Project Mnemosyne

Tim Streeter spent 25 years working in consulting and human resources including global leadership roles in Talent Acquisition at Accenture and Whirlpool. As the former chief operating officer of talent acquisition at Accenture, where he was responsible for managing a recruiter headcount of 2500 people and delivering 100,000 new hires every year. He's also the author of the Contentment Commitment, which we will chat about in this episode.  Tim can be reached through his website, https://www.contentmentcommitment.com/, where you can also learn more about the book.    Key points include:   00:52: The personal history behind the book 03:19: The six dimensions of contentment 08:32: The commitments Tim made 20:10: Tim's work with organisations Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com.

Sharath Jeevan is a leading global motivation expert helping organisations and individuals reignite inner-drive. Sharath has addressed large global audiences at the Royal Festival Hall in London, Lego Ideas Festival in Denmark, WISE Summit in Qatar, Draper Richards Kaplan Convening in San Francisco, Varkey GEMS Conference in Dubai, and the Lemann Conference in Sao Paulo. He is also the author of Intrinsic: a manifesto to reignite our inner drive. On this episode, he talks about his book and some common misconceptions he has encountered in the business world. You can learn more about Sharath and his book at https://www.intrinsic-labs.com/. Key points include: 03:56: Purpose, autonomy, and mastery 11:27: A framework for purpose 18:47: Motivation tips for parents 23:57: Intrinsic relationships Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com.

John has 25 years consulting experience consulting in Manufacturing, Supply Chain Management, Sourcing, plant and business unit transformation, revenue enhancement, growth strategies and turnarounds. He has launched many multi-year corporate transformations which have delivered over $1.5 billion in annual value. He has advised senior executives and business unit leaders in a broad range of industries including oil and gas, chemicals, basic materials, industrials, automotive, engineered products and aerospace. John's company website is Lionstutz.com and he can be reached at JohnVanLeeuwen@Lionstutz.com. 01:50: Terminology of the oil and gas industry 07:30: Drill holes and piping 10:14: How they keep the oil and gas moving 13:17: The ecosystem of the industry 20:15: Labor in the industry Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com.

Andrew has over 15 years experience in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, and other healthcare sectors. His team specializes in growth strategy projects pertaining to cutting-edge medical technologies. Since 2012, his team has conducted over 100 projects for executives in the C suite, commercial franchises, corporate development, and R&D, and spanning nearly every therapeutic area undergoing innovation.  In this episode, he gives an in-depth view of the biotech industry. Andrew can be reached through LinkedIn or you can email him at Andrew@headlandstrategy.com. And you can listen to more from Andrew on Episode 355. Key points include:  01:09:  A quick explanation of biotech, agricultural biotech, and industrial biotech 08:09: The difference between pharma and biotech 12:28: Drugs that fall into the biotech category 18:45: Differences in delivery methodologies between small molecule and more complex molecules 24:31: The different roles and functions at biotech and pharma companies Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com.

On her podcast, Fearless Growth, Amanda Setili interviews Mitali Chopra, UK Coach of the Year for best client results. They talk about her business and also about the karma equation for World abundance and why giving is such an important part of living. She talks about the nonprofit that she founded to help kids learn entrepreneurship by playing games. Amanda's podcast can be found here http://bitly.bz/G5cKA. Key points include: 06:58: Overcoming fear 15:51: How company culture can hold a company back 23:32: Transitioning to other cultures 26:58: The importance of continuous growth Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com.

Samantha Saperstein has an MBA in Marketing and Strategy from Wharton, she is a McKinsey alum, and is now a managing director at JPMorgan Chase. In this episode, Sam talks about the Women on the Move program and how it helps women thrive professionally and start businesses. You can learn more about the program on the podcast, Women on the Move. Key points include: 09:07: Resources for women who want to start a business 11:56: Gaps in financial health and financial education for women. 17:55: Encouraging the careers of women at JPMorgan Chase 22:27: Negotiation skills for women Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com.

Belden Menkus was a senior engagement manager at McKinsey for six years and is the managing director at Menkus and Associates where they specialise in high-impact senior-level interventions that create new strategic value and growth opportunities using proven new approaches that engage head, heart, and hands. In today's episode, we talk about how he approaches developing and deploying a strategy with purpose and positive outcomes. Belden Menkus can be reached through his website at menkus.com. Key points include: 05:11: Working with the Port of London Authority 07:46: Working with organisations to reach clarity of purpose 12:35: Pursuing the ideal 17:53: The impact clarity of purpose can have on an organisation Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com.

Belden Menkus is the managing director at Menkus and Associates. He is also the host of the podcast the Purposeful Strategist, a podcast that shifts the conversation from what organisations should do to what they are doing to embrace their broader purpose and translate it into tangible action. On today's episode, we listen to one of Belden's podcasts where he interviews Robin Mortimer, the chief executive of organization in the London Port of Authority Key points include: 06:52: What the Port Authority is and what they do 09:32: How the vision of the Thames organisation is structured and functions 12:42: Where the Thames Vision is going 15:32: The strategy to manage the vision 21:16: How the hydrogen economy affects the Thames Vision  

David A. Fields spent nine years in marketing for GlaxoSmithKline before jumping into consulting with a boutique firm, where he became partner. He then co-founded Ascendant Consulting and focused the practice on helping large corporations enter new markets. He is the author of two books on consulting, and on this episode, he shares expert tips for solo consultants, boutique firms, and small to medium businesses.  David can be reached through LinkedIn or his website, https://www.davidafields.com. Key points include: 06:24: Structuring the discovery discussion 15:14: Partners for consultants 18:35: Big challenges for solo consultants 31:43: The challenge of growth Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com. 

Tim Streeter spent 25 years working in consulting and human resources including global leadership roles in Talent Acquisition at Accenture and Whirlpool. As the former chief operating officer of talent acquisition at Accenture, where he was responsible for managing a recruiter headcount of 2500 people and delivering 100,000 new hires every year. He's also the author of the Contentment Commitment, which we will chat about in this episode.  Tim can be reached through his website, https://www.contentmentcommitment.com/, where you can also learn more about the book.    Key points include:   00:52: The personal history behind the book 03:19: The six dimensions of contentment 08:32: The commitments Tim made 20:10: Tim's work with organisations Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com.

Insects in the evening at the farm

Birdsong in the morning at the farm

Rain and thunder at the farm

August evening: Insect sounds at the farm

Yucatan bird sounds - 19 minutes

Good Neighbors

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead. In peace there's nothing so becomes a man As modest stillness and humility: But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Then imitate the action of the tiger; Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage; Then lend the eye a terrible aspect; Let pry through the portage of the head Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it As fearfully as doth a galled rock O'erhang and jutty his confounded base, Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean. Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide, Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit To his full height. On, on, you noblest English. Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof! Fathers that, like so many Alexanders, Have in these parts from morn till even fought And sheathed their swords for lack of argument: Dishonour not your mothers; now attest That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you. Be copy now to men of grosser blood, And teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman, Whose limbs were made in England, show us here The mettle of your pasture; let us swear That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not; For there is none of you so mean and base, That hath not noble lustre in your eyes. I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, Straining upon the start. The game's afoot: Follow your spirit, and upon this charge Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'

To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles And by opposing end them. To die—to sleep, No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there's the rub: For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause—there's the respect That makes calamity of so long life. For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, Th'oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of dispriz'd love, the law's delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of th'unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscovere'd country, from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pitch and moment With this regard their currents turn awry And lose the name of action.

I recorded this on Bald Eagle Mountain.

Methinks I am a prophet new inspired And thus expiring do foretell of him: His rash fierce blaze of riot cannot last, For violent fires soon burn out themselves; Small showers last long, but sudden storms are short; He tires betimes that spurs too fast betimes; With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder: Light vanity, insatiate cormorant, Consuming means, soon preys upon itself. This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other Eden, demi-paradise, This fortress built by Nature for herself Against infection and the hand of war, This happy breed of men, this little world, This precious stone set in the silver sea, Which serves it in the office of a wall, Or as a moat defensive to a house, Against the envy of less happier lands, This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England, This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings, Fear'd by their breed and famous by their birth, Renowned for their deeds as far from home, For Christian service and true chivalry, As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry, Of the world's ransom, blessed Mary's Son, This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land, Dear for her reputation through the world, Is now leased out, I die pronouncing it, Like to a tenement or pelting farm: England, bound in with the triumphant sea Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege Of watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame, With inky blots and rotten parchment bonds: That England, that was wont to conquer others, Hath made a shameful conquest of itself. Ah, would the scandal vanish with my life, How happy then were my ensuing death!

No matter where; of comfort no man speak: Let’s talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs; Make dust our paper and with rainy eyes Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth, Let’s choose executors and talk of wills: And yet not so, for what can we bequeath Save our deposed bodies to the ground? Our lands, our lives and all are Bolingbroke’s, And nothing can we call our own but death And that small model of the barren earth Which serves as paste and cover to our bones. For God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground And tell sad stories of the death of kings; How some have been deposed; some slain in war, Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed; Some poison’d by their wives: some sleeping kill’d; All murder’d: for within the hollow crown That rounds the mortal temples of a king Keeps Death his court and there the antic sits, Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp, Allowing him a breath, a little scene, To monarchize, be fear’d and kill with looks, Infusing him with self and vain conceit, As if this flesh which walls about our life, Were brass impregnable, and humor’d thus Comes at the last and with a little pin Bores through his castle wall, and farewell king! Cover your heads and mock not flesh and blood With solemn reverence: throw away respect, Tradition, form and ceremonious duty, For you have but mistook me all this while: I live with bread like you, feel want, Taste grief, need friends: subjected thus, How can you say to me, I am a king?

I pray thee, cease thy counsel, Which falls into mine ears as profitless As water in a sieve: give not me counsel; Nor let no comforter delight mine ear But such a one whose wrongs do suit with mine. Bring me a father that so loved his child, Whose joy of her is overwhelm'd like mine, And bid him speak of patience; Measure his woe the length and breadth of mine And let it answer every strain for strain, As thus for thus and such a grief for such, In every lineament, branch, shape, and form: If such a one will smile and stroke his beard, Bid sorrow wag, cry 'hem!' when he should groan, Patch grief with proverbs, make misfortune drunk With candle-wasters; bring him yet to me, And I of him will gather patience. But there is no such man: for, brother, men Can counsel and speak comfort to that grief Which they themselves not feel; but, tasting it, Their counsel turns to passion, which before Would give preceptial medicine to rage, Fetter strong madness in a silken thread, Charm ache with air and agony with words: No, no; 'tis all men's office to speak patience To those that wring under the load of sorrow, But no man's virtue nor sufficiency To be so moral when he shall endure The like himself. Therefore give me no counsel: My griefs cry louder than advertisement

O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend The brightest heaven of invention, A kingdom for a stage, princes to act And monarchs to behold the swelling scene! Then should the warlike Harry, like himself, Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels, Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword and fire Crouch for employment. But pardon, and gentles all, The flat unraised spirits that have dared On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth So great an object: can this cockpit hold The vasty fields of France? or may we cram Within this wooden O the very casques That did affright the air at Agincourt? O, pardon! since a crooked figure may Attest in little place a million; And let us, ciphers to this great accompt, On your imaginary forces work. Suppose within the girdle of these walls Are now confined two mighty monarchies, Whose high upreared and abutting fronts The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder: Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts; Into a thousand parts divide on man, And make imaginary puissance; Think when we talk of horses, that you see them Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth; For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings, Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times, Turning the accomplishment of many years Into an hour-glass: for the which supply, Admit me Chorus to this history; Who prologue-like your humble patience pray, Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.

There’s a bear in the Truro woods. People have seen it - three or four,  or two, or one. I think of the thickness of the serious woods around the dark bowls of the Truro ponds;  I think of the blueberry fields, the blackberry tangles,  the cranberry bogs. And the sky with its new moon, its familiar star-trails,  burns down like a brand-new heaver,  while everywhere I look on the scratchy hillsides shadows seem to grow shoulders. Surely a beast might be clever, be lucky, move quietly through the woods for years, learning to stay away from roads and houses. Common sense mutters:  it can’t be true, it must be somebody’s runaway dog. But the seed has been planted, and when has happiness ever required much evidence to begin its leaf-green breathing?

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there; The children were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads; And mamma in her ’kerchief, and I in my cap, Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap, When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter. Away to the window I flew like a flash, Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash. The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below, When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer, With a little old driver, so lively and quick, I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick. More rapid than eagles his coursers they came, And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name; “Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen! On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen! To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall! Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!” As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly, When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky; So up to the house-top the coursers they flew, With the sleigh full of Toys, and St. Nicholas too. And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof The prancing and pawing of each little hoof. As I drew in my head, and was turning around, Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound. He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot, And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot; A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back, And he looked like a pedler just opening his pack. His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples how merry! His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry! His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow; The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth, And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath; He had a broad face and a little round belly, That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly. He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf, And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself; A wink of his eye and a twist of his head, Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread; He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work, And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk, And laying his finger aside of his nose, And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose; He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, And away they all flew like the down of a thistle, But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight, “Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night.”

I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,  With conquering limbs astride from land to land;  Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand  A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame  Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name  Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand  Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command  The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.  “Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she  With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,  Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,  The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.  Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,  I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” 

And then the day came, when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to Blossom.  Anaïs Nin

Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, And spills the upper boulders in the sun; And makes gaps even two can pass abreast. The work of hunters is another thing: I have come after them and made repair Where they have left not one stone on a stone, But they would have the rabbit out of hiding, To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean, No one has seen them made or heard them made, But at spring mending-time we find them there. I let my neighbour know beyond the hill; And on a day we meet to walk the line And set the wall between us once again. We keep the wall between us as we go. To each the boulders that have fallen to each. And some are loaves and some so nearly balls We have to use a spell to make them balance: "Stay where you are until our backs are turned!" We wear our fingers rough with handling them. Oh, just another kind of out-door game, One on a side. It comes to little more: There where it is we do not need the wall: He is all pine and I am apple orchard. My apple trees will never get across And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him. He only says, "Good fences make good neighbours." Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder If I could put a notion in his head: "Why do they make good neighbours? Isn't it Where there are cows? But here there are no cows. Before I built a wall I'd ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offence. Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That wants it down." I could say "Elves" to him, But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather He said it for himself. I see him there Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed. He moves in darkness as it seems to me, Not of woods only and the shade of trees. He will not go behind his father's saying, And he likes having thought of it so well He says again, "Good fences make good neighbours."

All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms. Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school. And then the lover, Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier, Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard, Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel, Seeking the bubble reputation Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice, In fair round belly with good capon lined, With eyes severe and beard of formal cut, Full of wise saws and modern instances; And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slippered pantaloon, With spectacles on nose and pouch on side; His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice, Turning again toward childish treble, pipes And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness and mere oblivion, Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he is always doing both.   https://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/08/27/master/