Here are word clouds from the first and third presidential debates. They show the top hundred words spoken:
I’ve deliberately made them small to focus, twitter-like, on the main words, and to show a change of tone. Crucially, while the words {think; know} reduce, the words {going; want} increase. Focus transfers from thinking and knowing, to wanting and going. The word ‘going’ is the pivotal word in the somewhat intemperate daytime TV programme central to my last posting.
As a doctoral researcher, I focus on subtleties, and the careful construction of rigorous argument to achieve understanding of process. I am struck by how quickly these changes have happened. This contrasts with the longer time it can take to marshal data and develop rigorous argument.
Word clouds have many helpful, interesting and practical uses. They are one of a variety of methods available to examine organisational discourse. Rather helpfully, it is pretty straightforward to gather speech data and process it in this way. So if you asked me, we could prepare one fairly quickly and potentially capture these kinds of changes.
Often we are unaware of our own language and how the organisations we work in are changing and developing. Analysis of the words we use can provide insights into our cultures and offer ways in which we might influence them. Imagine the difference if the word ‘helping’ replaced ‘going’ on these clouds. How would that impact on politics in the USA? How would an equivalent change affect your organisation? It might be profitable to consider ways in which this could be achieved.