The VisionThink Sisu

Our vision is a world in which we all find inspiration to overcome the inevitable curveballs of life, harness technological and other innovations to enhance our effectiveness and efficiency, and channel, control or eliminate insecurities that impair our paths to success. 

The Mission Statement

We are a nonprofit organization providing community-based education products and services.  The three communities we have targeted to serve are conceptual rather than geographic, for those seeking insights and strategies for one or more of our “3 Ins”:

These “3 Ins” are not intrinsically good or bad.  They can serve as means to ends, but it is the responsibility of each of us to select honorable ends.  One can be inspired to help end social inequality, just as on 9-11 (2001) 19 men were inspired to disrupt our world.  One can use the innovation of online social media to connect with family far away, or to spread fake news.  One can use insecurities as motivation to more clearly identify and achieve goals, or to avoid directly confronting dreaded prospects, letting them morph into realities.

Our mission is to better understand the roots, and harness the intrinsic power, of inspiration, innovation and insecurities, and to share these insights to help individuals, groups, or organizations achieve their goals.  Those goals may be general or specific.

While their specific foci differ, each unit incorporates:

  • Empirical Evidence -- data-informed best practices and proven results
  • Mindful Thought -- beyond emotions and biases to analytic reasoning
  • Real Relevance -- addressing topics that matter, in ways that relate
  • Connectedness -- breaking through artificial disciplinary boundaries
  • Lifelong Learning -- issues of significance throughout your life-cycle
  • Sustained “Sisu” -- a Finnish term, loosely translated to perseverance.
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Inspiration

The Sisu
Fellowship

Rewirement.Org

The Sisu Fellowship grew out of the @SafeChurch initiative which was at the forefront of our efforts during 2019. In the process of advocating for churched women’s healing from sexual abuse and trauma, we learned that a majority of women -- regardless of class, status or race -- struggle in silence with their true identity and projected image, whether at home or elsewhere. 

Life’s challenges range from minor irritations to major catastrophes. We marry and divorce, we succeed and fail, we flourish and we grieve. The Sisu Fellowship  encourages and inspires people to face insecurities, overcome struggles, and reach their full potential through sisu and faith.

We invite people to think big, beyond their present circumstances. We encourage them to get out of their comfort zone, to cross safe boundaries, to go for that dream, to invite the stranger to the table, to learn the foreign language, to answer that call to serve. We believe love is the most powerful force to change lives for the better.

The Sisu Fellowship serves to provide inspiration and motivation for individuals and groups of various sizes. We share our stories to proclaim that life is worth living because there is a purpose for every life. 

Our goal is your fulfillment.

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Innovation
The Sisu Instructional Technology Center

InstructionalTech.Org

The 20th century was most remarkable for its innovations.  It is believed to be the very first century in which visiting a “medicine man” was likely to do more good than harm.  It gave us global communication and transportation, even to the moon.  It gave us the atomic bomb and global warming.

The 21st century seems likely to intensify this focus on innovation, for better and worse.  While our interest is innovations of all types, the focus of The Sisu Instructional Technology Center is on how innovations can contribute to learning processes and results.  

While the promise of technology “in the classroom” has been discussed for decades, reality may be that the last game-changing innovation in formal education was by Gutenberg.

Covid-19 likely will provide the impetus necessary to break through institutional and emotional obstacles to allow technological and related innovations to flourish in both formal education settings and personalized lifelong learning.

Our goal is to advance that day.

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Insecurity
The Sisu Retirement Finance Institute

RetirementFinance.Org

Life is full of insecurities.  For some the source is health-related, perhaps for others it results from social injustices, but for all of us it seems to be embedded in our quest for fulfillment and happiness.

While we may occasionally address other insecurities, the primary focus of The Sisu Retirement Finance Institute is on personal and family planning for an eventual break from dependence upon work to meet financial needs or wants.

The “Greatest Generation” was rewarded with defined benefit plans from their (often sole) employer, followed by Social Security payments from a well-funded government program.

The “Baby Boom Generation” is entering retirement far more likely to be dependent upon defined contribution plans and a Social Security system that is drawing down its trust fund.  Both the “Great Recession” of 2008 and the pandemic of 2020 have greatly contributed to depletion of funds, lowered expectations, and increased insecurity -- especially for todays’ younger generations.

Our goal is to reduce financial insecurity.