Here. There is Meaning.

My aptitude for a pithy saying is 100% due to Twitter. It was a required skill to jam as much meaning into as few characters as possible. The practice, unfortunately, was a precursor to our widespread, crippling collective short attention spans; it also taught me how to get to the point.

With this in mind, I present 2531 words on my favorite topics: leadership's responsibility to set direction and pace.

However, let's talk about what you'll actually retain.

If you go back over my larger pieces through the years, you'll notice I've mostly fallen into a pattern of a three-chunk piece. Intro, body, and finish. 2000+ words is relatively long for me. I reread the piece three times, wondering if I could cut 20% because I believe you only retain two or three key concepts from any given piece. As a writer, I put a lot of work into a piece so that I could get angry about low retention. As a reader, I get it. My brain is reading the whole thing, but it's usually a few sentences that stop me and teach me, "Here. There is meaning."

I don't get angry about low retention. See, I love writing. I am still surprised and delighted that the words show up every single day. Sometimes they keep showing up, and they turn into an article. Those articles to books. The book you'll hopefully be holding in a year.

And then it's your problem. No, it's your opportunity. I've written enough to admit I can rarely tell what will or will not resonate with readers…

But I am glad — you do.