Critical Skill 10: The 4 Keeper Traits of Productivity — Are YOU the New Killer App?

June 28, 2008 by Liz

Think and DO!!

Are you guilty of having too many ideas?
Do people run when you get a brilliant thought?
Been there. The Internet and the innovative offline world are bursting with what ifs and how abouts.

BUT . . .
ideas vaporize when all we do is think about them.

We need to DO something with ideas to make something happen.

The 4 Keeper Traits of Productivity

In this series, I’ve laid out critical thinking skills important to success in a world of thinkers. Each is a way of using our minds to work with information and ideas to solve problems and move actions forward. The first nine skills aren’t much without the ability to manage and to apply them.

Productivity gets noticed because it produces results.

Various Language Products Written or Managed by Liz Strauss

Self-sustaining productivity gets noticed.

Whether it’s millions of books made especially for kids or it’s millions of kids who learned to read, because teachers cared that they did.

Results are the point. What good is all of this critical thinking without something to show for it?

Self-sustaining productivity has four keeper traits.

They all begin with C.

Commitment. Keep believing in your goal. Self-sustaining productivity demands that we stick to plan even when something shiny looks attractive right now. Commitment brings our priorities into focus when we’re distracted.
Competence. Keep training to achieve it. Without high-end abilities, skills, and experience, it’s hard to produce high-end results. Things move more quickly and with fewer problems when we’re geared for the challenge. It’s hard to be productive, if we don’t know what we’re doing.
Consistency. Keep your standard high. Self-sustainining productivity relies on effective and efficient performance.
Credibility. Keep your promises. We’re most productive when do what we say we will. Credibility is the trust and confidence that inspires people to help.

Self-sustaining productivity is confidence in relationships on the street, in the workshop, and in the boardroom. It’s confidence in ourselves and confidence that others invest in us.

I wrote this paragraph in the introduction to this series.

Intellectual propertyâ€“contentâ€“is an asset that not only gets produced, but reproduced, reconfigured, and repurposed for variety of media. Those who produce intellectual property are builders of wealth. An original idea that solves a problem or presents an opportunity is worth more now than it ever has been. Those who develop and mold original ideas are the new â€œkiller app.â€

Be social. Network all you can. But don’t neglect the time to stretch your mind.

What are you doing to think ideas, solve problems, and make new realities?

Yeah, you. Can you be. . . will you be . . . are you the new killer app?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Monkey on Your Desk? Morph It, Mosh It, Write It Up

March 27, 2006 by Liz

Boring, Broken, or Both.

“The only thing an intelligent child can do with a complete toy is take it apart,” a kindergarten teacher told me. “An incomplete toy lets children use their imaginations.”

–Todd Oppenheimer, Schooling the Imagination (About the Waldorf Schools)

Some days it’s a “have-to.” A monkey crawled on your desk that you don’t want to fix or write about. You’re face to face with something that is boring, broken, or both. You can do the grown-up thing. Dig in, reach for a bandage to fix it, and get things done. OR You can do what a kid would do–pull it apart to see how things work.

Be a Genius–Morph and Mosh It

Take it a part and see what it’s made of. That’s what Leonardo would do. That’s what most curious kids would do too. Don’t put a band-aid on it. Morph it into something else. Mosh parts of other things into it. Make it into something new. Here are some ways that you might do that with that problem or a boring idea that you have to write about.

1. Find the parts. Breaking things down into manageable chunks makes the most boring, broken, or beastly task less powerful. It puts you in charge. It also gives you a chance to see how things fit.

2. Identify which parts need attending to and which do not. When we look at a whole, the details can be a distraction. Push those details out of the way. Pick three things that deserve attention and focus in on only them. Let me track this with two scenarios.

Scenario 1–the article: You need to write an article on the vision of your brand. Pick three main ideas you want to share. Set the details aside.
Scenario 2–the client problem: You need to unravel a misunderstanding that has cost money and caused damage to your relationship. Define the damage that has occurred. Don’t spend any time on the causes now.

3. Morph it. Arrange and rearrange the parts you have identified. Decide how those parts fit best together. Do it as if you were rebuilding a toy–What if this went here, or here, or here?

Scenario 1–the article: Play with how you might order the ideas of your vision–short-term to long-term; easy to more difficult; altruistic to bottom line; head to heart.
Scenario 2–the client problem: Set goals for how you repair the damage and decide which goal should be the first that you address. Think about who should be part of the repair crew and what piece of the picture they each add.

Think of the outcome each time your rearrange things. This sounds like a lot, but we’re only talking a few seconds here.

4. When you have the parts where you want them, look for a pattern in what you’ve got. What you’re looking for is the big idea–the whole behind the parts you’ve made. This is the “putting things back together” stage.

Scenario 1–the article: Are the ideas for the article about how your company is going to grow? Do they arrange themselves as a statement of altruism, or innovation, or point to an idea that will change the fabric of business?
Scenario 2–the client problem: How do your goals frame the action you will take? Is your planned response that of a thinker, a feeler, one who delegates or one who takes the bull by the horns? Did you choose a team who can execute your plan?

If you can’t find a pattern in what you’ve got, rework your parts until they gel. It won’t take long now that you know you’re looking for a cohesive whole.

5. Mosh it. Add some spark from the outside. Ideas from outside the situation add energy and change the way you feel about the task at hand. Re-introduce the details that were there, if they’re pertinent, but be sure to include something totally new.

Scenario 1–the article: You might add an anecdote or an analogy to frame the vision, or speak to how the vision came to be. You could include your statement of what the vision means to you personally, or talk about how difficult you found it to write down the vision for others to read. Sometimes I just relate the process it took to get an article done. Other times I choose a TV show or character that readers will know well and let that image, and what it stands for, carry the article along.
Scenario 2–the client problem: The way you framed the problem will say a lot about how you want to repair the damage. Before you move on what you’ve found, consider how the client and the others involved might also frame the problem. Are they thinkers, feelers, those who delegate, and doers too? Use that answer to form a more thorough plan of action.

Write It Up

Can’t avoid it any longer. It’s time to write things up, but that boring, broken or both “have to” is under your control. Now you have a plan for what you want to say or do. So writing should go easy on you, and the little voice that would have been whispering in your ear, “I hate this. I hate this,” should be quiet too.

Looking at this process on paper may seem a lot, but actually, it takes far less time than most folks I know spend thinking about how much we don’t want to deal with that “have to” on our desks.

And the payoff is you feel so good when you’ve made that monkey go away, and you know you’ve thought it through so that the hairy guy isn’t going to come back.

I hate monkeys on my desk.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Eye-Deas 4: Photo Ideas Bank

March 23, 2006 by Liz

Get the Picture?

Photos can often trigger an idea in a way that words cannot. That’s because photos access the right brain, where words don’t usually hang out. The fun part of using photos to get ideas is that often you’ll see in a photo different things depending on what you’re looking to write about. Here are some photos you that might get you started thinking.

Team Meeting

Open Microphone Night

Gold World

Waiting Room

Fall Colors through Window Hand Stamp

Mainboard

Computer Room

Coffee Sunflower on Beach

All of these photos are from the stock xchng and are restriction free.

Catch the Ideas While You Can

As you look, grab a pencil and write down any ideas that come to mind. You might not need an idea right now, but you’ll have those ideas for later when you need one.

I see articles here on the price of coffee, the need to clean up our waterways, the cost of meetings to business, healthcare, the future of the Internet, the global economy, and so many more. . . .

What do you see?

I’m sure by now you have the idea about getting ideas from images. It’s all a matter of remembering that when you look, you should also be seeing.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Eye-Deas 3-Photo Content Checklist

March 22, 2006 by Liz

Seeing your Work

Images–photos and artwork–can be used in two ways: as illustration–to extend or explain the content–or as decoration–to bring readers in and add interest to the page. Either way, choice of images reflects your personality, your thoughts, your brand, and your business.

Decorative Images Versus Illustration

If you’re using images solely for decoration, you can wander outside the box fairly far and folks usually will call what you do “art.” Even if your readers don’t like your choices, they will most often glance over and then continue reading, unless your choice is something that makes readers uncomfortable–say, a giant eyeball that seems to be watching them. It’s possible that a choice such as that will make them stop reading and move on.

Images used as illustration might show how to do something or how something looks. Readers rely on illustrative visuals to get more meaning from the words. Visuals can bring an idea home, by making it clearer or stop the reader cold by being a distraction. Placement is important here. The image should be close to the words that talk about it, so that readers don’t have to work to make the connection. A caption helps readers in the same way.

Photo Content Checklist

Content is king and images have content too. It’s not hard to underscore the impact images can have on your writing. They can kick up a notch and be the added value that brings readers back to you. Here are some rules about what you might consider when choosing an image to support your words.

When showing people, look for a diversity that reflects the culture around you. People are used to a certain level of diversity. Straying too far from what folks are used to can lead them to subconsciously discount your message as biased, or to see it as less than authentic.
Stereotypes just aren’t cool. It’s true that Mom often cooks dinner, but lots of Dads do it too. This is not being politically correct. It is choosing to show the exception, rather than always showing the rule. The folks who are the exception will thank you.
Keep in mind your readers are not you. They’ve had different experiences; might use different currency;, could be in a different season of the year. Making room for the differences without making a big deal of them can show you are inclusive–rather stuck in your own world view. Opening your view helps them feel comfortable. People everywhere like to see positive images of people who do what they do–who wouldn’t?
Watch for other unconscious bias in your choices. As humans we are drawn to the things we like and away from those things that we don’t. This could be happening in the images you choose. For example, a gardener may too often choose gardening photos. Go back through your blog and check the photos you’ve used. Is there a particular bias–beyond that required by the content you write about–that shows in images you use?
Look for “photo no-nos”–unbecoming details within photos that could be distractions, particularly if you are using photos taken by an amateur. Some examples might include hands with dirty fingernails, any animal’s posterior right in the camera, animal sex organs, action in the background that is unwanted or distracting. Read the words in every photo. Sometimes they say something rude.
Take care when cropping. It’s easy to crop out the interest. Any object by itself is rarely of interest. When cropping, try to put the main idea forward and just a hair off-center. A well-composed photo takes the eye from the upper-right corner area in a c-shaped counterclockwise spiral into the center.
Size the photo to fit the piece that you’re writing. Use the “Goldilocks Rule”–not too large, not too small, but just right. Look at your favorite websites, blogs, and print materials to get a sense of what works for you. Keep in mind if you have a huge splotch of color or a photo in your blog header, you already have a large image on the page.

Keep those in mind when using photos to illustrate and decorate your writing. Readers might not be able to explain what has changed, but they’ll notice it just the same. You’ll probably hear more comments about how wonderful your writing is.

See what I mean?

Photos are the fastest ways you change the look and feel of your blog. You can change your blog daily and signal your readers what’s in store right now. With great photos, you add depth to your readers’ understanding that your brand stands for quality in every way.

I’m sure you check photos for other “photo no-nos.” What are they?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Eye-Deas 2: Test Ideas with Photo Searches

March 21, 2006 by Liz

You Know It’s a Winner When . . .

Sometimes when I’m using a photo site to find ideas, I’ll just randomly put words into the photo search box–much the same as I randomly Google topics–to see what comes up. One picture might cue another word in my mind, which leads to trigger another search. I might pull a photo or two from each set of search results. Those I chose go into my Photo Ideas Directory.

Occasionally I’ll land on a real winner. As with text entries, you know an idea that’s a winner when there’s a wealth of photos under the keyword you searched for. I might look through all of the photos and use them to help me form an idea from them. Then start my factual research after I’ve done that. That’s what you call reverse engineering of the thinking kind.

I digress———>

Ever notice how every one seems to be writing about the same thing? Doesn’t it seem like they might be looking for something new? Listen carefully to what I’m about to say, “WRONG.” For years in publishing we would offer ideas beyond what was already available and mix them together in a list with the old classic topics. Inevitably the top winners were the topics there seemed to be too much information for anyone to consume. But that was what readers wanted. Our job is to serve the readers, and what the readers want is more about the key topics that interest them.

<---------digression over That means to hedge my bets I want to know where the readers already are.

Using Photo Availability to Test an Idea

I use photo search to get ideas,. I also use them to test whether an idea is worth pursuing. You can also use photos to test whether your concept is one people are aware of and interested in.

Here’s an example of how I did that, I knew I was going to do this series on Thinking Outside of the Box. Still it came with it’s questions. What would I use for a logo that communicates in an image what I was trying to say? Was the phrase still in vogue or had I fallen woefully behind the times?

I found what I needed to know with a photo search at one site, using the WebPlaces.com ClipartSearcher. That search did the work of a mini-focus group on my two questions.

In a mere .22 seconds, I found 18,700 images illustrating the idea of thinking outside the box. This is only the first page. The concept was obviously still on people’s minds, if so many people are making images to portray that idea.

As you can see from the logo, I didn’t use any of the photos I found. Still I moved forward with confidence that I was on the right track. When you think outside of the box it’s crucial that you touch the ground every now and then to be sure that your readers won’t find your ideas are too high in the clouds. People don’t like to strain their necks to see and understand what we’re talking about.

I See Photos in Your Future

Photos are a great connecting factor. Even if a reader doesn’t quite get what you mean, a photo can seal the difference and carry your message home.

Your eyes can lead you to ideas in photos, art, and objects in the environment. They can inspire what you write and sometimes they can illustrate it after it has been written. Doing a photo search can help you check the validity of the idea and serve as a grounding point, to let you know that what you write is something your readers are still interested in. Choose your images to fit the broad category that folks still want more of.

Then look inside the individual photo for an unanswered question.. Let the questions lead you to a story. Photos are just waiting for you to tell the world a story. If you look past what’s literally in the photo, you’ll find a story that is all your own–a unique idea on something that folks still want more of. That’s why there is always room, no matter how many articles people have written, your question, your version isn’t there yet.

Let the photos inspire you to find what’s missing–waiting for you to write it.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Eye-Deas 1: Have You Started Seeing Things?

March 20, 2006 by Liz

Worth 1000 Words

I look at it this way. They say a picture is worth a 1000 words. A good post can be as short as 400. One picture could help A LOT.
–ME Strauss

I like to have illustration with what I write. Pictures add reader support and interest. I’ve said that before, but I don’t think I’ve mentioned that I often use visuals as a way of reverse engineering. Photos, clip art, line art, fine art, and objects in the real world are all great sources for ideas. Of them all, rights-free photos and clipart work double time. You can use them to get ideas; then use them to illustrate the idea after it’s written. For this conversation I’m going to use the words photo and image to suggest any form of visual or illustration you might use.

The reason images make great idea starters is that they access the right brain–the place where words don’t usually hang out. Images get you thinking in a new way about things–connecting thoughts that don’t usually get connected, triggering memories. Images involve your eyes in the process of bringing in information. You don’t have the problems of words tripping over each other or of your left brain trying to edit your thoughts when all you want to do is get to an idea.

Folders, Envelopes, & Boxes of Ideas

Ever sit at someone’s house when the scrapbooks come out when you hardly know a person in the pictures? Isn’t it strange how if you’re friends with the person who owns the album, the pictures can get you involved in telling stories anyway?

I collect images. I use them for fodder–stuff to look at when I need ideas. They’re in several beat-up old folders, a couple of 9×12 envelopes, and a box or two. Some are at my friend, Peg’s house. I also have about 23 photo and art sites bookmarked on my computer–that doesn’t count the museums and art galleries which might be 20 or so more. I don’t put much effort into the collection, and I get a wealth of ideas from having it. The images come from a variety of places.

Photos and greeting cards from daily life. I keep cool old photos and greeting cards with weird cartoons on them. The gating factor for keeping them is Will I want to tell a story about this? Could this prompt a story in anyway? When I add one, I always look for one I no longer need.
If, for some strange reason, I find myself at a flea market where they’re selling old photos or calendars, I might look through the really old ones to find something that triggers an idea or two.
When I’m driving I notice things that would make a good picture–that guy who was walking a Dalmatian in front of the brownstones on Roscoe St, looked like Fagin from Oliver Twist. I write down a mini-description of what I saw when I stop.
Sometimes, I take a shot with my camera phone, but I only do that for really weird things, not usually people.
I look at the pictures in magazines and catalogues for ideas to write about. At last, I’ve found a use for my time when sitting in waiting rooms with all of those boring magazines.

I read billboards and check out window displays too. Even the ads on buses have pictures that might trigger an idea about a subject that I write about. Those notes and pictures go into the folders, envelopes, and boxes.

I only do this kind of idea hunting when I’m alone. I don’t want to turn into one of those people who lives their blog the way some folks live their jobs. . . . But then I’m alone a lot.

Setting Up A Photo Idea Directory

I’ll often go to my favorite rights-free photos sites when I have down time to browse for photos that capture my imagination. It’s a great way to get the words out of my head and relax at the same time. I save photos I find into a Photo Idea Directory.

These points will help you to set-up a directory. This will start you out organized and give you a process that handles photos properly and saves you time when you look for ideas and find a photo you want to use.

Open a parent folder to be the Photo Idea Directory.
Organize that folder with subfolders by source–in case you need to download or access an item again for another reason. Don’t try topics at this level. Topics are like tags, just too nebulous to keep track of. Name the photos by topic/content not the folder.
Always check rights restrictions before you download a photo.
Download as close to the size you will use–or slightly larger–to save space.
If the photographer has been named, write a quick e-mail such as this:
I’m using your work (name of item here) on my blog for (purpose here). Thank you for your generosity and for your beautiful image. If you’d like to see it, you’ll find it at (permalink here).
Give the email a subject line of I’m using your (name of image).
Save the email into a drafts folder until you use the photo. When you want to use the image, the email is ready; hit send.
Keep your eye out for photos on subjects you write about to add to the file.
Visit the Directory when you need inspiration. You might be surprised how it works. The thumbnail makes it easy to see what you’ve got to choose from.

Often when I’m away from home, waiting for something, I’ll mentally go through my photo file and one or two photos will come to mind for me to play with. Some of my best writing ideas have started that way. I think of the images in that file and connect one to some topic that I’ve been wanting to talk about. It’s as if the photos are waiting for me to tell their stories–I just have to figure out what those stories are.

Get the Picture?

Using your eyes to find ideas can get your right brain working for you. As you do what you do, you can be collecting images that hang out in a box or on your computer waiting for you to decide what their story is.

Try a little reverse engineering the next time you need an idea. Pick up a magazine, visit an online gallery, or browse your favorite photo site. Let your imagination do the rest for you. Suddenly you’ll find that you’re not stuck using the same images over and over again. What’s cool about photos is that they change in small ways to match what you’re looking to find in them.

Images will not only get you started, but also help you dress up and promote your final written work. Build a great image for your brand and your business by putting images to behind your ideas from the start. Get the picture?

How might reverse engineering with images add appeal and depth to your writing?

–ME “Liz” Strauss