Five Star Blog

We typically do not highlight popular news stories in this Blog, but in light of Pittsburgh being the host of the G20 Conference we thought it would be appropriate to offer a few thoughts about our great city, where Five Star is headquartered.

In an article in the Washington Post, the lead sentence is very characteristic of the perceptions that many have about Pittsburgh,

“When President Obama announced that this Rust Belt city would host a meeting of ministers from the world’s leading economies, many scoffed. A lot of people are asking something along the lines of ‘What, was downtown Baltimore booked?’ ” wrote the Atlantic’s Derek Thompson.”

However, Pittsburgh has evolved greatly over the last 25 years, a fact that the Post article is quick to highlight:

“The city’s unemployment rate is well below the national average. Wages and housing prices are stable or up. Nearby Cleveland has experienced rampant foreclosures, but here they are relatively uncommon.

The city’s main industries — health care and education — are thriving. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, an $8 billion health-care company, employs 50,000 people in Western Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh’s health services business has almost tripled in size since 1979, creating more than 100,000 jobs.“

Throughout Five Star’s thirteen-year history we have watched our city mature and evolve. In fact, some of the best examples of this growth can be illustrated in the changes that have taken place in the neighborhoods where we established our main office.

When Five Star opened its doors, we made our home in what called the Fulton Building. After several exciting years in that facility, we learned that the building was being converted from offices into the Pittsburgh Renaissance Hotel. This elegant hotel quickly became an anchor to the city’s thriving Cultural District and provides a place for people to stay after watching a game in the city’s new baseball stadium, PNC Park, or taking in a show at the beautiful O’Reilly theater.

Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel (Photo from VisitPittsburgh.com)

Five Star’s second home was in the Uptown area of the city, which is home to Duquesne University and the Mellon Arena. Conveniently located walking distance to downtown and a short drive to Oakland and the South Side, this area of the city continues to be a prime area for development and growth. In 2007, it was announced that a new arena (The Consol Energy Center) was to be built directly across from our offices. This 290M facility will house the Stanley Cup winning Pittsburgh Penguins and will provide a venue to host many world-class events (such as the NCAA Tournament) and concerts.

The New Consol Energy Center (Photo via Ballparks.com)

Resulting from our own growth, Five Star needed additional office space that was the primary impetus to move our offices once again. In 2008, we moved to Manchester, located on the North Shore of Pittsburgh. This area of our city was also under a state of growth and revitalization as plans for a new casino, subway extension, and new office buildings were being planned or were underway. In the spirit of revitalization and environmental concern, we decided to move our headquarters into a 110 year- old former warehouse and factory that we converted into “green” office space.

Five Star’s New Offices

As we take a moment to reflect on the evolution of Pittsburgh through just one lens of our company’s history, it is hard to not be amazed and impressed. Pittsburgh’s ability to adapt and overcome change and obstacles is very similar to our own history here at Five Star. There has been an incredible amount of growth and new development in Pittsburgh over the last 20+ years. Out of this growth new industries have arisen and jobs have been created, but more importantly a renewed sense of pride has been rekindled. Hosting the G20 Conference and winning awards like the “Most Livable City in America” are all great accomplishments and have put Pittsburgh in the world’s spotlight. But, more than all else, they have provided an opportunity for people around to world to see what we all have known for quite some time – Pittsburgh is a great place!

Recently we have been actively seeking stories from clients and other organizations that have used Social Media to enable learning within their organization. In our discussions, it has become apparent that that the big four Social Media sites (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and YouTube) are dominating the conversation, and rightfully so. These four sites illustrate the value that Social Media adds to human interaction – each connects people and creates a means for individuals to share and discuss things that are of personal interest.

Many corporations and organizations are using these sites to connect externally with customers, partners, and supplies. However, in our research and conversations it has become quickly apparent that these four sites are being used limitedly within organizations to enable learning and knowledge-sharing between employees. Many factors could be contributing to this, including the security and legal challenges with exposing sensitive information to the general public. Yet, in the face of these challenges, something that organizations must be careful to avoid is dismissing the value that the Social Media “framework” (established by the big four sites) can bring to the learning and knowledge-sharing functions within organizations.

The emergence of Social Media ushers in a new paradigm or way of thinking about learning within organizations. Traditionally, learning and knowledge management have been viewed as functions within organizations that have staff with direct responsibility for their daily management. Although this paradigm still remains mostly intact, the emergence of Social Media has presented organizations with the opportunity to reevaluate how and when learning can take place and who is responsible for creating the content. In short, Social Media provides organizations with a means for enabling learning to occur in real-time between employees using technology that supports human interaction.

Do you have any stories of how your organization is using Social Media to enable learning and knowledge-sharing within your organization? If so, please contact us. We are seeking stories that can be shared in a series of upcoming seminars and research papers.

The process of executing business strategy can’t happen solely through the efforts of a single person. Strategy execution is a team game, and it requires a commitment to collaboration and partnership within teams of people and across organizations. In fact, the people within high-performance organizations know this, and as a result, they strive to create a unique type of partnership: trust-based partnerships.

Trust-based partnerships differ from other types of agreements that people or organizations enter into in several ways.

First, the foundation of a trust-based partnership is rooted in the belief that all entering parties are pursuing a common, compelling purpose. Typically, when two are more parties enter into a partnership; each party believes that the goods and services it provides are similar enough to be complimentary to the other, but different enough to be unique. As a result, by entering into a partnership, all parties are able to enhance the value they provide, while at the same time advancing their unique mission. This is not so with trust-based partnerships. In trust-based partnerships, the foundation upon which the partnership is grounded is not to advance separate missions, but to pursue one common, compelling purpose or mission. Do you see the difference? In the traditional partnerships, both parties are free to move in separate directions, but in trust-based partnerships all parties acknowledge that there are differences in what they provide but they are joining together as they move in the same direction.

Next, trust-based partnerships require and build trust between the entering parties. There are two meanings of the word trust, which are both applicable when discussing trust-based partnerships. The first dictionary definition of trust is “an assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something.” The second definition is “a charge or duty imposed in faith or confidence or as a condition of some relationship.” When describing trust-based partnerships within organizations, both definitions shed light on the nature of these partnerships. For a trust-based partnership to exist, there must be a belief that the other party is capable of delivering what it commits to and in a manner that brings value to all parties. In other words, in trust-based partnerships, trust is both given and earned.

These two differences noted in the blog are two of the most prominent differences between trust-based partnerships and more traditional partnering agreements. Ultimately, for strategy to be successfully executed, we believe that trust-based partnerships must exist between the various teams and delivery groups within organizations. Do you feel that you have entered into trust-based partnerships with your internal business partners? If so, please share your stories of how you were able to build these partnerships and the results your teams have been able to obtain in committing to trust-based partnerships.