The OffBeat #36: Finding the Silences

Taking a beat

In his book Grace: President Obama and Ten Days in the Battle for America, Obama speechwriter Cody Keenan describes a powerful anecdote from his time writing the 2015 State of the Union speech. Obama tells Keenan his draft is great, but there’s no variation in volume:

“Every sentence says something. Every word means something. There’s no wasted space.” Raising his hand, palm down as if he were showing how tall you must be to ride this ride, [Obama] added, “The entire speech is up here at ten.” He pushed his hand down. “I need some of it down here, at six, seven, eight. You following me?”

When Keenan doesn’t quite get it, Obama turns to one of the interests he’s most known for—music. He tells Keenan to take a lesson from the jazz great Miles Davis:

“It’s the notes you don’t play,” he said, sitting back in his chair. “It’s the silences. That’s what made him so good. Silences can say more than noise can. I need a speech with some pauses, and some quiet moments, because they say something too. You feel me?”

It’s a great metaphor. Think about how the best TED talks use silence strategically to say more. Silence is one of the most powerful tools in the speaker’s—and musician’s—toolbox. Strategically placed silence in the middle of a drum solo carries more resonance than any fill (great example: Joe Morello’s solo on The Dave Brubeck Quartet’s Take Five). At silence’s most extreme there’s 4′33″, a musical composition created by John Cage in 1952 consisting of only silence.

Keenan talks about how the push towards embracing silence carried over to his personal life:

“Finding the silences became more than a writing hack—it became a life hack. Whenever I was writing a speech so stressful that I didn’t think I could meet the moment, I worked to find the silences not only in the text, but in the cacophony of my own life. Taking a walk with my wife. Going to the gym even though I hated it. Reading a story I’d had open in my browser tabs for weeks.”

There are lots of implications for your work life, and life in general:

• Use fewer words on slides; some people use the 5-5-5 rule (no more than five words per line, no more than five lines per slide, no more than five text-heavy slides in a row)

• Devote calendar blocks to deep work time

• Do a “recalibration” at the beginning of meetings (from the Stagen Leadership Academy’s Attention Zones model), taking a minute to have everyone close their eyes, take some breaths, and focus on the present

• When your work day is done, leave your phone in another room for a couple of hours

• Try morning silence or evening silence

Have a great—silent—week,

Allison