3rd From Sol

~ Learn from before. Live now. Look ahead.

3rd From Sol

Daily Archives: March 16, 2010

Passionate People Can Save a City

16 Tuesday Mar 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in Lessons of Life, Management Practices, Passionate People, Public Relations, Re-Imagine!, Rotary, Tom Peters

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Peter Drucker, Re-Imagine!, Reno Aces, Tom Peters

Rick Parr: A Force of Nature

Last night I sat in a back room of a restaurant in downtown Reno (that shall remain nameless) at the Rotary Club of Reno New Generations meeting.  The restaurant had decided to pack the back room with patrons who were not part of the meeting and who seemed to be oblivious that someone was trying to speak to the group. Despite all of this distraction the club members were focused on the man standing up.  To everyone it was apparent that this man was passionate about his job and all the noise around him didn’t keep him from making it clear that he loves what he does.

The man is Rick Parr and he is Passionate about his ball club. Rick is the General Manager of the Reno Aces and last year the new Triple A team came to Reno and erased all doubt of whether this town could support the Arizona Diamondbacks ‘farm’ team.

Rick Parr - General Manager of the Reno Aces

The Reno Aces exceeded all expectations for a first year club with a season attendance approaching 500,000 fans.  But that achievement was nothing compared to what happened during the first four months of 2009.

On February 1st of last year the ballpark looked more like the first phase of a major construction project rather than a state-of-the-art baseball stadium only 10 weeks away from the first pitch of the first home game.  But on April 17th all, and I mean all, were amazed.  For anyone who was paying attention it was a miracle.

http://www.renoaces.com

Rick doesn’t look like he has 30 years in baseball management.  When you talk to him about the Reno Aces he sounds like the person who was just hired to take a job that he has dreamed of all his life.  He loves baseball and he loves his team.  You get the sense that the miracle of last year’s opening day was due in large part to the force a nature known as Rick Parr.

But Rick’s passion doesn’t stop with baseball.  He is passionate about redeveloping downtown.  Like Denver’s Coors Field, the new Reno Aces Stadium is located in an area that has had little economic benefit to the city in recent history and like the Colorado Rockies, the Reno Aces are bringing in people and new development to revitalize the downtown area.

Rick has only been in Reno for 18 months, but as the designated hitter for the Front Office he taking the vision of the team owners, Jerry and Stuart Katzoff, and bringing home a Re-Imagined* downtown that offers more attractions than just a baseball team.  This year the Aces will open up the next phase of new dining and shopping with the Freight House District’s first retail offerings.  There is no doubt that this area will become a ‘Mecca’ for tourists and local citizens, bringing new jobs and revenue for local businesses and to the City of Reno.

Even before the completion of the full Freight House District retail project it is obvious that the Reno Aces have changed Reno for good.  Rick would probably be the first to credit the work of many others for the success, but there is one common factor in all that is happening in the downtown area and that is the passion of Rick Parr.

Rick is a great example of how one person can change a city by having passion and vision.  Peter Drucker wrote, “Wherever you find something getting done, you find a monomaniac with a mission.”  Rick Parr is Reno’s newest monomaniac.  Just in time!

(*Re-Imagine! is a 2003 book by Tom Peters about rethinking business in a new world.)

Reno Aces website is at http://www.renoaces.com.

Training for the Worst Case Scenario

16 Tuesday Mar 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in Crisis Management, Human Resources, Lessons of Life, Management Practices, Violence in the Workplace

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Crisis Management, Dr. Larry Barton, Education, Seminar, Violence in the Workplace

Tomorrow I fly to Philadelphia to put 26 Master’s degree students in a worst case scenario.  I’ve been doing this for over 10 years with Dr. Larry Barton, who is an expert in Crisis Management and Violence in the Workplace issues.  Dr. Barton and I have worked together for Disney, ABC, ESPN, Target, Nike, Merck, and several other companies.

Larry Barton - Crisis Management Expert (www.larrybarton.com)

Dr. Barton has written several books and has an endless number of case studies of workplace violence.  As the expert, he organizes the seminars and is the instructor.  I try to make it real.

In each case my job is to give the person or team the worst case scenario.  Sometimes I am the troubled employee that is ready to commit a violent act and take them with me.  Sometimes I am one of two ’employees’ that are in conflict the Threat Assessment Team has to figure out who is stalking whom.

In Philadelphia I get to do the fun role.  I am the CEO who has just taken over a company and the students, (all of them have jobs in the real world), have to interview with me to keep their job.  At the end of the day we debrief and I let them know who goes, who stays, and why.  I try to make the scenario as real as possible.  To do that I have to create a back story in my mind of what type of person my character is, his management style, what he values, and what he dislikes.

Like all worst case scenarios, the students are never told in advance what they will be undergoing.  It is safe to say if you’re in a seminar with Dr. Barton and I walk in, the day is going to be stressful.  It used to be stressful for me also, but I have gotten to a comfort level with challenging people in an educational setting.

Paul Kiser

As a potential violent employee I control the situation, which is similar to real life, but I always hope that I truly am the worst case they will ever experience in simulation or in real life.  The goal of the seminar is to help the participants recognize a problem and deal with it before it becomes a crisis.

As the take-over CEO I ask the probing questions, but the student must present themselves in a manner that they feel will help preserve his or her job….or not.  I always try to keep the scenario positive and give the students reasons to want to stay with the new company, but in order to keep it real I let them know that my expectations will not be the same that they had with their old company.  I have had situations where the student didn’t even care if they kept their real-life job, so pretending to keep a job in a simulated environment was impossible for them.

The interesting thing about the exercise is that I get to know the students as real people and often I find myself wishing that I would have the opportunity to work with them in a non-simulated environment.  Going through a stressful situation brings people closer, just like real life.

Breakthrough Training Radio Appearance

16 Tuesday Mar 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in Information Technology, Lessons of Life, Management Practices, Public Relations, Rotary, Social Interactive Media (SIM)

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99.1 FM Reno, Breakthrough Training, Jeffrey Benjamin, Motivational Speaker

Jeffrey Benjamin Motivates

This is an interview segment (about 6 mins.) on Jeffrey Benjamin’s (Breakthrough Training) radio show  on Reno 99.1 FM on Sunday, March 14, 2010.  Jeffrey is a motivational (kick you in the butt) consultant/speaker.  I talked about my company and Rotary.

Breakthrough Radio Interview

Other Pages of This Blog

  • About Paul Kiser
  • Common Core: Are You a Good Switch or a Bad Switch?
  • Familius Interruptus: Lessons of a DNA Shocker
  • Moffat County, Colorado: The Story of Two Families
  • Rules on Comments
  • Six Things The United States Must Do
  • Why We Are Here: A 65-Year Historical Perspective of the United States

Paul’s Recent Blogs

  • Dysfunctional Social Identity & Its Impact on Society
  • Road Less Traveled: How Craig, CO Was Orphaned
  • GOP Political Syndicate Seizes CO School District
  • DNA Shock +5 Years: What I Know & Lessons Learned
  • Solstices and Sunshine In North America
  • Blindsided: End of U.S. Solar Observation Capabilities?
  • Inspiration4: A Waste of Space Exploration

Paul Kiser’s Tweets

Tweets by PaulKiser

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