthusiastically at The Western Worker Cooperative Conference in Oregon as presented by Ernesto Quintero.

Like Bishop & Knight, Amy is committed to helping others impact the world. Through her writing, speaking engagements, and consulting, she aspires to help the LGBT community by bringing to light issues that affect it, particularly around health and civil rights concerns. With an MBA focused on non-profit-organizations, a Master of Arts in Human Sexuality Studies, and 10 years experience working with non-profits including serving on boards, consulting, and fundraising, she has the firepower to make a big difference for her non-profit clients, especially those that serve the LGBT community.

To learn more about Amy and to sample her inspirational writing, go to www.amyandre.com


Also, click on the following links to learn more about how an MBA can be vital to the non-profit and Green business world.

UC Berkeley MBA with a focus on Non-Profits


Information about using MBAs in Non-profits

About “Green” MBAs