Warning: This post refers to MJ’s recent report Rise of the Author. I do not believe there are any significant spoilers below. Even so, you will want to read the report to get the full effect and the full benefit available.

While the report is intended for authors there are several patterns that compliment what we cover here. Today’s topic is what MJ calls Knowledge, Will, & Means. This parallels my Knowledge, Awareness, and Behavior model and extends the ideas in a slightly different direction.

The basic idea of MJ’s trio is that in order to make any significant change to the world we need to apply all three of these key aspects at one time. If you are somehow missing the knowledge of what to do there isn’t much hope for making any impact on the world. If you have the knowledge but no means by which to bring it into existence then, again, you will have a hard time making improvements in people’s lives. And even if you have the knowledge and the means if you aren’t willing to apply that knowledge and those means you will not affect those changes in your world.

Now MJ talks about how having all three of these factors in play at once creates what he calls the Great Nexus. The Great Nexus is the only place that these significant changes can take place. There is also some great background on when previous Nexii have formed and some of the changes affected. This is all building up to crescendo with the Great Window for print authors that may shut at any time.

I can not stress enough how much you will benefit from reading the whole report for yourself. If you are in a time crunch you could start with the executive summary/action plan and then go back and start from the beginning for the full briefing. In the mean time:

What do you need to generate your own personal Nexus?
Knowledge? Means (Time/Energy/Money)? Will or intent?