So we have the 111th Supreme Court Justice sworn in, and what a process it was. However you look at it, it is tough to say that Justice Sotomayor is not an American Success Story. To come from a welfare family and a single parent household, graduate with honors from an ivy league school, and eventually land on the Supreme Court.  Well, in my opinion, it doesn’t get much better than that.

Yet there was great debate on her nomination, as there is with all nomination to the highest court in the United States. When it gets down to it, it’s all about your personal opinions on items that aren’t covered specifically in the Constitution. Pro-life, Pro-Choice, Gun Control, Free Speech, Affirmative Action, etc.

How can someone’s life experiences not shape the way that they rule on cases that come before them? Yet when John Roberts was nominated, the debate wasn’t about his legal experience. When Sonia Sotomayor was nominated, the debate wasn’t about her legal experience. They both had the experience and ability to do the job.

We are all shaped by life. Our point of view is skewed. Not a one of us is identical to another. So how do we bridge that gap? How do we work together for the good of the whole? How can we take that person who doesn’t quite fit and make them a valued part of the team? We need to recognize their value and they need to know that they are valued.

But when we get down to brass tacks, the path isn’t always clear. A debate can go in inside your own head about how to proceed. How do you resolve that? Sometimes it can be through your own experiences and other times you need to rely on those around you. Still other times no one has a clear solution, so you need to consult the experts. The tutorials and communication exercises The People Academy, Inc provides are invaluable tools in your communication and human resource process.

Finding out “what good looks like” and then mapping out a clear path to a solution are initial steps in the process. The tools we provide help you with those steps as well as many others.

Justice Sotomayor figured out what good looked like for her early in life. Knowing that the path out of the projects was education, she took that path and ran fast and far. Her personal dedication to her studies took her far from her beginnings, but her roots stayed with her throughout the process. Kudos to another American success story. Hopefully she is part of “what good looks like” for the United States.