Unlock
Sometimes, you work hard for the words and when it all comes together, the feeling is tremendous. I read the words and I am so proud and astonished that I have anything to do with the words on the page. This isn’t a post about the words — I can’t share the proprietary information locked inside them. This is a post about the process.
As I was working on a project this winter, I started drawing, as I often do. It was a doodle, a concept, a thought. A participant’s quote stuck with me. There was something about it. Could I hang the entire summary on it? Did it feel true, was it robust and accurate? Yes? Then I had the first piece. I quickly put together a few more. I checked in with the team, sharing the drawing, the quote, and the idea. Was I going in the right direction?
Once I had the first three pieces, I could have stopped. I could have said, oh well, that was great, the rest doesn’t fit, so we’ll just abandon the form. I wrestled with it and snapped the fourth piece into place. I wasn’t done. Close, but there was so much more. How could I figure it out?
I set out on my long Saturday run with a purpose. I took my phone and stopped as often as I needed to give Siri a note. I had a puzzle. I needed to look at the problem from all angles, pull it apart, find the underlying sentiment and root cause, then rotate it and put it back together in a way that would fit. Describing it wasn’t enough, this was about being exact. I left myself a dozen notes on that run and by the end of the seven miles, I almost had it. When I sat in front of the computer next, the words were there for the last two concepts.
Six three-word sentences complete the story. Each starts with an actor or noun, a verb, then a word that is repeated for all six. In each case, the combination modifies the final word and activates it in a different way. For the executive summary, these six sentences stand with the briefest description possible below. In the conclusion, the six are repeated with direct action recommendations. They carry the weight of the entire project, easily, because they are strong but light, flexible but durable, universal and specific.
For me, the lesson is about not giving up, not settling for half a structure, but about seeing it through and really wrestling through the hardest part when I could have said it was good enough. I gave myself the time and pushed into my favorite activity for finding words and breaking through the artificial barriers that we put around ourselves to find what was simple but strong.
