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Plurality – Stop trying to be just one thing

Posted on by Shawn Herbig

Several years ago I led a research study exploring the thoughts and perceptions of middle- and high-school students as they relate to attending college. This is a pretty fascinating topic because most of the US population doesn’t get a college degree, yet almost every middle school student believes they will go to college. I think the actual number was 98%.

It turns out that these students have remarkably little knowledge or planning to actually attend college or any form of higher education.

  • Do they have a preferred school? Oh yeah!
  • Are the grades good enough to get into that school? Don’t know
  • Do they have a backup plan if they don’t make that school? Ummm, no
  • Have they thought about how much money it will take? Nope

Still, this lack of knowledge did almost nothing to dissuade them from believing (not hoping, but believing) that they will attend college.

They had no idea how it was going to happen, but dammit, they were committed.

We labeled this phenomenon “Plurality of Thought.” Some people challenged our labeling and asserted that this was cognitive dissonance. However, cognitive dissonance refers to the negative feeling born out of conflicting beliefs.

The thing with plural thoughts is that even though they should conflict, in the mind of the holder, they don’t. They very peacefully coexist.

And you know what? Sometimes that’s okay. In fact, there may even be a lesson there.

The older I get, the more I believe that an authentic life requires the acceptance of this plurality.

A group of us were having dinner recently and a friend was talking about her family and the death of her dad. Now, to set the stage this friend is a successful professional and works for a well-known company in a high-level position.

I knew that her dad had passed away, and like most adult children, she was involved in an increasing level of his care before he passed. What I didn’t know was that her dad suffered from alcoholism and even spent time in prison while she was growing up.

This gets me because based on those facts, her assumed path would not be good. Maybe we would assume drugs, maybe we’d assume she’d end up in prison herself. Certainly, we wouldn’t expect her to grow up to become a successful woman with a great career and a great family.

She made a comment that really stuck with me. She said her dad being in prison doesn’t define her, but it is a part of her.

I couldn’t help but be taken back by the grace of her comment because I think a lot of people (myself included) spend too much effort trying to be a single thing. And instead of accepting the plurality, we become hindered by the dissonance.

Since sharing the experience of losing my son, several men have reached out to me to share their experiences. Some had a child in active addiction. Many were in bad relationships or dealing with a divorce.

All these men are successful and all of them have some pretty fucked up stuff in their lives. So, what is their reality? Are they successful professionals? Or people dealing with some really heavy stuff? I think the answer is both.

I think there is authenticity in acknowledging both. Pretending the shitty stuff isn’t there…well, I don’t know what that is even called. Hypocrisy? Bullshit? I don’t know.

Focusing on it though, letting it define your total being, that seems like a one way ticket to failure.

I think my friend said it best. It is part of you, but it doesn’t define you.

Remembering Kent Taylor – a good man gone too soon

Posted on by Shawn Herbig

Like many people in Louisville, I was surprised to hear about the passing of Kent Taylor, the founder of the restaurant brand Texas Roadhouse.

I never knew Kent, but by all accounts, he was a great person. There is no doubt that he was a successful businessman. If you’ve never eaten in his restaurants, by all means, you should. There is a real niche for steaks that are prepared well, but not at the level or price point of a Jeff Ruby’s, or Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. His reputation in Louisville is somewhat legendary as well – big personality, successful business, generous person. By all accounts, just a good guy.

Several people have posted messages, tweets, or posts about Kent and how the city lost an icon with his passing. All those things are true. There really is nothing that can be taken away from this man and his accomplishments.

What bothers me about the people doing the posting is that they gloss over how we lost this legend. We lost him to suicide! Let that sink in for a moment. A great man, loved by the community, successful in business, was lost to suicide.

If we only focus on the greatness of the person, it removes our responsibility to consider how we may have been able to help. It also sugarcoats the travesty of the loss. This man didn’t die of old age, not through a car accident, he wasn’t skiing at his favorite lodge – doing what he loved. No. He was lost through suicide. How the actual fuck does that happen?

If we cut through the bullshit, here is the thing with suicide –

  • There is a person – a real living human being; with hopes; fears; dreams; a family; a past, present, a future; and pain
  • This person looked at the world in front of them – their future
  • This person considered the pain they were in
  • Then, this person made the decision that the pain they were in today was worse than the potential reprieve of tomorrow
  • And, they decided to end their life to end that pain
  • And now they are gone

We often view suicide as if it is the cause, but the reality is that suicide is the last tragic symptom of pain. The cause of death may be suicide but the cause of suicide is pain.

The family and the company have kept many of the details surrounding his death quiet, and they should. Suicide is tragic enough, we don’t need to be macabre spectators to the details. I don’t know any more of the details surrounding the suicide than what has been shared in the media, and there is no reason to recount those here.

As I said, I never knew Kent. But here is what I would say to him now.

My Brother,

The world failed you, and for that I am sorry. I do not know the pain you were in, or how well the reports portrayed your day-to-day experiences. However, I know you were hurting. I know you were in pain. And while the world recalls your accomplishments, I choose to focus on the loss of you and the things that made you make that choice. I acknowledge your pain, and I grieve for how you must have felt. Hopefully one day the research you funded will help others so that they don’t have to suffer as you did. You are a good man, and the world will not be as good without you in it. I hope you have found your peace, I hope you have found your quiet.

To my friends reading this, I ask you to think deeper. To honor the man means that you must recognize the pain that preceded his loss. You can honor that pain without glorifying it, but ignoring it only diminishes that person’s toughest challenge. We can be better than that.

And if you or someone you know are having thoughts of suicide, please reach out. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available to provide free and confidential support 24/7. They can be reached toll free at 800-273-8255 or by chat.

I led another DE&I workshop recently

Posted on by Shawn Herbig

People who know our work at IQS Research know that we have been conducting DE&I research for about a decade. But, we have only been running DE&I workshops for the past year.

We didn’t plan to offer DE&I workshops as part of our portfolio, but there was an important need and we didn’t see anyone filling it. I don’t know how long we will stay in this space, because honestly, the margins are better when we focus on the other parts of the company.

Still, I’ll say that these workshops are energizing! The organization for the most recent workshop has about 400 employees with about 60% being Black or African American, about 35% being white, and the remaining being of other races.

We enter the DE&I space the same way we approach other issues.

  • There are problems (or there is a problem)
  • The problem needs to be understood
  • The problem needs to be addressed
  • We are going to come together to understand this problem and put a plan together to make improvement

When the problem is racism, you have to tackle the underlying components because racism isn’t a single issue – it is a confluence of several issues. However, if there is a group of committed and empowered people, then a lot can happen.

And if it is done correctly, then what happens is real progress to address the issue, not just a series of feel good exercises.

In the case of this workshop, we chose to address two disparities that exist between white and Black employees. One disparity is around Black employees being promoted at different rates than whites and the other centers on fair treatment of Black employees.

There is 20-point gap between the opinions of Black and white employees in these areas, so the rationale to choose these two was pretty strong.

Now here’s the thing, this group of about 30 individuals, not only committed to take these issues on, they put together the first steps to address the issues, they set a goal for how much of the gap will be fixed with the first set of actions, and they set a deadline for when their progress will be measured again.

Their work may not be perfect, and they will surely hit bumps along the way, but what gets me so excited about their work is that:

  • It is real
  • It is specific
  • There are people and resources committed to start making progress and those people will stay with the project for the next two years
  • There are people on the committee who have authority and can implement changes
  • There are deadlines
  • There is a commitment to check their work again as a specific date

If this feels very engineering-ish, it is. And while there are dozens of details needed to successfully combine the head-work of an engineering process with the heart-work of DE&I, the combination is powerful.

I believe DE&I is one of the most important issues our country is tackling right now. And I think we have to move past the feel-good exercises so that we can focus on changing organizations. The feel-good stuff has a place, but it has to be followed by internal commitment and real change to the way the organization operates.

That type of change is hard – you could tell the people were mentally fatigued at the end of the workshop. However, if we aren’t willing to tackle the hard work, then we are just putting window dressing on the problem and nobody has time for that bullshit.

A birthday without

Posted on by Shawn Herbig

Today is Michael’s birthday. He would have been 29 years old. I think of that kid every day, but days like today are particularly difficult. They shouldn’t be, I suppose. After all, other people have birthdays today. In fact, another friend of ours has her birthday today. And while I can be happy for Stacy, I can’t ignore the sadness that I feel from not having Michael here.

There are so many things wrong with suicide. The loss that it leaves, the pain that precedes it, just the whole damn thing.

I’ve never felt anger or blame for Michael or anyone else who struggles with sadness, depression, or suicidal thoughts. I feel compassion for the pain that I believe they are experiencing. As a human (and as his father), I feel a deep need to try to remove the pain and lift the burden.

There isn’t much else I can write today. I am just missing my boy.

Sprints, Marathons and Boxing

Posted on by Shawn Herbig

COVID-19, and all of the events of 2020 have gotten me revisiting some of the ideas around grit, determination, tenacity, and the like. In my office I used to have a framed print that said something like “everything is possible for those with enough persistence.” I suppose this is true, but it seems a bit fantastical and lacking in day-to-day pragmatism.

But there is clearly value in the virtue of persistence.

So how do you apply this persistence? And when? Does it apply to all situations? What if you are in a crappy job? Or a crappy relationship? Should you be persistent then? Presumably, that answer is no.

Further, is persistence the only meritorious virtue in the game of getting through difficult situations? That doesn’t seems reasonable either. What about tenacity, or resilience?

As I pondered this dilemma – particularly in light of all that has been thrown at us in 2020 – I felt that I needed to go to the core of the meaning of these three words. I’ll spare you the repeat of the dictionary, but generally speaking:

  • Persistence is doing the same thing repeatedly, without giving up.
  • Resilience is the ability to recover quickly.
  • Tenacity is reevaluating what you are doing to continue your progress.

All these traits are valuable, but I’d argue that they are most effective when applied to specific situations.

As you’ve maybe seen on other parts of the blog, I used to be an avid runner. I can adequately claim successful completion of distances from 5K to marathons. Although, I definitely prefer half-marathons or below. Marathons just never were my distance.

On the other hand, I never boxed. And while I took Tae-Kwon-Do, when my boys were younger and in the class, I don’t really think that counts.

But here’s the thing, the three different sports and their analogous counterparts in day-to-day life also require different approaches.

Sprints (think about 5ks), I would argue, need persistence. They are short, there isn’t a lot of time for course corrections, and to do well, you just need to go close to full throttle for the entire duration. If things get tough, usually the best strategy is gut it out and push through. They are over pretty quickly, so just do the best you can.

Marathons on the other hand, are long – 26.2 miles to be exact. And when you are running those miles there will be good miles and there will be miles that suck. And, not all the good miles are early and not all the miles are at the end. To me, the last mile of a marathon always felt the best.

But here’s the thing, you can’t get through a marathon with persistence. Some people will say that you just need to ignore the pain the whole way, but that is silly because most people don’t hurt in the beginning. You need to stay hydrated, but that requires a different approach on mile one than on mile 18, when the temperature usually increased.

Tenacity is your friend on a marathon or other long distance challenge. It recognizes that things are different at miles 1, 6, 18 and 26, and prompts you to respond to the situation at the time so that you can keep moving ahead. And, similar to tenacity, it also recognizes that you can’t stop. Your timer begins when you cross the start line and it doesn’t stop until you cross the finish line. Walking, running, sprinting, that clock keeps ticking.

But most of life’s situations, I would argue, aren’t like either a sprint or a marathon. Many times they are more like a boxing match. You have a rough week at work, but you take the weekend off. You have a tough project you need to get through, but at some point it ends.

Maybe you treat the project like a sprint, maybe it’s a marathon, but they are all within that boxing match. And boxing matches take a different skill. Those require resilience. And here’s the thing about resilience, it recognizes the downtime, it recognizes the importance of breaks.

If you are boxing or sparring, the bell dings and you go. Whether that round goes well or poorly, a few minutes later that bell dings again, and you stop. Your ability to utilize that downtime and come back refreshed is a big determinant in how well you do in the next round.

Life has a lot of downtime. Nights, weekends, staycations, vacations, even lunch breaks are downtime that you can use to recharge. Resilient people are able to use their downtime to recharge effectively so they come back refreshed for the next round. They recognize that now matter how bad a week is, it ends in 168 hours. Then, the calendar turns and another week begins anew.

I think resilience should be given more credit than it currently receives. I’m not against tenacity or persistence, but in most of life’s situations, they aren’t enough. And while all these tools can be helpful, resilience should be part of your life’s strategy.

SH

Welcome to the soft launch

Posted on by Shawn Herbig

Well, it took longer than expected, but the soft launch version of the website is operating. I wanted to spend some more time building out the anti-racism section, but eventually I realized that section will be a work in progress for a long time. This was clearly becoming a place where great was becoming the enemy of done. So, I paused the new items to focus on getting the site published. I’m very open to feedback (positive or negative). So, let me know your thoughts.

I look forward to hearing from you.

SH

A Taste of What’s Next

Posted on by Shawn Herbig

I suppose when you start a new website with a blog, the obligatory initial blog post is one that tells people about the site and also what to expect next. Well, I think the contents of the site are somewhat self-explanatory, but to give you some information about what’s next, I can tell you that I (and my team at IQS Research) have been working a lot lately in the area of anti-racism.

This is an interesting space, I think, for white people, because the world has definitely changed in its awareness of the disparities between whites and Blacks.

As a researcher, I have seen decades of research that highlight differences in treatment, earnings, and opportunities, but heretofore those data points have been largely ignored.

That is changing, and people are starting to take notice.

So while the sections I have for Grief and Cigars, and Running, are both pretty well developed, the section on anti-racism will be more of a work in progress. However, as with other items on this website, I hope they still bring additional clarity, even as they continue to evolve.

For now, I’ll leave the teaser there, but I will try to have that section posted in the next few days.

Until then.

SH