HIT Piece 08.19.2014

Going to the US Capital is always an adventure for me.

The museums are free and are open even on Sundays, but the trade-off is that you’ve gotta walk everywhere and buy overpriced food.

Museums, monuments, street names, bill titles, building names are all reflective and demonstrate to others what we value, whose side we’ve decided to be on and the nature of historical moment realities that may not translate to future realities.

-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/

Christian Peacemaking in a Fallen World – Bully Edition

Bullies are everywhere it seems.

They are at school. They are at work.

Have they always been around or are we only now becoming sensitive to their presence and their impact?

From Donald Sterling to the workplace bully to the disaffected school shooter, modern Western culture seems to be turning up more and more of the disaffected and the dysfunctional.

Eventually, the societal call will come to violate the inviolable in order to ferret out and better address the impacts of bully pathology.

The conflation between the everyday bully and the societal scourge will become easier and easier as time progresses and peace will become harder and harder to attain.

There will be less understanding, less forgiveness and the road to reconciliation will be even tougher.

The hard work of #BuildingForTheFuture is just beginning…

-Peace Be With You All-

[Opinion] Grains of Sand in the Human Heart

A handful of sand contains one million grains.

How many ideas does that number of grains represent?

How much untapped potential?

The conflicts of the 21^st century will more pointedly focus on the conflict between potential and potential neither realized, nor accessed.

Real wisdom and leadership will come, not from designing more fancy tools, but from accessing old knowledge and applying it to, what will appear to be new challenges.

How many grains of sand can be contained in the human heart?

-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: http://www.twitter.com/Sorrells79
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jesansorrells/

HIT Piece 08.12.2014

As the media market continues to fracture and as consumers are allowed more and more opportunities to create their own entertainment, subscription (and micro-subscription) services for content delivery will be all the rage.

I don’t think that 260 million people will be creating their own micro-subscription services anytime soon; there will always be consumers of content, rather than just creators.

I also think that as the media landscape continues to fracture, the idea that there will ever be one world, united in opinion and purpose, becomes ever more tenuous.

-Peace Be With You All-

Be More of Who You Are

MBTI, DiSC, Strengthsquest and multiple other personality assessments and sorters have appeared on the market after World War II, proposing to provide people insight into themselves.

But, when a person attains insight into themselves, what they do with that insight—how they change—is at least as important as the insight itself.

How we are seen and perceived by others is more of a tricky proposition and this is where Project Fascinate and Sally Hogshead come into play.

Sally has come up with an assessment that examines how the world sees you and breaks it down in an easy to read, highly accessible 16 page document.

But, what’s even better is that she promotes becoming more of what you already are, and differentiating yourself from the crowd by becoming more of what people see you being.

In a positive manner, of course.

This can create conflicts with self and conflicts with others, particularly if you’ve spent a long time (such as a lifetime) being what you think others want you to be, instead of being what they actually know you to be.

Unlearn boring and be more of yourself. This is the core of Project Fascinate.

-Peace Be With You All-

HIT Piece 08.05.2014

I always tell the Steve Martin, San Francisco coffee house story before I begin speaking in front of groups of ten or less.

At some point in my career, I will be speaking before an empty room.

What matters is not the empty room, but how I handle what happens afterward.

-Peace Be With You All-

The 3 Pieces of a Bad Idea

There is a bad idea floating around out here.

It is an idea based off of get rich quick, short-term thinking.

It permeates the atmosphere of media reporting around start-up culture.

It has moved from the realm of the late night infomercial to the realm of the internet with astonishing ease.

The bad idea states that if a person just does one, secret trick that they will lose weight, gain height, and in general, improve their lives and fortunes.

The core of this bad idea really lies in three areas:

Hard work is boring, not flashy. Anything that can be done to avoid it should be done.
Consistency is unsexy and should be done away with in favor of short bursts of spectacle.
Commitment is a trap. Distract the audience long enough with spectacle and they will forgive lack of commitment efforts in work that isn’t necessarily flashy.

Individually, these areas are easy to combat and train out of an approach to anything worthwhile, from mediation to marketing.

Collectively, however, these three areas give power to the bad idea of an “easy solution” which is so pervasive that, when it takes root, in any area is almost impossible to dislodge.

-Peace Be With You All-

How to Leverage Twitter for Fun & Profit

This Friday, we are going to talk about Twitter with the local Ithaca, NY chapter of the National Association of Professional Women (for more details and tickets, click here).

Twitter is our favorite social content distribution channel.

Twitter is fast, fun, vibrant and, seemingly, uncomplicated (unlike Facebook or LinkedIn, you can UnFollow, or not Follow Back a brand or person and it’s not personal).

But all the things that make Twitter intriguing and my favorite channel for the ADHD generation, these traits have also made the channel a dangerous one for people and brands who lack self-awareness, self-control or self-esteem.

This creates an interesting intersection between storytelling, neurocognition and emotional manipulation.

We’ll answer all those questions tonight, so if you’re in the Ithaca area, please, stop on by, say “hello” and let us shake your hand.

-Peace Be With You All-

HIT Piece 07.29.14

Things I heard at work:

“How can you keep working there with what they pay you?”

“What are you doing wasting your time there?”

“You’re too smart to be working there.”

“The problem with you is that you always took this place more seriously than I ever did.”

I agree.

That’s four of several hundred reasons that I don’t work there any more.

-Peace Be With You All-

HIT Piece 07.22.2014

I haunt bookstores, seeking the rarest of items.

A muscular, fictional novel (not a genre title) that can be marketed to and for men.

You know, those people that work in the United States, but statistically speaking don’t read nearly as much as young adults and women.

Genre titles are great, don’t get me wrong, but I’m not looking for the next James Patterson, John Grisham, Lee Child or Dean Koontz.

I’m looking for the writer of novels about men (with women and children, of course), and the modern male experience, that is going to draw men into the bookstore, and onto the tablet device.

And away from the video game, film, tv, and outdoor sports industries.

-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/