Argue Better: Improve Civility through Enhanced Self-Awareness

In a legal milieu fraught with all manner of pressures, disagreement, and inherent conflict born of an adversarial system, it is no surprise that lawyers often witness a counterproductive transformation in others and, if they are honest, in themselves.

In a flash, our behavior can fluctuate between acceptable productive behavior and out-of-control counterproductive behavior.

Curbing our inclination to act impulsively – to learn to respond rather than react- is primarily a function of self-awareness and self-management. So what happens to cause lawyers you'd never suspect to behave rudely or hurtfully abrupt or adopt a win-at-all-cost mentality?

This course will ground you in:

1. The productive behaviors you naturally employ. 

2. The perceptual filters we use to interpret and label others' behavior and; 

3. The sparks that fly (that may not break any rules) but violate something even more fundamental: the basic tenets of civility and decorum in our professional relationships or the courtroom.

Learning Objectives:

1. Discover how three distinct facets of our behavior; assertiveness, incentives, and individuality, shape the way we show up productively as lawyers
   

2. Identify intrinsic expectations lawyers hold in those same three behavior areas that they do not want to be compromised

3. Explore impulsive counterproductive behaviors that emerge when our expectations are unmet and how the lack of self-awareness leads to actions that negatively affect other attorneys and colleagues in the legal profession

4. Employ techniques to mitigate the counterproductive stress behaviors

5. Discuss the consequences of practicing law from reactive stress behaviors