Episode #3 - Three More Techniques (9, so far)
How to create a headline, start a story and lay out the roadmap for a memo.
This is 'Think Like a Lawyer', the Substack that introduces non-lawyers to how lawyers approach and deal with real-life situations. In Episode #2, we presented three follow-on techniques to those in the first episode, one each in these categories:
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?
This episode will present three more follow-on techniques, one from each category. After you absorb these (making nine techniques in total), you should already know something about how lawyers think.
Learn
In the previous episode, you learned to ask several open questions to canvass a subject thoroughly. Now we will bundle those questions into a formula. In the Advocacy Club, we refer to this as the 'Five-and-Out' Technique.
To start a sequence of questions, introduce the subject with a headline, this episode's Learn technique. Headlines are a common feature of news media, both written and spoken. At the top of each newspaper story is a line with a few words to focus you, the reader, on the story's subject, such as "Election Goes to Recount". Perhaps you are watching a rerun of Seinfeld. When the ads finish, and before the show restarts, the local news announcer comes on air and says, "Hurricane strikes the East Coast. Details at 11:00!" Those are headlines.
Headlines serve two purposes in a conversation:
They let the other person know what subject you are asking about.
They allow you both to skip repeating the subject, replacing the details with ‘it’.
Examples from above might be, "Let's talk about the election yesterday," or, "I heard about the coming hurricane. Let's talk about that." When you use 'it' in a sentence or question, you will both know that 'it' means the election, the hurricane, or whatever your headline subject described.
You have two choices when you choose the headline, and I will urge you to select the second. You can spin the headline to reflect your point of view, as in "Let's talk about the bizarre election yesterday," or you can keep it neutral, as in "Let's talk about the election yesterday". Did you notice the difference? Adding a description (here, an adjective) tells the other person at least something about how you see the subject. Why pollute the well before your colleague has the chance to chime in? If they want your take before they offer theirs, let them ask, "What do you think of it?"
So that's the technique. Once you introduce the subject with a headline, ask a broad, open question about your topic. In the next episode, we will discuss how to ask that first question.
Exercise:
The next time you chat with someone, start each sequence of questions by introducing the subject with a headline. Then ask a broad, open question.
Analyze
You have tried to reduce a story to its skeleton, using only facts essential to understanding what happened. Well, I admit I didn't give you much detail about how to do that. The reason was that I wanted you to try it out before layering on more directions, like starting with a simple recipe before adding spice.
Now, I will add some depth to that technique. Let's start at the beginning, which seems a bit obvious. Every story starts somewhere. Usually, with a person, but occasionally with a setting. That story about the bang-up party started with someone either attending or hosting it. Maybe, it started at the scene of the party. Your choice is based on how you want to present the story.
With that in mind, your story summary should start with the theme. If you plan to discuss that bang-up party, you begin with, 'Let me tell you about a bang-up party.' Then your first 'fact' or 'element' might be, 'Joanne and Jean-Claude took an Uber to Marie's apartment last night.' If it's not essential how they arrived, delete the Uber reference. We are sticking to what's most important here.
Before I go into detail, let me point out the difference between your theme and a headline. Headlines work in interviews. They should be neutral so the other person in the conversation can start the opinion-making. In your recital of a story, your theme could very well alert your audience to how you see things or why you are telling the story.
I agree that it's boring to tell a story without details. But we are not trying to entertain or persuade, at least not yet. We'll get there by baby steps and must take those first steps to get where we want.
So try that out. Start with your theme and then add your first fact. Someone or somewhere.
Exercise:
That story you summarized into a short theme in the previous episode? Try it again, but use the new technique. Start with your theme, "Here's a story about …", then add your first fact or element and keep going to the end. Identify who the major player is, or describe the setting. In the next episode, we will have more tips to help you on your way.
Apply
In the previous episode, I laid out a formula for an email, essay or memo.
Tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em.
Then tell 'em what you have to say.
Then, tell 'em what you told 'em.
Here's the second step in #1, 'Tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em'. You have already summarized your theme in a sentence or two. Now, tell 'em how you're gonna tell 'em. We call this a ‘roadmap’.
If you only plan to write a few lines, this step seems like overkill. If your message is longer than a page, the roadmap is vital to let your reader or audience know how you are laying out your presentation.
Perhaps you have three major points to make. Say that. 'I will present three points to show you that …" referring back to your theme.
Perhaps you know there are two sides to the subject. 'I will first present the reasons for, and then I will present the reasons against this.'
Or, 'What I am saying is controversial, so I will lay out why I think the way I do, and then I will present what others think about it.'
The technique is to describe how you will present what you have to write or say in a roadmap so that your reader or audience can better follow along.
Exercise:
You should have started a memo based on what we presented in the previous episode. Now, add a roadmap. Try a couple of different roadmaps to see if they help you think about presenting your thoughts best.
Here is a 9-minute podcast to present the techniques described above.