We’re Going To Win

Nonviolent resistance is fetishized through cultural memory as being easy, but it’s really not.

There’s a story in Malcolm Galdwell’s book David and Goliath that he takes from Diane McWhorter’s book Carry Me Home, where a man is giving a speech and he is attacked. The crowd at the speech at first believes that the attack is part of the speech, but quickly realizes that it is not.

The man giving the speech, instead of responding with violence toward his attacker as a form of defense, became his assailant’s protector, singing him songs and wrapping him in an embrace. Eventually, the attacker is introduced to the crowd as a guest.

The man whispers to his attacker before introducing him to the crowd “We’re going to win.”

How many times in our lives do we respond to an attack with aggression, passive resistance, apathy or even outright violence?

Responding to an attack with nonviolence—and following that response all the way to its logical conclusion, which may involve the potential for death—is the single most courageous act David can perform against Goliath.

“We are going to win.” But, Martin Luther King knew that nonviolence unto death was the only courageous way to accomplish that win.

-Peace Be With You All-

Jesan Sorrells, MA
Principal Conflict Engagement Consultant
Human Services Consulting and Training (HSCT)
Email HSCT: hsconsultingandtraining@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HSConsultingandTraining
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Sorrells79
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jesansorrells/

HIT Piece 1.13.215-Thoughts About Distribution Models

Content development is not the hard part.

Getting attention for the content through social is not the hard part.

The hard part is finding platforms and venues (or, if you’re in sales, “funnels”) through which to send my content.

I am approaching 400 articles on the HSCT #Communication Blog, but no one asked me to distribute the content I created until they saw me distribute it—consistently—through other places.

And, by the way, everything is content—images, videos, podcasts, and the blog.

But, building a distribution model from scratch?

Well…that’s like building Rome inside of ten years…

[For more on how to starts this process, look here and here.]

-Peace Be With You All-

Jesan Sorrells, MA
Principal Conflict Engagement Consultant
Human Services Consulting and Training (HSCT)
Email HSCT: hsconsultingandtraining@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HSConsultingandTraining
Twitter: www.twitter.com/Sorrells79
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jesansorrells/

HIT Piece 1.13.2015

I am fascinated by diagnostic instruments.

These are tools, such as DiSC, the STRONG Inventory, the MBTI, the Thomas-Killman Instrument and others, that purport to help people understand what’s going on inside of their own motivations.

Unfortunately, these diagnostic instruments have not evolved over time to reflect advances in neurobiology, psychology, sociology and even anthropology and linguistics.

I believe that this is a problem, particularly as leap-frog advancements in high tech, computational fields have allowed people (at the individual and group level) to integrate more and more reacting and responding with their prosocial tools.

I think we should take apart some of these old diagnostic tools and test some assumptions, before foisting them on a generation who’s brains and responses have been socially molded by advancements that weren’t even dreamed possible at the time of their creation.

[Shout out to Sherrill Hayes for turning me onto this.]

-Peace Be With You All-

Jesan Sorrells, MA
Principal Conflict Engagement Consultant
Human Services Consulting and Training (HSCT)
Email HSCT: hsconsultingandtraining@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HSConsultingandTraining
Twitter: www.twitter.com/Sorrells79
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jesansorrells/

HIT Piece 1.06.2015

I am wondering about the allure of false peace.

You know the kind of “peace” that comes from accommodation, rather than effective confrontation.
You know the kind of “peace” that comes from quiet acquiescence to the outcomes of the process of conflicts.
You know the kind of “peace” that people seem to favor, when they shrug their shoulders, and seem to passively accept a false outcome, rather than doing the hard work of actively pursuing a different choice.

I wonder if the presence of false peace makes it harder for real innovation and change.

There is a marked difference between real peace and being “just left alone,” or, vainly hoping that the lion of conflict will consume your emotions and spirit last rather than first.

I wonder, do people really want change in their hearts, or do they just say that they do with their mouths?

-Peace Be With You All-

HIT Piece 12.16.2014: 3 Blogging Lessons

After blogging for almost two years, I’ve learned a few important things:

If I wait for inspiration to write, it won’t ever come. Inspiration happens when my butt hits the seat and I begin to stare at that blinking cursor and the white paper.

I became so much better at this blogging game, when I stopped writing just three times a week “because I just didn’t have time to do more” and started writing 5 times per week. And next year, it’ll be twice a day, five days of the week.

Profundity is not the point of the blogging.

If I am seeking to be profound, to stumble upon some sainted truth about entrepreneurship, conflict resolution, peacemaking, marketing, social media communication, my writing is not going to get there. My readers will find, and share, the profundity for me.

I write whether you read it or not.

The reason that blogging gets such a bad rap from “serious” writers such as novelists, journalists, research writers and others, is partially because of the nature of issues blogging covers (a “them” problem) and partially because of the lack of consistency and doggedness of bloggers (an “us” problem).

Rest assured, I’m going to keep writing the HSCT #Communication Blog, whether anyone reads it or not. I think of it like Saturday Night Live, which goes on every Saturday night at 11 o’clock (EST) because it’s 11 o’clock, whether anyone is watching it or not.

It’s all content.

The podcast, the blogging, the text on my website, the ADRTimes.com blog posts, the Facebook shares, the Quora posts, the Tweets, the workshop content, the keynote speeches, the LinkedIn posts, the e-books, the white papers, the Medium.com posts, the layered images.

It’s ALL content.

-Peace Be With You All-

[Opinion] The Cranberry Sauce Has Stuffing In It

On Thanksgiving Day in America, it’s tempting to look at the whole thing as merely a set-up for the coming commercialization and endless marketing of Christmas.

However, the first Pilgrims didn’t look at it that way and neither did the Native Peoples who helped them celebrate the day.

Individually, Thanksgiving is wrapped up in visiting family, traveling to the table and avoiding conversations about things that matter, in favor of things that don’t.

You know…to keep the peace.

Papering over conflict in life didn’t work for the Pilgrims (they transitioned from a commune based system of economics and social ordering to a market based system after a hard winter of near starvation where no one worked) and it won’t work for you in 2014.

Acknowledging differences with respect, maintaining traditions and honoring symbols are at the core of the Thanksgiving tradition.

Let us also remember, that the triumvirate of holidays—Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years’—are positioned on the calendar to remind us that thankfulness, redemption and new beginnings are due to everybody, not just those who are part of our immediate tribe.

-Peace Be With You All-

Jesan Sorrells, MA
Principal Conflict Engagement Consultant
Human Services Consulting and Training (HSCT)
Email HSCT: jsorrells@hsconsultingandtraining.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HSConsultingandTraining
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/Sorrells79
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesansorrells/

We Built This

There’s been a trend that has advanced as our electronic tools have outstripped our good sense, our common decency and our impulse control.

The trend can be heard in phrases such as “my Twitter feed blew up” or “Facebook melted down.”

When the popular media narrative drives emotional responses to hot button issues, surrounding topics such justice, identity, legal decisions or social depredations to push up ratings and gather attention, the population in the United States now has the tools and know how, to take to Twitter and Facebook and express displeasure, disgust or even to “poke the bear.”

The social contract is breaking down, not because people have the tools to express opinions from the peanut gallery, but because every peanut in the gallery has access to the tools in the first place.

But, we in the field of ADR shouldn’t get mad at the Internet or social media. After all, we either actively or passively, participated in building the media that we have right now.

We shouldn’t throw up our hands in disgust and walk away, tune out, turn off and drop off the “map.” We also probably shouldn’t engage, foment and otherwise stir the pot more, with anything but affirmations of peace and solutions to complicated issues.

We have taken the words of the Declaration of Independence, and the admonitions and arguments of dead 18th, 19th and 20th century white male philosophers to heart, but unfortunately, we have taken them to heart—and to task—using tools and social spaces that weren’t really designed for nuanced observation, conversation and peacebuilding.

The popular narrative is exactly that—a story—and we as individuals are under no obligation to spread the story, comment on the story, or even to believe the story.

We are under obligation, as peacemakers, to point out alternatives to the dominate narrative, no matter from whom—the majority or the minority—it may spring, and offer a path toward the Truth.

-Peace Be With You All-

Jesan Sorrells, MA
Principal Conflict Engagement Consultant
Human Services Consulting and Training (HSCT)
Email HSCT: hsconsultingandtraining@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HSConsultingandTraining
Twitter: www.twitter.com/Sorrells79
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jesansorrells/

[Podcast] HIT Piece 11.18.2014: 3 Announcements + Links

I am proud to announce that there are 3 new project developments in the world of Human Services Consulting and Training:

I am busy this month, January and February, doing interviews on radio and via podcast, getting the word out about Human Services Consulting and Training’s launch in January 2015 of the ongoing podcast series, Earbud_U.

This podcast will start, Netflix-like, by dropping 12, pre-recorded interviews featuring artists, film directors, illustrators, and perhaps even my wife, on January 15th.

I have also recently agreed to begin writing two, 500 word blog posts per month for the online alternative dispute resolution journal, ADRTimes.com.

I consider them to be (as do many others in the ADR field) the “New York Times” of ADR and I am very excited to be distributing content focused around marketing philosophies, techniques and best practices for ADR professionals. Please check them out here.

Finally, I will be delivering the keynote address and also performing a breakout sessions with the attendees at the BOLD Conference at Ithaca College, focused on the topic of “Negotiating with Outrageous Confidence.”

This is the second year that I have been invited to present and speak at this conference, focused on developing the skills and strategies of future business leaders and influencers, and I am happy to be invited.

And, considering how many women and minorities don’t negotiate at all (or negotiate nervously, poorly, or from any other untenable position) negotiating with outrageous confidence is the only way to go. At least, that’s what I think…

-Peace Be With You All-

Jesan Sorrells, MA
Principal Conflict Engagement Consultant
Human Services Consulting and Training (HSCT)
Email HSCT: jsorrells@hsconsultingandtraining.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HSConsultingandTraining
Twitter: www.twitter.com/Sorrells79
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jesansorrells/

HIT Piece 11.04.2014

Today is Election Day in the United States.

In multiple elections, both large and small, the political fates of these amorphous entities that we have socially constructed—called parties, ironically enough—will be either moved forward…or stopped warm.

The business of navigating the political system in this country—or any other—is not based on promoting peace.

Rather, the business of politics seems to revolve on the front-end, around division and making disconnection. And on the back-end, the business of politics seems to revolve around collaboration and accommodation for those whose interests really matter.

It’s enough to make the people who vote, the “electorate” if you will—who deserve to have their faith rewarded and deserve to continue to believe in the best of people involved in the business of politics—become cynical and tire of the entire process.

And many have.

The progressive, peace building thing to write would be “Get out and vote. It’s your civic duty.” The regressive, disconnecting thing to write would be “Don’t vote. None of this matters. Stay at home.”

Well…what are you going to do?

-Peace Be With You All-

Jesan Sorrells, MA
Principal Conflict Engagement Consultant
Human Services Consulting and Training (HSCT)
Email HSCT: hsconsultingandtraining@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HSConsultingandTraining
Twitter: www.twitter.com/Sorrells79
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jesansorrells/

Residents of (YOUR TOWN NAME HERE) Save $100 A DAY by Doing This One Simple Trick!!!!

Click bait articles and headline jacking efforts are just the latest in a long line of American hucksterism that began with Western, one man traveling wagon shows and continued through to TV infomercials from Billy Mays for OxiClean.

The first inherent problem with of all these forms of advertisement is the combination of shameless flim-flamism, the deceit of the short con, and the promise of a good deal of vaudeville.

The inherent false promise in this tradition plays on the long-standing, human desire for just one easy step that solves a difficult problem, fulfills an unmet need, or at the very minimum, entertains the viewer outrageously.

The reason why concerns about the lack of regulation in election advertising fall on deaf ears every two to four years is that the majority of election advertising is targeted at about the same level of click bait, online advertising and blog posts.

Add to all of it, candidates approving messages that, if your kid, your partner or your friend said them, you’d tell them they were full of it.

And we all know what “it” is.

“It seems so simple. It should be easy.”

This statement came out of a workshop I did recently as well as a podcast interview I gave recently.

Well, if the Truth were simple and easy, hucksters, flim-flam men, election year advertising, and other forms of selling that create artificial conflicts, fake disruptions, and incoherent disconnections, wouldn’t be so popular to use as shortcuts to the capital “T” truth.

And clickbait articles would drive almost no traffic on social media and in new journalism.

Do you feel like you saved $100 yet today?

-Peace Be With You All-

Jesan Sorrells, MA
Principal Conflict Engagement Consultant
Human Services Consulting and Training (HSCT)
Email HSCT: hsconsultingandtraining@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HSConsultingandTraining
Twitter: www.twitter.com/Sorrells79
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jesansorrells/