On My Mind
Is your organization “getting the band back together”? Many organizations are bringing their employees back into offices and facilities after a prolonged period of time working remotely. Some employees can’t wait to get back to the office whereas others grew to enjoy the work from home lifestyle. The re-socialization process will be awkward for some and long past due for others. Do we shake hands? Do we hug? Who had COVID-19? Who has been vaccinated? What is new in your life? Acting as if nothing happened is probably not a good idea and yet revisiting the past might be painful for those who lost a loved one. Best wishes as you get your band back together.

Interesting Stories
The vision quest (“lamenting”) is one of the seven sacred rituals of the Oglala Sioux according to Black Elk in the book “The Sacred Pipe” by Joseph Epes Brown. Black Elk stated (in Brown’s book, 1953): “Every man can cry for a vision, or ‘lament’; and in the old days we all—men and women—’lamented’ all the time. What is received through the ‘lamenting’ is determined in part by the character of the person who does this, for it is only those people who are very qualified who receive the great visions, which are interpreted by our holy man, and which give strength and health to our nation.” Black Elk explained that this rite consisted of a sequence of specific ritualistic activities (my paraphrasing): decide to lament, visit a holy man, experience the rite of purification, ascend to the top of the chosen mountain, lament on the mountaintop, descend from the mountaintop, return to the holy man for another rite of purification and describe in detail your experiences, the holy man then interprets your experiences and offers instructions, and then you strive to live your life guided by your vision. I’ll be experiencing my own vision quest on top of Bear Butte in the Black Hills region of South Dakota in mid-June. Crazy Horse received many visions on top of Bear Butte during his life. What will I see?

Company News
There are several upcoming public SIS events: the Statistical Methods for Performance Improvement virtual short course on June 15, 2021; the 60-minute webinar on Visioning on June 21, 2021; the Leaning Operations virtual short course on July 7-8, 2021; the Strategic Improvement Yellow Belt virtual short course on July 12 & 19, 2021; the Lean Applications in Hospitals & Clinics virtual short course on August 2-3, 2021; the Strategic Improvement Green Belt virtual course starting August 9, 2021; and the Strategic Improvement Black Belt virtual course starting August 25, 2021. The brochures are available on the PUBLIC SEMINARS page of this website.

Intriguing Reads
Jeff Bezos is best known as the CEO of Amazon, but he is also the founder of the space company Blue Origin. Elon Musk is best known as the CEO of Tesla, but he is also the founder and CEO of SpaceX. Both Bezos and Musk have a passion for space and share the vision of colonizing space. They are both featured in the book “The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos” by Christian Davenport. Bezos and Musk both developed an interest and passion for space at a young age and now they are able to make their “humans in space” vision become a reality as billionaires. Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark, and one other passenger will experience space for roughly 11 minutes on July 20 – let’s hope it is a safe and successful journey! If you want to learn more about the modern space visionaries, then give Davenport’s book a try.