idealawg

Borrowing narrative practices from the medical profession to help lawyers and their clients

To improve healthcare workers' job satisfaction and patient care, several physicians and aligned professionals are learning about and using narrative practices. For example, take a look at this article about two people in North Carolina who are teaching courses in Narrative Medicine. From "Stories heal at narrative medicine workshop" (Mountain Xpress):

“Not all patients are storytellers, but every patient has a story to tell,” says Dr. [Claire] Hicks, who believes that narrative medicine helps train us to listen, to empathize and to heal. During the workshop, Dr. Hicks shared insights from a physician’s perspective in her work with HIV patients in hospice and how writing enriches her capacity as caregiver.  . . .

. . .

The importance of story is the driving force behind narrative medicine. “Ways to read story are ways to read life,” says [Professor Laura] Hope-Gill.

I have been convinced of the value of narrative practices for a long time, particularly as they increase the ability to be reflective. Therefore, I was excited when I read a message from Professor Anne Villella on a legal education listserv in response to my asking her what she meant by "narrative practices." (One of the courses she offers at Lewis and Clark Law School is on narrative practices). Here is what she wrote (posted with permission):

The idea of narrative practices that I mentioned in my post include many of those found in Narrative Medicine, which you mention. I have attended a 4-day Narrative Medicine workshop and read much of the scholarship on Narrative Medicine. Its impact on those in the healthcare field have been remarkable in terms of developing professional identity, compassion, a sense of affiliation, and, ultimately, patient care.

I believe similar practices can have similar results in the practice of law and representation of clients.  And, I know that there are others out there who have incorporated narrative practices into their courses.(I would love to hear from others who have done this!)

Besides Narrative Medicine, there are other resources out there about narrative practices.  The work of Gillie Bolton comes to mind--she facilitates workshops and has written extensively on

To trigger important conversations, use short stories or other readings

As I blogged about recently, well-chosen movies and movie clips can be used to start conversations on topics that may be difficult to broach, including relationship challenges and death-and-dying-related matters. Short readings can serve the same purpose.

Excerpts from the forthcoming book Final Chapters, reminded of the valuable function of appropriate readings for facilitating necessary but sometimes anxiety-producing conversations, those talks that can be terrifying, at least uncomfortable, easily deferred. Click through and read "Enhancing Dementia Recipe" (the middle piece); perhaps, as I was, you will be moved. Just a few words and yet a strong impact.

Short, well-written, even jarring, readings can motivate you to sit down and have a talk about the future, whether it be about your marriage, divorce, child-raising, or death. Readings can provoke talks with your family or with your clients. Read anything good lately?

Exciting news! Mediator Gary Friedman has a new book coming out soon

Pioneer of conflict resolution and long-time mediator Gary Friedman has chosen an apt title for his forthcoming book: Inside Out: Working Through Conflict. Because I too believe mediation is partly an inside job—that the self-awareness of the mediator is a critical component of effective conflict resolution—I am very much looking forward to this book. I also have much respect for Gary's skill and wisdom so have no doubt the book will be a valuable contribution to the field.

Below is an excerpt from the book; the excerpt was included in the Center for Understanding in Conflict newsletter. (Sign up for the online newsletter at Friedman's Web site.)

All this talk of feelings: Is this therapy?

Because the self-awareness work we do in our programs is so challenging, people resist it in many ways.  Participants in some of our programs ask if we’ve crossed some kind of professional line in including the emotional dimension in our awareness of ourselves and our clients in our work. Does that put us in waters too deep for people who have not been trained as therapists?

That question interests me, because it is now clear in recent studies of decision-making and conflict that emotions are a central factor when parties make decisions and professionals try to understand what is happening with their clients.  If we decide to avoid the challenge of understanding our clients’ feelings, we miss information that is essential to doing our jobs well.

Using emotions to inform conflict work is still not universally accepted, but my experience over decades has shown us the power of doing so—and the perils of remaining blind to the way our

Rich questions, poor questions: Growing or plateauing?

Asking questions is supposed to be a good communication skill, often better than asserting your own points. We hear the value of questions in arenas ranging from sales to education to conflict resolution. But not all questions are valuable; some may just help to rearrange biases, maintain thinking ruts and tracks, or even strengthen mindsets.

Before jumping on the question train and riding it enthusiastically down the track, you may want to consider the purpose of any question you ask. If it is to help a person take multiple perspectives or grow beyond habitual responses or become aware of his or her thinking processes, then there are some questions you may want to forgo.

Last week I saw a list of questions for students and initially thought they were good, not only for educational purposes but perhaps for other interactions, too. But on second glance they made me a bit uneasy. So I sent them off to a colleague Dr. Susan Wolcott who is very wise in the art of questioning and in cognitive development. Her initial response was that the list of questions would help those being questioned to become stronger in the cognitive approach she calls Biased Jumper.

A brief overview of that cognitive approach: A Biased Jumper has an opinion and then marshalls information that supports his already-arrived-at opinion. The Biased Jumper is typically weak in her analysis process and overly confident in her conclusions. The cognitive skills of a Biased Jumper are limited. And, if one reads Otto Laske, Robert Kegan, Susan Wolcott,and others, we may conclude that about half the US population are Biased Jumpers!

What questions would we ask of others (and ourselves) to facilitate growth beyond Biased Jumper? Some are suggested below but for contrast let's first look at some of the questions on the list with which I was initially impressed. Included are Wolcott's comments (posted here with her permission). The questions from the list are in bold. Have you ever asked a client any of these questions?

Degrees of wisdom: What if the mediator and the parties are not equally wise?

If there is a mismatch of wisdom between the parties and the mediator or among the parties, the process may clash and burn. However unless you know a bit about the characteristics of wisdom, you may not recognize that this kind of clashing instead of matching is the problem.

We have been creating a method of assessing cognitive development matches and clashes in mediation (both between parties and between parties and the conflict professional) and I have been happily surprised to see in my research how closely aligned cognitive development is with wisdom. They share such characteristics as the ability to take multiple perspectives; comfort with uncertainty and ambiguity; strength of analysis and conclusion; degree of self-awareness; and patience, presence and poise when an answer is not immediately evident.

For those of you interested in wisdom, I recommend an article by one of the top wisdom researchers Monika Ardelt. From "How Wise People Cope with Crises and Obstacles in Life" (ReVision - citations omitted):

Wisdom is often believed to be the quintessence of successful human development. Wise people are considered to be exceptionally mature, integrated, satisfied with life, able to make decisions in difficult and uncertain life matters, and capable of dealing with any crisis and obstacle that they encounter. in fact, successfully coping with crises and hardships in life might not only be a hallmark of wise individuals but also one of the pathways to wisdom. According to Pascuale-Leone, ". . . ultimate limit situations that cannot be undone and are nonetheless faced with consciousness and resolve—situations like death, illness, aging, irremedial oppression or loss, extreme poverty, rightful resistance or rebellion, guilt, absolute failure, danger uncontrollable fear, etc. lead to the natural emergence of a transcendental self, if they do not destroy the person first."

...

The cognitive wisdom dimension represents a deep and clear understanding of life and the desire to know the significance and deeper meaning of life, particularly as it relates to intrapersonal and interpersonal phenomena and events. That requires knowledge and acceptance of the positive and negative aspects of human nature, of the inherent limits of knowledge, and of life's unpredictability and uncertainties. However, a deep and unbiased understanding of life is only possible after one "has seen through illusion" and transcended one's subjectivity and projections to perceive reality as it is. That is the task of the reflective wisdom dimension. ...

In addition to the cognitive, Dr. Ardelt also breaks wisdom into reflective and affective elements, as you will see in her article. Click to read the rest. More here.

If there is a mismatch in the mediation room between degrees of wisdom, the results can be counterproductive at best. When one or more of the parties is wiser than

More fun with games and clients

After I posted my blog entry here yesterday, I watched an excellent video about how games can improve lives emotionally, mentally, physically and socially. In this presentation, Jane McGonigal talks about the five regrets people most commonly have on their deathbeds and says that those regrets are the opposite of how people's lives change when they have grown stronger as a result of experiencing trauma (posttraumatic growth). She believes the characteristics on the latter list can be encouraged by participating in certain kinds of games. And she tells the story of how creating a game helped her to overcome a severe concussion (subsequently creating Superbetter). Finally, she effectively demonstrates four ways to increase resilience.

The reasons she puts forth for participating in games are directly related to what many of us hope for in our clients (and ourselves):

• tackling tough challenges with high creativity, determination, and optimism
• reaching out to others for collaboration

If you could foster those benefits in others (typically while they are having fun), would you? Have you thought about games as one method of client service? Do you use games with your clients? If not, why?

Gamification* is more than badges or graphs, of course. The principle of personal choice (mentioned in yesterday's post), both in the goals and the methods for getting to the goals, is an important factor in what separates the superficial, badge-based from the sophic, deeply skilled use of gamification. But it is not as easy to design the customizable games because one can't use the Procrustean approach. That's why I admire people like McGonigal who incorporate the customization component in their design process. Not as easy but much more likely to benefit the player for a long time after the playing is over.

No surprise: The player probably has more fun with the wisely designed game, too.

Note: The lists of deathbed regrets and characteristics of posttraumatic growth as presented by McGonigal were summarized at the Viral Media Lab:

Top 5 regrets shared at the end of life:
“I wish I hadn’t work so hard”
“I wish I’d stay in touch with my friends”
“I wish I had let myself be happier”
“I wish I had the courage to express my true self”
“I wish I’d led a life true to my dreams, and not what others expected of me”

Post-Traumatic Growth:
...
1. My priorities have changed – I’m not afraid to do what makes me happy
2. I feel closer to my friends and family.
3. I understand myself better, I know who I really am now.
4. I have a new sense of meaning and purpose.
5. I’m better able to focus on my goals and dreams.

*(Added later on November 24, 2103) Gamification may not be the best word to use. Here's what

Will playing games help you and your clients achieve goals (while perhaps having fun)?

Because I believe the principles of gamification can be used to motivate clients to complete tasks necessary to the effective and personalized handling of their legal matters or conflicts, I have been slowly researching the ways games are created and designed. Two recent events came together in such a way that I am now wholly reinspired to master gaming—soon.

First was reading the book The Game of Work by Charles Coonradt, one of the original gurus of taking what works in games and applying that to work. (He's been called the grandfather of gamification.) Coonradt believes there are five principles that are the basis of the transfer of success and motivation seen in the game arena to work:

1. Clearly defined goals
2. Scorekeeping and scorecards
3. Frequent feedback (and he adds that the impact of the feedback is greater if illustrated on charts and graphs)
4. Personal choice of methods
5. Consistent coaching

Other gurus of gamification present lists of principles that are a bit different. After reading some of those gurus, I think the principles I find most compelling are: clearly defined goals, frequent feedback, and personal choice. More about those in a minute . . .

The second event that increased my commitment to learning gamification was coming upon Mediator in a Box, a tool created by a Colorado lawyer Clare Sprowell and her sister Marla Sloan, a conflict coach who lives in British Columbia. From what I can see at their Website and in this article, they have made conflict resolution into a box game. A creative idea! I don't know if they include the principles of gamification in the design but their concept sparked my imagination about applying gamification to transactional areas of the law.

In order to gamify a process, whether it be writing a will, estate planning, exercising, or drinking more water, one needs to have clear goals. The thinking required to clarify the intention or objective is a big advantage in achievement, and a necessary ingredient in a game. If I

Perhaps your local bar association will show the new movie on mindfulness?

The many benefits of mindfulness to lawyers have been the topics of several articles and at least one conference. I hope at least some members of the profession will take the opportunity to see the new The Mindfulness Movie. It includes an impressive list of experts, many of whom I have heard speak and two with whom I have worked and given presentations.

I am looking forward to this movie with much anticipation. If more lawyers practice mindfulness, I think the benefits will accrue abundantly to them, their clients, and the profession as a whole.

However, as you can see at the Web site, the intended audience is not limited to any one profession or group. Let's hope the movie enjoys a large and broad audience.

Patience is a key ingredient in mediation: Lessons from art appreciation and photography

Professor of the history of art and architecture Jennifer Roberts could be talking about mediation when she says in an article titled "The Power of Patience" (Harvard Magazine):

[T]his lesson about art, vision, and time goes far beyond art history. It serves as a master lesson in the value of critical attention, patient investigation, and skepticism about immediate surface appearances. I can think of few skills that are more important in academic or civic life in the twenty-first century.

Click to read the rest of the article.

Because of the word "patience" in the title, I was drawn to read the article. Over the last several months I have been developing a list of traits and states that indicate the level of cognitive development at which a person is operating, both as a party and as a mediator. If there is a mismatch between the levels of a party or parties and the mediator, the quality and productiveness of the conflict resolution has a good chance of being low unless the mediator recognizes and works with the disparity. One of the factors on my list is patience.

Appreciation of photography—and being a photographer—also require patience. That's one reason I sometimes blog about contemplative photography and about receiving pictures, not taking or capturing them. The processes of art appreciation and photography can be valuable lessons in mediation (and meditation). As anthropologist Catherine Allerton says, "Photography...is the result of a patient, observant process." Isn't reflective and effective mediation, too?

A tale of two law students: The H Factor of Personality

The book The H Factor of Personality (reviews) begins with a comparison of two law students:

Mary and Jane have a lot in common. Both are young women in their last year of study at the same law school. Each grew up in a two-parent family in a middle-class neighbourhood. Yet in some crucial ways they could hardly be more different.

To Mary, the law is like a martial art—a way to defeat opponents by mastering many complex manoeuvres. She chose law as a career because she wanted to make a lot of money, and with that aim in mind she has mainly studied the more lucrative legal specialties, such as corporate law and litigation. To achieve her career goals, Mary has made a point of skillfully ingratiating herself to certain influential professors. By applying just the right amount of flattery, she hopes to make the connections she needs for a good position after completing her degree.

Jane's approach to the law is much more idealistic. She views the law as a means of achieving justice, and her goals in studying law are to help people and to make a difference. She's trying to decide whether to work in the criminal justice system as a prosecutor or public defender, or to work for a not-for-profit organization. Jane has had some contact with her professors, chiefly when she has asked them to explain some of the finer points of the law. She tries to be pleasant and polite with her professors, but she would be uncomfortable trying to curry favour with them.

Mary and Jane are both single, but both plan to marry someday.  . . .

And the tale goes on for another paragraph. The authors use the quick and simple stories of these two