Practice Tips: Show Not Tell

Random picture of our dog Louis, back before we had kids. He was living the dream.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this case is about corporate greed and carelessness.”

This kind of opening has been taught and used for decades. But how does that feel to be told what to think?

Here is a more detailed example, not necessarily restricted to a legal setting.

Imagine a business presentation that starts: “Your cell phone carrier has been ripping you off for years.  In every bill they charge you for ‘miscellaneous fees,’ and those fees don’t actually go to anything helpful.” 

Now imagine this presentation: “Cell phone carriers have at the bottom of their bills ‘miscellaneous fees’ (showing picture of bill).  The fine print at the bottom of bills (show picture) says that these refer to municipality taxes, processing, and ‘other charges.’  Here is testimony from X, Y, Z Corp. about what those ‘other charges’ are.”

The first presentation tells you what to think at the outset. The second presentation does not tell you what to think, and instead shows you what is happening.  It also adds details that subtly make it more comfortable to admit that you may have been had by the company: charges at the bottom of the bill, fine print.  These kind of subtleties make a huge difference with people who are reluctant to agree with you. You need to give them a path to agree through the facts.

Your job as a communicator is not to tell people what to think. It’s to present the facts in a way that allows others to make the conclusion themselves. Show. Do not tell. This is most important because your credibility as a lawyer stinks. You’re at best a biased advocate, and at worst [insert lawyer joke here].

But beyond that, you want your audience to be committed to an opinion, and feel passionately about it. More on that in the next blog entry.