Martin Shovel explores why speaking plainly just isn't enough when it comes to leadership, and how poetry and the ancient art of rhetoric can help...
How would your colleagues react if you turned up at the office one day in your pyjamas? Chances are, you’d struggle to get them to take you seriously. And if you tried to carry on as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening, they’d probably begin to question your sanity.
What you wear and when you choose to wear it matters greatly because in most social situations nudity is not an option. In the world of work, for example, the suit is an emblem of neutrality, but you’d get a very odd reaction if you wore one to bed.
When we express ourselves in language, our thoughts are like naked bodies and our words are like the clothes that dress and display them to the world. How you say what you say is as important as what you say – in fact, the two are inseparable. Which is why I have a bit of a problem with the idea of 'Plain English'.
Don’t get me wrong, I hate bureaucratic gobbledygook and jargon as much as the next person. My hackles rise when I buy something and find myself ploughing through terms and conditions that look as though they’ve been translated directly from Mandarin by Google translate.
The parts that plain English can't reach
But a style that works well for a contract, an official letter or a set of flat pack instructions isn’t necessarily going to be the answer to all our communication prayers. What, for instance, might advocates of plain English have made of Henry V’s famous battle cry, if they’d been around at the time when Shakespeare penned it?
In Shakespeare's play, Henry V’s troops had laid siege to the medieval walled town of Harfleur. They were battle-weary and Henry V's speech was an attempt to rally and inspire his men to redouble their efforts and attack the besieged town one more time. The speech's famous opening lines are:
“Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.”
Henry V's words are rhetorical and poetic; two aspects of language that make champions of plain English feel a little queasy. They recoil in horror at language that appears to go all round the houses rather than getting straight to the point, because their twin gods are clarity and concision.
Their antidote to flabby language is to put it straight on a crash diet. First to go would be Henry’s rhetorical repeat of “once more”. Classical rhetoricians gave the name ‘anaphora’ to this technique of repeating the same word, or phrase, at the beginning of successive verses, clauses or paragraphs.
You might not be familiar with the term ‘anaphora’ but you’ve experienced it in action many times. Think of Martin Luther King’s mesmeric reiteration of the phrase “I have a dream” and the way it builds up a crescendo of hope in the hearts of his audience.
Another example is Churchill’s dogged repetition of the phrase “we shall fight... on the seas and oceans... with growing confidence.. on the beaches... on the landing grounds... in the fields..." and so on. His speech worked its magic because his words embodied the defiant spirit he wanted to inspire in his listeners. Rather than take the plain English route and simply tell people what to do, Churchill modeled the behaviour he wanted from them with a display of rhetorical defiance.
The power of the poetic image
The second line of Henry V's speech contains a powerful and inspiring poetic image. It's an image that subtly implies that even if his troops end up making the ultimate sacrifice for their country it won’t have been in vain, because in death their corpses will plug the gap in the city wall and prevent the enemy escaping.
Like all great wordsmiths, Shakespeare – the brains behind Henry's oratorical skills – knew that the style of language you choose has to be appropriate to the thoughts you wish to express, as well as to the situation you find yourself expressing them in. If a high-flown style is used to say something trivial it makes the speaker sound, and look, ridiculous. The same is true of a leader attempting to inspire and persuade an audience using nothing more than plain English – it would be like the queen opening parliament in her dressing gown.
The language of leadership takes us beyond plain English into the realm of poetry. The words of well-written instruction manuals and contracts may improve our lives by making them easier but they can never move or inspire us in the way that the poetic oratory of a great speaker can.
Plain English works by curbing the elements of poetic language like imagery and metaphor. A plain English make-over would definitely transform Henry V’s famous couplet into something more intelligible – but I can’t help feeling that the injunction “let’s try and break through their defences one more time” doesn’t quite cut the mustard when it comes to raising flagging spirits.
© 2009 Martin Shovel
Martin Shovel specialises in helping people become engaging, persuasive and inspiring speakers and presenters. Discover more by visiting www.creativityworks.net
To read more features written by Martin click on the title below:
Mehrabian Nights: An informative take about (mis)communication
Free thinking: Memories are made of this
Free thinking: Winning hearts & minds
Free thinking: Music to your ears
Free thinking: Why understanding how you think can help you think better
Free thinking: How to become a charismatic speaker
