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Why you should be uptight about words

August 14, 2012 by Erica Barnhart

I am often accused of being uptight when it comes to word choice. In France, the quest for “le bon mot“ is a national sport. But I realize I don’t live in France and should lighten up a bit.

The thing is human beings make most decisions in 7 seconds or less. What you do in those 7 seconds, including the words you use, matters.

In 2009, there were 1,928,158 non profits in the United States alone. You have one shot to make a great first impression and to stand out from the sea of organizations, and chatter, and craziness of life.

Could I loosen up a bit about word choice? Well, yeah, personally I could probably stand to do that. But this isn’t about moi and it wouldn’t change the fact that time spent finding words that resonate with the people who matter most to your organization is imperative to your success. That’s not going to change.

Be uptight about–or at least mindful of–your words. Find the right ones. It’s important.

4 questions, 3 words, 1 message

June 9, 2012 by Erica Barnhart

At the NDOA Spring Conference, I gave a presentation on Using Messaging to Engage your Community.

I challenged the group to pick three words that define and differentiate their organization. And then weave those into their messaging across all platforms–elevator pitch, social media, brochures, case for support. You name it. Those three words should come through. Concise, consistent, compelling. That’s what this approach gets you. That’s why it’s effective.

Here are the four questions to ask to get you to the three words:

Why do you exist?
What do you do?
Why you?
Why now?

What are your answers? What are your three words?

Using Messaging to Engage Community

View more presentations from Erica Mills.

Who’s minding your message?

June 1, 2012 by Erica Barnhart

Photo credit: CetasKinetic

Newsflash: It’s not the resident English major or wordsmith who should be minding your message. It’s the leaders.

Minding your message is much about culture than it is words. This is where leaders come in.

To successfully use words to advance your mission, leaders have to create an organizational culture that values and prioritizes finding the words that will make you stand out from the crowd.

Easier said than done, you might say, and your to-do list is plenty long as it is. That’s fair. Luckily, organizations that effectively use words to advance their mission have some common characteristics.

For starters, consider these five:

They gain internal alignment before going for external amplification: How can you effectively engage people externally if your house isn’t in order? When you’re internally in sync on your why and your what, the words fall into place.
They are crystal clear on who matters most to their mission: The ‘general public’ is never held up as a potential audience in the hope that if you cast a wide net, you’ll catch at least a few fish. No! Instead, these organizations know exactly what types of people they need to connect with in order to be successful. In this way, they liberate everyone from distraction.
They are willing to fail: You’re not going to hit it out of the park every time. You have to be willing to fail if you’re serious about succeeding.
They embrace competition: There are a lot of organizations on a mission to make the world a better place. (This is a good thing!) By definition, this means there’s competition. Organizations that embrace this speak both to what defines them AND what differentiates them. If you stop at what defines you, you’re only half-way to finding the right words. You’ll be lumped in with every other organization that shares your cause–education, environment, arts, homelessness, hunger. What makes you different from other organizations tackling this issue?
They tow the line: Once you’ve defined and differentiated your organization, you can find your words and create your messaging. But let’s be clear: everyone is expected to say every word exactly the same. BOR-ing. Rather, pick 3-4 key words that you expect staff and board to use consistently. Give examples and let people personalize. And then make everyone stick to it–including yourself. Over time, those are the words that external stakeholders–donors, volunteers, supporters–will use, as well. This is how your organization will establish the mind share it needs to be successful.

Culture change is hard work, no doubt. But how cool would it be to lead an organization that knows exactly how to use words, language and messaging to get your good work noticed? Pretty darn cool.

Non-word: very handy attention-grabbers

May 9, 2012 by Erica Barnhart

A non-word is a word that’s not recognized as “legitimate” or not approved given the circumstances. Non-words can be handy. They include gems like blub, proact, and maximizer.

The beauty of the English language is that it’s fluid. Unlike French or some other languages where new words have to be approved, the English language made its name by morphing. This is a boon for those of you who want to do good and get noticed.

There’s something to be said for a well-placed non-word. It jumps out. It grabs your attention. It makes your reader (or listener) ask, “What does that mean?”

In short, it can be a great way to engage.

Should you use words that people know? Yes. Most of the time. And then every so often, a non-word might be a really good move.

Maximizer: a very important non-word

May 7, 2012 by Erica Barnhart

Maximizer isn't in the dictionary. It turns out that “maximizer” isn’t an official, Old English Dictionary-approved word. This is weird to me.

The people I know in the iSector--or social good space or for cause or whatever else you call it–are full-on, all-out maximizers. If we’re not trying to maximize our impact–our collective shot at making the world a better place–then what are we doing?

Based on a quick Internet search, it appears that a tanning product is the world’s foremost “impact maximizer”. This is more than a little discouraging. You and I are in the presence of people who maximize impact for a living and yet it’s a tanning product that gets all the glory.

I’m pretty sure the world will end up a better place if “maximizer” becomes synonymous with “someone who maximizes impact to make the world a better place” instead of “something that does a good job of tanning my skin.” So I don’t care that “maximizer” isn’t technically a word. I’m still going to use it. To seal the deal, I added it to the Claxon Lexicon. (Take that, OED!)

One Less Word Challenge (#onelessword)

February 7, 2012 by Erica Barnhart

Just like the Information Diet challenges us to become more conscious consumers of info, I’d like to challenge us to become more conscious users of words.

I mean, let’s get real: We’re awash in words. The question is are we using the very best words to connect and engage? Hmmmm…probably not.

That’s why I am cordially inviting you to join me in the One Less Word Challenge (#onelessword). I did this challenge last year with the word ‘non-profit’. It’s hard. It’s also extremely effective.

Here’s what you do:

Identify a word you use a lot and probably shouldn’t. (Feel free to pluck from one of the Top 5 Words to Avoid to Achieve Messaging Awesomeness.)
Pick a week and don’t use the word for that entire week (seven straight days, including weekends!).
Keep track of the words you use instead.
Share what you learn in the comments below and/or by using #onelessword on Twitter.

At the end of February, I’ll cull through everything and share what we collectively learned.

What’s your word going to be?

Dreaming of words

January 27, 2012 by Erica Barnhart

A few weeks ago, I wrote about dreaming in action, about how ‘dream’ is both a noun and a verb. I encouraged us all to live our dreams every day. It was lofty, existential stuff.

This week, I’ve been dreaming about words. That’s right. Words. More precisely, I’ve dreaming about a day when the English language would catch up with the awesomeness that is the work being done every day to make the world a better place.

As readers of this blog know, I’ve long dreamed of a day when we in the non-profit world would define ourselves by what we are versus what we are not. That dream turned into an experiment in crowdsourcing an alternative to the word ‘non-profit. (Non-profit meaning non-progress, after all. Ew!)

But I’m also dreaming about other words. We talk about mission and cause and impact and inspiration and that’s all important. The problem is they’ve all been used so much that they’re losing their meaning. They might, gulp, end up on Big Duck’s Words to Avoid List!

It’s not that they’re bad words. It’s that they’ve become blah. Sort of like ‘innovative technology solution’. (What is that anyway?! As opposed to, what, an un-innovative technology solution?) I’m dreaming of infusing those words with vim and vigor so they get your blood pumping and your heart racing. They need to be resuscitated or replaced.

Am I whining? Yeah, a little bit. I admit it. (And as I say to my kids, “I don’t speak whine.”)

So instead of whining, I’ll redirect my energy toward something more positive and productive–scouring the globe for words that do justice to the work of all the hard-working people who are making the world a better place.

So tell us: what words do your work justice?

State of the Union 2012: Top 10 Words

January 26, 2012 by Erica Barnhart

(Click on image above or go here for larger view.)

A lot goes into a speech. Vocal intonation. Gestures. Dramatic pauses.

And then there’s the words.

It is not by happenstance that certain words are used more than others in a speech…especially not when it’s a Presidential address. So I thought it’d be interesting to put President Obama’s 2012 State of the Union address into a Wordle to see what themes emerged.

Wordle takes a set of words and creates a “word cloud” that shows the relative importance of each word based on how often it is used.

The top 10 most used words from President Obama’s speech were:

American
America
Americans
Jobs
New
Energy
One
Every
Tax
Right

Interesting collection. The top five are no surprise. The relative position of #6 and #9 would seem to indicate that the speech had a longer-term focus vs. getting caught up in the week’s hot topics.

For mission-driven readers, #7 and #8 stand out as they spotlight a common conundrum–how do you speak to a whole while recognizing the importance of its parts? See, even the President has to use some messaging Aikido, on occasion!

What does list say to you?

Cause & Mission: Big Diff

January 18, 2012 by Erica Barnhart

You often see ’cause’ and ‘mission’ used interchangeably. Not sure why. They’re quite different.

Here’s what I mean:

Cause=Why

Mission=What/Who/How

Causes can be broad (example: improving public education) or specific (example: music education in elementary schools in East Vancouver). Importantly, multiple organizations share a cause. This makes sense. We’re tackling big problems and it’s going to take lots of people-power to make progress on them. One organization isn’t going to single-handedly improve public education, right?

Mission is about your WHAT/WHO/HOW. This should speak to how you are advancing your cause, whether you’re an individual or an organization.

WHAT do you do?

WHO are you helping?

HOW are you doing it?

Each of these questions need a specific answer that, as a whole, is unique to your organization. And I mean ‘unique’ in the true sense of the word: something of which there is only one.

Share your cause. Own your mission.

Does this make sense? Do you know the difference between your cause and your mission?

Dream: verb and noun

January 16, 2012 by Erica Barnhart

When you have a dream while sleeping, that happens in spite of you. You’re asleep, after all.

When you have a dream while awake, it happens because of you. Your dreams reflect who you are and what you stand for. It is both verb and noun. “I dream of a better world and I’m making that dream come true.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. epitomized dreaming in action. His “I Have a Dream” speech is as resonant today as it was on August 28, 1963.

Below shows another dream in action. It’s the dream of Severn Suzuki as described in an address she gave to the United Nations. She is 13 years old.

What’s your dream? Are you working every day to make it come true?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQmz6Rbpnu0&feature[/youtube]