How To Read And Increase Permission With Your Jury
Transcription
Sari de la Motte here, I specialize in helping attorneys communicate with jurors. In today's video, we're going to talk about the one thing you can and should read in a jury panel.
In a previous video, we talked about how we don't want you trying or attempting to read a juror's body language because we're often wrong, and when we get these wrong messages we become obsessed, and it takes us off our game. But there is one thing that we do want you to read in the jury and that is permission.
The way that I describe permission is how receptive someone is to you or your message. We talk a lot about trust in trial. We want our jurors to trust us but trust takes time. Permission, however, does not.
In fact, permission is the doorway to trust. It's the first level. We've got to have people receptive and open to us before they can trust us.
The only reliable indicator of permission is breathing. We talked in a previous video about how important breathing is for you, the attorney, but let's talk about how to read breathing in someone else. And don't worry, you won't have to go up with a little mirror to check breathing or watch the chest area go up and down, which, frankly, is dangerous for you male attorneys.
Here is how we can tell if people are breathing or not. Example: one of the questions I've often been asked is, "How close can I stand to the jury?" I always say, "They'll tell you, if you know what to look for." How? Well if the attorney starts to walk towards the juror, and the juror freezes and stiffens, that means they're now holding their breath and that the attorney has lost permission.
Any kind of movement where the person pulls back or up usually indicates that they are holding their breath. In fact, try this: adopt a stiff body position. Just stiffen up for a moment. What did you have to do? Most likely you had to take a sharp intake of breath and hold it to be able to stay in that stiff position. So that's what we're looking for: stiff body position where nothing is really moving.
If the juror is speaking, however, you can also tell that if they're holding their breath or not breathing well by observing whether or not they have trouble finding words. Are they stuttering or sputtering? Is their mouth open wide but nothing is coming out? This also is a sign that they're not breathing well and that you've lost permission.
Jerky movement is another sign. If they are moving, but moving in a way where the gestures are jerky instead of flowing, that indicates that the juror has stopped breathing.
This is really dangerous for you, as we spoke about in the other video, because when a juror stops breathing they go into fight or flight and are no longer receptive to you. Receptivity is that permission piece that we're looking for. We want our juror to be breathing well and easy, which means they're receptive to what we're saying. It doesn't mean they agree with what we're saying, just that they're receptive to hearing it.
How can you get your jurors to breathe well and increase your permission in court? You have to breathe well. You have to teach the jury through your breathing that they're okay and that they're safe. That is going to help increase your permission. We can't get anywhere in trial unless we have the permission of the jury.
In a previous video, we talked about how we don't want you trying or attempting to read a juror's body language because we're often wrong, and when we get these wrong messages we become obsessed, and it takes us off our game. But there is one thing that we do want you to read in the jury and that is permission.
The way that I describe permission is how receptive someone is to you or your message. We talk a lot about trust in trial. We want our jurors to trust us but trust takes time. Permission, however, does not.
In fact, permission is the doorway to trust. It's the first level. We've got to have people receptive and open to us before they can trust us.
The only reliable indicator of permission is breathing. We talked in a previous video about how important breathing is for you, the attorney, but let's talk about how to read breathing in someone else. And don't worry, you won't have to go up with a little mirror to check breathing or watch the chest area go up and down, which, frankly, is dangerous for you male attorneys.
Here is how we can tell if people are breathing or not. Example: one of the questions I've often been asked is, "How close can I stand to the jury?" I always say, "They'll tell you, if you know what to look for." How? Well if the attorney starts to walk towards the juror, and the juror freezes and stiffens, that means they're now holding their breath and that the attorney has lost permission.
Any kind of movement where the person pulls back or up usually indicates that they are holding their breath. In fact, try this: adopt a stiff body position. Just stiffen up for a moment. What did you have to do? Most likely you had to take a sharp intake of breath and hold it to be able to stay in that stiff position. So that's what we're looking for: stiff body position where nothing is really moving.
If the juror is speaking, however, you can also tell that if they're holding their breath or not breathing well by observing whether or not they have trouble finding words. Are they stuttering or sputtering? Is their mouth open wide but nothing is coming out? This also is a sign that they're not breathing well and that you've lost permission.
Jerky movement is another sign. If they are moving, but moving in a way where the gestures are jerky instead of flowing, that indicates that the juror has stopped breathing.
This is really dangerous for you, as we spoke about in the other video, because when a juror stops breathing they go into fight or flight and are no longer receptive to you. Receptivity is that permission piece that we're looking for. We want our juror to be breathing well and easy, which means they're receptive to what we're saying. It doesn't mean they agree with what we're saying, just that they're receptive to hearing it.
How can you get your jurors to breathe well and increase your permission in court? You have to breathe well. You have to teach the jury through your breathing that they're okay and that they're safe. That is going to help increase your permission. We can't get anywhere in trial unless we have the permission of the jury.