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Musings on a Monday Morning from Mike Mullin…

The weekly Newsletter of Without A Vision Consultancy LLC

June 1, 2020

Good morning!

This might strike you as a bit sappy or too personal for a business newsletter. The contract you and I have (I write, you read and react, I listen and reflect) automatically means I care about you. If we’ve met face-to-face you are (much) more than an abstraction, but even if you’re halfway around the world and we’ve not met but through these pages, I still care.

Crazy things are happening here in Minnesota. A senseless, tragic murder occurred, caught in real-time on unedited, crystal-clear audio and video. It went viral, no pun intended. In today’s world it only takes a few seconds for something, anything, to travel 24,000 miles and back again. I’m sorry. On behalf of our State and our signature city of Minneapolis, I’m so sorry.

Each of us who lives here — and I have all my life — must accept some responsibility for allowing something like this to happen. Citizenship requires more than observation, criticism, and resignation. This callous act of murder has spawned violence — not only in Minnesota, but throughout the United States.

“Patience,” some say, “patience,” but truth is, that has been tried for more than 400 years and it’s not working very well. The man who committed the murder while disgracing the badge entrusted to him is under arrest for murder in the 3rd degree; his three partners at the scene might face criminal charges also. But, somehow that’s not enough. We argue, we fight, we choose sides, we judge, we become indignant, we construct barriers, we play king (queen) on the hill, we feel entitled more often than grateful.

Listening, the all-important skill, is used less than speaking; we don’t even teach it. We have come to accept flaws in our society as inevitable.

Sometimes those flaws fester, they grow into monsters, they claw, they bite, and they come out at night. Our flaws become chasms, eventually too wide to cross.

Our son lives at what has been the multi-night epicenter of violence, rioting, and looting in Uptown Minneapolis. Also, need it be said, of justifiable protest. From the roof of his apartment building he has had a better, if scarier, front row seat than most. It has been surreal to receive his messages at 1 AM, 3 AM and throughout the wee hours as he reports mobs, numerous fires, and destruction immediately adjacent to his building. At one point his building was breached; our son tapped out a quick message, “… this might be it, I love you all.” (Wow!)

He knows his neighbors, he works with his neighbors; when daylight returns he joins with thousands of them to help clean-up, clear the rubble, and prepare again for darkness.

The National Guard pitched in, a few people drove in from the suburbs. An eleven-year-old boy held the bag while our son filled it with broken glass and charred debris. The boy said this was his first experience with a riot and that he wanted to help; someone has to do it. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of bags of groceries and other supplies were stacked curbside to help those now left with nothing.

The irony is the people hurt the most by the riots, arson, and looting were those completely uninvolved in perpetrating the violence, victimized twice and thrice.

Many older people had been living in apartments above some of the destroyed businesses; whatever they had, not much, is lost. Our son knows their names. He works for Target which has promised to rebuild on the same footprint.

Benjamin Franklin, an imperfect human himself, is said to have responded to a question posed by a Philadelphian in 1787, “Sir, what kind of government have you given us?”

“A republic, if you can keep it,” replied Ben. IF we can keep it. Does that mean it’s up to us? Does that mean it’s up to me — and to you? We have work to do.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

We made it to June — and I’ve lost track of which day it is of the COVIDs. They’re still here.
Is there a sweeter aroma than Lily of the Valley wafting in a gentle spring breeze?
“We’ll see what the future brings,” is a common expression — passive, resigned, somewhat disinterested voice.
- It takes on a bit more importance when altered just a bit, “What will I do to shape the future – mine and others?”
My Mom and Dad died unexpectedly at young ages just two weeks apart twenty-eight years ago this week.
- Their earthly possessions were few and were soon arranged in their yard in our tiny rural village.
- People came with quarters, dollars, and sometimes a bit more to claim what they wanted.
- I rescued a crude-looking, contemporary-styled but sturdy wind chime.
- Its creator had selected three different gauges of thick steel and welded the flared triangular pieces together while leaving a gap of about 1/2″ between each section
- The sculptor added a clapper hanging plumb from a chain anchored to the central weld.
- Hanging from the clapper was a lightweight flat and circular piece of metal that would catch the slightest breeze.
- A wisp of wind would move the clapper alternately against the three different gauges of steel in a random sequence resulting in harmonic musical notes.
- The stronger and more erratic the wind, so too the chime — and the resulting melody.
- I brought it home, hung it in a tree, and it rewarded me — if not the neighbors — with tens of thousands of concerts over the years.
- One day the thin chain holding the clapper rusted through and broke.
- The bell hung silent. I couldn’t repair it because it was impossible to reach the tiny area in the welded joint with tools I didn’t have.
- One day I had an idea.
- I took the bell and its various broken pieces to some high school students enrolled in an applied engineering class.
- I asked if one or more of them would consider repairing the wind chime as an engineering project.
- The bell was soon returned to me functioning better than ever.
- The young student had substituted a straight heavy gauge wire for the rusted-through chain.
- My brain had only puzzled with how to install a new chain; I was limited by too many years of experience.
- The sturdy wire made it possible to form a hook that could be easily threaded through the old welded eye piece that had anchored the chain without needing to actually reach it with fingers or a pliers.
- The wire was then attached to the old clapper by drilling a perfectly-centered hole through it with another hook fashioned on its under side to connect it with a flat metal piece to catch the wind.
- The resulting simple swivel functioned as a pendulum with free, random movement so as to once again produce chromatic choruses.
- Because the student chose a galvanized wire it won’t rust or deteriorate in my lifetime.
  - It’s among the hardest lessons we learn and stubbornly refuse to apply: Ask for help.
What follows was informed by Sneader and Singhal, 2020:
- Stop assuming (wishing) that the old ways will come back.
  - Working remotely, though it works and will work for some, won’t work for 70% of the work force.
- Start thinking about how to organize for a distributed work force and the advantages it will bring.
  - Stop relying on traditional organizational structures.
  - “We used to have lots and lots of meetings,” said one CEO. “Now all of those have been canceled and we didn’t fall apart.”
- Mission, vision, a sense of purpose (focus) and a healthy sprinkling of urgency can and will result in greater productivity.
  - From just-in-time to just-in-time AND just-in-case supply chains.
  - Single source for anything anyone?
- Remember what they taught you in Business 101? Long-term growth and stability is back center stage.
  - Leave the quarterly earnings report where it belongs; there are nine innings to the game.
- Stop thinking of environmental management as a compliance issue and embrace it as a fundamental principle.
  - One word: Sustainability
  - Two words: Competitive Advantage
  - Several words: Hurricanes, Floods, Sea Levels, Air Quality, Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Potable Water, Global Climate
- Stop thinking about a contactless economy as for the crisis only — and/or as something that will happen down the line.
  - Think routine health care the last three months, banking, curbside delivery… what once was to have been a gradual experiment happened almost overnight.
- Stop seeing the return as a destination… think of it as a new normal part of your process. Start imagining your business as it should be in the post-COVIDs world.
  - Four areas: Recover revenue ~ Rebuild operations ~ Organizational realignment ~ Accelerate the adoption of digital solutions.

Bell in a Tree

By Michael A. Mullin

Listen to the lonely bell,

its chromatic chords whimsically

composed by wisps of wind,

mournful cries for those who died.

A random unpredictable carillon

stilled late at night when breezes rest.

Three forever notes in

a never-ending symphony,

a melancholy melody.

What do you get when you work with Without a Vision Consultancy LLC?
- We listen, we learn, we listen some more — and then we customize our response to deliver:
1. Confidence
2. Clarity
3. Coaching
4. Companionship on your journey… sometimes it gets lonely and it’s good to have a friend.

When you tell others about us — and I hope you will — please emphasize the ways in which we are unique.

I work with individuals, governance structures (Boards), non-profits, and businesses wanting to be bigger, better, stronger, healthier, happier… yes, all five are possible and best done in concert, but it typically requires a coach (consultant) or a companion to help illuminate the path.At Without a Vision Consultancy LLC — www.withoutavision.org — we LISTEN, we LEARN, we LISTEN some more, and only then do we suggest strategic directions unique to your situation. We do not bring a one-size-fits-all template, nor the latest flash-in-the-pan solutions, to working with you.As we work with you we deliver and provide an increase in your CONFIDENCE, and CLARITY while providing coaching and companionship for your journey.We bring more than fifty years of experience from all sides of the Board table in thirteen different leadership roles — 26 of those years as a CEO

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