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ON THE MOVE TARA GREEN TO JOIN OJB LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AS PRINCIPAL OF PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT Tara Green is stepping down from her role as president of Dallas’ Klyde Warren Park to join OJB Landscape Architecture as the firm’s new principal of program development. Green has been the park’s president for the last five years and has turned Klyde Warren Park into a world- class model for successful public-private partnerships. Green will be leading OJB’s new office in Dallas and will focus on developing the firm’s park planning and programming initiatives. “We are very pleased to have Tara join our firm,” said James Burnett, FASLA, OJB founder and president. “She has a proven track record and exceptional experience in leading one of the most successful urban

parks in the world. She will play a big role in the planning and programming of OJB’s park projects as we look to support our clients in their desire to activate and create sustainable business plans. She is an expert in her field and understands firsthand how to create a successful park that stays true to the design and generates the revenue needed to maintain the park at a high level.” Prior to joining Klyde Warren Park, Green served as the chief operating officer for the North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee, chief revenue officer for American Airlines Center, and vice president of sports marketing for the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau. Her expertise in public relations, event management, and fundraising makes her the perfect fit for the new role. Green’s role will include consulting clients on project financing

strategies, park management, operations, and open space programming. “I am thrilled to be joining this world-class firm. I have seen firsthand how talented and insightful the team at OJB are. Their design of Klyde Warren Park has allowed it to thrive in the five years since it opened. This new opportunity will allow me to combine my knowledge and experience with their amazing designs to create new urban parks and campus projects around the country,” said Green. OJB will be opening its Dallas office in June, the firm’s fourth office in the US and second in Texas. The firm currently employs 65 professionals in Houston, San Diego, and Boston and has commissions throughout the country.

JULIE BENEZET, from page 3

Research on tribalism suggests that the more people know about each other, the more tribal boundaries melt. Pushing through discomfort to understand people changes perceptions and promotes connections. OVERCOMING TRIBALISM. Here are four steps toward resisting the pull of tribalism and advancing the business: 1)Call tribalism by name. Recognize that blaming problems on group identity can miss the point. It gives the illusion of being in control of matters by labeling rather than addressing the problem. Direct your energy toward surfacing core causes, however difficult to face. 2)Enter the discomfort zone. Find the courage to learn about others without prejudgment or bias. Ask open-ended ques- tions. Instead of hearing what you want to hear, hear what is actually being said. A male colleague receiving credit for win- ning a client may not mean the firm favors men over women, but, rather, recognition for the groundwork he laid prior to the meeting. 3)Confront conflict avoidance. People commonly pretend they have things “handled,” when in fact they want to avoid the discomfort of not knowing how the other party will react. Telling a colleague that you excluded him from a pitch due to his overbearing communication style might cause hurt feel- ings, but it opens the door to helping him improve. 4)Build a code of conduct. Agree on your organization’s rules for communication, inclusion, and leveraging of its talent based on common goals that advance the business, not the tribe. Shift your focus from who gets credit to how you can work together to win over the client. Tribes provide compelling places for support, validation, and direction. While these attributes are understandably attractive, when tribal loyalty thwarts the success of the broader organization, it behooves everyone to look beyond tribal borders. JULIE BENEZET spent 25 years in law and business, and for the past 16 years has coached and consulted with executives from virtually every industry. She earned her stripes for leading in the discomfort and excitement of the new as Amazon’s first global real estate executive. She is an award-winning author of The Journey of Not Knowing: How 21st Century Leaders Can Chart a Course Where There Is None . She can be reached at julie@juliebenezet.com.

my interviews of affected firm members, I heard such com- plaints as: 1) Why did senior leadership credit a man for winning a new cli- ent when the women actually made the pitch? 2) Why was our office not included in business development events with clients belonging to both offices? 3) Why did one practice group not invite another practice group to pitch a prospective client who would have been interested in both practices? When I asked them what they thought caused these issues, virtually everyone said, “Rivalries between the two offices, men and women, and two practice groups.” In other words, tribalism. “Tribes provide compelling places for support, validation, and direction. While these attributes are understandably attractive, when tribal loyalty thwarts the success of the broader organization, it behooves everyone to look beyond tribal borders.” Allying with a tribe can provide the instant emotional comfort that comes with tribal loyalty. It also avoids confronting stickier issues that do not lend themselves to tidy conclusions. Unearthing the root causes of friction can lead to awkward conversations where what is said might not be believed or appreciated. For example, the reason a practice group leader was excluded from a pitch may be so innocuous as someone misread his calendar and thought he was out of town. Alternatively, it might be because the last time he attended a pitch, he talked too much and turned off the client.

THE ZWEIG LETTER May 14, 2018, ISSUE 1248

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