In this episode, Kristi explores the difference between beliefs, principles, and values—and why understanding those distinctions can be especially useful during jury selection. Drawing from an interview with Adam Grant and Brené Brown, along with research on terminal and instrumental values, she considers how the things jurors value most deeply can reveal the common ground that connects them to your case.

Then, in this week's Communication Tip, Kristi leads you through a practical body scan to help identify where you're carrying unnecessary tension. She encourages you to distinguish between tension that is necessary for the task at hand and tension that has simply become habitual. Releasing unnecessary physical tension may create greater vocal freedom, ease, confidence, and credibility in the courtroom.

LISTEN HERE...

Key Takeaway

Not all juror beliefs are the deepest level of what drives their decisions.

Understanding your jurors' underlying values can help you find meaningful common ground during voir dire.

Favorite Moment

"What is necessary tension that is just part of the job and that you have to manage? And what is unnecessary, habitual tension that maybe, just MAYBE you could try to release?"

Links & Resources

Adam grant & brene brown: Terminal values vs Core values

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1HCdAsN42a/?mibextid=wwXIfr

The Meaning Movement: https://themeaningmovement.com/core-values-meaning/

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Want to become more intentional about how you communicate with jurors? Kristi helps trial attorneys develop the voice, body, breath, and nonverbal skills that allow them to communicate with greater clarity, confidence, and credibility.

If this episode gave you something to think about, share it with a colleague or someone on your trial team—and don't forget to leave a 5-star rating and review.

TRANSCRIPT:

Helloooo!!! Hello Foster Fam!! Again, I hope you're enjoying your summer months. I'd love to hear what you've been up to. We just had a 3 day Art & Music Festival here in Vancouver, WA (where I live, just on the WA side of Portland-metro area), and I'm lucky enough to live in the apartments just above the city park where the festival was held. So, I was treated to lots of great music from the Vancouver Symphony, including a final night of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and An American In Paris. It was divine. We'd had terrible smoke from local wild fires earlier in the week, so I'm grateful that the air cleared up and we were all able to enjoy just a perfect summer evening. Let me know what you've gotten up to. Email me at [email protected] or send me a DM on Instagram or linkedin.

This month, I kind of found myself doing a lot of review and assessment around motivation, habit formation, and behavior change. I didn't set out to make it August Assessment, but...here we are. haha! If you've missed the last couple of episodes, I encourage you to go back to give them a listen. Listen to the Point of Interest section of ep. 81 and 82 if you're also in a season of evaluation and want to take a closer look at behaviors or skills you want to develop before we reach the end of 2026. Gosh...that seems so far away, but it'll be here before we know if and, I for one, want to be able to do my year end wrap up and see some tangible growth, and see that I lived out my intentions. So...go back and listen and join me on this self-improvement journey.

With all this awareness of behavior change and habit formation, I've had to take closer look at my values, and the WHY behind the behaviors and habits I'm building. So, I was glad to come across an interview between Adam Grant and Brene Brown where Adam kind of pressed Brene to really define some of her values while also making the distinction between core values and terminal values. I've posted the link to the interview excerpt in the show notes.

These terms were kind of new to me though, so I did a bit more research. I am such a nerd. haha!! I just really like learning and my curiosity drives me to look things up, read a bit more, and then...share what i'm learning with you.

So, I found this great article, or it's probably a blog post from The Meaning Movement by Dan Cumberland, called Core Values Meaning: What They Are + How to Find Yours. I mean...that's pretty on the nose.

He starts by defining the difference between Values, Beliefs, and Principles which I found really helpful. I think this particularly important for when you're doing jury selection. You may be asking questions about beliefs (which he defines as "A conviction about what's true or false"), or principles (defined as "A behavioral rule derived from values"), BUT...the underpinning of both is their VALUES—the concepts that are most important. It's in the VALUES of your jurors that you can find common ground—and then determine whether those guiding values will support your case. It's the WHY behind the WHAT. The reason or motivation behind their actions or words.

Then, there's a distinction between Terminal Values and Instrumental Values. Terminal Values are the big picture, desired end states — Freedom, World Peace, Security, Equality. Those kinds of things. So then, Instrumental Values are the behaviors or character traits that work to achieve them — self-reliant, forgiving, responsible, thoughtful, etc.

So, without getting too far in the weeds here, it's good to ask WHY understanding your Core Values (both terminal and instrumental) is important. The blog post says that "value congruence correlates with measurable psychological wellbeing, including higher life satisfaction and lower rates of anxiety and depression." In other words, when the way you live is aligned with your values, that alignment is associated with greater mental & emotional well-being and generally enjoying life more. I mean...THAT'S worthwhile.

I encourage you to click on the blog post link in the show notes, especially if you're interested in exploring this further for yourself, and/or for the sake of drilling down a bit more to influence how you approach jury selection and creating voir dire questions that might better deliver you to the values of your jurors.

If you DO go through the exercise of identifying your core values, both terminal and instrumental, I'd love for you to share them with me. Send me an email at [email protected]

—BREAK—

It is good to occasionally just pause for a sec and take stock in what our body is doing, more specifically, where it's holding tension. Our body does lots of things that we're not actively willing it to do and we often carry unnecessary muscular tension, so it's smart to periodically just stop what you're working on for a sec and do a little body scan.

Here's how I do a body scan...and you can just do it with me right now if you want...

I sit at my desk and I concentrate on my toes. I think "toes, toes, toes" just to limit my attention to ONLY that area. Then i assess: am I holding any tension? are they all relaxed? I wiggle them just to make sure. Side note: sometimes my toes cramp. Do yours too? I might need some potassium or something.

Anyway, then I go on to my foot and I really try to feel my arch. "relax relax relax." Then ankle ankle ankle. And BREATHE.

Then I just move up my legs. Calf, calf, calf. Relax. Knees and thighs. This usually gets me here because...especially as a woman, I'm so trained to sit with my knees together, which is fine, but just notice if there's tension. I feel tension being held in my quads, and hips and inner thighs when i actively keep my knees together. Take just a few minutes to relax your legs. Shake them out a bit and let them fall wherever they're going to. No one can see. You're safe. Relax, relax, relax.

Now try to keep all that relaxation in your lower half while you work through an upper half scan.

Think about your ribs and your mid-section. Take a couple of deep breaths to really get the expansion, and then let them just drop into place. Don't hold your carriage. Let yourself collapse a bit. Now, it's worth saying, this is not how I'm suggesting you hold yourself. This is specifically just a body awareness step. There are choices we make for necessary tension to maintain decorum and professionalism, and even just for personal aesthetics. You'll go back to that in a sec. Right now, just keep on with releasing tension before we add it back in.

Okay, now think about your shoulder blades, and your traps, and your upper arms. This is sometimes referred to as the "yoke." Now, I'm not gonna get all gym bro on you. "Bruh, you're looking yoked." No, that's not what we're doing, BUT...this is a HUGE area of tension, both necessary and unnecessary. So let's bring awareness to it. Relax, relax, relax.

Finish up the body scan with your forearms and hands. Are you holding them in a specific way? Can you release them?

And finally, check in with your face. Can you just let your jaw go slack? Let your cheek bones drop? Let your eyebrows go to neutral? The face holds lots of micro-tension, so see what you can let go of.

Take a couple low, slow breaths and then let yourself return. Notice where you add back in tension, and ask, "Is this necessary or is this habit?" If you're uncertain, see if you can accomplish the task you're working on without it. If you can, then it's possibly just a bad habit you've developed, or your body is compensating for something structural or painful that you may need to work at releasing.

Before we wrap up, let me just focus in a bit more on that yoke we talked about. If you're a woman of a certain age, you maybe already know that shoulders tend to act up on us. It's not entirely clear WHY either, which is super annoying. But frozen shoulder is a real problem for perimenopausal and menopausal women. I'm dealing with a bum shoulder myself. Now, I don't know if it's hormone related specifically, but my whole left side trap, scap, sub-scap, delt, and rotator cuff have not been happy with me for a while. I've done PT, I've done massage, I've done acupuncture. So, I'm SUPER aware that this is a problem area for me and when I'm holding tension, that area is going to be extra special.

And, I KNOW you are just so busy all the time and you're juggling so many balls, constantly. You may feel like you're barely staying above water, and...this is not a new sensation. This is steady. This is the way of it. This is lawyer life. Now, I'm not a lawyer, so I'm not trying to be insensitive here. But...it's worth some examining every once in awhile. What is necessary tension that is just part of the job and that you have to manage? And what is unnecessary, habitual tension that maybe, just MAYBE you could try to release?

Here's a challenge for you...

Set an alarm on your phone to go off at the same time every day. Just for, let's say, a week. 7 days. Today is a Monday, so just through this coming Sunday. Every day at the same time, do a body scan. Maybe return to this episode and let me guide you through it, or learn to guide yourself. And as you go through it, just take inventory and honestly examine the necessary and the unnecessary tension, and what the impact of each is. Maybe releasing the unnecessary tension will give you more vocal freedom, project more ease and confidence, and increase your credibility factor. Maybe. It's worth exploring, don't you think?

Now just take a deep breath, and until next time, keep fostering your voice.