Solutions For Good

The Star of David came off the wall Saturday evening to be replaced with a cross for Sunday services. The beauty of growing up in Columbia, MD, among many things, was that we had interfaith centers- no churches, synagogues, mosques.  We had to share space and work amongst each other. That brought about a unique experience of sharing and inclusiveness in the community.  Using this lens to think about the holiday season in the workplace is interesting. How can we be successfully inclusive and have everyone enjoy the experience? The commitment to inclusion and respect for varying religions, all the time and in December particularly, where Christmas is a large focus for many, matters in the workplace. The decorations, parties, gift giving, is all relevant. Ultimately, it is feasible to handle this in a respectful and fun fashion, but it takes some thought and possibly effort different than the usual. Below are suggestions from a few articles and ideas that worked well i...

 “All we did is pick weeds in a field.” Heart sinking, I listened. A client called after serving as volunteers for a project that I had arranged and said this. Wait, that cannot be right! I did a site visit with the organization, one of the biggest and best run nonprofits in town-- they showed me the project and it was good -- developing an educational area in their environmental program for school kids. You all said you wanted an environmental and youth-focused project. This was volunteer day, match-made-in-heaven perfection! So, what happened??  The upshot was the volunteers were not shown their return on investment (ROI). They are there to make a social impact (investment) and need to know how the task of today relates to the mission (return).  Sadly, in my story, the volunteers didn’t get the purpose or the connection to the mission and felt like it was a waste of their time. The organization and I had missed effectively laying the g...

Circa 5th grade, at a sleepover at my house with about 5 girls, a friend snuck in my bedroom, found my journal and read it. Then she told another girl at the sleepover about it. I found out because the friend who was told, was so appalled at the invasion of privacy, that she thought I should know.  Morals form young! That is one of my first memories of journal writing --many life lessons there, no doubt.  I never stopped writing but I did start to hide my journal better and choose my friends more carefully.  😏 Life lesson aside, writing in the journal is not just for personal use.  For work, it can be used to let go of worries or jot down wild ideas, or to write a pros and cons list help make an important decision. It can serve as a way to organize thoughts and ideas that may otherwise just play ping-pong in your brain.  It can also be a way t o process serious business decisions and think through great ideas for a business or organization’s f u...

Are you feeling refreshed? New Years resolutions still in-hand?  Excellent!  Happy New Year! While you are in the mode of self-improvement and being goal-oriented, I want to share a few tips that may help you in your work with your team.  This past summer I taught a class about motivating leadership  for the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation Institute for Organization Management.  From this class is a list of practical ways to build your leadership on a day-to day-basis. Below are some of my favorite, very practical tips, that you can use. Just creating the list gave me the ideas and reminders that I needed as well.  See what you think!  Practical Ways to Build Your Leadership Style and Motivate Your Team Be authentic Get feedback on your leadership Continue learning Be honest and trustworthy Be transparent and consistent Don’t take it all too seriously; have a sense of humor Be confident and courageous Your arri...

A few summers ago, I went to a popular, local “swim hole”. I had heard it was really fun, swimming in this huge quarry lake. There were 100 or so people swimming in the cold water that seemingly had no bottom. Others were swinging off ropes from rocky embankments into the water. People were having a great time. I love nature and love swimming so found it really cool in one respect. Though simultaneously my thought was, “Whoa, this is a liability nightmare. Who insures them?” Makes me sound like I’d be fun at parties, right?  I chalk that up to a few summers in high school and college working at a very well-run outdoor summer camp. Clearly, it had an impact! I joke but the dangers were real. Not too long after I was there a young woman, a competitive swimmer, drowned there. This was tragic and considering her swimming ability, exposed some real vulnerabilities. The right thing to do as a business is to plan before something goes wrong. Risk management is a timely topic ...

“It’s been the most humbling and sacrificial experience I have had”, says Kisha Webster, a former principal and consultant to school districts and principals. But she is not talking about this work, as she is on hiatus from it. She is referring to her current work as a Community and Education AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer with Open Works , the makers space in the Greenmount West neighborhood . What can we all learn from Kisha? A bunch. Kisha is also the President of the Greenmount West Community Association and with that has also taken on leadership of the newly founded Greenmount West Community Center. The Community Center was established in just two months in response to the neighborhood kids having nothing constructive to do. Open Works found children spending a hours of their time there, hanging out, just to be in a welcoming and positive environment. Kisha and her team saw a need and addressed it. Kisha says she originally thought that she could take on this work ...

I'm in line at Royal Farms and there are two girls, about 13-14 years old, in front of me. Their purchase is rung up and they start looking at one another and giggling nervously, digging deep in their pockets.They are $.38 short. The cashier is old enough to be their grandmother, and also old enough to be retired. She says "It's ok, you can pay me tomorrow." I’m thinking, “ Whoa, surprising, like a mom & pop shop!” I tell her that I will pay the change (like adults did for us as kids), so that her drawer won't be short. The girls are sweet, thank me and leave. The cashier keeps thanking me, as if I did a favor for her own kids, and tells me she usually brings in extra money to cover people who don’t have enough. She is old enough to be retired, working a low-wage job and still manages to look out for people. I posted this story a couple months ago on my personal Facebook page. It received many likes and shares. I was surprised about the effect i...