Recognizing the work of PADV

It's hard for me to believe that men really hit women.  I know it shouldn't be hard to believe - I've know too many victims, read too many stories, seen too many ugly results.  But still, at my core -- I find it hard to believe.

But it's true.  And sometimes women hit men.  And sometimes they - men and women - do much more.  And sometimes the threat, the psychological beating is just as effective as the kick or the punch.

I'm an HR leader -- by work and by passion.  And in all my years of work, safety has been a critical part of my role.  I've thought of the workplace as "my place" - where I was responsible for the well being of every one of my employees.  And that is what connected me to PADV -- Partners Against Domestic Violence.  Their vision is to create a community free of domestic violence.

I wanted - and still do - a workplace free of violence and the threat of violence.  And often that threat comes from home and into work.

Today I'm working with PADV and SHRM Atlanta to equip HR folks in the metro area with the knowledge, the tools and the support to make sure the team at "their place" is safe and secure.  I want HR to know the signs and the steps; I want co-workers know how to offer meaningful support; I want victims know where to get help; I want supervisors to be informed; I want businesses to have a game plan.  I want us to realize that just because we want to believe "oh, it doesn't happen here", that we know that it does happen here.  Every day.

It's about building a web of trust, about having a plan and a response.  But more importantly it's about knowing the reality.

Every year approximately 18,700 violent workplace events are committed by an intimate of the victim at the workplace.

Every year.  As an HR leaders I would sometimes wake in the night, playing over in my head a conversation, a concern -- wondering if I had missed a signal that meant employees were in danger.

It's time to be informed.  It's time to be involved.  If you are HR in metro Atlanta, check out www.padv.org.

And if you are HR anywhere, join the conversation and the expectation that HR has an important role to play.  According to the CDC, one in four women are - at least once in their life - a victim of domestic violence.  Violent domestic violence. 

And a great Peachtree Roadrace it was!

The first year Marc ran the Peachtree Road Race was 1980.  I was two days away from giving birth to our second son, Tom and my dad drove Marc down the start of the race - stopping first to get a box of donuts and a cup of coffee.  My dad then drove to Piedmont Park, walked over to the finish line with his chair, read the AJC, drinking his coffee and eating a couple donuts until Marc finished the race.  Marc's picture shows him as a young man in a heavy cotton t-shirt with the faded letters COACH on the front (from our first son's Lamaze birth experience).  Every year, including this year, as Marc and I now walk the Peachtree and Tom waits at the finish line (having run the race himself), we tell that story.  We talk about my dad - gone now for over 25 years- we talk about my years at Grady when I "worked" the race, we talk about the great leadership that has made the Road Race what it is, we talk about the wheelchair racers (and the year I stood by a woman who was sobbing as her friend wheeled by - the first time in three years that he wasn't picked up by the wheelchair bus for being "too slow.")  We talk about the first year the boys ran, the friends who joined us, the great bands.  We talk about donuts and the AJC and finishing in the park.  Like many, the Peachtree Road Race is a 4th of July tradition for us - a wonderful time for remembering how fortunate we are to be in the great city of Atlanta, to be blessed with a loving family, and even in challenging times, to know we are living a grand and wonderful life here in Atlanta. 

SHRM Volunteers and the National Conference

I've shared with many of you that the title of this little blog comes from my personal affection for the Walt Disney story of Johnny Appleseed (and now my deep appreciation for the "real" guy) and my late night, under the covers with a flashlight childhood reading of Nancy Drew.  The Disney story of Johnny is about a "little" guy who wanted to do "big" things and while he didn't have the means to buy a covered wagon and load up and head West, he did have good boots and a sack of apple seeds.  And so he walked the West and plants apple orchards across this country.  And Nancy Drew - well, she was "just a girl" whose curiosity, friendliness, tenacity and sense of justice kept her on track to "do the right thing."  Plus, she had that really cute little convertible...

This week I have been honored to serve with the SHRM Atlanta volunteers during the SHRM National Conference here in Atlanta.  Leaders have been at the job of creating the volunteer army for over a year - and special thanks to Mary Lynn Miller, Teela Jackson and Maureen Whatley for creating a strategy and structure to ensure folks were where they needed to be - every time!  And volunteers showed up - in droves - to fill conference bags, to direct 16,000 attendees to the right places on time, to host sessions, to serve in the bookstore, and the list goes on.

SHRM Atlanta demonstrates all that is good about the HR profession and all that is good about a well run service organization.  At SHRM Atlanta we "get" business, we "get" HR, and we "get" hospitality.  We solved a lot of problems this week for attendees and we were Drew like in our friendliness and tenacity.  And we certainly planted a lot of seeds -- good thoughts and ideas -- for conference attendees which we hope will bear fruit throughout our profession.

It's a really great team - I'm glad to be a member!

sometimes a geographic cure works!

So much of life and learning is about seeking solutions....and on good days it's about realizing that problems that seemed without a solution - are actually easy to solve! We've all learned that "geographic cures" -- moving (or running away) instead of solving a problem seldom works. But the other day, I realized that moving and changing our perspective is sometimes the perfect answer.

A friend from high school was visiting me (she's been taking a CTI coaching class here in Atlanta and I've enjoyed her company periodically while she finishes her certification). I was complaining about habits that are hard to break, including my inability to hang up my clothes at night. Inability, unwillingness - whatever the issue, on Sunday, the chair is filled with clothes. My friend looked at me and without pause said "get changed in your closet." That simple. Of course, I realized I walked by the closet and past my night clothes to get the chair where I piled everything. Moving to the closet - closer to my night clothes, not to mention closer to hangers has made all the difference.

I share this story because it reminds me that more often than not, solutions are simple and finidng simple requires a new set of eyes. Many of us "manage change" and for me this was a flash of obvious....changing my "place" made changing my behavior simple.

With more complex problems to solve, I find myself asking....is there a solution that is that simple and if there was a simple solution, what would it look like...