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April 2023

2 posts from May 2023

Values Vs. Beliefs

Values weigh more heavily than beliefs with respect to our actions. (Hint: they have $value.) We are willing to pay the price to reach something we value.

Digital Tonto: Values Always Cost You Something, 2023-May-21 by Greg Satell

...values are often confused with beliefs. When you’re sitting around a conference table, it’s easy to build a consensus about broad virtues such as excellence, integrity and customer service. True values, on the other hand, are idiosyncratic. They represent choices that are directly related to a particular mission.

Make no mistake. Real values always cost you something. They are what guides you when you need to make hard calls instead of taking the easy path. They are what makes the difference between looking back with pride or regret. Perhaps most importantly, they are what allows others to trust you.

Without genuine commitment [to] values there can be no trust. Without trust, there can be no shared purpose.

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Thinking about communicating ideas

Greg Satell's 5 Rules paraphrased to my words:

  1. Clarity first: avoid technical and unusual words (Hemingway it.)
  2. Streamline the message as much as possible, removing anything of doubtful value. Be mindful of the reader's 'cognitive budget.' Would it be worth mine?
  3. It shouldn't sound like writing, but like talking with a friend. NO styling. (Except universally accepted humor.)
  4. Let one point stand if it all possible. Converse to the next point if possible.
  5. Early attempts don't indicate final quality. Quality emerges during multiple rewrites.

5 Simple Rules That Will Make You A Powerful Communicator | Digital Tonto

Sometimes the hardest thing is merely to make yourself understood. Things that change the world, or even a small part of it, always arrive out of context because, by definition, the world hasn’t changed yet.

That’s why innovators need to be great communicators, because an idea that doesn’t gain traction is an idea that fails.

That’s easier said than done. As Fareed Zakaria has put it, “Thinking and writing are inextricably intertwined. When I begin to write, I realize that my ‘thoughts’ are usually a jumble of half-baked, incoherent impulses strung together with gaping logical holes between them.”

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