Episode #1 - The First Techniques of Learn, Analyze and Apply
How to ask open questions, create themes and offer two sides of an opinion
Welcome to the initial episode of Think Like a Lawyer, a new Substack that introduces non-lawyers to how lawyers approach and deal with real-life situations. In this episode, we will present three techniques that, taken together, will get you started in your journey to learning how lawyers think.
In this presentation, we will break the techniques into three categories that will govern how we present all our techniques:
Learn: how do you gather up the information – both the facts and the adjectives?
Analyze: how do you assess the facts and descriptions you learned?
Apply: how do you act on that assessment? You take your analysis to what you communicate to others.
So, let's get started.
Learn
The best way to gather information from people is to ask questions. And the best way to conduct an interview is with open questions. So here it is, our first technique.
When you want to learn something from someone, ask an open question, one that starts with:
Who?
What?
Where?
Why?
When?
How?
Please explain…
The idea is that an open question prompts the other person to answer with more than one word (yes, no, or I don't know). You will hear what the other person has to say, which should provoke more questions.
After all, if you don't know the answer in advance, why would you limit its scope? Look at these two examples:
Bad Example:
Q: Did you go to a party last night?
A: Yes.
What did you learn?
Good Example:
Q: What did you do last night?
A: I went to this great party with a bunch of my pals. We went to …
You learned a whole lot more, right?
Exercise:
The next time you chat with someone, challenge that person to ask only open questions, and you will do the same. Each time one of you asks a closed question (likely one that starts with "Did you …" or "Were you…" or "Have you…"), impose a demerit point. After a few minutes, compare your scores.
Analyze
When you hear a story from someone or read one in a newspaper or other publication, it may be difficult to determine the nature of the story, who was the 'good guy' or whether the result was positive. You may not even notice that the story made no sense.
Here's a technique to boil the story into its basics and determine whether you got it or not. Imagine you are telling that story. Start with its theme. Say, "This story is about…" and add the theme. Maybe it's about a girl's regretting a poor decision, a teacher's success at getting through to a difficult student, or a patient's recovery from an illness. Whatever.
You likely didn't get the story's point if you can't summarize it in a few words.
Exercise:
The next time you watch or hear the news on TV or radio, or read a news report online, take a moment after the story ends and create the theme. Put yourself into the chair of the newsreader and introduce the story with, "Now here's a story about …".
Apply
You have gathered some information and created a theme that you believe applies to that information. Now ask yourself, what do I think about that? What should I do about it, or what would I recommend others do?
The challenge is to see the other side's point of view (if there is one) or to create another side if there isn't. Lawyers are constantly asking themselves about the other side of a story. You should, too.
So, here's the first Apply technique. Create not one but two different recommendations. Make sure that the second is NOT consistent with the first. It should be a genuine choice because someone can't do both. Create some reasons why each choice is the better one. Even if you don't believe the second choice makes sense. Especially then. Try very hard to understand why both options have at least some merit.
Exercise:
There is always an election going on somewhere. Find one that's at least a little interesting to you. Pick one candidate and:
Learn about that candidate's qualifications or platform.
Analyze to create a theme to describe that candidate.
Apply what you created to advocate both for AND against supporting that candidate.
Here’s a 7-minute podcast that lays out each of the three initial techniques that get you starting to Think Like a Lawyer.