Words for Writing

THE Labor Day Funny how when you put a “The” in front of the phrase Labor Day. It makes it seem as if it is something bigger. How does this work in your real world? I will pick some events that many businesses like yours might create. Open House or The Open House (doesn’t that seem bigger and more exclusive?) Grand Opening or The Grand Opening Skin tightening device or The Skin Tightening Device Funny how these things can happen with just one or two words. How about from the world of college promotion? The Ohio State University  Sounds more exciting than “Ohio State University” that I grew up with. The Ukraine –did this country get a publicist or what? A word trick I love is from the world of NLP and Semantics. Nominalization Please stay focused as I know that ten dollar words put  us all to sleep. A word used when we use a verb as a noun. Or think of it as using a process as a noun. It sort of slips past our radar. And is why it is powerful. When a process is used as a person, place, or thing. It becomes a solid. When it is actually a series of steps perhaps to create a thing.  What is an easy way to know if you are dealing with a Nominalization? Ask yourself can you ” put this into a wheelbarrow?” Here is how the academics define it: “Nominalizations are nouns that are created from adjectives (words that describe nouns) or verbs (action words)…  For example, “interference” is a nominalization of “interfere,” “decision” is a nominalization of “decide,” and “argument” is a nominalization of “argue. “…   A “nominalized” sentence is one in which abstract nouns perform most of the work. Abstract nouns are things you can’t touch or easily visualize .”   Before I understood the concept. One of my first football coach mentors would say “when we program the tackling into our team.” Huh? Most footballers say “the program”. My mentor used it as an action. What others in the business call the “install”. Most use the word program like this: “The Alabama football program is the most successful college team in the history of the game.” So we often will do this when we want to make something to appear solid. Funny thing though. To program is not a person, place or thing. It is a process. So when you want to make something solid treat it as a noun. And when you wish to make something seem more flexible. Make it into a process. When I interviewed one of my NLP mentors Jonathan Altfeld he tackled some ways to loosen up stuck states via more active wording. I posted a pretty long article on this in 2015 on Facebook. The most interesting piece was the discussion as Rex Sikes (another one of my interviews) and Jonathan among others join into discuss with started out as many things do on Facebook. A bit heated. (if you cannot get it, let me know and I will send a PDF. It is a worthy read if you are at all interested in how words can cause change or persuasion.) Another post I did on how GW Bush used words to ramp up support. I have always wanted to ask about “reverse nominilizations”. A Noun used as a verb. Like “Google it.” Or is Google really a verb? Pretending to be a noun, and so entrenched as a thing, that we just think it is a thing. Not a process often called an algo. I paste the commentary to the above post, as it will not show in Facebook unless you have an account: Rex Sikes with all due respect – not certain where you are going with this. There is nothing wrong with nominalizations or generalizations. We (as nlpers) may notice them when they cause us or others to be limited and may seek to denominalize, or disconnect faulty complex equivalencies and faulty assignment of cause and effect. the goal being to realign the thinking of the speaker to be at cause, and no longer limited or less limited so they can either be more realistic or better accomplish making some changes. if something is inspiring there is nothing wrong in that. it is useful to be aware of nominalzations and other linguitic distinctions when being sold a bill of goods by sales people, politicians or your children OR parents, spouse or friends when they may be attempting to persuade you. That is cool. IF, WHEN, necessary a coach can de-nominalize and put into action what the coach wants players to do or understand that is great. If the coach also uses language to inspire and motivate – why would one want to challenge that if it is a positive thing? If it is a less than positive thing yes by all means. this is where decision takes place -as a nlper I may think this statement – it is valuable now for me to challenge this and these are the results I predict I will get when I do. Typically, the goal is for the thinker to clarify their process so they can make changes not simply for us to challenge assumptions. That is our choice point – to challenge OR do we leave it alone because it is fine to think that in many cases. the point of challenging is examination, awareness and illumination and then reconnecting the thinker/speaker with resources in thought and behavior. we use the tool when it helps others take responsibility and make some progress. repetition is the mother of skill – it is a useful notion. it is better when another word is added – correct repetition is the mother of skill – yes it is a slogan – but based on enough research to also make it applicable. habits can be formed through repetition of things we do that are not good for us or we can intentionally create good habits and get good results when we repeatedly apply the correct means. I don’t understand why you take exception to that. Perhaps, I have missed your overall point Tim. Help me understand you points. Thanks for posting because it is useful to notice and utilize the processes. Tim O’Keefe Rex sorry. I am around football coaches and the generalizing and meaningless communication is deafening. As I point out above light him up. Or worse an old line I was taught keep your head up, can get you concussed or in a wheel chair. And like sheep we do what we were taught. What I attempted to do was point out that process is everything in coaching. We used to call them progressions when I grew up. Hardly ever hear that anymore in the context of tackling and blocking. As I point out we as a collective will generalize when we should get specific and get specific (I like to say major in minors) when we should generalize or as you say be motivational. Certainly the ability to both at will is what you teach. I was hoping to merely point out the issue within our little world. As just knowing the difference of “program” or “to program” can change a coaches whole perspective from a passive event (which we have way too much) to an active process. So I intended to use this hopefully for coaches and our administrators to see. And was hoping for a master like you (and coaches if you are reading this-Rex is one of the best communicators you will ever meet in the world, so “eyes on coach 😉 would help come in and clean up whatever mess linguistically I might cause. So a big thank you. I hope this helps to clarify my point. Re the “mo of skill” slogan. Was probably over explaining my point for the purpose of the post. Thanks for clarifying like you are. Also, lots of this coaching stuff I am posting of last has been motivated by talking with one of my friends Bobby Hosea Jr. who teaches the safe tackling and has motivated me to teach what I know to my coaches. I mention him here as you guys should connect as Bobby also has an acting background like you Rex. He is doing this tackling system as a vocation. And is a guy worth knowing. Bobby get to know Rex he has more knowledge in his back pocket on communication for reasons demonstrated and I mention above and he grew up in acting and is very involved in the film scene to this day. Rex Sikes Tim, yes this does make a lot of sense. I did what many of us do when reading posts. I read and agree (at worst I don’t disagree) and then find something I may not agree with to discuss. In doing this it highjacks the post from the poster’s intention. You were discussing football and an approach which I agree makes good sense to examine and challenge and clean up for all the reasons you cite. I looked at the one slogan – repetition… and made an entire new post response about that. This is something that annoys me and I did it… SO I acknowledge that. Again, yes. It makes sense to be precise with language in your coaching arena. I thank you for posting that and this. And glad we could discuss. Also look forward to connecting with Bobby. Thanks and thanks for the kind words. YOU ARE A LIAR – I am none of those things – but no one needs to know that. 😉 Again thanks for the kind mentions. Tim O’Keefe OMG that is too funny. What you are admitting to is what I hate too and get caught at it all the time. Glad you came onto the post and added some meat to the discussion.  Michael Halbfish Exe, what you inadvertently did was discovered some great material for what can be a fascinating blog post.  Anyway, I trust you are resting today. However, if you are a businessness person. I know that you most likely are not. As I explained to my football team this morning in the 90 degree sweltering heat. The average rests today, while the superior man (woman) puts in the work to be successful beyond today. Being above average I know that you are resting only because you seriously deserve it. And that at some point today, you did a little work. Just know that you are not alone. 😉 Go Team!   Coach Tim O’Keefe Spider Juice Technologies 310 533 9145