“Russ, the lawyer who effectively tells a story almost always wins the verdict,” said the judge. Other judges I’ve spoken with agree. But the advice transcends professions. The same is true for closing a sale. For securing investor funding. For capturing hearts of any audience. Why? Story is in our DNA. From Neanderthal to millennial, good stories have typically gotten the glory.
Storytelling might have come easier to the cave man though. He had no albatross of immense data and technology. Conversely, we stand in a hailstorm of facts. We have lifetimes of learning at our fingertips. Still while facts are essential – truth matters – facts are cold pieces of code, which lie lifeless. Story breathes life. Story aids others’ interpretation, retention and embracing of facts. Story also keeps us on track. We otherwise often ramble aimlessly.
Back to lawyers. One out of every two judges states that we’re too repetitive. That we waste time.
- “Lawyers don’t seem to think anything about inconveniencing jurors for more days than needed.”
- “I get five minutes of stuff . . . They begin sounding like adults in the Charlie Brown cartoons – fwanh, fwanh, fwanh.”
- “Some attorneys take 15 minutes to introduce themselves.”
These are but a sampling.
Indeed, judges say the number one reason juries dislike certain attorneys is their wastage of time. Verbosity. Redundancy. Rabbit chasing. Juries (and co-workers, clients, prospects, volunteers, your children) want you to get to the point. They’re “not stupid” – an implication about which jurors commonly complain to judges post-trial.
Whatever your industry, are you unnecessarily infringing on others’ time?
Are you inadvertently leaving them with an impression that you question their I.Q?
Are they forgetting what you said minutes later?
The key is to discern what needs to be said. Nothing more. Nothing less.
- “Be able to summarize your case in 30 words, without an excessive number of adjectives and adverbs. If you can’t do that, you don’t know your case.”
Even better if our case, sales pitch or proposal has a theme that can be stated in one sentence. Better still if the theme rhymes. People like it, they relate to it and, most importantly, they remember it.
Case in point – This Saturday marks the twentieth anniversary of O.J. Simpson’s acquittal, yet I bet you can complete this sentence to this day: “If it doesn’t fit, ________________.” Regardless your view of the verdict, the late Johnny Cochran was a master storyteller.
Even the Texas Department of Public Safety has bought in:
- Click it or ticket! (seatbelt campaign)
- Drive sober or get pulled over!
Their focus used to be on facts (e.g., death rates and other statistics). They’ve learned the wisdom of boiling it down to memorable themes.
So should we.
© 2015 Russ Riddle. All rights reserved.