“A story – even a one-liner – is ultimately more persuasive than facts.” From the managing partner of a law firm as part of his advice in Texas Lawyer, Oct. 11, 2006, that assertion rankles me. As a believer in benchmarks and statistical analysis, I dwell in the camp of…
Managers can think more clearly and decide more effectively to the extent they can differentiate more ideas. A stockpile of ideas, expressed by a richness of words and concepts well understood, gives clarity, nuance and balance to a person’s thinking. That words differ from concepts has been commented on here…
General counsel, during discussions of complex topics at staff meetings with their direct reports, produce from time to time a chilling effect. Once the top lawyer takes a position, everyone else typically scrambles to support it or freezes into silence (See my post of Jan. 17, 2006 on passive-aggressive behavior.).…
If a brainstorming session falls short of its participants’ goals, “most often it is because someone hijacks the topic at hand, tries to prove everyone else wrong, works to impress the superiors who are present, or just plain blathers for his own enjoyment,” according to the Wall St.J., June 13,…
Many studies have shown that people welcome choices, but not too many. A proliferation of alternatives slows people down and frustrates them. As summarized in the Fin. Times, Jan. 6, 2006 at 7, “as the number of choices increases so does the perceived risk of making a bad choice —…
“The preponderance of psychological evidence indicates that experts are made, not born.” This is the conclusion from Scientific Am., Vol. 295, Aug. 2006 at 64, 71. The article explains how very accomplished thinkers have at the mental ready more “chunked” knowledge – knowledge stored efficiently as patterns and templates –…
Research reported in the Economist, Oct. 14, 2006 at 86, may explain why in-house lawyers who take part in pro bono programs feel good about it. The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) to map brain activity when volunteers decided to donate money. The part of the brain that…
When you recall three instances of patent boutiques failing to handle litigation as well as do general litigation firms, inductive reasoning lets you conclude to use generalist litigation firms. When you know already that Ivy League graduates who clerked for the Supreme Court are smart, you use deductive reasoning when…
Recent research suggests that ambivalent feelings — the simultaneous anxiety and excitement of starting a new project, say — enhance creativity. Assistant Professor Christina Ting Fong of the University of Washington business school set up situations where students felt different degrees of ambivalence. The students then took the Remote Associates…
Software developers have staked claims to programs that can deduce what information is important to a user, based on what the user is doing, and deliver information or tools that help at that moment. According to the Economist, Sept. 23, 2006 at 24, “plenty of measures can tell you something…