Larry D. Lauer

In the past I have found state of the union addresses to be too cluttered with wish lists and endless recommendations, and therefore pretty much useless as calls to action. In short, from a communication point of view most of them were fairly weak speeches.

I must say I think Obama chose a better framework this time… a format with four basic ideas embedded in four questions: (1) How can we give every American a chance at some measure of success? (2) How can we use new technology to ensure U.S. leadership in the world? (3) How can we make the U.S. safe from terrorism? (4) How can we make our politics reflect what’s best about America, not what’s worse?

The cleverly embedded ideas were obvious: We need to focus more on closing the income gap. We need to lead the world in climate and new energy innovation. We need to invest more in homeland security. And we need to end mean-spirited  polarization.

This framework allowed Obama to point out a few of his successes. But more importantly it enabled him to lay out a challenging (but doable) agenda for future leaders, no matter their political ideology. This made for a much better speech.

However, good speeches usually have a natural concluding moment, and I think Obama missed his. That moment occurred about 15 minutes before he sat down! His audience was in the palm of his hands when he explained what it means to be a free American. But then he went on with too many little examples allowing partisans to return to their polarized thinking.

That said, his idea number 4 is very much worth noting. Communication analysis suggests that polarization can win a debate, but not the day. Extreme solutions almost always are temporary. Real problem-solving actually takes place in the grey areas of most issues.

Communication dynamics therefore provides a strong argument for bipartisan compromise. Effective leaders must be allowed to establish an environment of authentic listening.  And once heard, constituents must follow with good-spirited, bipartisan and collaborative problem-solving.