The power of the printed word.

Source: Indexed

I didn't quite believe it when I heard in my Negotiation class in the Spring that the printed word is incredibly powerful, and that for some reason, people often assume legitimacy and finality when agendas are printed, figures are on a printed page, or anything is tabulated -- even though we live in an era where the majority of people have access to a printer.

That theory has been validated in the last few weeks of work. Once ideas take root, they are incredibly tough to destroy. Since the All-Council meeting that took place at the beginning of the month, I've been helping the Council focus on determining the collective next steps that could have the potential to:

1. yield high impact in connecting youth to education and careers 
2. catalyze needle-moving change

We took the initial step of synthesizing ideas for next steps that were brainstormed at the All-Council meeting. This was expected to be a jumping-off point for greater discussion and bolder idea generation. A few weeks later, apart from some wordsmithing and formatting, that laundry list of potential ideas (ranging widely in impact level, feasibility, and uniqueness) has stayed pretty much the same. When an idea is married to a name and appears on a printed list, it somehow psychologically seems to become real -- Pathways for Success, Youth Engagement Program, so on and so forth.

In his State of the Union address at the beginning of this year, President Obama reminded us:

We do big things. 

From the earliest days of our founding, America has been the story of ordinary people who dare to dream. That's how we win the future.

I trust that the members of the Council will look beyond the apparent "legitimacy" of the printed word, and aim instead to do big things.