Possibility! The Voisen Cooperative’s Newsletter
March 2006
So much time has passed and so much has happened since last time we wrote you, you’re probably wondering who we are! Well, in February of this year, we changed our name from the eLuminate Consulting Group to The Voisen Cooperative. We have a new image, a new logo, new products and services, and a brand new website where you can learn all about it at www.voisen.com.
For those of you who don’t know or need a gentle reminder, The Voisen Cooperative is a group of consultants and coaches originally founded by father and son team, Greg and Sean Voisen, working to help leaders and organizations re-imagine better ways to work and live. We facilitate meetings, workshops, retreats and create learning materials designed to help leaders and organizations reach new levels of success, performance and fulfillment.
For those of you who already knew us, you may be asking, “Why the name change?” Let us explain: The change represents a clearer direction and focus for us, as well as helps our clients and customers retain a more personal connection with us as individuals. Also, the word “cooperative” plays a two-part role in describing who we are. 1) It emphasizes our value of cooperation and co-creation for the realization of profound, positive change in businesses and organizations; and 2) It shows that we are a partnership of consultants and coaches working together to make a difference. In the end, we recognize that we are in a person-to-person business, and we want our image to reflect this importance of relationship.
And so, with that, we welcome you to “Possibility!,” our brand-new monthly newsletter. We hope you enjoy it.
In This Issue …
Random Banter: A Brief Conversation with Greg and Sean Voisen
Sean: I just want to start off by saying that I am very excited about the new direction we are taking with the launch of The Voisen Cooperative. First and foremost, it is a new leap in clarity and focused direction for us, allowing us to apply our talents where we think they’re needed most: helping entrepreneurs and business leaders transform their organizations so that they’re more spiritually rewarding, more environmentally sustainable and more financially successful as well.
Greg: I agree. It’s a wonderful, and at times challenging, journey that Sean and I have both been on for the past year and a half, and I really think that the new name, new website and new direction really represent the culmination of all that we have been working towards during this phase of the journey. Our first all-day “Never Mind the Noise” workshop was amazingly successful, and I’m really looking forward to continuing this important work with each and every one of our clients.
Sean: And I think that once our new promotional video is finalized and released in the coming weeks, everyone will have a much clearer idea of just why this workshop is so important and successful.
Greg: Absolutely! I think our integral approach, our yin-yang blend of theory and experiential learning, science and spirituality, or what the philosopher Alan Watts called “prickles and goo,” is really what sets our consulting, coaching, workshops and retreats apart from the rest. And soon, with the addition of our retreat sanctuary in Park City, Utah, we’ll really be able to create lasting and unique learning experiences.
Sean: Did you want to elaborate on that? Maybe tell them what that’s all about?
Greg: Well, we are currently working on purchasing a large, 10,000 sq.ft. home in Park City, Utah, for use as an executive retreat and leadership development center. It’s a very large project, but also a very promising one, and if any one of you reading this newsletter are interested in investing, please don’t hesitate to contact me directly. The retreat center sits on 53 acres of pure mountain paradise, right next to the world-class ski resorts of Park City, and this is definitely an opportunity not to be missed.
Sean: So much change has happened and so much possibility awaits. I encourage all of you reading this newsletter to take a look around our new website and let us know what you think. Comments, questions and constructive criticism are always welcome. As Lao Tzu once said, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Here’s to that next single step on our never-ending journey.
Stop Reacting and Start Innovating: An Intro to “Never Mind the Noise”
This much is certain: The number one way that any organization is going to thrive and succeed in today’s growing global economy is through creativity and innovation. Forced to deal with more competition, more technical challenges and an overwhelming amount of more information, businesses and non-profits alike need to find new ways to handle it all — and to truly succeed, they need to handle it all with a creative, calm and focused approach.
Time and again, the primary complaint we hear from nearly every consulting client of ours is that everybody in their organization is moving so fast, trying to keep up with so much, that it’s all they can do to just “put out fires.” It’s all they can do just to react to the next incoming problem. In such a high-pressure, high-speed, reactionary environment, who has the time or energy to be creative and innovative? Who has time to be proactive? In an environment dominated by habitual reaction, creativity and innovation almost cease to exist. And, unfortunately, when creativity and innovation cease, a company begins to lose both its competitive edge and its ability to keep team members happy and fulfilled in a stimulating and rewarding environment.
This correlation between creative loss and reactivity is not a new concept by any means, but it is an accelerating trend. And that’s exactly why we originally developed our “Never Mind the Noise” workshops and learning curriculum — to help busy working professionals and business leaders learn to keep a calm, focused and creative state of mind amidst the bustle and chaos of the regular working day. At the core of the “Never Mind the Noise” experience are tools, techniques and ideas that you can use to build your own awareness of when you’ve become lost in the stressful world of reactive habits, and then move back into a space of proactive, creative possibility and mental ease. These tools and techniques are all based on two important, co-dependent principles that we call “presencing” and “mindfulness:”
- Presencing is the art of finding solutions through the exploration of alternative possibilities. It means temporarily letting go of our habitual ways of approaching problems and sticky issues at work and at home to find new avenues for resolution and creation.
- Mindfulness is the active choice to slow down, “center” oneself and return to the present moment. Through mindfulness we learn to focus and become better aware of our own habits and thinking patterns so that we can be more productive and make better decisions.
It’s important to remember that “organizations don’t change; people do.” If you want your organization to be more creative and more innovative — to be able to retain to grow its greatest competitive advantage — then it’s up to every single person in your organization to develop the calm and mindful mental state necessary for cultivating a creative and innovative environment. It’s up to every single person in your organization to learn how to slow down, stop reacting, start presencing, and “never mind the noise.” And our “Never Mind the Noise” workshops and retreats can help you and them do exactly that.
New Consulting Package: The Small Business Tune-Up
The Voisen Cooperative’s new three-phase “business tune-up” package is specifically designed for the unique needs of small and medium-sized organizations to help them reach unprecedented new heights. This 30-day consulting package will help you and your team clarify direction and vision, improve accountability, and create a powerful roadmap for the accomplishment of new objectives.
If this sounds like something that would be worthwhile for you and your organization, take a look at our more detailed overview of this new consulting package, and then contact us with any questions or comments.
Book of the Month: Presence by Peter Senge, et al.
In their book Presence: An Exploration of Profound Change in People, Organizations, and Society, Peter Senge, Otto Scharmer, Betty Sue Flowers and Joseph Jaworski, explore the role of suspending our preconceived ideas and notions about things so that we can access new possibilities for a brighter future. The book serves as both a guide and impassioned call for business leaders to help transform their organizations into powerful agents of hope in a world gone out of balance.
The book is an excellent read for any leaders looking to transform themselves and their own organizations through the process of developing deep awareness.