Wyzga On Words

Lawyers are Suspicious of Stories That Do Not Come Packaged in Structures.

I am delighted to have been invited to join Kathy Hansen's blog, A Storied Career!

Just in case you missed us, over the next several days I'll be re-posting the interview she conducted with me and began publishing on April 9th.

Click here for the 3rd post.

Nurses Hold the Space for Patients, Families to Tell Their Stories.

I am delighted to have been invited to join Kathy Hansen's blog, A Storied Career!

Just in case you missed us, over the next several days I'll be re-posting the interview she conducted with me and began publishing on April 9th.

Here's the second post

Content + Context + Value = Emotionally Meaningful Story.

I am delighted to have been invited to join Kathy Hansen's blog, A Storied Career!

Just in case you missed us, over the next several days I'll be re-posting the interview she conducted with me and began publishing on April 9th.

Here's the first post:

Content + Context + Value = Emotionally Meaningful Story.

What Decision-Makers Look For From The Lawyer.

A book review holds a good lesson for lawyers. 

Sylvia Brownrigg writing for the NYTimes Book Review, "A Wedding and a Funeral,"  leads with several observations sure to be shared by readers and speech listeners alike. Excerpt.

"A very good book is not only more satisfying, memorable and coherent than its lesser neighbors on the shelves. It’s also more relaxing to read. That wary inhalation as you take in the first lines — Will I believe in these characters? How distracted will I be by implausible dialogue, or forced plotlines? — lasts a page or two and then gives over to a long, slow breath of relief. You don’t have to worry. This writer knows exactly what she’s doing. She won’t let you down."

Lawyers, speakers, politicians, what are the take-aways here?

TIP:    Have you developed believable witnesses or characters?  Do they have fidelity to what we know?

TIP:    Will the listener or decision-maker be distracted by implausible rhetoric?  Plotlines that fail to hang together seamlessly?  Is your trial story or presentation congruent from start to finish?  Or does it unravel like a poorly knit sock?

TIP:     Do you know exactly what you want to convey and to whom so your listeners and decision-makers can relax into the story, go with you on that virtual journey, and "translate images into action"?

Q&A Tuesday: Do You Know That ASTC's 31st Annual Conference Is June 7th to 9th In New Orleans?

Q:    I heard tell that the American Society of Trial Consultants is holding its 31st Annual Conference in New Orleans.  What's happening?

A:    We are so jazzed to have the opportunity to learn, play, connect and succeed!

TIP:    Check out the ASTC website for an overview of the conference, registration and sponsorship opportunities.

TIP:    Get ready to let the good times role by reading through Conference Planning Committee Member Patricia Rhinehart's list of just a few things to do:

If you love music, New Orleans is the place to be! There’s music all over: people playing in the streets, on sidewalks and in the open-air cafes.

The best thing about the French Quarter is Royal and Chartres. Royal Street of course has great shops and all the fabulous art galleries. Check here for maps.

Stop at the Monteleone Hotel and have a drink at the Carousel Bar.  It's old, it's beautiful, and yes - it's a moving bar!

There's a great little restaurant on Orleans Avenue behind the cathedral - Orleans Grapevine - small, quaint, known for excellent wines.

Check out The Green Goddess. Something of a hole in the wall, but the food and the chef are SO worth it!!!

St. Louis Cathedral is a great stop for a beautiful church with pretty stained glass and even more history.   You may catch a wedding party spilling out into the square and second lining down Royal Street.

Frenchmen Street in the Marigny is New Orleans funky with lots of clubs for listening to music. Watch the clock for the Witching Hour!

Take the streetcar down St. Charles and get off at Lee's Circle.There's the Ogden Museum of Southern Art . A must see.

From there venture down Julia street and others in the Warehouse District  for Galleries and restaurants. 

For military buffs there is the National World War II Museum - a great and moving tribute to the service of the greatest generation.

Continue the streetcar down St. Charles through the Garden District  to Uptown and the University area. 

Stop at Carrollton Avenue and grab some breakfast or lunch at the Camellia Grill before spending some time shopping in the Riverbend area.

If you have access to a car go down Magazine Street for shopping and eating - where the locals go!

See you there when the good times roll!

"Emotional Meaning Leads To Listener Action."

My dear friend, colleague, author, writer, mediator, blogger and story-tracker, Stephanie West Allen, emailed me the link to The Inside Story, an article on the power of narrative by Peter Gruber published in Psychology Today.

Gruber's article is a tidy review of what we storytellers live and breathe.  Excerpt.

"Telling stories is not just the oldest form of entertainment, it's the highest form of consciousness. The need for narrative is embedded deep in our brains. Increasingly, success in the information age demands that we harness the hidden power of stories. Here's what you need to know to tell a killer tale."

I was encouraged to revisit many of the themes I have been writing and speaking about since 1994 when a book of stories fell off a shelf into my hand and said, "Come follow us."  Themes like "virtual journey" which Gruber calls "virtual transportation."  Either way you look at it the notion is a well told story invites the listener inside the story to share the experience. Remember to release them at the end.   

Stories are not fluff - they have become the "cornerstones of our conscience" as lawyers have learned. Pull accurately on the collective community conscience and you are likely to get them on your side of an argument.

This is another oft-told notion:

"The first rule of telling stories is to give the audience—whether it's one business person or a theater full of moviegoers—an emotional experience. The heart is always the first target in telling purposeful stories. Stories must give listeners an emotional experience if they are to ignite a call to action."

As I wrote on bookmark give-aways in 2003:

"Storytelling thrives on imagination.  Images touch the heart and become sensations, sensations trigger memories, memories create meaning and meaning leads to listener action."

Any story must be emotionally meaningful for the listener to care about it. That does not mean the story has to be emotional and fraught with drama.  No.  It must evoke a value or values that the listener identifies with as personal to them and their life experience, their view of how the world turns.  This is especially true of decision-makers, those people you want to give you some action in exchange for the story.

Not all of us are called to be storytellers.  There are three distinct and interwoven parts to any story: the story itself, the teller and the listener.  Listening attends to the images and helps translate the metaphors into "this is like that."  Without the listener there is no story.

If it's true that we read to know we are not alone, I believe we listen to stories for the same reason. 

How Memorable Are Your Words? Or Is It All Charisma And Passion?

On March 23rd I read the following post from The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor:

"It was on this day in 1775 the lawyer Patrick Henry spoke at the Second Virginia Convention in Richmond, a meeting of American colonial leaders that included George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. The four-day assembly turned into a fierce debate about whether or not to raise a militia and arm Virginia in the fight against the British. On the topic, Patrick Henry delivered a famous speech that probably included the line "Give me liberty or give me death!" At least, some people thought he did.

There was a problem with Henry's speeches. They were charismatic and passionate, but afterward, no one could remember what he had said. Thomas Jefferson said of Henry: "When he had spoken in opposition to my opinion, had produced a great effect, and I myself had been highly delighted and moved, I have asked myself when he ceased: 'What the devil has he said?' I could never answer the inquiry."

The speech wasn't written down until 1816, by Henry's biographer, William Wirt. Wirt talked to people who had been present at the speech and had them reconstruct it from their memories."

What struck me were the words of Thomas Jefferson asking, "What the devil has he said?"

Who here has asked the same question after hearing a lawyer, speaker or presenter?  Who here has had the courage to ask it of her own work?

TIP:    To ensure that your listeners and decision-makers are not asking the same question Jefferson posed, make certain that your speech, oral argument, presentation and the like blends content (facts) with context (the set of circumstances that surround a particular event or situation and give meaning to the content):  Content + Context.

TIP:    Support or undergird the "Content + Context" storyline with a value or set of values to create emotional meaning for your listeners.  For example: Rail Train Crash (content) + Engineer Sending Text Messages (Context) + Inattention, Safety, Disregard (Values).  The emotional meaning you deliberately created grounds the story in the listeners' own world view so they remember what you said and, if necessary will act on your words. 

TIP:     Create memorable arguments and presentations (oral and written) by incorporating The Mighty Three Elements I call "Power, Passion and Precision" - weighting each element equally.

What other tips have worked for you to create meaning and action for your listeners and decision-makers?

 

Key Goal For Focus Group Research: Abandon "Predictions."

I am often asked about the value of focus groups, especially since many lawyers are moderating their own research.

3 TIPS:

1. As a communication and litigation consultant, my purpose in facilitating focus groups is to assess case issues and strengthen the presentation strategy. The overall goal is to gather insights and feedback about the issues from research participants representative of a typical jury in the jurisdiction where the case will be tried.
2. The savvy lawyer knows it is of paramount strategic importance to learn how jury members typical of this trial venue would perceive the case, and how those perceptions might drive the findings of liability and damages - before trial.
3. Are focus groups predictive? No. Focus groups are not predictive. Focus group research is a source of information for understanding juror perceptions and strengthening the case presentation.

Listen To The Decision-Maker. Don't Just Look At Them.

                        

A few weeks back I was in a courtroom helping the trial team select a panel of jurors to hear a three week trial.

We had a weekend to sort through the venire panel's answers to a 65-question supplemental juror questionnaire (SJQ).  We made preliminary decisions based on the written responses.  We thought we knew something of the members of the venire panel.  Armed with their responses we planned our follow up in court.

One woman in particular was intriguing.  Her responses read well on the SJQ.  She answered appropriately.  She appeared favorable to our side.  But there was something about her expression that was unsettling. 

This woman smiled constantly.  She smiled in the jury box. She smiled when she was excused from the courtroom.  She smiled when she talked with fellow panelists.  She smiled when she responded to the attorneys' questions. 

It was too much smiling; it was misleading, disingenuous smiling. And it was a clue.

Despite having previously agreed to let the distraught and grieving parents attend key portions of the trial, this woman later demanded a hearing with the judge to tell him in no uncertain terms that she resented (yes, resented!) having to sit through day after day of an emotionally difficult trial when the same demand was not made on the grieving parents of the dead child. 

What does one thing have to do with another?

In a recent study reported in Scientific American, How Emotions Jump From Face to Face, researchers found that:

"Across two studies, lead author Rebecca Neel and her colleagues found that male faces were more likely to grab anger from the face next to them, and female faces were more likely to grab happiness. Interestingly, this was not just a matter of people seeing male faces as more angry and female faces as more happy (an effect shown in several previous studies): the errors were most common when the emotion came from the adjacent face.

While this grabbing seems like an automatic process of visual perception, it can be influenced by biases we hold about the social world. Expectations shape perceptions (and misperceptions).  Since we tend to assume men are more aggressive and women are more nurturing, we’re more likely to see men as angry and women as happy. Snap judgments happen easily as we scan our environments looking for social cues. It may seem a serious design flaw in a diverse modern society, but our brains have evolved to make constant and routine approach-avoid assessments called ‘affordance management’ decisions. At the creature level, we’re trying to minimize risk and maximize opportunity. It’s more costly to miss cues of impending danger than it is to mistakenly assume that someone is threatening, so we err on the side of caution. Men have historically posed a greater physical threat than women, so the angry face is suddenly male. Females are seen as posing little threat and ample opportunity for connection, so our brains maximize opportunity by assuming a woman is friendly and eager to interact (or take care of us) even when she isn’t."  [Emphasis added.]

This potential juror had it written all over her: I can pose a threat.

TIP:    

Do not mistakenly assume that the friendlies are the ones with the smiling faces. 

Do not mistakenly assume that the enemies are the ones with the angry faces.

Listen to voir dire with the whole body, and pay attention to what you know about people.

Do You Or Do You Not Scroll The Text When Playing Videotaped Deposition Testimony?

Typically, depositions are now recorded in some mode of videography to preserve the testimony in real time.

Later, during focus group research, mock trials, settlement conferences, mediations and courtroom testimony clips of the witnesses' depositions may be played  for a variety of purposes.  For example, the litigation consultant may wish to test the credibility of a particular witness; the attorney may wish to show some discrepancies in the opposing party's expert opinions; or the trial attorney may use the film in place of a witness who cannot attend trial, to impeach a witness or to further develop the legal story.  Many trial attorneys are familiar with a trial tool called Sanction Litigation Software to make powerful use of deposition testimony.

More often than not in each of these scenarios and others a scrolling text of the testimony appears in sync with the deponent's spoken words. As one who enjoys foreign films I've gotten accustomed to watching the action on the screen while reading the subtitles.  The experience is similar when I attend an opera in its original German or Italian; but the "subtitles" often scroll across the top of the stage.

However, no matter how carefully one watches and listens, the effect is the same: you may end up sacrificing a bit of visual and auditory attention to get the best of both worlds: accurate understanding and interpretation of the story being told.

I raise this so you might ask yourself whether the synced text is a help or a hindrance to advancing the decision-maker's comprehension.  In which situations does it help you tell the legal story and persuade to your point?  How might it hinder you from getting that point across? 

I believe it comes down to the purpose for which you are using the clip of the deposition testimony while keeping in mind decision-makers learn differently.  One might be distracted by the scrolling text while another needs it to clarify what she hears. 

To decide whether to scroll or not to scroll for comprehension, recall what you know about the best PowerPoint presentations.  Or the presentation secrets of Steve Jobs.  Often, more is less (yes, I meant to write it that way.)

TIPS:

1.    Ask yourself what you want the decision-makers to attend to:  Witness credibility?  Veracity of a statement or description?  The certainty of a conclusion versus an opinion?  Relevance?  Consistency of testimony?  Verbal cues?  Non-verbal tics?  Client likability? And the like.

2.    What is the setting?  Focus group research versus mock trial versus mediation, and so on.

3.    What do you want to come away with that will enhance your chance at verdict success?

4.    In focus group research you can do it both ways: play the testimony with and without the sound and synced scrolling text.  You can inquire of the research participants: who noticed what?  some may have attended to the non-verbal cues of the deponent; others may pick up on tone of voice and the emphasis (or not) on certain words.

5.     Once you determine the research or trial strategy then you can employ the tools to accomplish it. 

6.    Think before you scroll.