Communication

A major article appeared in Fortune magazine for November 17, 2014 entitled, Tony.  It is the story of the professional life of Tony Robbins, a guru of extensive popularity and sought out by leading persons in the world not only for the motivational interests of companies and individuals for personal success and business money making, but for personal counsel in facing basic personal conduct.  My interest in following the story of Tony is that I have heard about his work and personality, and now encounter a more complete coverage.  I saw the material immediately quoted elsewhere after the publication of Fortune.  It captures my attention because, in recent years persons like Tony Robbins, Oprah Winfrey, and others have caught on to what might be called a spiritual perception of meeting even what is presumed to be only mortal or business issues.  The spiritual perceptions are not signified so become general, even humanistic although their history is highly related to the spiritual context of life.  These persons are now being sought by some publics in place of ministers and priests, as society becomes more secular but sensing its inadequacy in the humanistic lane as insufficient to meet the needs of life and relationships to what may be called success and/or personal fulfillment. My purpose is to simply admit the wisdom of Robbins’ approach, perhaps offer an insight that strengthens the basic meaning of the affirmative approach in all life culture, and to offer suggestion that the approach, in proper context, came to mankind from God.  It is old, often overlooked, and is permanent to the functioning of a successful society and individual life.  (This is especially to be noted in that we have just completed mid-term elections in the United States, elections in which the national administration suffered a significant defeat caused in large part by the general negative attitude in the citizenry related to a malaise about perfunctory personal, business and social life.)

A side-bar in the article offers five steps advanced by Robbins for making an oral presentation to a group, a common experience for him in his travels from home during 200 days each year.  The five steps include:  1) Do your homework, 2) Respect your audience, 3) Go deep quickly, 4) Know your outcome, and, 5) Embrace spontaneity.  My inner response was, of course, what other way is there to get the job done well?  My first course in college related to speech took up the points, although with variant words meaning the same thing.  They were repeated in graduate programs.  Even my doctoral dissertation had to account for the principles proclaimed in his steps.  They related to the communicator being well prepared in ways related to the purpose of the meeting (1); knowing the speaker’s audience in education, gender, perhaps special orientations, so to speak to interests as well as needs (2); pointing to the most important consideration early – something believed by Cicero more than 2000 years ago, and verified in various statistical studies by scholars decades ago (3); making sure and clear your purpose both general (persuasive, educative, or epideictic – (Lincoln’s Gettysburg address was memorial or epideictic), and specific in what you want to be understood by this audience (4); and, including the motivation, or as the old timers in the field used to say, put on the ‘rousements (5).  The pattern has guided rhetoric since Aristotle 2500 years ago, and he was writing about what he saw in effective persons even in ancient Greece during his time period.  Although the refinements shift about, the main course is the same, will not likely change, and seems to be a new discovery with each generation.  It is met with some resistance when persons find out how much work in preparation of material and self goes into events of meaning.

Each communicator tends to possess features that he or she accents so to bring some creativity to a long standing procedure and practical theory.  One factor that works consistently for virtually all the successful communicators, and accented by Robbins, is a positive person who is also known by affirmation and leadership.  Affirmation is found in Scripture.  It all appears in the Apostle Paul’s sermon on Mars Hill.  It appears in the words of Jesus that would flow for hours to his audiences, some small, some massive. Even when casting a principle in negative words, Scripture advances an affirmative.  Do not bear false witness, is a warning word to a common human context: Always tell the truth.