The Messengers Episode 8: Finale
Posted Monday September 18, 2006 in Business
I suppose, if one is going to see just three out of eight total episodes of a show, one of those three should be the finale. In this week’s episode, The Messenger’s season finale, our three finalists — See, Daneea, and Angelica — didn’t take a field trip, they didn’t meet new people or get exposed to new experiences. This week, our speakers just spoke.
Angelica went first and, as she said, had “a bit of a potty mouth.” Her speech, delivered with gusto and energy, was perhaps most of all a call for radical tolerance, for self-acceptance and growth. “You may be a mess, but you’re God’s mess anyway, and He loves you. Amen,” she closed. Guest judge Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowry, co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, praised her for preaching without being preachy and being disrespectful to God without disrespecting Him.
Next came See, whose unconventional rhymes and strong word choice worked very well as he spoke about standing for something, repeating the word “stand” again and again in a manner that could have been trite but that was so well-executed that it even covered up the fact that he had two points to his speech. He didn’t bring it all together in the end, and this showed as he gained the fewest votes of the evening.
Daneea was the last speaker, and she told a tragic story about a man named Jesse that built to a hopeful future and then to a deeply personal discussion of life at the very end. While Daneea was not as strong a speaker as the other two, in terms of her delivery — and, in fact, she never has been — she won and will be The Messenger. She went personal, which made her entry stronger, but her use of a story was also a strong approach to the challenge.
Stories are one of humanity’s oldest ways of transferring information, and, generally, they’re quite successful in that role. MBAs use case studies to learn about, and foster discussion of, business challenges. Two years ago I was lucky enough to attend a weekend leadership training exercise put on by the Marine Corps for MBA students at the USC Marshall School of Business; there I learned that Marines transfer a great deal of knowledge through “sea stories,” tales of past experiences that more experienced Marines can share with new soldiers. Jesus even preached through parables. Stories are memorable and interesting — it’s much more fun to hear a story than it is to get lectured, even if the take-away from both is the same.
The Messenger’s audience responded positively to Daneea’s use of a story, even though her vocal control and rhythm and pacing weren’t as solid as See’s or Angela’s. And there’s a great lesson for us all, because this tells us that even the newest speaker can engage an audience by packaging a message correctly. Daneea got her victory by using the right tools, and so can you.
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