Josh Jackson

My Manifesto

Fri, 24 Jan 2020 17:49:47 -0800

I now wake up every morning to the quote "[t]he gift you bring is the work you will produce."[1] As I make my bed, I drink my coffee, and I prepare for the day, I am saying this phrase.[2]

I think about this from three different assertions as it pertains to my work and my projects:

I think life is a series of small wins.
I think our mindset dictates those wins.
I think production drives a winning streak.

How did I come to these assertions? Let me try with an example because I think my approach will work for any project and I believe there are only two real stages to any project:

Start
Finish

You correctly read that; “Start” and “Finish” are the only stages to any project. Over time you will have to decide when it is or is not a good use of your time to start or continue to produce your work.

For you to decide whether or not to start or continue will not be an easy task because you will be fighting with your Resistance.[4] But as a professional, you have been diligently working to have self-control, self-discipline, and self-awareness to know when it is time for you to move on.

To finish is a wonderful thing. You have now completed and produced what you have set out to accomplish. You have battled with your Resistance, but you have been able to work until the project was completed.

The first item you finish, such as making your bed, unconsciously triggers you to have a small win. That win develops and dictates your mindset to push you to take on the challenge of another project or piece of work that you need to complete. Every time that you produce a new body of work or complete a project in a streak you reward yourself through that winning streak. You now have taken one step closer to accessing your full potential. You have...Read More

Confronting Implicit Bias

Wed, 25 Jul 2018 09:31:16 -0700

Harvard in collaboration with other researchers and universities has a website where you can test your Implicit Bias. The project is called Project Implicit.

I was excited to prove that I didn't have a strong affinity away from a particular group. And, I was surprised by the results.

The first test I took, I found completing it didn't take long, but I didn't follow the instructions completely because I didn’t take the time to memorize what characteristics and stereotypes they wanted me to associate with a name, so I ended up just going off what my gut was saying. I knew all of the “bad” and “good” signifiers, but parts of the test pair names with the different positive and negative signifiers.

What I really think was challenging was how the test was conducted. The first group of names was paired with “bad” signifiers. Then, in the next round, the other names were paired with the “bad” signifiers. So, when I had to quickly react and identify which character was paired with what, I naturally had to pause and make sure I was pairing correctly. I am hopeful that if the other names were first paired with the “bad” signifiers, that I would have had results that leaned away from implicit bias.

If I think about these results in daily life, I have been told what is “bad” and “good” and had associations with particular names, genders, ethnicities, etc, and I can see that having those associations at the beginning would draw attention to those learned signifiers.

This article emphasizes stories that reflect racial bias.

The author has an insight that "...implicit bias, inherently unintentional yet more pervasive[]" is affecting policing, and then the author makes the assertion that "[i]f officers rely on stereotypes instead of facts, routine...Read More

What is mediation?

Thu, 19 Jul 2018 08:15:41 -0700

Unlike representing one party in a dispute, or acting as a judge tasked with declaring one party a winner and one party a loser, the mediator's job is to help bring the parties together to a mutually beneficial decision.

Few jobs allow a professional to use both caring and intelligence to help parties analyze both their interests and concerns while seeking resolution, settlement, reconciliation, and closure.

Mediation is a voluntary process in which two or more parties involved in a dispute work with an impartial and neutral party. The goal of the mediator is to safely facilitate and provide tools, constraints, and rules, that will allow all parties to individually come to a resolution efficiently.

With mediation, confidentiality, control, impartial, and neutral for all parties is essential!

This will allow for something new to be learned - creating space. Having someone not directly involved or have a stake in the situation will provide a clear perspective to all parties in dispute to resolve their conflict.

Mediation in many cases can be a desirable option.

An alternative is litigation - which is expensive. Not only will it cost money, it will take extensive time with court hearings. However, those who are looking for a clear “winner” or “loser” should strongly consider litigation.

In my experience, most people want to retain control of their own decisions by fixing the problem fast, so they can move on and have a resolution without having to go to court.

You have a right to litigation, but mediation, especially on sensitive and important issues like child custody and equitable distribution, has clear advantages.

The litigation alternative will place sensitive and important decisions in the hands of a judge who is oftentimes overloaded with cases and has a small amount of time and limited information to make a "winner" and "loser" decisions.

Don't worry,...Read More

Change is difficult and requires tension

Tue, 17 Jul 2018 05:54:56 -0700

The more you avoid a conflict and a tension the more fear and resistance you build toward change. The more callousness and resentment you build inside you and becomes a part of your culture.

We sometimes numb the pain with something artificially “joyful” or “this makes me happy.” We hope that the least tension filled thing will make us happier and last longer.

Think about it like the piano. If the tension sits and no music is played, what happens over time? The beauty in the sound is no longer there. Actually, nothing changes and the music is never there. We can drink a glass of wine next to the un-played piano, but once the alcohol wears off, we are left unsatisfied. We say things like “I will never learn how to play this piano” or “why do I have this stupid
thing anyway”?

And really, the thought of playing the piano and actually playing the piano are two different things. If we sat down with the piano, flipped the cover up to gain access to the keys, and actively used our hands to press down on the keys. Music would burst forth from the instrument.

The music will start off choppy and probably not in harmony. Initially, we will probably be excited that we actually played the piano. We took the first step.

We have to remember though as Pema Chodron said,

What is interesting about making mistakes is that they are good. Just like “[c]hange is a natural part of life, and so is conflict.”

The strings on the piano when a beginner strikes the keys and your seemingly new adventure is in conflict.

We all experience conflict every day in some form. We will unequivocally experience it tomorrow and into the future.

We can try and avoid it but when we do, the more indifferent we become. We can decide to face it or we can try and numb it. Or, we can make a try and possibly make a mistake. We can let other’s have permission to screw up.

And through both screwing up ourselves and other’s screwing up, we open “…the...Read More