Knowledge Advocate

I left my law firm this month after ten years. The process of saying goodbye has been harder on me than I had imagined. Here are some musings about my path from law to business.

What’s different about trial work and business consulting?

The difference between law and business? Not much, in terms of outcome. Litigators use communication skills to discover, uncover, filter and focus. Those verbs help process what people have to say when stories conflict. In court, witnesses share facts and opinions. That’s evidence that helps juries right wrongs. The best lawyers help juries see, hear and feel the story that makes the most sense for them. Juries then act on that knowing to make the hard decisions that end lawsuits.

So, what’s the same about law and business communication skills?

Like business consultants, trial lawyers are facilitators and moderators. They have one basic job: help decision makers make the right decisions by making sure the flow of information is clear and compelling. When trial lawyers manage that flow well, they drive smart decisions. Lawyers unclog the flow, improve it, and condense it down so that the jury can decide things with the right evidence in mind.

Juries and leaders all make better decisions when the right evidence appears at the right time. They all benefit from access to a free flow of relevant information. Finally, great outcomes happen when the information flow is swift and smart because that’s when the best choices become obvious, even under hard conditions.

So, what has trial law taught you about communications consulting?

This post offers some personal reflections about the practice of law as I consider my transformation from trial work to business consulting. I hope the post offers you some helpful insights that can aid your own journey. Below are five key learnings, my top take-aways from law as I head further into the field of communications work. I hope these learnings trigger some useful thoughts for you.

1) It’s all about the story

Great litigators tell stories and stories win lawsuits. Litigators rely on three basic elements of great story telling: hooks; headlines; and burning questions. They set those out in themes, introduce actors, define settings, and keep things moving along without giving away too much at one time.

Juries want to know how to help and need the context for doing so. Stories let juries learn better because they connect past experiences to the current facts of the case. Juries tend to see things in the story like they’ve seen things in the past (visual learners), or heard (auditory learners), or felt (kinesthetic learners). How juries learn helps them know from “inside out” what really happened to cause the lawsuit.

Business can miss story lines, neglect engaging hooks, and get off track from burning questions in the pursuit of ROI, quarterly returns, and office politics. Business benefits from powerful stories that, when told, drive smart outcomes based on filling in the story line. Business fills the story in with evidence that proves which next steps make the most sense and why. Well told stories frame the stout proof that delivers business success.

2) Edges of knowledge are as important as the centers

I learned a painful lesson in law school over a footnote. The footnote was hidden deep inside a judge’s opinion so I missed it. That one footnote made all the difference in the opinion’s outcome. That day my reading style changed and so did my daily fact gathering, including how I question others.

Everything matters until we know better. Because that’s true, lawyers tend to leave few stones unturned, few footnotes unread, and few talks undiscovered. That’s not always so in business. Leaders can say, “Don’t tell me what I need to know, tell me what I want to hear!” Tell it to me in 60 seconds, they say, give me the top three bullet points.

It would be nice to get things done without having to hear and see the important stuff. Sadly, it doesn’t always work that way. Bullet points and elevator pitches can neglect small, really important facts. Law taught me to explore the deepest areas of what we know at the edges of our knowledge. Business can benefit from this lesson too. No surprise to me: solutions often live near the outer limits of what we know.

3) Question more, answer less

The number one tool of trial lawyers is the question. With it, they can understand what witnesses say on direct examination and cross. Questions also help them pick jurors during jury selection, frame issues during opening statements, and clear things up during closing statements.

Questions are so powerful, in fact, that the law restricts their use with lots of rules. Those rules let adversary lawyers object to questions as they desperately emote and seek to confuse the questioner. Sometimes the judge sustains the objection and rejects the question. This process can be humiliating the first couple of times you experience it!

That’s why trial lawyers get great at asking tough questions. Practice makes perfect and lawyers ask folks a lot of questions under terrible conditions. Where else does another professional get paid to interrupt the questions and needle the questioner about language form and content? And another thing, the adversary lawyer also “prepares the witness in advance.” This is lawyer code for creating a deviously unhelpful witness whose practiced answers do nothing for the other side’s case.

By contrast, when folks are not obstructed and interrupted, questions help the flow of information move fast to get things said with best choices in mind. Questions serve another purpose too, they make things stick. That’s because folks who answer for themselves own those answers and adopt them faster then when the same things are told to them without their independent consideration. Law teaches that when it comes to conversation choice: ask don’t tell.

4) Match word choice and body language for one complete message

Trial work is performance art. As a young lawyer, my mentors instructed me to stop fumbling with my notes, calm my expressions down, and look presentable. “We’ve got the ‘looking good defense’ going,” my law partner would point out. Most lawyers don’t study body language; they do, however, practice it and get better at it through trial and error.

The outcome of matching words with body language is powerful because it forms a complete message that is more authentic. That type of message influences others without the extra noise of mixed-messages. Business works better when it combines body language with word choice to form one authentic, complete message. The best communicators combine non-verbal cues with their words to form one message.

5) Knowledge is a flow and a place; it’s more flow than place

When I would return from a bad day at trial I would sometimes feel like everything was lost. Bad evidence came in, an argument failed, or some other calamity struck. Here’s the good news: one bad day, one unfortunate “place” of knowledge, almost never completely sways the flow of knowledge on its path to the logical outcome.

We win or lose over a period of time because of the power or weakness of the flow of information, not because of any one bad day. Great litigators know that it’s better to honor the flow even when it takes unsuspecting turns. The best at business also respect the information flow and treat knowledge more as a flow than a place. With practice and patience the flow of information will always drive the best available outcomes.

Next steps for my work

I conclude this post with a pledge. I commit to continue my path toward better communication through training and practice. I will devote massive energy and resources to improve the flow of information in the hallways and conference rooms of our businesses. Technology, science, and new understandings frame our opportunities and light our path in new and unsuspecting ways. We are in exciting times and I am honored to be part of the new knowledge advocacy. I will continue to heartily advocate for the flow of knowledge that surrounds us all.

Lastly, a thank you.

I end with a special offer of thanks to all the friends and colleagues who have been here for me and who join with me along this exploration of knowledge as a flow. Their companionship continues to be invaluable during this period of transition. They are my wellspring of creativity and the source from which my own energy renews. I thank them for their aid, assistance, and friendship.

When I lecture on communications skills, my “talk about talk,” I know some folks in every crowd do mental gymnastics over the following:

Is his communication skills class trying to change my personality???

The big “HECK NO” comes out of my presentation in many ways. The clearest way I know to say it:

Our personalities and our communication skills are not stuck together.

This is a freeing thought. If I decide to change my communication skills, perhaps question better or learn how to be silent without offering any body language or non-verbal cues whatsoever, it does not require a complete personality overhaul.

So we don’t need to know our Myers Briggs type to improve how we talk?

That’s exactly my point! No need to know if we are an introvert or extrovert, sensor or feeler, high influencer or big connector– talk skills are skills, and we get better talk skills when we have access to great talk tools.

Great talk tools work for all of us, regardless of our personality.

I have a hunch: if we focus more on talk tools and less on personality types we will get more done and like each other better while we’re at it.

I wrote a paper on collaboration with Mike Mayeux of Novotus for a talk with Austin Technology Council members. The paper has come up recently. Mike’s keen insight on the interplay between people and the IT system that stores their thoughts, habits, and outputs brought about this to-do list when picking software to help your company collaborate on-line:

1.   Decide on the technology;

2.   Commit from the top and make the CEO the biggest fan of the project;

3.   Build out the IT solution with the future users in mind;

4.   Hold the software back while bugs and specific uses get sorted out;

5.   Interview future users to capture key knowledge, preferences, etc.;

6.   Populate the information you find and give credit to the originators;

7.   Prepare the way by getting everyone excited about the project;

8.   Train people on how to use it;

9.   Appoint a hero, the person who champions & oversees the technology;

10. Create excitement about using it;

11. Reward use;

12. Make information flow with changes, new features, and useful benefits.

The paper expands on these notions and demonstrates success for Mayeux and his company. Feel free to contact me if you would like a copy: Collaborationpaper@knowledgeadvocate.com.

On-line collaboration needs great software and people who are willing and able to use it.

Making sense is alluring. However, exclusive efforts to make sense, particularly before we seek sense first, ensures that we miss common sense on the way to misunderstanding what other people say.

How common is common sense?

Not so common. This is because we all “make sense” in a unique way. There is no “make sense” class in school, and we rarely ever talk about how we come to our senses.

How do you come to your senses?

That’s the key question (almost never directly asked) in every conversation where finding common sense is a goal. For what reasons is that so? How do you connect that thought with what’s been said so far?

Seek sense, it will solve a lot of communication problems.

Great questions seek sense. They hover around concepts and thoughts and opinions and tap into what supports them: feelings, past experiences, intuition. They all play a role. Investigating them is critical.

Make sense to remain comfortable; seek it to truly understand how things get done.

Lawyers win lawsuits by presenting evidence to juries. Some folks term a process that relies on evidence “evidence-based.” Lawyers are not the only ones who benefit from evidence-based proof. Medical professionals have adopted the term evidence-based to support smart decisions that save lives. Business consulting benefits from an evidence-based approach too. An evidence-based consult allows the consultant to marshal evidence that harnesses great client results.

Finding that evidence and putting it to good use can solve complex problems fast. The evidence provides proof that the solutions offered work, and for what reasons. If the solutions do not work, the evidence makes clear the reasons for that too. Even after the consultant is done, retaining that evidence is a smart way for the client to track back and trend decisions that were made to see how the evidence worked out over time.

Proving business consults based on sound evidence makes good sense.

Job interviews are well-suited for learning how a person ticks. When my clients ask me to do so, I conduct pre-hire interviews as a “user’s guide.” The process is helpful for the person as well as for the employer because it turns out it helps both understand how the person gets things done and for what reasons.

Here are some of the areas I consider:

Motivations (what makes this person go, particularly when his or her fumes run low);

Goals (what does he or she aim for on the job and what does it look like when he or she gets there);

Behaviors (any particular user instructions worth noting, what standard operating procedure governs);

Fuel/resources (what makes things run right);

Range/flexibility (how far can he or she go, what does “stretch” feel like);

Needs (what feedback, relevance and recognition help this person stay productive);

“Evolvability” (what does change look like for him or her, how hard is it to come by);

Contribution (is he/she a team player or an individual contributor, describe play with others);

Purpose (for what reasons does this person want the job, to what end);

Quality (how does he or she compare himself or herself with others);

Expertise (what are the core talents, skills and competencies of this person and how do they operate).

Questions about past bosses and mentors and their impressions about the person help explore the above topics. When either of those is hard for the person to talk about, what friends and work colleagues think will suffice. Hypotheticals, analogies, and metaphors help delve into these topics too.

What would others who have worked with the person say about them? How does this person’s guidance system work? What does his or her navigation equipment look like? Is it reliable? When the person runs out of gas, has a danger light come on, or has some other calamity happen, what comes next? Folding these type of questions in helps better understand where the person stands on things.

These topics benefit from an exploration of his or her strength and style. Investigating the person’s duties and responsibilities helps explain his or her future potential. Focus on a given topic sheds light as well, for example, “Describe a role where you changed over time and let us both relive the steps you took to get from one place to another?” Always consider how he or she communicates with others and also, when he or she thinks through things alone.

To find the right people it pays to understand how they get things done: a user’s guide is a great start!

You know what I am talking about? Those skinny, wee little arrows that populate most flow charts. The arrows point us in the right direction and walk us through a sequence of events from one box to another, or from a box to a circle, triangle or other shape. Do this, then that, then the other thing. All the way to the end, or more common, to do it all over again (like in the infamous feedback loop: rinse, wash, repeat).

Why are the arrows so skinny?

As far as I can tell, our knowledge diet makes those arrows do all the heavy lifting in real life. That is where all the good, rich stuff gets done. The space in between the events, the time and space from the first box to the next one in a flow chart, that is where the magic happens!

So, here’s to robust arrows!

Knowledge is a flow and a place. Let’s honor the flow more. Give those arrows more room, let ‘em roam a bit. They are really important to our bottom line way of getting things done.

If you are into flow charts, that is.

Thinking is critical. We do lots of it. It helps us clarify what’s what. How things might go. Where it might be happening for us. Coulds, shoulds, oughts, mights. The work of getting it out, on the page, and viewable is key. When that happens, it’s generally true: it’s less than we think and more than we do.

Solving the knowing/doing gap happens when we get a handle on this funny equation. Part of the handle of getting around to it is having more thinking to noodle over in the first place. That way, we can know which part is the “less” part of the “less than we think” and which part is the “more” part of the “more than we do.”

Part of the handle, of course, is knowing when we are done with our thinking. By then, it’s high time for us to get to our doing.

80 percent. That is the oft-quoted percentage of knowledge that walks out the door when folks leave a job. What are we doing about that? Does it make sense to let it just evaporate away like that? Heck no! Here’s what Knowledge Advocate does about it for our clients:

1) before the interview we get to know the person’s area of expertise –  this is the territory, contours, and boundaries of what he or she knows and our prework prepares us to explore it;

2) we carefully read and review the legacy of the person’s body of work – we collect the documents and other work-product the expert put together during his or her work and prepare it to share it during our interview– these things trigger great memories and ensure stuff that needs saying gets said;

3) we acknowledge that experts have a hard time explaining the every day stuff they do – we are all expert at something and know those routine patterns and habits are hard to explain; as a result, we accept the challenge involved with uncovering and revealing hard-to-explain know-how so we can connect how important it is to the company’s bottom line;

4) we prepare a strategy for the interview specially tailored to the expert — our strategy involves hunches and our skilled, highly trained knowledge instinct– we do not use an outline of standard questions; that’s because we know people are organic and the last thing they want to hear is a set of standard questions, instead they want to hear questions tailored to their special circumstances and that honor the experts they truly have become;

5) our well-crafted tactics honor the person, respect his or her details, and simplify meaning — we connect and link what is said with the things we sense matter most for those who will inherit the person’s legacy; whenever we ask questions there is always a future audience on our mind and we work as if they were in the room with us to ensure that what we capture is easy to understand later;

6) we bundle what we hear into stories that are easy to understand and easy to act upon — during the interview and after it we capture the spirit of what we hear in narratives that explain how, why, when, where, and for whom the person acted with his or her expertise– the power of great exit interviews comes from the stories that the departing person is able to leave behind;

7) finally, we get feedback to clarify that we captured the right stuff — people do not always get to say on the spot what they mean and intend; to absolutely confirm we got it right we interact with the expert after the interview and confirm that what was said makes sense– this step let’s us confirm who will benefit most from what the expert talked about and how to best maximize its value.

We know our attention to details, respect for the person’s expertise, and extreme skill at asking flowing questions rather than static/formulatic questions makes all the difference in our exit interviews. With our top notch questioning method, we ensure that our clients hold onto the stuff that matters most, those smart thoughts that drive market excellence and corporate advantage.

One septrillian. What the heck is that? Rumor has it, that is the number of “things” that happen at every moment of every day to keep us keeping on. Think of it as a “1″ with lots of zeroes behind it. Cells grow, cells get removed, the heart and liver and kidneys all work, we eat, we do other things, everything works [mostly]! It is truly amazing, so much going on.

One this is certain: we need to control almost none of it. No worries about gas exchange, food digestion, viral attacks, etc. Phew. So, how much do we control at any moment of our day? Even if biofeedback or deep meditation are your things, maybe 150 different things? For the rest of us, maybe 20 things (at our peak effort)?

So how are we doing with the stuff we do control? The thoughts in our day; the talk that presents our findings. We also move, walk, finish tasks, that kind of thing, we are generally conscious of those things (although some stuff is such habit as to make it to autopilot status, like the drive to work for example). Also, we consciously seek sense: seeing, smelling, hearing, tasting, balancing, and touching.

How are we coordinating the things “we” find out with the one septrillian other things on autopilot? This post is about the portion of the one septrillian that help us think through things and come up with stuff about how to navigate through the day. It is a post about managing those things so we do best by our entire body. These are the extra things, for example, that happen inside us and become our dreams, inform our guts, and make our hearts stop.

How are we managing the vast majority of things we do not control with the 20 or so things we do control? Funny how management of our own bodies compares well to management of our corporate “bodies.” Here is a quick list of things to think about when managing the vast majority of things we do not control.

MANAGING THE BODY’S MANY ACTIVITIES, SIGNALS, AND HEADS-UPS

First, how do we know our cells have something to tell us?

Make it easy for them to be heard.

Second, how do we know they are trying to tell us something?

Listen carefully to what they have to say.

Third, how do we know what they say makes sense?

Get and give feedback.

Fourth, what should we do about it?

Make decisions.

Fifth, and then what?

Follow through.

And whatever else you do, be kind! This is our body after all, and we have to live with the consequences! It is amazing how much proper care and treatment of our own bodies correlates to how we care for and treat our corporate entities. Make room for hearing, listen carefully, get all the facts and evidence you can, come to conclusions and make solid decisions, and execute what needs to be done with due care.