The Hoffman Podcast S5e4: Gerald Harris – A Heart-Centered Way of Communicating
Gerald Harris, Father, Hoffman Board Chair emeritus, and Energy Economist is our guest today. Gerald shares his journey from growing up in rural south Georgia to his life today with his sons in Northern California. He shares his Hoffman Journey of transformation. Listen to the end for Gerald’s powerful reflections on forgiveness and transformation.
Born and raised in Hapeville, Georgia until he was six years old, Gerald talks about what it was like to grow up in a village of extended family. His family was poor but he didn’t know it. At the age of six, he and his mother moved to Chicago for work. Suddenly, it was just Gerald and his mother.
Gerald shares how he suffered abuse from his single mother. The Process helped him take his mother down off of the pedestal he’d learned to put her on as a child so he could squarely look at what had really happened in his childhood. He was able to see the patterns he adopted from her and release them through the Process. By completing the Hoffman Process, Gerald was able to heal the pain of his childhood so that this past pain would not affect his sons. Generational healing releases generational patterns and the painful emotions they cause. When patterns are released, our own lives and our children’s lives can hold more Light and Love. Gerald’s world at the Process made it possible for his sons’ lives to be freer of generational patterning.
One of the other places the Process supported Gerald through transformation was in his sense of spirituality. As a child, he grew up Christian. Prior to doing the Process, Gerald was reading Buddhist thought and other kinds of thought as well. After the Process, Gerald came to understand that spirituality is not about any particular religion. He found it is about love, forgiveness, kindness, compassion, and justice. The Process supported Gerald in discovering a heart-centered way of communicating that he uses in all his relationships, both personal and professional.
More about Gerald Harris:
Gerald Harris is president of the Quantum Planning Group (QPG), which he founded in 2009. His company specializes in assisting businesses and non-profit organizations in strategic and business planning using the tools of scenario analysis. He works extensively with companies in the energy sector, particularly gas and electricity. Gerald received his BA in economics from Morehouse College, where he graduated as a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and an MBA in finance and business economics from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. Gerald’s first book, The Art of Quantum Planning, Seven Ideas from Quantum Physics for Breakthroughs in Creativity, Innovation, and Leadership, was published by Berrett Koehler Publishing in August 2009.
Gerald joined the Board of the Hoffman Institute in 2007, after completing the Process in December 2002. From mid-year 2012 until April 2022 Gerald served as Board Chair, working cooperatively with the entire leadership team. He now serves on the Hoffman Institute Advisory Council.
Gerald also serves on the Board of Governors of the Commonwealth Club of California. He leads the Technology and Society member-led forum where he produces programs for the Club. He is the father of two adult sons. More is available at his website: www.artofquantumplanning.com.
As mentioned in this episode:
Download The Quadrinity Process paper Gerald mentions: A Path to Personal Freedom and Love.
Projection:
“The process of displacing one’s feelings onto a different person, animal, or object.” – Psychology Today
The Great Migration:
“The Great Migration was one of the largest movements of people in United States history. Approximately six million Black people moved from the American South to Northern, Midwestern, and Western states roughly from the 1910s until the 1970s. The driving force behind the mass movement was to escape racial violence, pursue economic and educational opportunities, and obtain freedom from the oppression of Jim Crow. – National Archives
The Right Road Choice:
“The path we take when we are in patterns is the Left Road – the habitual ways of being that we learned in childhood. We don’t do things from choice, we do them because of “that’s the way I’ve always done it” thinking. This is not free will choice; it is the path of least resistance, of familiarity.
The Right Road is your new way of being – acting out of awareness, action, and will. This is the path of curiosity, responsibility, openness, and adventure. It is the path of choice: how you will live, and how you will act in your life in the face of adversity. You, not your childhood programming, are taking responsibility for your life.” Shawn McAndrew, Hoffman Blog