The other day in kickboxing class, my Puerto Rican instructor was searching for the English word for articulación, pointing to his elbows and knees. It took me a moment to realize what he meant: he was talking about joints.
In English, we do have that meaning — articulation refers to joints in the body — but we rarely use it that way. For most English speakers, to be “articulate” means to speak or write clearly. It’s also the third step in a model we developed at TELL ME MORE® for businesses that engage in authentic, values-driven marketing:
Values → Positioning → Articulation → Execution
But the depth of the word expands when you consider its original foundation.
The word articulation comes from the Latin articulus, meaning a joint, knuckle, hinge, or division. It’s the diminutive form of artus — a limb or jointed part of the body. Interestingly, the English word joint traces back to another Latin root, iungere, meaning to join together. From it we also get junction and conjunction.
At its root, articulation is literally connective tissue — the joint that brings coherence to a body, allowing for movement, strength, and coordination.
In business, articulation brings parts together into a meaningful whole. Even more fundamentally, how we articulate helps create reality itself.
In many world religions, God speaks the universe into existence by naming the parts of reality and how they are divided and connected:
- light and darkness
- day and night
- sea and land
- heaven and earth
These distinctions are not separations meant to fragment reality. They are joints — articulated boundaries that allow life to emerge and relate. Creation is articulated order.
In the Beginning Was the Word
The Gospel of John makes this explicit: “In the beginning was the Word.” The Greek word John uses is logos, which means far more than “word.” It carries the sense of:
- speech
- reason
- meaning
- an ordering principle
- intelligibility itself
To say that reality begins with logos is to say that existence itself is articulated — jointed together through meaning.
Just as joints connect the parts of our bodies, words connect the parts of our businesses. When spoken coherently and with care, words bring meaning, integration, and wholeness. When sloppy, neglected, or absent, poor articulation creates confusion, anxiety, and fragmentation.
Articulation can also be weaponized. We see this constantly in politics and media, where words are used not to join but to divide — to inflame, distort, and dehumanize.
But the power of articulation cuts both ways.
In cognitive behavioral therapy, healing often begins by naming emotions and experiences that were previously overwhelming or wordless. In Catholicism, confession heals through speech — through repentance, truth-telling, and the re-ordering of one’s inner life toward love, joy, and peace.
Wedding vows create marriages. Laws shape societies. Articles (from the same root as articulation) clarify ideas and bring structure to thought.
Words don’t merely describe reality. They assemble it.
Bodies, Churches, and Businesses
Organizations function the same way bodies do.
Businesses, governments, and churches rise or fall on their ability to articulate an integrating vision — one that joins people into a coherent whole rather than scattering them into competing fragments.
The Apostle Paul makes this explicit in his metaphor of the Church as a body, pointing out that all of the parts of the body—eyes, ears, hands, and feet—are different parts with distinct roles, but still one body. And then he delivers the ethical core of the metaphor: “If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it.”
Paul’s articulation of what a healthy church is is the blueprint for the health of any organization.
I recently heard this principle articulated beautifully by the CEO of a construction company we met with: “We refuse to take on work if we can’t follow through on our promises. All that does is create stress. If our team is driving to the job site already overwhelmed, they won’t do great work. That’s when mistakes happen. That’s when safety problems happen. I want our employees to look forward to going to work.”
That’s leadership that understands that clarity reduces stress — and that articulated coherence enables excellence.
Articulation Is an Inside-Out Practice
The Bible suggests that humans are made in the image and likeness of God. Just as God created the universe, we all have the creative power of articulation to create our businesses and our lives. But having the capacity to articulate doesn’t mean we do it well.
Like any meaningful craft, articulation requires practice:
- joining values to behavior
- joining vision to execution
- joining people to purpose
At TELL ME MORE, we believe this is the foundation of marketing and business itself.
Most marketing agencies treat marketing as a collection of tactics — funnels, split tests, keyword research, social posts — starting with execution and hoping coherence emerges later.
We believe marketing is an inside-out process: clarifying who you are, what you stand for, and how your work fits together before expressing it outwardly. When this is done well, what you say about yourself flows naturally through your people, your culture, and the way work actually gets done.
Values → Positioning → Articulation → Execution
When articulation is done well, businesses don’t just communicate better — they become more whole, more humane, and more sustainable. Because articulation, at its deepest level, is how scattered things are joined back together.
And that might be the work we need most right now.