HIT Piece 5.17.2016

The infrastructure of my assumptions is slowly undergoing a transformation.

I used to think that all of this would be a quick process (naïve, I know) and that I would achieve “success” faster than what I have.

But the infrastructure of those assumptions (around process, success, time, trust, awareness, attention, value, cost, pricing, the market, etc.) are all shifting inside of me in subtle ways I can’t really describe just yet.

And the thing is, the sign of an organization (or person) who’s open to changing is that the infrastructure of their assumptions is open to reduction, change, destruction, and even wholesale replacement.

If you’re not looking back and wincing about where you were, what you were doing, what you were saying (or writing), and what you were believing, about your business, your home, your life, or even your personal development efforts, then you’re probably not growing.

And growing is the only way to actually get to the future that I keep talking, writing, and advocating for.

-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/

HIT Piece 07.21.2015 – How I’ll Be Spending My Summer Vacation

There are four seasons in the United States.

The second season is the one where not much work gets done. Deals don’t get struck between the months of June and September. People take vacations. Families try to get away.

I’ve heard the same thing happens in Europe.

During the month of August, I am taking a break–a vacation, if you will–as well. I have developed sort of a European approach to running HSCT, however, I am still planning on doing three things every day:

Writing these posts
Thinking deeply
Reading (or completing volumes in various stages of bookmark migration) the following books (click on the title to get the link to check out the book on Amazon):

Clearly, I’ll be busy.

Enjoy your vacation—if you’re taking one—and take some time to read, write, and think deeply.

-Peace Be With You All-

HIT Piece 07.28.2015

With the seemingly overwhelming flood of content, voices, opinions and “takes” in the social media world, there are two common responses to the feeling of being drowned in mediocre content:

Throw up your hands, declare the Internet “dead”, and retire from the space…

Throw more content out there in a never-ending “race to the bottom” for attention, trust and money.

Both choices are false, for me.

Content is a passenger for success, not the driver (or the gas) in the car of any business. The people who are doing the best in the content “game” are those who combine the development of content with the material fact of doing something else (creating, collaborating, consulting) in another area that complements what they do online.

Am I going to develop the next great content management system? Probably not. Am I going to keep workshopping, writing, speaking, collaborating, connecting, and meeting with people off-line, while my online content grows and grows?

Yes.

And that’s the way out of the bind for many people.

-Peace Be With You All-

HIT Piece 06.09.2015

I’ve been watching (actually rewatching) the Ken Burns’ film Jazz on Netflix.

The amazing thing about this form of music is that it is uniquely American and could only have come out of the American experience and conflicts that we have had in this country around race and identity.

Music is the place where some of the worst cultural tropes and conflicts get worked out: Between the musicians in the band, the members of the audience and the listeners of the music remotely via a record—or an I-pod—a lot of gossamer is weaved.

I think that macro level conflicts in the culture can be worked out safely through the arts, in ways that don’t really translate at the interpersonal level. At the micro level though, that’s where it gets tough.

Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, or even Herbie Hancock, aren’t going to come into your house and live your life for you. But the music can serve as an intermediary.

And jazz has to be lived, improvised and has to happen on the spot. Just like interpersonal conflict at the micro level.

-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 05.26.2015

Who wants to go back into that place?

The struggle with work is that if there is no connect between my talents, abilities and interests and the actual facts of work.

The reason entrepreneurship “fits” is because my talents, abilities and interests are so scattered and unfocused.

This “work” gives me an opportunity to explore all of my other interests, talents and abilities in the context of a structure that appears to be “traditional” but is really not.

The workplace hierarchy Is very traditional in power structure, work flow and job/task distribution.

My particular set of “skills” don’t really fit inside of such a power structure.

They never really have, and ay time I try to work inside of such a power structure, I “fail” miserably.

Who wants to go back into that place?

-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 05.19.2015

As a good facilitator, when I walk into a room, I know when the crowd will be tough and when the crowd will be amenable, in about 30 seconds after I get into the room.

There are tough crowds everywhere in my life, from my house and family, to the individual interactions that I have at church.

There are two key elements I’ve found that I can focus on when overcoming the psychic weight of the tough crowd:

Never lose focus on the point you’re making.

Don’t get caught in their weeds.

A tough crowd seeks to move me for their own motives, motivations, desires and outcomes. However, there is nothing like not moving, to keep me in sharp rhetorical shape.

-Peace Be With You All-

HIT Piece 05.12.2015

I get asked a lot of questions. For the most part, I try to answer many of them in the FAQ section of the HSCT website.

But then there are questions that don’t fit in the area of frequently asked questions on a website. And I’d like to answer some of those questions today.

How do you have the energy and the time to do all of this?

I don’t. I have just enough energy to get done what I can get done and I don’t really have any more than that. Typically, I am ruthless with my time and I spend a lot of days (and nights) up late doing the things that I need to do to make projects come together. I also try to keep my priorities in order. Which is about as tough as it sounds.

Do you really practice what you preach?

As much as is as humanly possible. Which is a fancy way of saying that I fail much of the time. Look, I consult and train people in how to address conflict effectively in their lives. I have many ways of addressing conflict in my own life, but there are times when my professed values fail to match up to my stated values. But none among us are righteous. No. Not one of us.

How do you handle a client in a consultation situation?

As carefully as possible. I tend to listen more and provide more assurances than when I do in a larger group setting. This is because individuals are granular. Groups are not. People in a group can sometimes be influenced by the nodding of agreement of other people in the same space. In a 1-on-1 situation, listening to the issue and providing accurate, non-circuitous advice is critical for long-term client success.

What kind of stories do you tell yourself?

Ones that are personal to me, and that reflect the parts of my identity that I’m comfortable with. Many years ago, I decided to stop being such chameleon and start being more of the “real” me. With all the vulnerabilities and problems that come with that decision.

What’s it like to be a black entrepreneur in your field?

I was thinking about the answer to this question in the context of another black entrepreneur that I know a little bit more personally than in the context of Twitter or LinkedIN. There are two models of black success—and from that black entrepreneurship—that black folks my age see:

The Bill Cosby/Generation X model—this is the model I see the most often. It’s not flashy. It’s not shiny. It’s based on the idea that a college degree, and then an advanced degree, must be attained before entrepreneurial success can even be considered. This is the model that my mother (who is 65) pioneered for me in my house and that one of my sisters’ (who is 43 this year), followed—or at least tried to. For that generation, entrepreneurship was something that was only considered after a “fall back” was already established in some kind of way.

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air/Jay-Z Model—this is the model that many black entrepreneurs look up too. It’s the model based on leveraging another talent (Jay-Z leveraged money from record sales and other areas to produce other artists’ work and to eventually buy a stake in many other ventures); and then using that money to do something else. Kanye and Will Smith have done this well. Sports stars such as Michael Jordan and LeBron are doing the same thing. The other piece of the model is based in an idea that you may be able to stumble into something if you are fortunate enough to have a “Bill Cosby” like rich uncle.

In the field of peacemaking there are many black people doing great work under both of these models; or doing great work in a hybrid of two of these models (or more). But for me, as a black entrepreneur in the space of peace making and peace building, sometime it’s a lonely walk.

There are so many tools and techniques that are laying around that all the old models are going away. That’s the nature of my game.

-Peace Be With You All-

HIT Piece 4.28.2015

I’ve been thinking about the depth of change, the nature of adoption and what it takes to move the meter.

As I have moved from mediations (trying to show parties how they can repair a boat with holes in it that may or may not have already hit the iceberg) to corporate training (trying to show parties how to build a better boat in the first place), I have noticed myself becoming more illusioned.

This is the opposite of what I’ve been told should be happening (or what some of my posts from last week seem to reflect here and here) but, instead of becoming disillusioned, I am actually becoming more hopeful.

A participant at a training last week gave me some great feedback. He said, “Never before have I been in a training that was focused on being holistic. In work, out of work, all this stuff that you’ve been talking about can be applied everywhere, to your whole life.”

Yes.

The idea of late adoption versus early adoption in product and service development is based in the power of stories. One group of people tells themselves one set of stories about a product, a service or an idea. Another group of people tells themselves another group of stories about the same things. But, eventually, a culture (or individuals) change, because of the overwhelming weight of one story over another.

Conflicts, confrontations and difficulties are the same way. We built our lives by telling ourselves stories. It’s refreshing in our daily lives (in the middle of the story, starring us) to run across someone who tells you to have the courage to unmake the story (or untell it, if you will) that has ruled your life for many years.

Yeah, I’m becoming illusioned….

-Peace Be With You All-

HIT Piece 4.14.2015

The trouble with leading alone is finding a worthy assistant.

I’m not talking about employees, interns or associates. I’m talking about a genuine, worthy assistant. In the old school parlance of warfare, an armor bearer.

A person who, will carry the armor and assist a commander in battle. We in the West (outside of religious and sectarian spheres) have reduced this role to that of a “paid friend” but the role of an armor bearer was very important in ancient warfare.

The trouble with leading by yourself (the trouble with soloprenuership) is finding a person who will show up. More importantly, that person must be loyal, have a good heart and strong morals and be able to handle uncertainty and risk. All while trusting that the vision of the soloprenuer is going to get everybody to the place where it says on the map.

The trouble with leading alone, these days, is finding someone who will show up consistently. How can I find someone who will show up for pay, when very few people are willing to show up and expend emotional effort for free?

Carrying, cleaning and maintaining the armor and going to war (to push the analogy further) all at the same time is emotionally, psychologically and even financially exhausting.

Where will I find a truly loyal person in the midst of this city?

-Peace Be With You All-

HIT Piece 04.07.2015

I always get frustrated when I read the magazine Fast Company.

Not because the people aren’t inspiring, or the stories aren’t relevant or the insights aren’t actionable.

I don’t get frustrated because of any of those reasons.

I want to throw the magazine across the room every month because, after reading the magazine, I immediately feel two things:

I’m not doing enough, to be enough, and that I might not be dreaming large enough.
Everyone who seems to be doing more, dreaming more and accomplishing more seems to be either younger than me with more access to resources, or older than me with more industry experience.

So, basically, jealousy, envy and covetousness, along with a dollop of self-pity.

Apparently, Jesus and I need to get together on some things, because I’m still a work in progress.

-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/