Share the Good: Communication as a Moral Act

All communication is an act of sharing where our lives have the ability to contribute to the moral good.

Many times I might be in some kind of meeting and in order to get the meeting started, the presenter or leader will start with “good things” where participants are supposed to offer positive things that have happened professionally or personally. The intention is to put everyone in a good mood for a meeting that maybe people were not so enthused to be a part of. The technique works okay depending on the people involved. If it is genuine, then it is a nice way to start. If used as a distraction, then it can make people more agitated.

I tell this example to demonstrate how communication becomes a moral act full of intention. In this example the intention plays a significant role in the effectiveness of the technique. So when we write, speak, gesture, or even stay silent, we are making a choice. Many times it doesn’t feel like a choice. We communicate casually and without too much thought. Most of the time this serves a person well. In a job where your words have a heavy impact like mine as a teacher, there is often a conscious reflective decision for the language that is used. It can become second knowledge.

A LinkedIn post by Rae Foote showed me another aspect of communication that is important to being Socially Benevolent (thanks Rae for posting). The post was a summary of a webinar she attended hosted by Beyond Conflict and Humanity United. These are two organizations that move people toward peace in part by amplifying and encouraging the right kind of communication.

Communication can build walls, tear them down, or cut doors through them. Just like we can build things with our hands, we build relationships with our words. So this means that we all must focus on communication as a craft. Once this is done, then we can clearly see the choices we have. This is when a person can take ownership of the words they say, write, or gesture.

What you say or don’t say becomes part of your identity. We are often characterized by others based on the content of what we say. In this sense, I feel it is best to think of communication as an action. Every action is born from circumstance with plenty of choice. Sometimes people are in a difficult circumstance, but they respond to it the best anyone can expect. Think of this when someone is challenged with words. We can feel the hurt, the pain, the trauma, but it is in that moment that we have a choice to react.

In the end, the focus is to go back to the title of this post: share the good. In all communication can be seen as an act of sharing. It is one of the ways, if not the only way, that sharing a void can be seen as a fulfilling gift. Silence can speak volumes. There is time to be silent and there is time to speak, but our communication is always sharing something through the simple act of living. What are you sharing now?