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On May 17, 2004, Naval Admiral William H McRaven delivered a commencement speech at the University of Texas. The speech centered on the general theme of changing the world, referencing the University’s slogan: “what starts here changes the world” (McRaven, 2014, para. 5). Adm. McRaven likened his personal experience at Navy SEAL training to general challenges one should expect to face during his or her life and explained the lessons one should take from them if one’s eventual goal is to change the world for the better.
Qualitative research methods were applied to the speech to determine and identify the themes therein and construct a theoretical framework based on these themes. Inductive analysis was performed to detect any thematic connections between the speech’s themes and generate a theory of the values prescribed in the message as they apply to achieving an eventual ultimate goal (Farquhar, 2012). The contents of the speech were coded based on the frequency of certain word’s appearance and classified; then, the codes were interpreted to identify themes emerging in the speech’s message (Gagnon, 2010a; Miles, et al., 2014). The themes were then iterated and extrapolated to produce a theory proposal that can be applied to further research (Yin, 2017). In absence of an established coding scheme for the subject, a new one had to be developed to interpret this data.
Coding and Interpreting
The following codes were identified within Adm. McRaven’s speech.
Table 1. Codes and Emerging Themes in Adm. McRaven’s Speech
Expanded descriptions of the codes:
- Personal advice/experience: anecdotes from Adm. McRaven’s speech are presented as personal experience.
- Equal opportunity: anyone can change the world, regardless of his or her “gender,… ethnic or religious background,… orientation or… social status.” (McRaven, 2014, para. 11).
- Long-term changes: a change can have an increasing effect in the future.
- Minute changes: a seemingly minor action can have a significant effect.
- Cooperation: to be successful, one needs support from friends and colleagues, as well as good leadership.
- Hope, darkest moment: hope, particularly when the struggle is at its most challenging, is a crucial factor for changing the world for the better.
- Necessity of failure: failure is inevitable, but also a critical part of the learning process and one’s path to success.
- Subtle successes: accomplishing small tasks helps one achieve more significant accomplishments.
Analyzing these codes allows one to establish two major themes in the speech. The first is of changing the world, directly mentioned by Adm. McRaven 20 times. This theme covers both opportunities to change the world, and the effects and consequences that actions can have. The second theme, one of overcoming struggles, discusses the process behind accomplishing any goals, which can be applied to both global and daily endeavors, as well as the relation between them. The two themes are always presented as related: while anyone has the opportunity to change the world, particular personal characteristics are required to make use of this opportunity.
Discussion and Findings
Based on the above analysis, one can begin to formulate a series of values espoused in Adm. McRaven’s speech. Changing the world for the better is presented as one’s ultimate goal in life. The opportunity to achieve this goal is available to anyone, regardless of attributes such as ethnic background or social status. These attributes include one’s military history, specifically mentioned in the speech despite its use of Adm. McRaven’s personal experience and Navy SEAL training as backing. Personal qualities that affect one’s decision making and behavior are described as being crucial to making use of one’s opportunity to change the world. These qualities are primarily related to one’s fortitude and perseverance in the face of adversity. Resilience, cooperation and leadership are also presented as necessary to accomplish this goal.
As the speech is presented through a lens of personal experience, these qualities are shown as being refined by overcoming adversity. This theme is explored in detail, providing specific examples of these values being tested in Navy SEAL training. An important part of this theme is that this testing is not always obvious to the person being tested. In particular, the inevitability of failure and one’s tolerance for it is presented in the form of an impossibly strict inspection with a severe punishment for failure. A significant portion of the speech is dedicated to these challenges and tests, presenting them as necessary counterparts to the positive values required by the ideal.
These themes and sub-themes are used to describe a positive ideal towards which the addressees of the speech should strive. The ideal is defined by a goal to which one should aspire, and particular personal values required to achieve this goal. Furthermore, it specifically shows that external characteristics do not preclude one from embodying this ideal, drawing attention to the lack of relation between these characteristics and the ideal’s values. The personal side of the speech is a significant component in conveying the ideal: by presenting his allusions as personal experience, Adm. McRaven emphasizes the possibility of achieving this ideal. This observation is relevant to the presentation of speeches or ideals in general, however, rather than describing a particular ideal itself.
Conceptual Framework
Based on the above findings, one can start developing a conceptual framework for messages that describe personal ideals or attempt to inspire listeners towards these ideals. The two major themes identified in the speech can be extrapolated to form two broad categories which can be applied in further research of similar messages (Gagnon, 2010b). The first category is related to the goals that one following the ideal should strive to accomplish. It also includes the possible steps towards, and consequences of achieving the goal and the relation between them. In Adm. McRaven’s speech, this category is represented by the broad statement of changing the world for the better, and the theme of seemingly insignificant actions being able to affect a significant number of people.
The second category describes the values or attitudes required to embody the ideal. This category can also include the challenges one can expect to face in discovering or refining these values or attitudes. The frequency of each value’s appearance in the message can be used to estimate its importance for the ideal. Additionally, specific actions that fall in line with these ideals and attitudes can be placed in this category. Furthermore, the relationships between each value and aspects of the ideal’s goal can be identified by examining how often they are mentioned together in a passage.
Two more categories can be proposed, but occupying a less central position in the framework. One describing the limitations of the ideal, qualities and negative values that might preclude one from embodying the ideal or the values, or achieving the ideal’s goals. Additionally, this category can include descriptions of qualities and values that specifically do not conflict with the ideal, such as background or social status in Adm. McRaven’s speech.
Finally, a fourth category can describe the ideal’s possibility; whether the goals and values described are realistic. More specifically, it can extend describe to the difficulty of upholding the ideal’s values or accomplishing its goal. The relationship between failing to uphold the values and negative consequences of such failures also fall within this category. Additionally, the relationships between failing to uphold some values of the ideal and consequences can be examined to determine whether it is possible to partially embody the ideal.
Taken together, these four categories can be used to comprehensively examine and compare ideals as they are presented in various types of messaging. Different messages can be compared to attempt to identify any common values or goals across their respective ideals. Unifying themes or contradictions can likewise be detected and described. Findings under this conceptual framework can be further used to improve and refine one’s messaging to better describe and represent the ideal it is intended to promote.
References
McRaven, W. H. (2014) Adm. McRaven urges graduates to find courage to change the world. UT News. Web.
Farquhar, J. D. (2012). Managing and analysing data. In Case study research for business (pp. 84-99). SAGE.
Gagnon, Y. (2010a). Stage 6: Analyzing data. In The case study as research method: A practical handbook (pp. 69-82). Les Presses de l’Université du Québec (EBSCO ebook Collection).
Gagnon, Y. (2010b). Stage 7: Interpreting data. In The case study as research method: A practical handbook. (pp.83-92). Les Presses de l’Université du Québec (EBSCO ebook Collection).
Miles, M. B., Huberman, A. M., & Saldaña, J. (2014). Qualitative data analysis: A methods sourcebook.. SAGE Publications.
Yin, R.K. (2017). Case study research and applications: Design and methods (6th ed.). Sage Publications
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