I’m back from my psychospiritual sabbatical—got my ducks in a row and ready to start quacking…
So…
…pondering on the title of this post, all I can do right now is give you words; though, as I write these words I’m performing an action…
Shall I change the title to Action Speaks Just as Loud as Words?
Hmmm…
Leaving that psychological perplexity for possible future contemplation, I’ll forge ahead with a few links of posts I’ve done featuring Nilofer Merchant; then, look at a particular piece by her…
“How often I think of thanking the people who have been helpful. But then, I don’t act on it. Sometimes it’s because I feel like that might make that person uncomfortable (what if they think I’m asking them for something and the gratitude is just a setup?). Or, I worry I won’t find the right words, so then I’ll ‘do it wrong’ so better not to do it at all. Or, since I don’t know that person in real life, why does it actually matter that they know if little-old-me got value from their work?”
Perhaps you’re the kind of writer (or reader, or publisher) who notes and responds appropriately to every single person who helps you (whether they know they are or not), or shares with you, or comes to your rescue (whether they know they’re rescuing you or not…)…
Not many of us are that sort of person………
Nilofer’s example:
…there’s a writer I’ve never met. Yet this stranger had a huge impact on my work. By her putting her work out there for me to find, it really helped me to finish The Power of Onlyness.
“I found Theo Nester when surfing the web in December 2015…”
Nilofer goes on to describe how she surfed further and…
As ever, I urge you to go read the full article; but, for the purpose of this post, I’ll end with these words from Nilofer:
“I share this publicly not knowing how to reach Theo, but also as a reminder to close that gap between intent and action because that’s how we manifest ourselves into being. Or, in the words of Batman, what matters is not who we are underneath, but what we do that defines us.”
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For those new to blogging—since I’m going to tag this post with her name, you’ll also find this article at that last link :-)
Nilofer has been called the Jane Bond of Innovation and it’s usually folks in business that follow her advice.
So, since I’m an advocate for Self-Publishing and since that route demands a number of activities that have the fragrance of business about them (especially, book promotion), it could benefit writers if they sought out what Nilofer thinks…
So, if you’ve never heard of this woman and you’re a writer (or, if you’re not a writer and you engage in any kind of business), I’ll share a bit from an article on the Strategy + Business Site called, Nilofer Merchant’s Required Reading:
“Nilofer Merchant knows something about value creation. By her reckoning, she has had a hand in launching more than 100 products that have netted a combined US$18 billion in sales — first in stints at Apple and Autodesk, and later as an advisor to technology companies such as Logitech, Symantec, and HP.”
Substitute “writerly” for “corporate” in this quote:
“…Merchant sees the humanist values of diversity, inclusivity, and collaboration as the keys to creating corporate value. ‘It’s not that everyone will but that anyone can contribute’, she says.”
I should add that the inclusivity and collaboration will probably occur some time after the first draft :-)
This next excerpt is meant to be pondered (and, hopefully, remarked on in the Comments…):
“She argues for a more inclusive approach to strategy-making that enlists the people responsible for executing it….Merchant contends that social technologies and tools have given rise to a new era in which the basis for value creation is collaboration and co-creation by communities of people who are united by an aspirational purpose.”
Then, for those intensely interested in exploring “value creation” as a tool to include in their kit, there are three books and one article that Nilofer recommends.
And, here’s a video of her—meant to be “interpreted” from “corporate” to “writerly” advice (she starts by talking about her time working for Steve Jobs…):
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Then, yesterday, I got an email from FastPencil that said they’re “…offering all Evernote users the ability to instantly self-publish their notes using the FastPencil platform for ingestion, book building, transition to print and eBooks formats, online distribution and selling of the finished book. Available today, Evernote users can immediately take their notes and import them into FastPencil to create and publish in an eBook or PDF in a matter of seconds. The work can then be shared via the web or distributed through FastPencil’s publishing packages.”
And, here’s Evernote’s announcement:
“It’s never been easier to be an author.
“Evernote is an especially popular tool for many writers. It serves as the place to collect, find, and organize source material, archival information, and photographs.
“For many authors, Evernote is the place where ideas are assembled into words and manufactured into stories. The white canvas of a note is a comfortable place to pour out prose and organize the elements of a publication into place.”
In case you’ve never heard of Evernote, check out this brief video:
Here are a few links that will get you thinking about ways to use Evernote:
Once you’ve put your Evernote material into FastPencil, you can engage readers and even editors in your project with the social tools they have.
And, speaking of social aids to publishing, you may have friends that use Evernote (or, other collaborative tools) and you just might consider teaming up to publish…
“Instead of doing what was ‘required’, they figured out what was necessary. Most central– they tapped into the people who cared, the people who wanted to come together to solve a problem. Today, connected people can now do what once only large organizations could. That’s the fundamental truth of the social era. Those people then share information and organized in such a way that many could act as one.”
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Today, I’ll share some quotes from an article by her called—(Surprise)—COLLABORATIONS:-)
After she talks about an event she attended, with Sting and Paul Simon collaborating [and, if you take the link to her article you can watch a video of that happening…], she says:
“The experience reminds me that great work happens when ideas takes shape by contact with other ideas. Not by some assimilation but by the friction of difference. Not by one genius, overtaking another genius. But by exposure to those differences. By respecting difference, by honoring it, and finding ways for each to shine. Quite often it can mean you don’t know what will happen — you don’t know what ideas will be sparked, what challenge will cause you to rethink, what new inspiration might come.”
Then, a bit later, she says:
“One reason I hear people say they don’t like collaboration is because ‘sharing ideas’ is often thought of as ‘giving them away’. And while it’s true at some level, I’m more convinced than ever that when you can find someone with which you can create together, then you get more creativity, and certainly, better results. Perhaps even to build a bigger lever to lift the world. Or, in the case of last night’s art, to lift the soul.”
So, in your work—yes, even you writers—is collaboration something you’ve not done but, perhaps, should consider?
“I’ll admit it: I hate business books…There’s only so much ‘seamless leveraging of synergistic core competencies while maintaining brand integrity and mindshare in the value system of the new economy’ that I can take before the urge to set the book on fire becomes too great, and I risk violating deeply-held principles I have about book-burning.”
Then, before the interview-proper, she goes on to rave about Nilfoer’s book…
Yes, Nilofer Merchant’s book can be called a “business book” and she is an Innovator who’s almost always talking about businesses.
So, some of you who are writers might wonder at my giving her so much space here (including videos in those past posts).
Well, I’m a writer and I can’t count the times I’ve learned something about how to write by paying attention to singers, painters, salespeople, religious figures, drunks in bars, and certain business people…
Getting back to #SocialEra as it relates to Social Media (and “most” writers find “some” need to engage with Social Media), Nilofer has an article on her site called, IN A FRAGMENTED WORLD, GO DEEP, where she begins talking about using Twitter, then says:
“For an introvert like me, actually, it’s draining. It is the opposite of grounded connection. Online, I am never alone with my thoughts for a decent stretch of time. Even when I have an empty calendar, I can have activity going on because I allow Twitter to be in the background. At first, it was like music — nicely humming away but not distracting — but now I’m realizing it’s like a dinner party with each person getting louder and louder as the wine flows.”
A bit later in the article, she says:
“…you could do the opposite. You could go deep. You could be that voice that everyone listens to because when it speaks, it is so deep and rich that it’s worth slowing down to listen to. Sort of a Morgan Freeman voice, in the times of Justin Bieber bop. Maybe it will allow the light of an idea to be seen more clearly.”
Think that relates to writers and writing?
Sure, going deep with writing probably won’t help a writer become an overnight 50-Shades-of-Excitement success; but, it might help a writer’s work remain valuable far beyond their lifetime…
And, in an article where she talks about the sacrifices necessary to accomplish something you’ve never done before, HOW TO TACKLE THE NEW THING, she says:
“…the gap between strategy and execution is a persistent one. It happens in organizations, it happens in our lives. In my 1st book (do you know about it? Published in 2010, it’s called The New How), I describe this gap as an ‘Air Sandwich’ – the persistent void between the big idea and the execution. I called it the Air Sandwich because all the stuff that matters — the thing that makes it complete — is missing. To fill it is about making the necessary tradeoffs, making tough decisions, and aligning resources. This is what I’m doing — though more slowly than I wish.”
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