Visualize Your Words
March 22, 2009 by Phil Gerbyshak
Filed under Business
Ever been stumped for a better way to show what you want to say? I get this way often unfortunately, and the words just aren’t popping for me. So in my never-ending search for new and cool tools to help me reframe my thinking, I came across one that is very easy to use, very helpful, and very FREE!
Slacker Manager image created at Wordle
It’s called Wordle . Wordle is a Java based tool where you can input text, or a URL, or a blog feed, and it will give you a nice graphical representation of the words on the page. The picture above is what’s on the front page of Slacker Manager as I created this article.
As a writer, I can use this to spot trends in my writing, because the larger the word is, the more often I used it. On this graphic, I can see that I use learning, HR, trust, new and think quite a bit, and use managers and manager frequently too.
As a manager, you can dump a performance review in here to spot trends (you don’t have to save it if you don’t want to) or look for words that you overuse in email or in documentation.
What do you think about Wordle ?
Is Wordle a useful tool for your management toolkit?
If so, how would you use it?
If not, do you have a similar, better tool to use?
This is an excellent tool to use when writing performance reviews or doing the first quarter review. It is funny how often we use the same words when writing. Thanks for posting this. Now I am off to put Wordle to work!
I just received a whole series of drafts for my unit’s annual report–different divisions writing about their areas and their performance over the past year. I put each division’s text into Wordle to create 1 “word cloud” and then I sent it around to the managers of each division, asking if they agree that the words emphasized on the cloud truly represented the entire organization. It generated a great discussion for them about who we are as a team…and also provides me with a way to tie all of the disparate pieces together into a single document!
Thanks Jeffrey! Glad it works for you!
Patty – This is GREAT! I love the way you used this. Thanks for sharing your success!