Your brain processes questions differently than statements, and that difference can be a powerful communication tool in the courtroom.

In this episode, Kristi explores why questions can activate curiosity, encourage deeper thinking, and turn listeners into participants. Rather than simply evaluating information you're giving them, jurors can become cognitively involved in generating their own thoughts and connections.

Kristi also explores how the type of question can shape the kind of thinking it prompts: what can invite information, why can invite explanation, how can prompt process-oriented thinking, and what if can open the door to possibilities.

In the Communication Tip, Kristi shifts from the content of your communication to the structure of your presentation. Using the analogy of moving from class to class in secondary school, she explains why jurors need clear transitions between sections of an opening statement. Breath, vocal energy, and purposeful movement can all help signal those transitions and give jurors a mental structure for organizing the information they're receiving.

LISTEN HERE...

Key Takeaway

Questions turn a listener into a participant.

A good question doesn't just give your jurors something to hear. It gives them somewhere to go. And when you're presenting complex information, clear transitions help them understand where they are, what you've just covered, and what's coming next.

Favorite Moment

“Questions turn a listener into a participant. A good question doesn't just give you something to hear. It gives you somewhere to go.”

Links & Resources

questions vs statements - https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1LXXgWE3Qd/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Columbia Business School - https://business.columbia.edu/press-release/cbs-press-releases/want-know-what-your-brain-does-when-it-hears-question

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Think about your next opening statement. Where are the natural transitions between sections? How will you signal those transitions to your jury?

Use your breath, voice, and body to give jurors the structure they need to follow your story and organize the information you're teaching them.

And until next time...keep fostering your voice.

TRANSCRIPT:

Helloooooo!!! Hello Foster Fam! Welcome to today's episode of the Foster Your Voice podcast. I'm your host, Kristi Foster. A really easy way to get reminders each week when a new episode drops, is to join my newsletter. That way the episode comes right to your email and you don't have to try to remember and go searching for it. You can always find me on your favorite podcast platform, but...so much easier to just get it delivered to you. Plus, the newsletter gives you access to video as well as audio, if you're curious about which glasses I'm wearing that week, along with a transcript if you'd rather read through it instead. Subscribe at https://www.fostervoicestudio.com/contact

If you've been listening for a while, you'll know that I am particularly interested in HOW people learn. I was just talking to a new coaching client yesterday about this—that, as an attorney, I think it's critical that you understand the way we not only take in information, but how we process it, catalogue it, encode it into working memory, or store it in long-term memory. If you don't invest in learning about these things, how can you ever hope to help your juror be successful, and act responsibly, with your case facts?

So I thought it was particularly interesting the other day when i heard someone say that our brains process statements differently than how they process questions. I mean, I suppose that's really obvious, but I didn't really know WHY.

When we hear a statement, our brain judges, or a gentler word is assesses it, against what it already knows. If it's a true statement, fine. If it's not, it gets rejected. Quick. Finished. Done.

With a question though, the brain goes into investigator mode. It becomes curious. It searches for answers and stays open and active until it can close the loop.

One of the reels I saw recently was talking about this cognitive difference as it applies to self-development. Have you ever done a faithful, or maybe not so faithful, practice of affirmations. This is when you say positive, "affirming" statements into the mirror as a way to kind of program your brain to hear them, receive them, and live them out.

There's actually a lot of good neuroscience around this practice that is beyond anything woo-woo, if you're hesitant about manifesting and that kind of thing. BUT there's a problem when the brain doesn't BELIEVE that the statement is possible. If it hears the statement as a lie, whether a now-lie or a future-lie, it just rejects it. SO, the practice of affirmations can just feel like you're lying to yourself all the time and that's not helpful at all.

A question isn't as cut and dry though. It's an open loop and the brain is hard wired to try to solve open loops until they can close. It will keep looking for the answer, actually even after you've stopped asking, and it will look until it fulfills it's mission...closure.

And something else that's interesting about questions is that the type of question can determine the type of thinking you do.

Ask what? and you search for information.

Ask why? and you may search for an explanation.

Ask how? and you start working through a process.

Ask what if? and suddenly you're imagining all kinds of possibilities.

Ask remember when...? And now you're searching through your own experiences, your own schema, looking to relate to the question, anchor into it, and experience it WITH the questioner.

The question becomes a kind of doorway. It prompts your brain to look for answers.

In the courtroom, questions can be so effective when we're trying to get people to think more deeply.

Questions get jurors involved. It gets them participating in the thinking.

And, I think jurors find the invitation to participate refreshing in a way, because we're surrounded by statements all day long. News headlines. Advertisements. Social media posts. Instructions. Opinions. People telling us what something means, what we should think, what we should believe, what we should do.

And our brains are just constantly assessing: Do I agree with that? Is that true? Does that apply to me? Do I care? Do I accept it or reject it?

Then someone asks you a question. And suddenly, you're not just evaluating someone else's thought. You're generating thoughts of your own. There's collaboration. And that's a totally different cognitive experience.

Questions turn a listener into a participant.

A good question doesn't just give you something to hear. It gives you somewhere to go.

And sometimes, that little mental journey is what makes the information stick.

How do you use questions in trial? I mean, obviously in voir dire when you're directly asking the potential jurors questions. And, of course during witness interactions. But have you considered how you can use questions in your opening? Normally openings, and closings, are pretty statement driven don't you think? I'd love to hear some examples of how you either HAVE used questions during storytelling, challenges, damages, etc, or how you think you can TRY using them in your next trial. Email me at [email protected]

—BREAK—

I'm a natural organizer, and a total over-functioner when it comes to working through details in systematic ways. I love me a good chart, or a to-do list. I LIVE off of daily to-do lists in fact. Truly, I fall apart when I don't have something structurally in place. On days off, or weekends when I have no agenda...? I have to create an agenda for myself. I need structure. Even if it's menial tasks and household chores, I put them on a list and that guides how I use my energy through the day; how I direct my focus.

This is how I am as a learner as well. I need structure. And I think we're conditioned this way through our school experience. In Elementary school we're in one classroom all day and the teacher changes subjects per the schedule they've planned. Once we get to middle school, we go from period to period, class to class, subject to subject. We physically transition to a new topic, a new environment, and a new energy.

Email me and let me know how it is in law school. Is it more like primary school, or is it structured more like secondary school?

I think as communicators, you need to function more in the model of secondary school. Learners need transitions. We need clear boundaries, defined lines that help us shape expectations. And those parameters help us regulate our emotional energy and our cognitive load.

This is why i LOVE the concept of a template when it comes to opening statements. David Ball has an opening template that is widely used but there are others as well. An opening statement template has sections like teaching, defendant's story, who we're suing & why, challenging defense points, causation & damages, and what the jury can do about it. Other templates have additions to this, but these are some of the main sections of the framework.

i want you to think of each of your sections of your opening like that secondary school model. You need transitions. Well, maybe more importantly, your jury needs transitions. They need to hear and feel a clear structure in order to follow along with the complex narratives you're supplying.

Remember, you have notes. You have pages and pages. You've worked with a trial consultant and coach (like me) to get yourself organized and thoughtfully laid out the contents of your structure. The jury has not done any of this. They come to the courthouse at the assigned time and they have absolutely no idea what they'll be told, and what they'll need to do with that information.

So, YOU need structure, yes. You need to keep yourself organized and remain thoughtful and strategic about how you unfold details and introduce characters. But, your JURY needs structure so they can actually learn from you and mentally organize your material. They need to encode it into their working memory so they can use it in the deliberation room. And YOU need to help them do this.

How? How do you create structure for them? You signal transitions clearly. And there are a few easy, actionable ways to do this.

First, with your breath. When you've finished a key point, or have wrapped up your story section, stand still and take a breath. Just breathe. Again, that's for you, but it's also for them. THAT'S when they are processing what you've just shared and are filing it into their mental organization system

Next, at the start of a new section, change up your voice. infuse new energy, new life into your sound. This nonverbally, and subconsciously, re-invigorates your audience. It perks up their ears and sends a signal to the brain, "Hey! Heads up. Something new is happening."

Partner a new vocal energy with some purposeful steps and now you're really cooking with gas. You've signaled auditorily and also visually to them, effectively giving them a new Roman Numeral on their mental outline. Opening Statements don’t come with school bells to signal dismissing a class and welcome the new class into their seats, but YOU can do this with your breath, voice, and body. Offer them clarity. They’ll take it.

Until next time…keep fostering your voice.