Rothacker Reviews

Words That Work

Words That Work by Frank Luntz.

Words That Work is the best book that I only read half of!  Author Frank Luntz weaves a recurring theme throughout his work:  It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear.  It probably explains why I only read half of his book.

This paragraph hooks me early on:

This chapter and this book are not concerned with words that are beautiful, words that are timeless, or words that are ideal in some abstract, philosophical sense.  Rather, it is concerned, again, with words that work - language of everyday utility, language that generates practical results.  My concern is with the unadorned, commonsense language of small town, middle America, not the intellectual gamesmanship of the ivory tower.  It's language that has bubbled up from the American people themselves.

While the ivory tower comment would go on to energize me for the entire book, the part that nearly caused me to drop kick the book into the street was that Frank is involved in politics and he relies heavily upon this experience throughout the book.  Of course this reveals my small-minded intellect to the world, but I go stone cold deaf when I hear a politician's name.   I am sorry, I tune it right out.  So in order not to throw up while reading Frank's book, I skipped over anything related to politics.  Of course Frank schools me before I even get to page five:

Before you can create, and certainly before you judge, you have to listen to people and respect them for who they are and what they believe.  Just because you may not ultimately accept or endorse someone's subjective perceptions is no excuse for refusing to acknowledge that they exist.

Frank is passionate about using the correct language to deliver a compelling message, one that has impact.  His passion overwhelms the political-speak and makes it a non-issue for me.

To me, Words That Work is a road map to improving relationships.  When I write, I am writing to people with whom I want a relationship with...if only for them to read and understand my words.  Frank's ten rules of effective language illuminate the highway towards a more meaningful relationship.

Would you care to go on a journey into the future with me?  I sense a world of possibility up around the bend.  I see more and more people engaging in meaningful dialog.  I see effective communication breaking down the stone walls that people have built to keep the world at bay.  (Like mine that keeps the world of politics off of my radar).

I only ask you to do one thing on our journey.  I ask that you place the world of status-quo behind us and lock and load the most powerful force known to the human race - your imagination...

Imagine a culture of shared knowledge.  A culture spread planet-wide and one fueled by the most primal rule known to man - the Golden Rule.  Imagine a cloak of non-religious spirituality lying in casual elegance over top of this vibrant culture.  People speak and write in their native languages but are understood by everyone.  There is no war.  A universal peace of mind steadies the planet and allows for  a never seen before, hassle-free exchange of knowledge and wisdom.  A teenager in Peru converses with a teen in Moscow in an evolved version of My Space.  They quickly learn that boys are boys no matter where one lives.  And they learn through crystal clear dialog that souls and hearts can be healed in a safe and healthy manner. 

The fruit and prosperity yield from this environment causes an evolution.  Though people remain independent in their thinking, the collective consciousness guided by the Golden Rule, initiates a higher level of understanding.  Innovation and risk are taken on with renewed spirit.  A planetary system of support allows people the right and freedom to move forward.  A bold idea is met with encouragement, not resentment.  The results of this movement are not held to monetary measures.  Instead, accountability is simple:  Did you learn something today?  Were you able to help someone learn something today? 

A can-do attitude prevails the planet.  There are no ivory-tower dwellers.  Those in leadership consider an efficient day a day that a barrier was removed from an individual with a can-do spirit.  Financial security follows enhanced knowledge.  A balanced approach to a worker's mind, body, heart and spirit is an investment into the company's future and yields more money than can be counted. 

A planet is restored to a village amongst villages.  Elders connect to youth with revitalized language.  Youth embodies a spirit of respect and listens in wonder.  Yes, it still requires an effort to speak out.  But a lifestyle fueled with the desire to share knowledge, wisdom and information overpowers the effort.  Yes we can rejuvenate our spirits and reinvent that one small village that turns out to be our planet by way of crystal clear, sharp communication. 

Go out today and pick up Frank's road map to improving relationships. Somewhere out there in the future people will hear our voice, no matter what language we speak.  Thanks Frank!

Made to Stick

Made to Stick by Chip & Dan Heath

Do you write a blog?*  Do you want more readers?  Do you want your message to be understood?  Do you want folks to tell others about your site?  Of course you do.  I think I know someone who can help.  Her name is Gabrielle.  Her friends call her Gabby.  Gabby's melting point, her flash point, the point where time stops, is in the study of how ideas spread.  What makes people remember other people?  What makes people want to tell others about those people?  The flint that caused her flame was The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell.  Oddly, Gabby's fascination with idea-spreading was for years, a universe away from her day job as a professional recruiter and night time passion of her career advice blog.  That is until the time that she bought a case of Heath Bars and stepped in the largest glob of bubble gum ever.  Lets see what Gabby found out.

One evening as Gabby sat staring at her computer sipping a glass of Merlot and chewing on thirty pieces of Bazooka bubble gum while trying to forget about her recent break up with Glen, her mind drifted to her blog.  How can I get more readers, she wondered.  In one swoop of total randomness she entered "tipping point stickiness" into Google.  Then she scrolled to the thirtieth set of pages and saw Dan Heath's name.  Craving a Heath Bar at that very moment, she clicked on Dan's name.  A couple of clicks later and she was on the Made to Stick site.  A couple of days later Made to Stick arrived in the mail from Amazon.

In the introduction to Made to Stick, the Heath Bros give credit to Malcolm Gladwell for the inspiration behind their book.  That was was all Gabby needed to know.  She tore into the book.  Before even finishing the introduction, Gabby discovered a major flaw in her blog.  The lads call it the Curse of Knowledge.  She thought of it as speaking Latin to a Chinese audience.  She wrote for career guidance professionals while her audience consisted of those looking to change careers.

Gabby finished the book in two days.  She discovered that the Bros wrote the book around six principles to help people spread successful ideas.  Reading the book a second time, Gabby sipped at these simple principles while thinking of her own writing. 

The first was Simple.  The Bros said to find the core idea and to express it in the form of a compact idea.  Gabby thought, "what was the core idea behind her blog?"  And how could she convey this in a short, simplistic and powerful way?  The Bros spoke of proverbs, metaphors and analogies to help this process.

The second was Unexpected.  How does she get a reader's attention?  The Bros said to break a pattern.  They go on to tell a story about a journalism class and how its teacher rocks their world with one simple exercise.  This story was Gabby's most favorite part of the book.  She would never forget it. 

The third was Concrete.  This one hit home.  If you know your readers, you'll converse at their level.  The Bros said, "we forget that other people don't know what we know."  Gabby thought, I need to know who is reading my blog and then talk with them on their level.

The fourth was Credible.  Gabby wondered, is my stuff credible enough to draw readers?  The Bros talk about finding credibility through friends, relatives, authorities and anti-authorities.  They also said it comes by way of stories, vivid details and statistics.  Credibility was a difficult principle for Gabby to envision.  The best she could take away here was to tell stories and fill them with vivid details. 

The fifth was Emotional.  The Bros said to make people care about our messages.  One way was to form an association between something folks care about and something they don't.  Another was to appeal to people's self-interest and identities.  Gabby knew that in order to reach people who were looking for career advice, she would have to form associations between their existing dilemmas and then a potential improved future.

The sixth was Stories.  Gabby's knees went weak.  She loved to tell stories.  This would be the first change to make on her blog.  She could tap into the wisdom of those who had walked the pathways of career change and by telling those stories, offer hope and inspiration to others.

Gabby read the book a third time.  She was so excited!  She was going to mold and bake the Heath Bros' six principles right into her blog.  Maybe one day her stuff would be so good that people would remember her and talk about her blog.  Maybe one day then, she'd be as popular as Penelope Trunk.

*I have a personal distaste for the word blog.  Ok, I hate it.  But this story isn't about me.  It's about you and the opportunity that you might have after reading the Heath Bros' book, to improve your, errrr, blog :-)

dave smoked-n-signed this book.

What Does a Billion Mean?

At the mere mention of politics I turn stone deaf.  When someone asks me what party I am in, I tell them I haven't been invited.  I apologize to the hard working, honest folks in the world of politics who are out there trying to make a difference, even though you could fit all of them into a Volkswagon.

Read this and see if it doesn't place some well deserved perspective on the world of politics.

Download what_does_a_billion_mean_to_you.pdf

That's Different: Sink Positive

Creativity never seems to happen in a vacuum does it?  I suspect that one day, a chap who was environmentally conscious was sitting upon a porcelain chair inside his house.  He began to take a mental inventory of the stuff within this room.  Here is what he came up with.

That's Different: Radiator Mug

From Jeannie Choe at the Core77 Design Blog: The Radiator Mug

Imagine taking something so simple as a mug or glass and coming up with a design like this!

 

Writing to Change the World

Writing to Change the World by Mary Pipher.

How many books can possibly be written on writing?  Probably just a handful more than line my book shelves right now.  Still, I bought Writing to Change the World and I am so glad I did.  Sure, the book's title appealed to my inner-revolutionary.  And the fact that the author was twenty in the sixties and lived in San Francisco helped too.  But I came to learn that to change the world I must start with me.  And this is precisely where Mary writes from.

Mary spends time in the first few chapters developing the sense of how writing begins within yourself.  Know Thyself, What You Alone Can Say and Growing Our Souls are the titles of these chapters.  But a story that she tells at the end of the first chapter after explaining how writing connects, sets the tone of the book and provides a glimpse into Mary the person.  I'll not tell the story, but I will tell you that it is magical, wondrous and inspiring!

In the second half of the book, Mary guides us through the writing process.  She provides thought for context.  She does not teach the mechanics, typically laced with the do's and don'ts of grammar.  Those who already write will appreciate her advice on research, observation, organization, interviewing and point of view.

Though I was originally attracted to the revolutionary aspects concocted by the title, Writing to Change the World, I came to find out Mary's book is not a manifesto for revolt.  Instead, for me, it is a gold digger's sieve.  It helps me to pan out the unwanted rock and keep the gold.  As Mary says:

Our goal as writers is to convey to readers the greatest meaning with the  most precise images and the fewest words.

Yes, Writing to Change the World will help those who wish to create change.  But the journey that Mary leads us upon will plain out help us to become better writers. 

Chief

This is a story about how Rosemary Rothacker, in the fall of 1977, began calling her husband Chief.

Thursday night was THE night for David and Rosemary.  They began the night playing co-ed volleyball at the local high school.  Next it was a stop at Lud's, a local pub, with a few friends.  Then came bowling at Southgate Lanes.  Rosemary bowled on one end of the lanes in a woman's league and David on the other with the men.  After bowling ended at midnight the newlyweds closed down the lane's bar with their friends.  The night concluded at Sambo's, a Denny's-like eatery.  Friday mornings were a bear*.

As time progressed, Rosemary began calling David, Chief.  Friends and relatives took notice.  It was generally observed that the name was spoken out of respect.  David, a rather tall fellow, who to some was rather intimidating, was the husband, the leader.  The name seemed to fit.  Soon, even relatives began calling David, Chief.  It all became very comfortable and for years no one questioned where the moniker came from.  Until one day someone asked David.  As he explained the name was spoken by Rosemary out of respect for him, Rosemary listened.  And then Rosemary's face began to turn red as she clenched down upon her jaw and began to jump up and down.  Rosemary jumped up and down, right out of the room.  It is said that she kept muttering, "Bobbit, Bobbit, Bobbit!"

Gaining her composure, she returned to the conversation.  As she wiped the drool from the corner of her mouth, revealing razor sharp incisors, she said, "Let me tell you how I came to call Einstein here, Chief.  We had been playing co-ed volleyball for a few weeks when a new guy joined in.  He was about six foot three, the same height as David and he was mentally challenged.  He never moved more than a foot from his position on the court.   When he was at the net, he hardly moved at all other than to put both of his arms up in the air.  He played volleyball exactly like the Indian character in the movie One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.  By chance, do you remember what Jack Nicholson called that Indian character?"

From that time on, David reserved his explanation of how Rosemary came to call him Chief, to when she wasn't around.

*Note: the author's body racks with pain and his head pounds as he thinks about being so young and foolish.

Do Editors Ruin Stories?

Or rather should I say, do editors and others who act as gate keepers, prevent captivating stories from being told?

Rosemary comes up to me yesterday and says, "in her first twenty pages, this author violates every rule in the book."

A knot slowly began to form in my stomach.  This was a most excellent book.  If it were non-fiction I would have smoked and signed it.  As it was I definitely smoked it and still ended up high lighting interesting text.  The book, She Walks These Hills, by Sharyn McCrumb, was recommended to me by Dick Richards for the author's strong use of sense of place.

Since completing three novels last year, Rosemary has immersed herself in the technical side of writing.  She rattles off terms like plot, back story, POV's, dialog and theme like they were ordinary house hold items and like I am supposed to understand them.  The thing is, all of the books on writing that Rosemary has read, have been mine.  Plus, I've read a whole lot more.  So I do understand, sort of.  I refuse however, to let the technicalities ruin the melody in my head. 

That's fine.  I can stand up on my platform, be self-righteous and pompous as much as I want.  I am not trying to sell my stuff.  Rosemary however, is.  So she slices and dices on the advice of agents, editors, women in her writing group, writing coaches, writing partners and published authors.  I plead for her not to lose sight of her story. 

Maybe it's me, maybe I'm the dunce, but here is what is important when I read a book.  The story must be interesting and I must want to keep turning the pages.  The words must hold a tune.  And they must carry that tune throughout the story as if I were not even aware of it.  Or, if I am made aware it is at a point where emphasis is called for.  (These are the points that I usually high light).  Rosemary's books have all of the above.  She's got great story, her dialog flows and IMHO, her use of descriptive language is above the genre that she writes for. 

Why of course I am the doting husband.  But it irks the crap out of me when I hear someone babbling about two different points of view in a chapter that I just smoked through because I thought it was interesting.  Then again, maybe all that I accomplished here was to expose all of my own non-literariness to the world...

Book Reviews: dave Style

I want your words to take a voyage.  I want them to travel from your mind to your heart to your soul.  I want them to collect pieces of each.  Then I want them to leap from your pages and grab hold of my soul.  Cause when they do, my fingers will smoke about my keyboard hoping to reach out to the world and sing your praise.

I had been writing book reviews in my own little way since 2001, when a very scholarly fellow once said, "dave, you don't get very deep.  You're kind of like a cheerleader."  Okay.  So a few years go by when Rosa Say first asks the Ho'ohana Community to write a book review at Talking Story.  Brendon Connelly penned a book review of Lisa Haneberg's High Impact Middle Management, that gives grist for Webster's definition and illustrates with clarity the art of the proper book review.  Brendon's articulation would have caused my friend of the cheerleader remark to become stuck on the merry-go-round in ponder.  Though Mr. Connelly's work deserves to be in a book review hall of fame, I can't write like that.

To begin with, I am not too keen on being critical.  A book and its writer must resonate with me for me to review it.  If it does, I want to help the author, not be critical.  I think readers need to know in general what the book is about, but not in Cliff Note.  I am more interested in trying to interpret my feelings and how the author touches me.  I'm pretty sure that when I do like the author, I can hardly not be a cheerleader for her. 

Now I'd like to reveal a little dave character flaw.  I am selfish. 

I am sure that I've babbled about it here a half dozen times over the years but one of the greatest and most memorable feelings that I have ever experienced came upon the heels of a book review.  A week after writing the review, the author sold fifteen books and had leads for twenty-five more (the books cost 130 bucks).  The appreciation in his voice brought me to tears ( dave doesn't cry).

Well, that's about the extent of a dave-style book review, not deep, not critical, just hoping to make a connection with the author and tell a few friends about it.

Hey Coach: Shouldn't we be running suicides?

Carla Rothacker:  "Hey coach, if girls were late last year Coach P made us all run suicides."

Vickie started playing softball in 1986.  Since then Rosemary and I have gone through twenty-two years of coaches with the girls.  They both played softball and basketball.  (Carla is a sophomore playing basketball for a Hillsborough county high school).  Last year she played for Coach P., who is in our top three of best all time coaches.  Coach P took over a troubled girl's basketball program.  He was tough love.  He left the program to pursue other scholastic athletic endeavors in the State of Florida.  We miss him dearly.

Carla's coach this year is well intentioned.  He wants to win and he wants the girls to do well.  I believe that this is his first year at the high school level.  He displays a public temper and lacks discipline amongst the troupes.  His temper is obvious.  That he lacks discipline comes from Carla's comment about the fact that she misses running suicides if girls are late.  Carla's remarks pierced my nearly thirty years of management experience like a hot knife cutting through soft butter.  My dear friend Rosa Say, from her book Managing With Aloha:

When a leader is respected, he will find that others want to be guided, and he's the one they choose to lead the way for them; he's the one that others are naturally compelled to follow.

Our young basketball coach will eventually learn this.  But his adventures cause me to look inside.  Is the grip that I have upon the helm of my own ship firm enough?  Honestly?  It hasn't been.  I've let the excuse of my health and nagging self doubt allow my grip to slip.

Note to dave in the future:  davie,  at this time you are working with the most passionate, hungry-to-learn group of people that have ever been under your tutelage.  You got your head out of your ass and recognized this.  You grabbed hold of the wheel...with conviction.  Your people loved that you would tell them to run suicides if you needed to!