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The Power of Images: How Visual Communication Can Lead to Better Client Service and More Creative and Effective Professionals

Earlier this week, I interviewed Susanne van der Meer and you now can listen to our discussion here.

From the Purposeful Planning Institute announcement of the interview:

Guest Speaker: Susanne van der Meer, Big Picture Consultant at Sift Visuals/Legal Visuals at www.SiftVisuals.com

Host: Stephanie West Allen, JD, PPI Dean of Neuroscience and Contemplative Practices

Understanding of procedures, facts, processes, laws, systems, policies, and agreements can be enhanced by pictures and other visuals. Because visuals are brain-friendly, they can improve the efficiency and quality of strategizing, decision making, planning, brainstorming, and teaching. Even the most difficult communication or negotiation can be made easier and clearer with images. Join us as we talk once again with visual communication expert Susanne van der Meer as she explains the ways she has used her processes and suggests ways for other professionals to learn to use the power of images.

Introduction to Our Guest Speaker

Susanne van der Meer is a creative lawyer,  strategic illustrator, and visual thinking facilitator. Prior to emigrating to Denver, Colorado, United States she worked twelve years as an attorney and corporate lawyer in the Netherlands. She currently works as a Self-Representing Litigant Coordinator at the Third Judicial District in Trinidad, Colorado.

For over a decade Susanne has operated her own design, training and consulting business to support lawyers and others in user-friendly visual communication and creative thinking.  She is the author of Visual Language for Lawyers. Her Web sites:  www.siftvisuals.com, www.legalvisuals.nl, www.goodmoodlaw.info.

[Here is a summary in English of a book by Susanne published in Dutch titled Visual Language for Lawyers.]

Recent publication in Legal Business World: “Creative Leadership to Bring Design Thinking and Other Innovation Models to Life in Legal Business.”

 

 

The Problems with Pseudoscience: Using It Can Harm Your Ability to Serve Clients

Here's the link to my interview of Dr. Scott Lilienfeld. If you listen in, I believe you will appreciate his expertise, words of caution, and wisdom. My thanks to Purposeful Planning Institute (PPI) for offering many programs of value, including this one. The description of the Lilienfeld interview distributed by PPI:

Guest Speaker: Scott O. Lilienfeld, Ph.D., Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Psychology at Emory University in Atlanta, Visiting Professor at the University of Melbourne in Australia

Host: Stephanie West Allen, JD, PPI Dean of Neuroscience and Contemplative Practices

The amount of neuromythology and other kinds of pseudoscience to which we are exposed to through popular media and other channels seems to be growing. How can we recognize pseudoscience? How might using pseudoscience in working with clients be problematic? Why must we use caution when trying to apply research from the lab to everyday life? Why is anecdotal evidence (e.g., I can see what I am doing helps my clients) often not sufficient or accurate? Listen in to this discussion to ensure that the science you use when working with clients improves the quality of your service.

Important Points:

• Much of the popular psychology “knowledge” that is shared in media today is pseudoscience, statements or beliefs that are claimed to be scientific and factual but lack evidence gathered and constrained by scientific methods.
• Biases are systematic or consistent “errors” that can lead us to embrace false beliefs. Confirmation bias, one we are all especially prone to, is a tendency to seek out evidence consistent with what we believe and to deny, dismiss, or distort evidence that doesn’t support our beliefs.
• While many people believe that memories function like a recording device, it is important to note that memories are actually very malleable and they change dramatically over time, particularly in response to expectation and suggestion, or as colored by one’s mood. A person’s level of confidence in their memory has very little correlation with the accuracy of their memory.
  
  Reading Recommendations:
  
  Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (Available on Amazon)
  The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds by Michael Lewis (Available on Amazon)
  How We Know What Isn’t So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life by Thomas Gilovich (Available on Amazon)
  Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills by Professor Steven Novella (Available on Amazon)

Effective Writing Through Understanding Reader Expectation Approach: Interview with George Gopen

Update [added April 14, 2017]: Click to listen to the interview.

Please join us next Tuesday (April 11) for my interview of writing expert Dr. George Gopen. The phone-in teleseminar is generously sponsored by Purposeful Planning Institute (PPI). Beginning at noon EST, the event will last for one hour. For those of you who are not members of PPI, you may get a complementary guest pass by requesting it at this email address.

More information below and at this link.

Effective Writing Through Understanding Reader Expectation Approach
 
Date: April 11, 2017
 
Time: Noon ET (60 Minutes)
 
Guest Speaker: George Gopen, JD, PhD
 
Host: Stephanie West Allen, JD, PPI Dean of Neuroscience and Contemplative Practices
 
Readers have subconscious expectations about clear communication. When a writer understands those expectations and then consciously meets them, he or she can write in a way that is effective and thus easily understood. In this call, Dr. George Gopen will explain his Reader Expectation Approach and give listeners some tips on how to use the written word to communicate well and persuasively. We will consider why good written communication is 15% word choice and 85% sentence and paragraph structure, when use of the passive is the best choice, and how harnessing the rhythm of language improves written communication dramatically. When we as writers understand Reader Expectation Approach, we are best able to not only communicate and persuade, but also convey thoughts and ideas at our intellectual best. [Click here for more information about Dr. Gopen.]

Grace Under Pressure: A Polyvagal Guide to Reducing Stress and Creating Compassionate Connections

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of interviewing Deborah Dana, an expert on Polyvagal Theory (PVT). The program was sponsored by Purposeful Planning Institute, an organization about which I have blogged here several times in the past (to see the posts, search to the right on "purposeful planning"). Below is more information about the interview and about Deborah, and a link to a recording of the interview so you can listen to this valuable hour.

Grace Under Pressure: A Polyvagal Guide to Reducing Stress and Creating Compassionate Connections

Audio File: Download/Play Recording
 
Date: January 31, 2017
 
Guest Speaker: Deb Dana, LCSW, Developer of Rhythm of Regulation Clinical Training
 
Host: Stephanie West Allen, JD, PPI Dean of Neuroscience and Contemplative Practices
 
Polyvagal Theory, developed by renowned neuroscience researcher Stephen Porges, describes the role of the autonomic nervous system in regulating our experiences of stress and shaping the ways we connect with others.  The autonomic nervous system responds to sensations in our body and signals from the environment activating a trio of response possibilities: shut down and disconnected, stressed and mobilized, safe and socially engaged.  Using Polyvagal Theory as a guide, we map individual autonomic states, identify common triggers to dysregulation, and discuss ways to actively engage our autonomic pathways to alleviate stress and foster compassionate connection.
 
Important Points [prepared by Purposeful Planning Institute staff, reviewed and edited by Deb Dana]:

Are family trusts a burden or a tool to enhance the lives of beneficiaries?

Friend and colleague Hartley Goldstone was recently interviewed for Family Wealth Report about his new book Family Trusts: A Guide for Beneficiaries, Trustees, Trust Protectors and Trust Creators coauthored with Jay Hughes and Keith Whitaker. From the interview conducted by family office consultant Joe Reilly:

Joe Reilly: In Family Trusts, it is mentioned that most beneficiaries, an overwhelming majority in fact, believe their trusts are a burden. Why do you think that is?

Hartley Goldstone: It comes from being wedded to a predominantly negative view of trusts. Let me explain. Much of my work is helping trustees and beneficiaries develop productive relationships. If early on I simply ask: "What’s a trust?" The most common responses are - in so many words - that a trust is primarily a receptacle to hold assets, or a tax strategy, or a legal document. That view amounts to a trust being experienced as a transaction, rather than as a gift having “spirit.”

We stress in Family Trusts that first and foremost trusts are human relationships. And that the highest purpose of a trust is to enhance the lives of the beneficiaries. In this context, "enhance" means that a trust is seen as a relationship between beneficiary and trustee that supports the beneficiary’s maturity and independence. Contrast that with lifestyle “subsidies,” which can have the opposite effect. Agreement on the “human relationship” and “enhancement” principles is an important step toward re-framing a trust from being seen as a burden, to being seen as the gift of an amazing resource.

Joe Reilly: How do you deal with resistance from benefactors who would like a more heavy hand?

Click to read the whole interview.

July in Colorado, conflict resolution program with Gary Friedman

Gary Friedman will present on 3 days (2-hour keynote on July 15th, full day on July 16th, and one and one-half hours on July 16) at the 10th Rocky Mountain Retreat. The event will be held outside Colorado Springs at The Franciscan Retreat Center. Spaces are limited to 50; 10 spaces remain today. Click for more information and link to the registration page.

Added: Recording now available! Benefits of Mindfulness, Self-Awareness, and Reflection in Providing Exceptional Client Service

Added April 28, 2016: The recording of this interview is now available for you to hear. Click to listen to "Benefits of Mindfulness, Self-Awareness, and Reflection in Providing Exceptional Client Service."

An excellent interview about the role of mindfulness and self-awareness in client service is coming up on April 26! Sponsored by Purposeful Planning Institute (PPI), this teleconference will feature my wise, knowledgeable colleague Dr. Francine Campone. The description of what she and I will be talking about is below.

If you are not a member of PPI, the organization's founder John A. Warnick is kind enough to offer guest access which you can get by emailing Julie Dorosz. (All requests for guest access must be received by 5pm ET on April 25th.)

The teleconference details:

Title: Benefits of Mindfulness, Self-Awareness and Reflection in Providing Exceptional Client Service

Date: April 26, 2016

Time: Noon ET (60 Minutes)

Guest Speaker: Dr. Francine Campone, Director, Evidence Based Coaching Program, Fielding Graduate University

Host: Stephanie West Allen, JD, PPI Dean of Neuroscience and Contemplative Practices

Description: Dr. Francine Campone, Director of Fielding University’s Evidence-Based Coaching Program and ordained Zen Buddhist, will talk about why the ancient Greek aphorism “Know thyself” is excellent advice for service professionals if they want to add genuine value to their clients’ lives. Dr. Campone will describe reflective ways of interacting with clients and a few of the benefits of using a reflective process, both for the practitioner and the client he or she serves.  Because she believes in the importance of verifying the efficacy of practices she uses and recommends, she will talk about the importance of basing them on good research and other credible evidence. And finally Dr. Campone will recommend some useful and simple practices to increase reflective and mindful client service.

Click to read more about Dr. Campone.

I hope many of you can join us on the 26th.

The Billable Hour: Damaging to Your Brain, Detrimental to Life Satisfaction, Destructive to Client Trust?

Earlier this week I was part of a teleconference sponsored by the Purposeful Planning Institute about the problems with using the billable hour as a way to charge for your services. The recording is now available so you can listen in. A bit about the program from the PPI announcement:

Title: The Billable Hour: Damaging to Your Brain, Detrimental to Life Satisfaction, and Destructive to Client Trust?

Date: March 1, 2016

Guest Speakers: Ronald J. Baker, World-Renowned Value Pricing Expert and Founder of VeraSage Institute, and Stephanie West Allen, JD, PPI Dean of Neuroscience and Contemplative Practices

Host: Hartley Goldstone, Principal of Trustscape LLC, Research Fellow at Wise Counsel Research Associates, and PPI Dean of the Trustscape

Description:  Hartley Goldstone, Dean of the Trustscape, interviews world-renowned value pricing expert Ron Baker and Dean of Neuroscience and Reflective Practices Stephanie West Allen about the effects the billable hour has on our minds and brains, professional and personal lives, and client satisfaction.  Baker also talks about an effective alternative to the billable hour which he has perfected over many years working with lawyers, accountants, and other knowledge professionals.

Reading Recommendations & Resources:
 
The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science by Norman Doidge M.D.

You Are Not Your Brain: The 4-Step Solution for Changing Bad Habits, Ending Unhealthy Thinking, and Taking Control of Your Life by Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Rebecca Gladding MD

Two Blog Posts by Stephanie West Allen on the topic:

• Slate asks if law firm clients could finally kill off the billable hour: The lawyer brain may resist the killing
  
• Seen any "fidgety, erratic and rash" lawyers lately? Or been one?

Purposeful Quote: “At every crossway on the road that leads to the future each progressive spirit is opposed by a thousand men appointed to guard the past.” -  Maurice Maeterlinck (1862—1949), Belgian Nobel Laureate in literature, 1911

Click here to listen to the program now.

Note (added March 4, 2106): Click to read an overview of Ron Baker's approach to value pricing process in "Pricing on Purpose: How to Implement Value Pricing in Your Firm" (Journal of Accountancy).

Which clients are a good fit for you? And with whom should you perhaps not work?

What can happen when you and a client are not a good fit? Do you know why a mismatch could be occurring? What can you do to remedy miscommunication, confusion, even conflict or stress? Dr. Susan Wolcott may have some solutions.

Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Wolcott about the work she has done over many years. (Click to listen to that interview.) Dr. Wolcott teaches audiences around the world about the ways we each think. In the interview I conducted of her for Purposeful Planning Institute, she talked about client service and some problems that can result if a service professional such as a lawyer or financial consultant does not think in the same way as his or her client.

Susan began by giving an overview of the most common thinking styles and then talked about what happen if there is a mismatch between the service professional and the client. She also talked about remedies for some of these mismatches.

A more complete description of the interview and a short bio of Dr. Wolcott can be found here. Why not listen now to Dr. Susan Wolcott as she and I talk about "Steps for Better Thinking: Steps for Better Client Service"?

Note: I am happy to report that I have heard positive comments on the interview from a number of people. For example, Hartley Goldstone wrote, "Susan's framework for understanding thinking processes will help me in my work preparing trustees and trust beneficiaries. The interview with Stephanie is a great introduction to the wealth of material that appears on Susan's website." Link to Susan Wolcott's Web site.

Bonus: Click to read a related blog post titled "Do clients need to fit into your bed? Here's a process to decrease the number of Procrustean professionals."

Interview of lawyer mediator Gary Friedman: How Conflict Professionals Can Use Self-Reflection to Help Their Clients

This week I had the pleasure of interviewing long-time mediator and mediation trainer Gary Friedman. The sponsoring organization Purposeful Planning Institute (about which I have blogged here, here, and here; and for which I am Dean of Neuroscience and Contemplative Practices) is one that is close to my heart. The recording of this teleconference with a wise and thoughtful conflict professional was much appreciated and I thank both Gary and PPI. I hope you will enjoy listening.

The PPI announcement of the teleconference with links for listening and reading is below.

Inside Out: How Conflict Professionals Can Use Self-Reflection to Help Their Clients

Audio File: Download/Play Recording
 
Date: August 11, 2015
 
Guest Speaker: Gary J. Friedman,  Co-Founder, The Center for Understanding in Conflict (formerly the Center for Mediation in Law)
 
Host: Stephanie West Allen, JD, PPI Dean of Neuroscience and Contemplative Practices
 
Handout: Introduction & Excerpt from Inside Out by Gary Friedman
 
Overview:  The focus of this interview is on a central tool that all conflict professionals can develop, the ability to use their understanding of their inner lives to help their clients deal with conflict.  Using tools of self-awareness, the professional can enhance their ability to bring their full attention to their engagement with the client, work with their own feelings, especially negative reactions, to bring them closer to the clients, understand and deepen their commitment to their work, and open a path between them and their client that will solve the external problem.
 
Important Points:

• If we limit our focus to the external dimensions of our clients’ problems we are really limiting our ability to effectively solve them. Understanding the internal dimensions of problems (the emotional and human element) is really at the core.
• Effective communication with others requires far more than simply listening to the words of the client, but requires the use of all our senses. Effective listening is a skill and we can all learn to avoid distractions and be truly present with our clients and in the moment with them.
• The professional’s emotional reactions to the client, particularly feelings that are accompanied by judgments, if left unattended can create walls of separation between professional and client. There is no such thing as being nonjudgmental, and the question should not be whether or not we have judgments, but what to do with them when we have them.

Purposeful Quote:  “Every conflict begins with thoughts of fear, animosity and aggression which pass through some people’s minds and spread like wildfire.  The only antidote to these aberrations is to take on fully the suffering of others.”  – Matthieu Ricard
 
Reading Recommendation: Inside Out: How Conflict Professionals Can Use Self-Reflection to Help Their Clients by Gary Friedman (available online here) [the book is also available here]

Note (added August 27, 2015): Click to learn more about Self-Reflection for Conflict Professionals Intensive (SCPI), the program Friedman describes in the interview and his latest book.

These days you don't see events like this involving supreme court justices

From the ABA Journal, we learn of the colorful history of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Field. The events described in the article were hardly all that added color to his life story. For a more complete look at the man, read this review of Justice Stephen Field: Shaping Liberty from the Gold Rush to the Gilded Age, a biography. An excerpt:

And, indeed, when Field made an enemy, apparently it was for life. Thus, one of his "critics," William Turner, described Field's career in California as "series of little-minded meanliness, of braggadocio, pusillanimity, and contemptible vanity, which when known will sink him so low in public estimation that the hand of the resurrectionist will never reach him." Field returned the sentiments. Turner, who had served with Field as a California judge, was a man "of depraved tastes, of vulgar habits, of ungovernable temper, reckless of truth ... and grossly incompetent to discharge the duties of his office" (pp. 34-5).

...

The remainder of Kens's chapters focus on Field's High Court career, from March 1863, when Lincoln appointed him as the tenth justice, to 1897 when--suffering from marked physical discomfort and mental confusion if not feebleness--he reluctantly resigned, effective December 1, 1897. Field served during the presidencies of Lincoln, Johnson, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Cleveland, Harrison and McKinley. In an era much less sensitive to appearances of judicial impropriety, Field remained on the bench in numerous cases where one of the participating lawyers was his brother David Dudley Field. Moreover, he welcomed his brother's management of an ill-conceived and unrealistic movement to push Stephen Field for selection by the democrats as a presidential candidate in 1880. Like his colleagues Samuel Miller and Joseph Bradley, Field believed that he was admirably suited to be chief justice, a position to which they all aspired, though in vain.

Join us next week for a teleseminar on Polarity Thinking in trusts and estates

On Tuesday, June 30, 2015, at 12 Eastern, 9 Pacific AM, I will be moderating a teleseminar for Purposeful Planning Institute (PPI). The program description is below. Because of the topic and speakers, this will be an hour that is very informative and stimulating.

If you are not a member of PPI, you may get a guest pass for this event by emailing here.

Teleconference Details

Title: New Tools in the Trustscape: How Polarity Thinking Addresses Dilemmas that Simply Won't Go Away

Date: June 30, 2015

Time: Noon ET (60 Minutes)

Guest Speakers: Daniel P. Felix, The Professional Trustee and Neesa Sweet, The Braided River Group

Description: Polarity Thinking shines a bright light on hidden factors in the trustscape -- interdependencies that have the power to prevent solutions and keep trustees, their advisors and their client families on a literal "seesaw" of unsolvable questions. Polarity Thinking is an approach that fosters true Practical Wisdom. The result is even greater success in dealing with conflict, change, complexity, and communications, as well as both chronic and cultural issues.

Note about the word "trustscape":

"Our term trustscape describes a subsystem within the larger family system.  Members of the trustscape are those connected by a trust agreement - trust-creators, trustees, beneficiaries, trust-protectors, committees, and their advisors."

--Hartley Goldstone

Note (added September 3, 2015):

Below is the link to the interview. Also included is other related information.

Good to see more attention to mediation of sibling disputes about end-of-life matters

Just published, a New York Times article on the use of mediation for disputes between siblings. Excerpt from "Strengthening Troubled Sibling Bonds to Deal With an Aging Parent":

It doesn’t matter how successful people are; when they’re around their siblings, they often revert to their 7-year-old selves. “Family members are often very successful professionally, but when they’re back with the family it can trigger old emotions, and they envision each other back in their old roles and it makes it difficult to envision who that person is now,” said Crystal Thorpe, a co-founder of Elder Decisions, in Norwood, Mass., and a co-author of “Mom Always Liked You Best.”

The sibling relationship can become even thornier when dealing with aging or infirm parents. All sorts of issues that can test even the best relationships arise, including differences of opinion on housing, caregiving, medical treatment, estate planning and end-of-life care. ...

My alma mater now has a dedicated room for law students to engage in reflective practices

I was happy to see that Santa Clara Law now has a room in the library for law students, staff, and faculty. Its purpose?

It is our hope that students utilize this space for silent meditation, prayer, and reflection.  A number of studies have demonstrated the value of mindfulness and meditation and its connection to academic achievement.  We aspire to make mindfulness a practice at Santa Clara Law that is open to everyone regardless of religious affiliation or background.

Read more here.

When I saw that the only benefits of these practices mentioned in the writeup were academic achievement and decompressing, I was initially disappointed. Coincidentally, at lunch today, I was talking with another member of Colorado Contemplative Lawyers Society about how disheartening it is that the benefit of improved client service is seldom mentioned in articles and posts about mindfulness in the law. And then I saw the SCU Law writeup ended with the wonderful words of The Prayer of Saint Francis and I smiled. "... grant that I may not so much seek To be consoled as to console ...  ." Yep, that can be a benefit of reflective practices!