The Value of the Trades

One of the most heart lifting aspects of the collaborative economy is the rapidly developing practice of a professional barter system.

This means a system where I exchange my skills, talents and resources (other than financial) for your skills, talents and resources (other than financial).

Now let’s not get this confused with

Internships
Apprenticeships
Other forms of low-wage labor

Professional barter exists when a graphic designer with more skills than exposure trades services with a budding app developer with more understanding of market exposure than skills at visual design.

-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/

HSCT’s website: http://www.hsconsultingandtraining.com

Google to Earth

The most difficult skill set to master, even in our current post-social age, is the skill of managing other people.

The recent changes and departures at Google serve as an example of this. No matter how “whiz-bang” the technology, people will always be at the core of a company’s focus, growth and competency.

Three points to consider:

Managing people is only going to become more complicated, not less, as individuals make life choices that serve to set up their existences around concepts of shared individuality, rather than enforced commonality.
Emotional intelligence, virtue ethics, patience, religious belief, recovery from failure, grit and perseverance are all learned discrete skills and traits that groups can advocate and promulgate, but that individuals have to practice and internalize. Unfortunately, these skills are to often “taken for granted” rather than “trained into” people.
Training implements skills at the lowest level, coaching reinforces learned skills at the next highest level and education—learned skills actively practiced and then passed onto others—happens at the highest level. This is the path for learning and absorbing, the discrete skills to be able to handle other people, as well as oneself.

-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/

HSCT’s website: http://www.hsconsultingandtraining.com

A Bon Mot

Imagine if the entire Internet were encased inside the boundaries of the United States.

Now imagine that all the original search engines, the ones that were around before the dotcom bubble, are in an area the size of the original 13 colonies, arrayed along a watery coastline.

Now imagine further, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Foursquare, Instagram, YouTube and all the rest, a geographical states, crammed in between the original 13 and the “Appalachian Mountains.”

Now imagine the rest of the country of the United States before the Louisiana Purchase being totally empty and wild.

THAT’S what the entire Internet is right now.

And instead of it being crammed into the boundaries of the continental United States, the virtual real estate of the Internet goes on infinitely.

So, go West.

Be crazy.

Build something—an idea, a strategy, a platform, a city—out there, that all the folks “back East” will marvel at.

-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/

How About an Employee Loyalty Program

The most important part of any customer loyalty program is the employee part.

Think about it.

Customers in local businesses (and ALL businesses are local, even big brands) interact with people from the community in a front facing manner.

Customers of local businesses then do work, do play and do life with the employees of these local businesses.

So what happens when your employee is dissatisfied with their work experience at their local employer?

Employers are not hand holders, or babysitters, but with 80 million Millenials entering the workforce, how are employers going to ensure loyalty when their employees aren’t engaged at work?

And are encouraging others via social communication, to be disengaged as well?

Well, there are three things employers (SMBs, Big Box Brands, etc.) could do:

Develop a socially conscious attitude. Customers expect it, employees crave it.
Develop a personal way of connecting with each and every employee.
Develop a customer service training program focused on emotional intelligence skills: empathy, humanity, honesty, etc.

-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/

HSCT’s website: http://www.hsconsultingandtraining.com

Washing Hands

Conflict avoidance has a long and storied history.

On this day, Good Friday, we recall that the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate “washed his hands” of “that whole Jesus issue” sometime around AD 30.

The action (partially for the crowd, curiously enough) was symbolic, but symbols had mass meaning in times well before television, mass media and mass communication.

And they hold even more meaning now.

The symbolic washing of hands that Pilate did, was a way to avoid (for political and religious considerations) the consequences (and the resulting guilt) of rendering a decision.

Choosing to avoid conflict by making no choice at all is a legitimate way to resolve a conflict, but consequences still exist.

On this Good Friday…

-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/

An Equation for Life

At a certain point, in every speaking engagement we embark on here at HSCT, we are asked one of two questions:

“How is it that you have so much energy?”

And/or

“Where do you find the time to get everything done that you do?”

Also, we are accused of being too intense in our approaches to navigating conflict communication, making sure mediators and peace builders engage in entrepreneurship, and in making the point that the future is coming, whether we are prepared for it or not.

Three things:

Time: We here at HSCT have the same number of hours in a day—24 by last count—that Socrates, Einstein, and Elon Musk had and have. And so do you.
Passion: The word comes from the Latin root meaning “to suffer.” So, graduates, when you are told to “follow your passion,” what those well-meaning speakers are really telling you is “do your suffering.” We work hard here at HSCT.
Energy and Intensity: We believe in the value of the education and life experience that we have acquired over time. We believe in the value of our perspective and approach to business, entrepreneurship and peace building, and the validity of our knowledge and resources.

Finally, when all that belief, time well spent, and passion come together, we believe that we have no choice but to burn brighter than the Sun, with every chance we get.

Energy=Passion+Intensity+Belief/Time

A simple equation.

-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/

HSCT’s website: http://hsconsultingandtrain.wix.com/hsct

Freedom From Fear

Feedback is part of a constructive process that involves collaboration and trust building.

Feedback is a giving action, which should come from a horn of plenty.

“No” is the beginning of a destructive process that involves competition and deception.

“No” is a taking action, that comes from a position of scarcity.

Feedback is active, but a “no”—particularly the ones provided “in your best interests,” or “to help”—are passive acts of resistance.

By the way, don’t confuse feedback from the crowd with a “no.”

Also, don’t confuse a “no” from an individual as feedback that reflects the crowd’s opinion of your idea/work/project.

-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/

HSCT’s website: http://hsconsultingandtrain.wix.com/hsct

[Advice] The Right Brain-Left Brain Rap War

In a conflict or confrontation, it turns out that the right brain doesn’t know what the left brain is doing.

The right brain, which controls creativity and negative emotions, reacts in a conflict to protect the rest of the brain by shifting to quick action and focusing on the conflict at hand.

The left brain, which controls rationality and solution storing for problems, reacts in conflict by shutting up, sitting down and taking notes for further review later.

Adrenal glands release cortisol during stress and epinephrine (commonly known as adrenaline) during difficulty.

These glandular chemicals, along with norepinephrine, allow us to create new memories in concert with the sympathetic nervous system.

The left brain records the memories while the right brain battles it out. Kind of sounds like the way wars are fought, as the generals sit at the rear while the front rank charges.

How do you respond to someone in this state?

Disengage—don’t use logic with the person. It won’t work.
Listen and be empathetic—but don’t “buy-in” to everything that the other person is experiencing.
Then focus on the rational piece—but don’t expect much help initially. The other person is still lit up.

Now, because the other person is still operating in right brain mode, they will make judgments about you, your behavior, your responses to them and the situation. And if you do the wrong thing, or confront them, those judgments become hard to break later on.

[Thanks to Bill Eddy and others] for giving me the ideas for this blog post.

-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/

[Advice] Caucusing Arete

Caucusing in a mediation happens when a mediator takes each party aside and talks to them privately about issues and concerns that the other party may not be open to hearing.

In a divorce mediation, it could be about issues of infidelity, emotional abuse or unresolved anger.
In an organizational mediation, it could be about issues of pay structure, proprietary information, or that there’s a personal problem with the other party.
In a church mediation, it could be a about an interpretation of Scripture or a moment of clarity.

No matter what it is, however, the phrase heard most often within a caucus is “I don’t want [insert name of party here] to know this, but…”

A mediator’s virtue then shows, because she has a choice about addressing the opposite party with a concern that could tip the mediation one way—or another.

Arête is the Greek word for the idea of living up to your potential with excellence. And when a mediator navigates a caucus with arête, it can make all the difference.

-Peace Be With You All-

Jesan Sorrells, MA

Principal Conflict Engagement Consultant

Human Services Consulting and Training (HSCT)

Email: hsconsultingandtraining@gmail.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HSConsultingandTraining

Twitter: www.twitter.com/Sorrells79

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jesansorrells/

Mediator Phronesis

Phronesis is the Greek word meaning practical, or moral, wisdom.

In a mediation scenario—where two parties are in conflict and they ask a third party to come in—phronesis serves a practical purpose.

In a caucusing situation, when the mediator takes one—or both—parties aside to talk privately about issues that matter that cannot be brought up in front of the other party, phronesis matters.

Outside of the healthcare and helping fields, core questions that revolve around the development of a person’s character are rarely discussed.

In the field of mediation, many practitioners are “seasoned citizens” and are thus able to bring the aggregate lessons learned from a lifetime of missed opportunities, failures and personal regrets.

Phronesis in a mediation—and specifically during a caucusing break—can be the difference between success and failure for a mediator.

How do you develop practical wisdom?

Well, the Ancient Greeks as well as many Christian denominations and sects, believe that the only way to develop character is by developing in the areas of:

Faith
Hope
Charity
Love
Temperance
Prudence
Justice

All of which can take a lifetime to develop.

-Peace Be With You All-