PRINCIPLED COMMUNICATION

Joe and his wife Martha were approaching a stop sign on their way home one evening. Having come to a complete stop, Joe looked both ways and was preparing to proceed through the intersection. Martha, also looking both ways from her passenger seat vantage point, saw what appeared to be a semi barreling down on the intersection from the right. She exclaimed to Joe, "Don't go yet! I don't think that vehicle coming the other way is going to stop." Joe calmly replied, "Martha, it's a four-way stop and I have the right of way," and proceeded into the intersection...

Joe was right...dead right in proceeding upon his principled conviction. Oftentimes we hold beliefs that we know are true for us, and perhaps are universally held truths across cultures (i.e. Thou shalt not kill). We can express and live out our convictions in a principled and respectful manner with moderation toward others.

When communicating to a diverse audience toward achieving that margin of victory, we should be able to comfortably express our personal conviction with a tone and volume appropriate to remove any doubt about our principles.

We begin to lose our margin of victory when, in an effort to demonstrate the moral strength of our character, we infuse our personal convictions with such tone, volume, and fervor so as to appear full of disdain, intolerant, extreme. For every citizen we may attract with such vitriol, we may lose two who previously leaned toward our core message.

Hold firmly and live out your personal and universal principles, but be mindful of how you are communicating the moral strength of your character to a diverse audience. We are a Big Tent, not a Big Top.

TODAY'S QUESTION: Are your principled communications conveying solutions to your audience's widely-held concerns, or narrowing the appeal of your message only to your existing base?