Musings on a Monday Morning from Mike Mullin…

The weekly Newsletter of Without A Vision Consultancy LLC

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July 27, 2020

Good morning! Life-giving (saving) 7/8″ of rain yesterday morning. It’s sweet corn season… man alive, such a wonderful time of year — and it doesn’t last for long!

Well, we’ve made it this far… by Saturday morning it will be August. And, we are now experiencing 46 minutes of less light compared to the first days of summer 40 days ago; it’s noticeable, especially in the morning.Back on the farm we’d be getting ready for the harvest — everything from the garden, the fields, the forests (black raspberries, gooseberries, elderberries), the roosters, all but the field corn which takes a bit more time. Preserving both animal and people foods for the winter took on a sense of urgency.” Be brave enough to suck at something new.” (As seen on one of those ubiquitous marquee signs around town)” The good of the people should be the supreme law.” (Cicero)” Silence in the face of evil is evil itself. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” (Bonhoeffer)

Are you a mycologist — amateur or otherwise?
- Over the weekend a friend delivered a large bag of freshly-foraged Chanterelles to our door.
- I was cleaning them and preparing to preserve some of them for later when my wife said, “Why?”
- So we feasted with abandon right then and there — as it should be.

Is color infinite like numbers?
- Is the spectrum of color as endless as counting forward and backward — or is there a finite point?
- If there is a finite point, do we know what it is? When does blue end and red begin again?
- For a guy of my generation and demographic there are seven colors — plus black and white if you want to include them.
- For those not like me, colors seem to be endless, but are they really?
- I think I know the answer, but I would like a physicist to please teach me about it.

(The following post-COVIDs advice informed by: Dewar, Keller, Sneader, Strovink – 2020)
- What are we learning from the COVIDs?
  - Leaders must pivot faster, think more creatively, respond more compassionately, perform more heroically. (YT)
  - (Please read these slowly… and think…)
    - Think bigger and faster;
    - Zero-base HOW work gets done (remember zero-based budgets? Replicate this to operations);
    - Elevate to be to the same level as to do;
    - Deliberately choose how I show up;
    - Recalibrate how I expect leaders and employees to show up;
    - Fully embrace stakeholder capitalism (beyond the bottom line);
    - Decide what you really believe;
    - Once you have made the decision, make it happen;
    - Harness the real power of peer networks;
    - Invest further in building relationships with other leaders;
    - Leverage networks to embrace a broad set of issues;
      - It IS a new world out there (in here) — and the leadership void is yearning to be filled.

Without A Vision Consultancy’s uniqueness in the marketplace is the way in which we actively listen.
- We are not trying to sell you anything, we do not have a template or a book we’re promoting; no panacea.
- We listen, we seek to understand, we listen some more — and then we help you to create YOUR vision and YOUR plan — one that won’t sit on the shelf.
  - You might not be the right client if you don’t care enough to pause, consider the big picture, and trust a process.
- Once you have a vision all it takes is patience and persistence along parallel paths to achieve success.
  - Without a vision the people perish — metaphorically and for real.
- If you or your organization is interested in becoming bigger, better, stronger, healthier, happier… engage our services.

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