Tamsen WebsterFounder & Chief Learning Officer, Message Design Institute · I study what novel ideas require to make aha moments possible | Researcher, author, and professional sensegiver for people whose work changes minds

The Power of Two Words Setting Your Direction and Standard

4 Feb 2026 · 1 min

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This content was created by Tamsen Webster. This content was uploaded by Tamsen Webster. This is a YouTube video titled "The Power of Two Words Setting Your Direction and Standard" (created 2026-02-04). The excerpt is from a single-speaker talk/presentation about a "two-word" strategy for setting direction and standards: pairing a noun (what matters) with a modifier (how it shows up) to create a usable decision filter (examples cited include phrases like "integrity involved").

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So this prime strategy, by putting two words together, not with an "and," but as a noun with a modifier— so you've got something like "integrity," that's the noun, and "involved," that's the modifier, an adjective— puts it together and turns it into one thing. That preserves the cognitive ease. The fact that there's two concepts joined in that one thing gives us guardrails. It tells us that not everything counts as the noun. Not everything counts as integrity or involvement. Not everything counts as Curation or elevation. One of the words, the noun, names what matters most for you. The other word keeps you honest about how it shows up. When we put those two words together, we take a theme or themes or an intention and turn it into a usable filter for those decisions we're making every day.