One of my most memorable speaking events happened in Pasadena, California on January 26, 2012, Living in More Than One World: Bruce Rosenstein in Conversation With Shannon Barnes.
I had initially connected with Shannon, who is based in the Los Angeles metro area, in 2010 on social media over our shared interest in Peter Drucker. We met in person later that year when he attended a presentation I gave at the Drucker School of Management in Claremont, California. That presentation ultimately led to an invitation by Steven Kim and Kathleen Fariss at the Drucker School to present at the prestigious Drucker Business Forum (keep scrolling through the latter link for a complete video of the event).
Although it was not broadcast, it was co-presented by Southern California Public Radio (SCPR) station 89.3 KPCC (now re-branded as LAist 89.3), and held at an impressive venue that is part of their building complex, The Crawford Family Forum. Mark Crowley, a Drucker School alum, was at the time KPCC’s vice president and general manager and is now Chief Operating Officer, Marketplace by American Public Media.
I knew that Shannon, with his superb communication skills, would be the perfect choice for the ‘in conversation with’ format. As you will see in the video, he was a wonderful conversation partner and moderator, and the multidimensionality of his life story and professional background provided a perfect complement to the idea of living in more than one world.
Shannon remains a thoughtful conversationalist, and we have stayed in touch over the years, as both of our careers have evolved. I’m grateful to him for answering my new questions about his multidimensional life and work, faith-based background, volunteering, and how he balances his schedule to take on all these activities.
You have an eclectic professional background in multiple organizational/social sectors. Can you explain the nature of your current day-to-day work, and how your background and experience informs your activities?
Most of my work is focused on facilitating strategies and coaching leaders and boards through seasons of significant change. This can be brought on by an abrupt shift in the external environment, a necessary change after a prolonged season of decline, or the emergence of an exciting opportunity that requires significant scale and internal focus.
Each circumstance requires a substantive re-framing of the organization’s priorities, structures, and risk-tolerance; often it necessitates reimagining of their core identity (or the story used to describe that identity). The work breaks down into four main buckets: (1) vision/re-visioning (2) focusing/growth strategies (3) organizational structure and design (4) organizational development and change facilitation.
Over the past year I’ve engaged with several private colleges and universities as they face an increasingly challenging business model and a variety of competing stakeholders. The complexity of the change (sector-wide and for each institution) is what makes it so interesting.
My professional background has included experiences in multiple sectors, within numerous countries and cultures, and with enterprises of different maturity stages and sizes. Practically, this has resulted in strong convictions about creating focus and energy in any group, company, or social enterprise. It’s taught me to appreciate the unique pressures and constraints all executive leaders face, and to find sense-making through the best practices of strategy and change as well as a thorough exploration of the organization’s culture and context.
I think successfully facilitating/leading change depends on understanding and appreciating that specific context and in helping the group find a new and value-connected narrative birthed from that context. You can’t change the actions or direction without changing the story.
Can you outline your faith-based work background, and how it not only informs your current work, but how it helps you to make career-related plans and decisions?
I’ve led The EDGE Group for 15 years, working as a coach and consultant primarily to nonprofit and faith-based organizations. I have been a pastor (twice), a president for a manufacturing company, and a CEO of an anti-human trafficking nonprofit. While the roles and industries have been diverse, I’ve approached all the work with a sense of vocation; looking for opportunities that provided the best chance (at that time) to put my skill set to work in areas that seemed to promise the most impact. I approach vocation from the foundation of stewardship and service, values that flow directly from my faith.
I think the deeper and more profound thing that flows from my faith is a deep value for things like goodness, healing, community, and thriving. It drives me to make that kind of flourishing happen within organizations and within the people they serve. Those are the best kind of KPIs {key performance indicators}.
That said, while my faith and vocational sense guide me, there are many forks in the road where the next steps are not immediately clear. The pressures of raising a rather large family in Southern California have often made me question my choice not to follow a safer and more financially stable path. Truth be told, I’m standing at one of those forks right now as I work to determine what the next chapter of my leadership and vocational work should look like. I trust that with reflection and openness the next piece of my path will reveal itself.
You have significant volunteering experience. How have you made this fit, especially in terms of time management, within your career while also carrying out your day-to-day work?
It doesn’t always fit! 😊 As an example, I have joined two new nonprofit boards (with the related committees) in the past couple months. While I had accounted for the actual meeting time, I had not adequately accounted for the significant between-meeting communication expectations of each of these boards. I’m still trying to get my inbox, calendar, and sense of balance back in order.
However, given a few more weeks, I’m confident I will get a handle on it. I’ve found that I can handle each new investment, as long as it’s meaningful and energy giving, with modest adjustments in the way I organize, communicate, and handle my time. Hopefully I get a little more efficient, reduce or cut out things that don’t matter as much, and find my life/time aligned in pursuit of things I think are most important. Plus, volunteering is good for the soul – and that benefits every part of me and everything else I invest in!