QUOTES AND DEFINITIONS
I love words. And a clever turn of phrase. Just the right words delivered in a certain way has power - to heal, expand minds, reveal truth. Words misused have power too - to confuse, derail and even cause harm.
The great fictional character Inigo Montoya urged us all to grapple with this idea - we keep saying words, but do they mean what we think they mean?
I've collected some of my favorites here featuring definitions and meanings refined by authorities on these terms.
I share these regularly on LinkedIn as an invitation to discuss and debate. I’ll keep adding to this page regularly, so please check back.
Have a word, phrase, quote or concept you’d like me to feature? Drop me a line!
A Poem I wrote
Words about Connection
Words about Gathering
Words about data
🔢 These days, you can quantify just about anything. We're all in love with #data, data, data. Slap a number on it, and sound like you know what you're talking about!
💘 And I work in a field whose impact is pretty tough to quantify, especially business leaders. Like how do you *know* whether a #gathering was successful? What's the #ROI of a celebration? Finding a friend? Human #connection? Taking time for personal #wellbeing?
💬 Oh, the stories I could tell...
Like the time someone attended a networking event my team planned and landed a new, better job on a different team.
Or the other time an employee returned from maternity leave and found her cultural comfort food in the cafe and felt her anxiety melt away.
Or when a celebration of LGBTQ+ music in the spring of 2020 was said to have litterely "given life" to a participant that was on the edge of despair.
❓ But those are just anecdotes, right? And "the plural of anecdote is not data," after all, right?
🚫 Wrong. Turns out the real quote (attributable to political scientist Raymond Wolfinger) is:
"The plural of anecdote IS data..."
...and he said it in rejoinder to a student who tried to dismiss a classmate's insight as a "mere anecdote."
📊 I'm also a bit of a data nerd. I'm that person who will remind you that the word "data" is plural, and I love to spreadsheet my way out of just about any problem (yes, "spreadsheet" is a verb to me).
🧠 So I've been spending time trying to quantify the value you and I both KNOW my experiences bring to people and the business. I'm pretty excited about what we're learning. It has something to do with finding the impact of the many anecdotes that add up to the data of experience. The data which can tell the stories that build our insights and knowledge-base.
🤗 Stay tuned for more, but in the meantime, enjoy these graphics I made to add to my glossary of wonky lexicon for work and life.
