The heart of communication

'No, not me, I cannot speak … I have trembling lips and a stuttering tongue. Send another to speak for me'. Despite his capacity to lead or his courage, education, refinement and noble bearing, Moses was preoccupied by his inability to speak eloquently: the kind of thing that normally limits our own expression.

As I expand on this contradiction, I hope to inspire you to a cause greater and nobler than mere speaking. I speak of communication and leadership. We grow up learning to speak, but life equips us to communicate and lead.

My first observation is that Moses understood the context of his life. He fled from the familiar into a wilderness, where he gazed out across the plains by day and the stars by night. Only then did he see his own world in context – and then he understood that Egypt was not an end, just a means to an end – it was the forging furnace of the nation. Context challenges the status quo and causes us to sound the cry of change, resulting in the kind of communication that enables people to see their lives differently.

Thus when we communicate context to our audience, they in turn are transformed. An audience that is enslaved, as the Jews were, can only really be set free when they see their chains in the context of ignorance and fear, rather than some unchangeable fact.

Its been said that when the people are ready, the leader will emerge. As Moses reframed the context of the Jews, they listened, and as they listened their courage and resolve grew until they finally threw off their chains and followed him out of Egypt.

My second observation about Moses was his commitment. With a heart forged through years of ambiguity and isolation, Moses the “non-speaker” emerged to lead a rabble of disenfranchised, restless and landless souls to nationhood, within a space of 40 years. In spite of being raised as a Prince of Egypt, he turned his back on privilege and identified with his own people, so laying down his life in service. He set off on his career with absolute clarity about whom he was and what he had to do.

Context defined his cause, but commitment gave him momentum. It enabled him to find possibilities in a wilderness of impossibilities. Knowing what to do next is desirable, but commitment will find a way anyway, to lead people from darkness, frustration and imprisonment … to life and light.

What we are is less relevant than what we could be. What we were is less relevant than what we will be and our potential is less relevant than our actions. Commitment to a cause is the engine of a great communicator – it drives them to make telling connections. Commitment touches lives - talk only touches minds.

It is also what inspires commitment in an audience – after all, how will they follow if they do not believe, and how can they become committed to your message, if you are not committed to your cause.

Finally I observe how Moses differentiated voice from content.

As a prince, he had access to Pharaoh and as a Jew he had access to the hearts of his people – he also had access to God – yet he remained concerned with a technical limitation, his voice. And so it was his message and the authority behind that message that really shook his culture. And indeed truly great communication is much more about what we say, than how we say it. In fact it sometimes may be more powerful to say nothing … sometimes a touch or a gesture can communicate what no words can ever do.

If context provides a destination and commitment provides momentum – then we will find our message, and when we find our message we will find a way to communicate it. In much the same way, a moving vehicle can be steered far better than a stationary one. Context and Commitment beget Content and out of these will come the craftsmanship of the great Communicator.

This is well illustrated by the story of a great orator who was asked to speak to an audience … he appealed for a topic, until an old man stood and asked him to recite Psalm 23. He agreed, on condition that the old man did the same. Then he spoke with great eloquence and the applause was rapturous. Finally the old man spoke, but when he finished speaking there was no applause, just silence and many moist eyes … the orator then said: “I know the shepherd’s psalm, but this man knows the shepherd”.

He recognised that great oratory was not about delivery or reputation or style … it is a matter of heart. The old man rose in humility and a life which overflowed with experience and meaning, to speak to hearts and make a telling impact.

I have observed many communicators who were commended for technical skills, but I found all too often that their content was canned, clichéd, good for entertainment. I call that Hyperglycaemic because it lifts us to a quick high and then lets us down. What people need is a message that will resonate through hearts, minds and cultures … and there is only one way to embark on such communication – it must be birthed in the heart.

A flame has the ability to burn constantly. It does not lose any of its power when it lights another candle. What sustains it is fuel. And likewise, a message born in the heart, committed to service and relevant to its context, is a flame that has the sustenance to burn long and bright … and to ignite the hearts of others without ever losing its own power. That is the soul of great communicators, inlcuding writers, speakers, webmasters and counsellors.

(c) Peter Eleazar at http://www.bethelstone.com/