Archive | Careers

Show, Don’t Tell

Melissa and I wrote employee policy manuals and other training materials before we had employees. I am thinking about those today because I added a small update to the policy manual yesterday, thinking that it had been a long time since I had added anything. But, while the policy manual is pretty well set, the […]

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David never ceases to amaze me.  I cannot believe he missed a perfectly good opportunity to relate his post to a song by his favorite band, RUSH.  The title of the song is “Show Don’t Tell,” which is the title David used for this post. The premise of the song, written (of course) by Geddy […]

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Psychologists and Lawyers See the World Differently

As I have stated in previous posts, I have had an interesting career, primarily because I have spent almost all of my professional life working with attorneys instead of with colleagues. Furthermore, my definition of “colleague” is narrow, in that I consider only other social psychologists as colleagues. The field of psychology is large, with […]

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What a perfect day to write this post.  Melissa just had a call with a client who is heading to trial soon.  When it was over she couldn’t wait to let me know about one aspect of the call, which was the lawyer insisting on wrongly defining a social psychological concept.  As readers of these […]

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Holiday Plans

I’m writing this near year end, but as is often the case, things are hectic as we wrap up the work for the year, and prepare for work early in the new year. Melissa and I have diligently tried for all these years to treat the last 2 weeks of the year as a break, […]

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David and I often work on holidays and during vacations.  Our business, and the world of litigation, don’t close just because we are not in the office.  I have distinct memories of: (1) doing an intake on a new case on Christmas Eve, in my mom’s Florida room, mere minutes before we opened our gifts: […]

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Social Psych = Groups = Juries

Over the years, many people have asked me what makes me qualified to work as a jury/trial consultant. I explain that I have a Ph.D. in social psychology, which is the scientific study of how people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by other people and situations. Social thinking, social influence, and social behavior are […]

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I have certainly learned a lot about social psychology, by osmosis and directly from Melissa, as well as in a graduate course, taken before I had any intent of working in the trial consulting world, that helped me more than I knew it would.  It is interesting to explain the principles of psychological science to […]

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Herding Cats

I am sure most people have heard the expression that something is like “herding cats.” I am sure herding felines would be nearly impossible based on my experience with having 1 in the house. Herding any of our cats, even 1 at a time, is quite a challenge. Even though our Siamese cats know their […]

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My job involves herding lots of cats, metaphorically speaking.  Not only do I “herd” attorneys, including timing their presentations during mock trials, getting a trial team to work together on trial strategies, and convincing multiple clients to listen to me and follow my advice during jury selection, I herd numerous other cats during my working […]

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The World is Round, I’ll Get There

For inexplicable reasons, I randomly remember various tag lines from television commercials and other types of advertising. Many times I can’t recall the product or service being advertised, but I remember the tag line or catch phrase. One of those I recall is “The world is round, I’ll get there.” The commercial involved a hippie […]

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I’ve heard David use the expression, “The world is round, I’ll get there” on many occasions, but I never knew, until reading his part of this post, its origin.  Before commenting on this quote, I will point out the amazing impact the TV commercials that aired in childhood had on us.  I can still recall […]

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Grace Under Pressure

What does it mean to have grace under pressure? Grace under pressure can mean several things to people, but to me, it means having a calm demeanor and an overall presence of mind in a stressful or highly demanding situation. My job as a trial/jury consultant is stressful. I often remark to people who are […]

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“Grace Under Pressure” is the title of the 10th album, a 1984 release, by RUSH.  The readers of these posts know that RUSH is my favorite band.  Though there is no song on the album entitled “grace under pressure,” the album had many references to being under pressure, especially in terms of the Cold War […]

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Completion Satisfaction

I played hooky this morning for a couple of hours in order to complete some tasks on my to do list. These were things that had been lingering at home for some time and I finally had the parts in hand to do the repairs, thanks to a big trip to Home Depot and several […]

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Hooray for David in, as I like to say, “gittin’ er dun”!  It’s always nice to accomplish tasks on the “to do” list.  As David said, our professional lives do not offer the same sense of satisfaction that comes from other people’s jobs. Our work takes a long time to complete, and often, our clients […]

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Have Something to Live for

Have something to live for. It doesn’t matter what it is; having a goal or an event to look forward to is enough to keep most people moving ahead, even in times of strife. For some people, the anticipation of their next golf game among friends brings happy thoughts until game day happens. For other […]

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Having an interest in something or some things that challenge one, or are intrinsically rewarding, is not as difficult to do as perhaps, saving the world from polio or malaria (goals of the Gates Foundation).  But, having interests, an outlet for mind and body, is a positive thing.  I recently had someone, for whom English […]

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Premature Decisions

Several recent client/case events prompted this post. My biased view of litigation is that it is best done when as much input (a.k.a. data) is considered. This includes data from various experts, but also data from mock juries used to evaluate the risks of litigation. The first example is with a case that settled prior […]

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I prefer things to be done in an orderly, not a chaotic, manner.  When I make a decision about whether or not a particular person will be a “good” juror for a client’s case, I don’t merely look at the person and say, “Yeah, that one looks pretty good to me.”  Instead, my decisions regarding […]

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