SO, A POLICE OFFICER AND A BARBER WALK INTO A ZOOM MEETING…

“The average amount of training required for cosmetologists and barbers is higher than the average required training for police in virtually every state.”* 

I was discussing this statement with a colleague the other day. Honestly, I was shocked and a little horrified. He was horrified (but not exactly shocked…), but for completely different reasons. 

From my perspective: I couldn’t believe that a police officer could perform their sworn duty to my community without receiving sufficient training. In my mind, that statement was highlighting inadequate training of police officers. How could society allow inadequately trained police officers loose into the wild of our communities? Shock and horror simmered in my mind. 

From his perspective: He explained to me that he trained and served as a police officer for many years before shifting his career to what he does today. He looked at that statistic from the complete opposite angle and was horrified that barbers and cosmetologists were required to endure so many hours of training to get their certification. He believes police officers do receive adequate training (in most cases) before being launched into the field. He added the extra commentary that thinking further down the line, a lot of folks returning to society after spending time in prison, will look for this type of career path (cosmetology, barber etc)– some place where they can work for themselves and not struggle with potential employer scrutiny over a criminal history. How can society make it so hard for folks in these situations to get certified in a field where they could be successful and give them a leg up to turn their lives around? 

Photo by Michael Descharles on Unsplash

Had I read that statistic and carried on with my life and not engaged in conversation with my colleague, I would never have known his perspective – and what a rich perspective it is. I was able to learn and stretch my understanding of several career paths that I knew little of, but still had plenty of opinions about. 

This is the power of talking to real humans about their real experiences. 

This is the power of engaging with people who actually have some personal knowledge of the problems you may be trying to solve, or a thing you may be trying to design or build. 

At Sublimity, we take a very detailed approach to recruiting the right audience members into in-depth interviews with us. We get to know these folks in a very real and in-depth way. It isn’t usual to walk away from an interview feeling like I’ve made a friend, or added someone to my list of pseudo-grandparents. 

And, at the end of the day, I’m able to give you a very rich understanding of the fabric that your folks are made of. Who are these folks? What motivates them to give to you? What sort of engagement would they actually want from your organization? What delights them? What makes them think twice about giving to other organizations that run in your circle? To what extent would they go to participate with your organization in real life? What do they want to hear about the most? What was it about the first time they encountered your organization that made them excited to make a donation? How do they decide who gets ‘a piece of the pie’ when it comes to their annual giving portfolio? 

All this and so much more. 

I’d like to introduce you to your people, whoever they are. I know they’re remarkable. I want to show you how beautiful and brilliant these every-day-salt-of-the-earth folks are. They are everywhere, all around us and they have thoughts and opinions. Let’s hear what they have to say! 

*Statistic pulled from Prison Fellowship’s position on policing. You can find their good work here: https://www.prisonfellowship.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/PolicingWhitePaper.pdf