Musings on a Monday Morning from Mike Mullin…

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Working with Individuals, Businesses, and Non-Profits wanting to be Bigger, Better, Stronger, Healthier, Happier Volume One, Number Thirty-Two

December 23, 2019 – The Secret of Christmas

Good morning!

Happy Christmas to all — and to all a good night!  (Moore, 1823) And/ Or/Also, Happy Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.
The Secret of Christmas (Sammy Cahn, 1959 — Sinatra’s songwriter) “It’s not the glow you feel when snow appears, it’s not the Christmas card you’ve sent for years……It’s not the things you do at Christmas, but the Christmas things you do all year through.”

A colleague shared this poem with me last week and it hit me right betwixt the eyes: Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden.

Sundays too my father got up earlyand put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,then with cracked hands that achedfrom labour in the weekday weather madebanked fires blaze.  No one thanked him.

I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.When the rooms were warm, he’d call, and slowly I would rise and dress,fearing the chronic angers of that house,

Speaking indifferently to him, who had driven out the cold and polished my good shoes as well. What did I know, what did I know of love’s austere and lonely offices?

Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden

• At the request of one of my readers I’ve been holding-off on mentioning the (lack of) daylight until there was good news — and now there is.  We have seen the darkest days (about 15:20 of no sun each day) and we now will have increasingly more light daily for the next six months – if the laws of physics don’t change.  For our readers in the southern hemisphere:  Sorry, it’s the exact opposite for you; you’ve had your days in the sun.

• Have you ever noticed?  They’re not handing out Nobel Prizes to people who’ve had success managing the status quo.  The status quo requires a manager; progress worthy of a Nobel Prize requires a leader.  And yet, you’ll probably not encounter a force during your lifetime grater than the status quo unless it’s gravity.  “At every crossroads on the path that leads to the future, tradition has placed 10,000 people to guard the past.”  (Maeterlinck)

• One winter day in the early 1970s my best friend and I decided it was time to go on a winter survival trek to a hidden local cave unknown to most.  The interior of a cave in winter (for that matter, in summer, too) is a constant above-freezing, comfortable temperature, making it relatively warm compared to the frigid outside.  This cave was on a farmer’s private land, though as I recall we never asked permission.

• To reach the cave we parked our car at the edge of the farmer’s field and trudged through what must have been three feet of snow because we sunk up to our thighs and beyond with each step — and we were loaded down with heavy backpacks.

• The cave opening was situated in a deep gully halfway down the face of a high cliff.  In order to reach the cave we had to rappel thirty or forty feet down the cliff using rope skills we had learned in other situations.  We were feeling pretty smart, invincible, and accomplished.

• I don’t remember much about the night we spent inside the cave, but we must have somehow prepared a meal and enjoyed a restful night.  What I remember most is the trek back toward the car the next morning.

• It was cold, we were tired, our backpacks were heavy, and the depth of the snow hadn’t changed since the day before, it seemed even deeper — and the way out was a bit uphill.  In short order we were exhausted, really exhausted, falling down on our backs (think turtle on its back) exhausted…. (to be continued next week…)

• And now to finish our primer on change:
  • There tends to be a perception change is easy or a simple matter of following a recipe; the truth is it’s hard, complicated, frustrating, difficult, usually unsuccessful.
  • More than 70% of attempted changes fail — largely due to the lack of a shared vision — and a PLAN put into action for the transformation of that vision into sustained reality.
    • This morning we will finish introducing the five stages of change — as suggested by two of the world’s leading authorities on this subject, Scott Keller and Bill Schaninger.  (Beyond Performance 2.0, 2019.)
    • Remember stage one, two, three, and four?  (Aspire – Assess – Architect – Act) — they’re all a’s, get it?
    • #5:  Advance — How do we continue to improve?  (Without a Vision calls this sustaining; onward, ever onward!)
    • Systematize processes — including naturally occurring instances for change and improvement, make it part of the culture.
    • Match the best talent with the most important jobs — and systematize regular review of this talent placement.
      • There is no such thing as automatic pilot — and as soon as you think there is you start going backward…

When will you give yourself the greatest gift of all, the gift of time?

Schedule a no-obligation, no-cost initial exploratory visit with Without a Vision Consultancy today.

Everyone loves taking little quizzes; here’s one for you right now:  could you benefit from leadership coaching?

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