By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm:
When I’m in my office and on a client call where I’m expected to contribute creative thoughts, I will frequently close the door, put the telephone headset on, and pace circles around my office. And when I’m stumped over the course of a couple days by something for this blog, like a topic or a way to frame it, I will sometimes take a short stroll or a bike ride and find that afterward, without any conscious effort on my part, the problem has been solved. There is something about movement that frees the mind and lets the more creative thoughts flow. A recent article in The New Yorker takes a look at this relationship (“Why Walking Helps Us Think”). The article finds both literary and social science evidence for this “curious link between mind and feet.”
The implications for those working in an office are clear: Get up from behind that desk. You don’t need an excuse and you’ll be more productive for it. For presenters – trial lawyers and others who work while speaking on their feet — it carries a different implication. I have always heard, and sometimes given, the advice that a speaker who moves too much is a distraction. “Stop pacing like a caged tiger,” the advice went, “and move only occasionally and purposefully during transitions.” But the longer I’ve studied effective communicators, I’ve come to believe that this advice doesn’t really translate to the real world. The practical rule against pacing is so frequently violated, by very experienced and effective speakers as well. Dynamic communicators move, and not just during transitions. As a result, my thinking has evolved and I will now say, “Go ahead and move when it feels right…just don’t get carried away.” The New Yorker article, however, provides a new perspective on why it might “feel right” for a speaker to move.
Why Does the Speaker Want to Move?
The traditional explanation is that pacing is a kind of “tell” brought on by nerves. But I’ve seen too many calm and focused speakers who nonetheless feel better when presenting on the move. The reasons for that start with the physical. “When we stroll, the pace of our feet naturally vacillates with our moods and the cadence of our inner speech,” writes Ferris Jabr in The New Yorker. “At the same time, we can actively change the pace of our thoughts by deliberately walking more briskly or by slowing down.” When speakers are truly engaged – an opening, a cross-examination, or a CLE presentation – they are not just reading or reciting words from memory. Instead, they are engaged in several layers of complex thinking, only some of which are coming out of their mouths. Movement can “pace” those thoughts, so to speak – creating a regularity to them like a metronome.
The help that walking gives to thinking has been demonstrated in experiments as well. The New Yorker article notes the experience of a doctoral student and professor from Stanford, Marily Oppezzo and Daniel Schwartz, who noted that they both did some of their most creative thinking while walking. So they conducted four experiments (Oppezzo & Schwartz, 2014) to test that relationship. They divided participants into groups that either walked or sat stationary while completing various thinking tasks (e.g., one exercise asked participants to come up with as many atypical uses as posssible for a common object like a button or a tire). The results: The walkers did better and came up with more ideas.
For litigators working up a case, that suggests that you now have a better excuse for sticking to that exercise schedule even as trial approaches: Your creative thoughts depend on it. And once the trial starts and you’re standing before the jury, then you will still want to move about as much as the judge allows you to.
How Should the Trial Lawyer Approach Movement?
Of course, it is not entirely up to you since judges have their own rules and expectations. But even in the most restrictive of courtrooms, there will still be some latitude. Here are a few reminders to the presenting attorney who wonders, “How much should I move?”
For Your Own and Your Audience’s Engagement, Move
First, don’t feel guilty. That urge to move most probably means that your mind is engaged, and that is a good thing not a bad thing. In a trial setting, the biggest barrier between you and your audience is often boredom. Change is what captures and recaptures attention. So new topics, new “chapters” and also new speaking positions can keep both you and your listeners engaged.
Even When You Are Boxed in by Lectern or a Microphone
So the judge says that she expects you to stay at the lectern, or the logisitics of the microphone demand that you stray not to far from it. That isn’t ideal for either speaker or audience, but there is still a chance to move. Instead of remaining motionless straight behind the lectern, draw two imaginary lines at a 45 degree angle from both corners of the lecturn and extending about four feet back. You can be within that zone and still be at the lecturn, and still be picked up by most microphones. So maybe instead of taking three or four steps, you are taking one very short step. But you can still release a bit of energy and add a bit of movement by using this small playing field.
But Don’t Get Carried Away
The key for all aspects of delivery is variety. So if you find that you’re doing the same thing over and over again – whether it is intonation, or gestures, or movement – then it is no longer gaining attention, and it could be a distraction. In addtion, while most judges don’t allow it, I have seen some lawyers who will walk straight to the jury box, lean on the bar, and breathe down the jurors’ necks. Violating personal space isn’t a good strategy for persuasion. While speakers shouldn’t get to the point of planning each step, they should get to the point – particularly with practice and feedback – of moving frequently and comfortably while still avoiding anything that distracts either them or their audience.
This advice applies to attorneys when they’re in court and also when they’re presenting in any context. For witnesses – well, it would be great if your witnesses could move around the courtroom instead of being confined in that little box, but it’s not likely. Sometimes, however, if you’re creative, you can come up with a reason to have the witness come out of the box for a little while (e.g., in order to interact with an exhibit). For many witnesses – particularly experts – I have noticed that this change of pace can end being very freeing. When it works, it is for the same reason it works for the attorney: It simply feels more comfortable to be able to move a bit.
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Other Posts on Physical Delivery:
- Go Ahead and Talk with Your Hands, But Know What You’re Saying
- Look Like You’re Winning: 2012 Presidential Debate Series, Part One
- Consider How You Come Across With the Volume Off
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Oppezzo, M., & Schwartz, D. L. (2014). Give your ideas some legs: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory and Cognition 40:4. 1142-1152.
Photo Credit: Steven Zolneczko, Flickr Creative Commons
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