Twitter made me a better writer

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I have been writing professionally since college…over a decade ago. My best opportunities for honing my writing came from limiting word or character count – whether on grant applications, articles, or even forms. So it is not surprising to me that the character count on twitter helped improve my writing. If it hasn’t already done the same for you, here are some tips and tricks for getting your idea across in 140 characters or less.

1. Link out. Use blogs or other spaces where ideas and information are expressed fully. 🙂 When linking, provide enough keywords with the link that people know to follow the link and what they will get when there. Which keywords? Who, what, where, when, why – right? What audience(s) is it for? Is it location specific? Does it have a deadline? What folksonomy category is it in?

2. Get mathy. Use punctuation adjustments to trim down character counts. Works when you have a solid statement within 15 characters of 140. Turn and into + or & etc. Turn a series of item comma space item comma space and item comma space into item+item+item. Note, you can also quickly cut out articles: a, an, and the are often unnecessary.

3. Love action. As a poet, I was taught to put the power into verbs and nouns, not descriptors. Trim out superfluous words and put the energy and attention on the noun and verb. Who is it and what are they doing or being? What is the test for superfluous words? If you remove them, is it still clear what you mean? Can you combine or reword it more effectively? I often edit out the use of helper verbs. “I tried to tell Liz about shortening verb strings” can be more simply stated as “I told Liz about shortening verb strings.”

4. Crossword size. After a decade in academia, I tend to know more big words than small ones. It took me some time to figure out the short word equivalents. If you are good at crosswords, you have a strong short word vocabulary. Turn utilize back into use please. Shorten is better as trim, etc.

5. Abbreviate or contract. I hesitate to suggest it, as abbreviations can be misunderstood when speaking across different audiences. But IM and text messaging rang in the era of abbreviated dialog. If you find pronouns to be critical to include, shorten our to r and your to ur. Again, you can get mathy and say be4 or B4 instead of before. I suggest you look at the other options before falling back to abbreviation, but it really depends on your audience and their comfort with such practices. What are they doing?

Test to be sure, if read aloud, your tweet is understandable with the abbreviations.

What other methods do you use to trim your expressions into tweets?

Network Weaving: A Key to Creating Thrivability

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My roots are connected deep into the ground, engaged in a continuous interplay with the soil, bacteria, microorganisms, fungi, insects, and water, gathering nourishment to help me thrive.  My leaves and branches dance with the wind, the sun, with animals, birds, insects, microorganisms, bacteria, all in continual flow. My body returns to the soil and is soon transformed into new life. And so the cycle continues.

A thrivable entity is one that is richly and dynamically interconnected into its ecosystem, engaged in a process of continuous co-creation. The upward spiral.

So when looking to grow a thrivable venture, to nurture an upward spiral, one of the primary considerations is in connecting it into a rich dynamic network of resources, to help nourish its growth, in a way that brings value to all concerned. Networks are all about dynamic exchange.

So to be thrivable, you need to know all about Network weaving! (thanks June / Valdis / Jack)

Weaving the network of advisors.
Weaving the network of ideas.
Weaving the network of supporters.
Weaving the network of collaborators.
Weaving the network with society.
And weaving the network with nature.

A dynamic process, weaving consciously opens and holds the space for the ongoing communication and flow.

Gross International Happiness

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What does success look like in a thrivable system?

Perhaps success looks like happiness! Figuring out the characteristics of a thrivable system might be looking for systems where there is happiness.

And how do you know if there is happiness? Well as my friend Sian claims in his email sig. “If you can’t measure it you can’t improve it.” While that might not be fully true, the old saying goes, you get more of what you measure. So perhaps measuring happiness might be a better indicator than gross national product.

Maybe the key to thrivability can be found in the measurement of Gross International Happiness?

The Upward Spiral

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Thrivability is all about the intentful creation of upward spirals, positive feedback loops between elements that are generative of diverse, adaptive abundance. This is true both for the design of the ecological aspect of systems, as well as for the social aspect of systems.

Designing Thrivable Creation Spaces

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Thrivability, at its core, is all about creating environments that are generative of adaptive diverse abundance, both in the sense of nature, and in the sense of the potential for innovation present in an organization. If people come together with a sense of purposive play, then innovation emerges from the dynamic richness of the interactions.

It is all about fostering an environment in which upward spirals are most likely to emerge.

So it is great to see folks over at HBR talking about factors to take into account when intentionally designing creation spaces, such as the Hub coworking space for social entrepreneurs that will soon be opening in San Francisco.

Emergent behavior from participants is, of course, essential. But it rarely takes hold unless it’s organized and supported within carefully designed (and tended) “creation spaces.

As with gardens, it’s best to design creation spaces minimally at the outset and then let them create a life of their own, layering in additional design elements over time.


Carrot, Egg, or Coffee

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Reposted from email received. I did not write, but I do love it!coffee break by es

A Carrot, an Egg or a Cup of Coffee. Which are you? This was too good of a life lesson not to pass on! A carrot, an egg and a cup of coffee…. You will never look at a cup of coffee the same way again. A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire.. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil, without saying a word. In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners.

She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, “Tell me, what do you see?” “Carrots, eggs, and coffee,” she replied. Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, “What does it mean, mother?” Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity … boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile.. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

“Which are you?” she asked her daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?” Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength? Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a break-up, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart? Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?