How to go from the spoken word to agreement?
Creating a Cognitive Framework
People agree when a request makes sense within their own cognitive framework. We can take any example –
On the contrary, people decline requests that do not make sense within their own cognitive framework.
Why didn’t the butler do it? It doesn’t make sense within the cognitive framework. Maybe an alibi makes the accusation not make sense – within the current cognitive framework. But defeat that alibi and the butler’s guilt makes sense within the framework again.
During trial, the litigator of course creates this cognitive framework in the jurors’ minds who don’t know all of the facts and nuance of a case.
Jurors remember this structured framework.
To create this framework, litigators use words and of course graphics to imprint key elements in the jurors’ minds. Since people can’t unsee what they have seen, and because human understanding relies on simplified interconnected blocks of facts and concepts, smart litigators use graphics to augment their presentations and those of their experts.
Well-made visuals, like well-chosen and well-spoken words, can do more than convey information. They can convey nuance and subtly commit that nuance to memory. Visuals can strengthen a systemic understanding of the facts and concepts and imprint the logical, common sense causal connections from one node to the next, from the first step to the desired conclusion. It is important for a litigator to have a say in what is being so imprinted.
Are generic “graphics” the answer? They are not, just as generic “words” are not enough to win a case. Just as skillful litigators choose the right words and manner of presentation unique for every case, so skilled consultants choose nuanced approaches to support case themes and narratives within the given confines.
Flexible and Powerful
Good visuals help in a great many cases. Cases dealing with issues of healthcare or the human body, medical standards, engineering, injuries and accidents of any kind, intellectual property, mechanisms, sequences, and timelines, and even, more fundamentally, legal and other standards, can be augmented with well-designed and well-made visuals.
Talk to us about your cases and we will give you our opinion, based on our professional experience, about whether and what kind of visuals might help and why.