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Blog Glob: Monday morning shorts

Excerpt from "Just Say No—To Bad Science" . . .

For us civilians, it's hard to grasp how much of science is subjective, and especially how much leeway there is in choosing how to conduct a study. No one is alleging that scientists stack the deck on purpose. Let's just say that depending on how you design a study you can practically preordain the outcome. "There is an amazing array of things people do to botch a study," says Rebecca Maynard of the University of Pennsylvania.

Excerpt from "The truth about lying and laughing" . . .

FIVE MINDS FOR THE FUTURE: Essential tools for the 21st century

"People who are simply doing routine things in routine ways will have less and less of a place in the world of tomorrow."
-Howard Gardner

Through the miracle of technology, you may listen to Howard Gardner's guided tour of his newest book Five Minds for the Future. I listened this morning and heard Gardner say things that might best be noted by lawyers of this new century — if they want to be effective, influential, and valued. Below are some notes I took while listening but I urge you to listen yourself. You also may read "Mental building blocks for the next century," a Financial Times article about the new book.

My notes of what Gardner said (opinions expressed are, of course, his) . . .

The first of the five is the disciplined mind. It is not only concentrating and learning steadily until one becomes an expert, but also learning to think within at least one discipline. For example, as a scientist, you learn such things as not to confuse correlation with causation; you learn to think within the discipline of science. (I have posted here before about learning to think within the discipline of law.)

A problem is created when you use your discipline to look at the whole world. Gardner gives an example of a lawyer using his legal discipline with his small child, similar to this chocolate milk offense.

Second is the synthesizing mind, taking information from unrelated sources and melding it, thus creating a synthesis. We desperately need this kind of mind in these days of so much information, yet we know little about how to help people learn to synthesize. The synthesizing mind is both important and rare. It knows what to pay attention to and what to ignore. Synthesizing involves putting the information together in a way that works for you and also in a way that can be communicated to others. Gardner believes the synthesizing mind is the most important mind for the 21st century.

Third is the creating mind. You can't simply start to create; you must first master a discipline, which usually takes up to a decade.  The creating mind goes beyond what's known. It is is more and more important to go outside the box because what is in the box will be handled in the future by a computer. This mind focuses on new questions, new methods, new combinations,and new disciplinary nexuses.

With the creating mind, it is important to consider your personality and temperament. The creating mind is never satisfied and likes taking risks. It does not quit, regards a defeat as an opportunity, and is energized by criticism.

These first three minds are focused on cognition. The last two are related to policy.

Thinking Blogger Award

Thanks to Eide Neurolearning Blog for choosing me for a Thinking Blogger Award. I am honored. I follow the blog of Doctors Eide and have for those two much respect.

Now I am to pass along the award to five blogs that make me think. The directions at Thinking Blogger Awards:

The participation rules are simple:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn't fit your blog).

That was that! Please, remember to tag blogs with real merits, i.e. relative content, and above all - blogs that really get you thinking!

Just five, hm? There are more than five that I truly appreciate for thought provocation. Here goes (and in random order):

• Neuromarketing
• Online Guide to Mediation
• Adam Smith, Esq.
• The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing
• Settle It Now Negotiation Blog

"Brain Management: Law Firm Leadership on the Neuro Frontier"

How may we use the gems we are learning from brain and mind research to inform law firm management? For some answers, read an article I co-authored with research psychiatrist Jeffrey M. Schwartz. Larry Smith, editor of  Of Counsel: The Legal Practice and Management Report has kindly  given me permission to link to the PDF of Jeff's and my article "Brain Management . . . Law Firm Leadership on the Neuro Frontier."

The article begins:

The practice of law is very cerebral, cognitive, and brain-based. As a lawyer drafts, analyzes, and strategizes, the brain, compared to the rest of the body, is using a disproportionate amount of energy. When working, the brain can use fuel— glucose and oxygen—at 10 times the rate of the whole rest of the body.

This hungry little organ sitting in each lawyer’s head holds the key to the mysteries of winning law firm management.

We have learned more about the inner secrets of the brain in the past few years than in all the remaining past of recorded history. Neuroscience is opening up a new frontier, a frontier that most of us cannot see but one that will have as big an impact as the discovery of new lands and continents.

Goal-getting booster: Lisa Haneberg

Lisa Haneberg has some sharp tools for you to set and get your goals. To master those tools, read her little book Two Weeks to a Breakthrough. One nice feature and benefit: the book is just a bit over 100 pages. For clarifying and achieving your goals, each of those pages is essential guidance. (Here's the 2 Weeks 2 a Breakthrough blog.)

While that book is on its way to you or before you can get to the bookstore, you can watch Haneberg's webinar 10 Ways to Generate Breakthrough Results. When watching it, you may learn if you tend towards being a victim, stargazer, stuck, or a peak performer. In getting what you really want, Haneberg concisely explains the roles of action and focus. In the webinar, she gives you 10 ways to improve both. Plus you will learn the role played in goal-getting played by the hairs on the back of your neck.

I learned of this quick and quality webinar at Spooky Action's post on the book Breakthroughs in a Fortnight?; click over to read Mike Dewitt's review of the book Two Weeks to a Breakthrough.

This Haneberg I would like to meet. To promote her book she will be conducting a 10,000-mile Breakthrough Tour — on her motorcycle Hazel! I see she will be coming to Denver. Where in Denver, Lisa?

On an occasional light note: MUSIC OF THE HEART WILL NOT BE SILENT

Most of Beethoven’s masterpieces were composed while he was deaf. He had inside him music that would not be stilled by life’s circumstances. His music triumphed over suffering.

The last movement of the Ninth Symphony is choral music Beethoven set to Friedrich von Schiller’s poem “Ode to Joy.” Beethoven believed this poem celebrated the brotherhood of man.

On May 7, 1824, when the Ninth Symphony premiered, Beethoven was on-stage conducting. Also on-stage was a supplementary conductor necessary because of Beethoven’s deafness. When the “Ode to Joy” movement was over, the audience erupted in applause. Beethoven did not turn around as he could not hear them.

Turn Around and See What You Have Created

One of the chorus members broke protocol and moved towards Beethoven. He took hold of the composer’s arm. Beethoven gave him a fierce look but the chorus member persisted gently turning him around. By then the applause had subsided.

As Beethoven looked out into the audience, they began to rise in standing ovation. First one person and then many and then all. It is said that a single, small tear of joy slipped down the composer’s cheek. It is also said that another tiny companion tear rolled down the cheek of the chorus member standing next to him.

Some Questions for You

Gerry Riskin says this: Attention must be paid

"This is the most significant development impacting the legal profession in 50 years," Gerry Riskin writes in his post The Americanization of Clementi (or, "going public"). Riskin continues . . .

and hardly anyone is noticing except Bruce MacEwen at Adam Smith Esq.  This is not a red herring.  If you are a Managing Partner you will look back and think you should have paid very close attention to this.  Give Bruce's post a good read:  Publicly Traded Law Firms in the US? Georgetown Law Symposium

I take note of a topic or idea when MacEwen and Riskin, two of the best current- and forward-thinking commentators on the legal profession, recommend attention.

Many WILL be speaking on April 30: Responding "No" to the One Day Blog Silence

Silence as a response to the murders? I am not sure I understand the point of One Day Blog Silence. At the site is written: Silence can say more than a thousand words. Yes, that's true in certain situations but to me this is not one of those situations. And maybe the response of bloggers should never be silence in the face of  horror.

From the blogosphere, here are some responses to this idea of silence. The first one calls for the opposite: let April 30 be a day during which bloggers reflect and speak.

From Carson Brackney's Content Done Better post Virginia Tech, Cho Seung-Hui and Why Words Matter . . .

I understand paying respect to the dead. I know that moments of silence have long been a means by which we acknowledge those who are lost. I think anyone who feels that’s the right thing to do should take that moment of silence.

I dont, however, think they should let one kid with two guns add productive discourse to the list of casualties.

I’m blogging on April 30, 2007. I’d like you to write, too.

From Diane Levin's Online Guide to Mediation post Why I will not be observing One Day Blog Silence . . .

But I have to ask, why? Why be silent? What is the point? Why not use this as an opportunity to speak out? To rage against the machine? To stand up for whatever cause you believe in that will reduce human suffering or end violence?

From Jay Tea's Wizbang! post Do not go gentle into that good night . . .

[I]n proper context a moment of silence can be very powerful. Blogging is not one of those contexts.

More importantly, I think that silence is precisely the wrong message to send. There's an old aphorism that "silence equals consent." Silence is passive. And passivity is precisely the wrong lesson to take from the massacre.

From Deborah Ng's About: Web Blogs post A Day of Blog Silence? I'm Sorry, No. . . .

Yesterday, I blogged about how bloggers were the first people to get the news out to the world. Do you see why it's so important for bloggers NOT to be quiet? We need to discuss the issues, not maintain silence.

Amen.

Self-leadership lessons from Leonardo DiCaprio

Any lawyer can develop a new trait or habit by "acting as if." To explain, here is an excerpt from an article on lawyer self-leadership that will appear in the next edition of The Complete Lawyer. [You may now read "Lead Your Brain Instead of It Leading You."] [Note added May 10, 2009: The Complete Lawyer is experiencing changes so here is the article in pdf.] The article was written by Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz and me and will be out mid-May. I will post the link to the whole edition on lawyer leadership when it comes online. The edition includes articles not only on the brain and leadership, but also appreciative intelligence and lawyer leadership, innate aptitudes and lawyer leadership, and leadership development in law school. In the meanwhile, here's our article excerpt  . . .

Strategy #4:  Act as if you have already mastered the new skill

Jeff coached Leonardo DiCaprio in his role in The Aviator. [Interview of Jeff Schwartz about the OCD coaching.] DiCaprio played Howard Hughes who suffered from severe OCD [obsessive-compulsive disorder]. DiCaprio took on the role so well that he began to experience OCD. [Read "Expert: DiCaprio developed 'Howard Hughes syndrome'."

Acting as if you have a trait causes both brain changes and chemical changes throughout the body. Therefore "acting as if" with attention to what you are doing is a very powerful technique for altering and mastering behavior.

Before neuroscience had proven that brain changes are created by behavior accompanied by full attention, the great acting teacher Konstantin Stanislavski knew this intuitively. Stanislavski worked with his students to help them convincingly act their roles. He believed that a person cannot experience a feeling on command but the actor can evoke the feeling by willfully experiencing what he called "antecedents" to that feeling. Antecedents are actions.

Blog Glob: Monday afternoon shorts

From "Proposed state Bar rule threatens fixed-fee firms:"

"There is an access to justice component, because most people believe that lawyers taking small fixed-fee criminal cases takes the pressure off the indigent public defense system, because that's not adequately funded," said [Mark] Johnson, who is an attorney with Seattle-based professional liability firm Johnson Flora PLLC.

"There are competing public policy elements -- protection of the public, practitioners' ability to make it economically, plus the access to justice component," Johnson said.

From Connie Crosby  at Blawg Review #105:

Disclaimer: I am not a cataloguer. The classifications applied to blog posts above are for entertainment purposes only and may be inaccurate. These should not be used for cataloguing purposes. Please consult a cataloguer for questions about categorization and classification of your blog or blog posts. I assume no responsibility for any party who applies these classifications to blogs or blogs posts and is thereby unable to locate respective information in searches.

From New Magazine Devoted to Blogging:

Thanks to Blog News Watch for this one: There's a new magazine out for bloggers. You knew this was coming, right? Blogger and Podcaster magazine is now available online and in print. Subscriptions are free in digital or podcast form, but it'll cost you if you want to hold a copy in your hands.