I had the ‘opportunity’ to participate in Jury duty last week.  It was the 3rd time in the last 10 months that I had been called, but the first one that actually went to selection.  If you haven’t gone through the process before, you receive a notice in the mail and they have you call in the Friday before your date to find out if you need to show up that following Monday at the courthouse. 

Because my previous experience had been a non-event, I didn’t really clear my schedule other than that Monday…and unfortunately I had a pretty full week planned.  At least until I actually got selected for a jury!  Everyone will tell you their theory or favorite way to get out of being selected (including wearing red because it implies you are assertive, which attorneys don’t like).  In this particular situation, I’m not sure it would have mattered – the court was very aggressive with reasons why jurors should be excused, and even most that were excused were sent to another courtroom that was still short of jury candidates.  End result -  I was on a live jury for the first time.

Here’s what I learned from the ordeal overall:

The wheels of justice turn slowly…

I was on a civil suit that had been filed originally in May of 2009, so it took over 18 months to get to trial.  On top of that, it wasn’t all that complicated of a case.  The case centered on a commercial building lease and a perceived breach of contract.  We could have covered all of the important points in about 2 hours…instead it took 4 full days!  The only good news is that the jury deliberations took about 1/2 hour, and it was only that long because we had to figure out how to interpret the judge’s directions the right way.

It’s important to be clear…

The plaintiff was the owner of the building and the crux of their case hinged on the tenant not living up to the terms of maintaining the property.  Unfortunately the contract was terribly written and didn’t specify in any detail what maintenance needed to be done.  It’s difficult to declare breach of contract when there’s no clear language to hold people to (it also didn’t help that they waited 6 months to ask for money).

The importance of being clear was also reinforced by both lawyers…who seemed to go out of their way to be ‘NOT’ clear (and to repeat themselves over and over).  I know lawyers in the courtroom have to follow certain standards, but I’m pretty sure they don’t have to be obtuse.

Not to do business with a certain real estate investor…

The building owner who filed the suit not only bullied his partners out of their stake in the building, but clearly was suing the tenant as a way to make up for a bad investment decision.  He was in over his head, showed poor judgment several times along with a severe lack of management skills and then looked to the courts to bail him out…the case should have never gone to court in the first place, which is why there were almost no deliberations.  He made it very easy to decide for the defendant!

Appreciation for the overall legal process and the jury

It was really interesting to see all of the components of a full trial setting.  Obviously you see a glamourized version on TV or in movies, but it is enlightening to get to see things from start to finish.

I was also really impressed with the jury members – we had a diverse group ranging from a twenty something bartender, a former policewoman and an active practicing Doctor.  Overall it was a really sharp group of 12 individuals that really believed in doing their civic duty and doing the right thing.

I’m glad it’s over…but overall it was positive!

Unexpectedly missing 4 days when you are the sole owner of a business is pretty disruptive…both for me and for my clients!  I’m going to be making up for it for at least the next couple of weeks – but even with that issue, it was very interesting and I’ve got a new found respect for the kind of people that live in our county and the system that we are all protected by.

What about you?  Any good jury stories?  I’d love to hear your thoughts – share them in the comments below.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

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Do you know the origin of the word cliché? (from a Seth Godin post):

In printing, a cliché was a printing plate cast from movable type. This is also called a stereotype. When letters were set one at a time, it made sense to cast a phrase used repeatedly as a single slug of metal. "Cliché" came to mean such a ready-made phrase. The French word “cliché” comes from the sound made when the matrix is dropped into molten metal to make a printing plate.

Who knew the word came from a sound effect?  Great information for your next party! 

I was thinking about clichés this afternoon – I was listening to the audio book of The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch (fantastic, powerful book – I’ll write more on it later) and he had some quick thoughts on the importance of those well used (perhaps overused) statements often called clichés. 

In his opinion, clichés became overused precisely because they have a powerful meaning – that doesn’t mean you should avoid them, just use them in the right way…especially if you’re talking with kids, because they haven’t heard them before!

The great thing about the tried and true phrases is people can quickly get what you’re saying and it generally gives you some common ground to work with.

Do you have some favorite clichés?

Here are a couple that came to mind that I really like:

“Whether you think you can or that you can’t, you’re usually right” – attributed to Henry Ford.

“If anything can go wrong it will” – Murphy’s Law

“Carpe Diem” – Latin for Seize the Day

Bad cliches?

There are definitely phrases that are overused – “Thinking outside of the box” comes to mind.  “Core Competency” or “Taking it to the next level” would be some other examples.

Seth Godin created a page where people could vote on the buzz words that annoy them the most – it started as a top 10 list and it now has 410 entries – check out his list of bad business cliches. 

What would you vote as #1 in terms of overused or bad cliches?  Share your thoughts and comments below – I’d love to hear them.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

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So you know that a trend is becoming mainstream when people start making fun of it and doing spoof Broadway musicals about it.   Social Media is certainly ripe for satire and the clip below does a great (and very funny) job of bringing out the really silly things people do.  It’s very well done!

Check out Web Site Story – an homage to the classic musical.

If you have trouble with the video above – go to CollegeHumor to see it there.

Shawn Kinkade   Kansas City Business Coach

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photo by RandysonofRobert 

I imagine I’m like a lot of people – I’m proud of being an American, I love this country and I strongly believe in the many things that makes the whole thing great.

However I’m guilty of sometimes taking that for granted.  Which is made worse when you make the mistake of watching too much TV and getting inundated with all of the incredibly stupid, greedy, occasionally evil things that many of our politicians do.  It doesn’t take much before you tend to become jaded and a bit cynical.

But this is still the greatest country out there – despite the constant bickering and the general stupidity that might go on in Washington. 

I was reminded of this when I went out to vote yesterday morning.  The idea was to take advantage of the advance voting available here in Johnson County Kansas and to avoid the lines and the rush on election day.

Apparently a few thousand other people had the same idea yesterday!

I got to the voting location (Metcalf South for those that know the area) within 15 minutes of it

opening and the line was several hundred yards long…! 

The total wait ended up being about an hour and fifteen minutes – but that gave me a great time to people watch and to really reflect on why I was there and what the whole process means.

photo by RandysonofRobert

My fellow line mates came in all shapes and sizes, I’m sure they all had their own strong opinions on who they were voting for – but the one thing we all had in common was the willingness to invest a good chunk of our day to wait in line for more than an hour to participate in the civic process.  Kid were running around, people were smiling and pleasant and overall it was actually a very pleasant hour.

I’m not normally moved by these kinds of things, but it was a very inspirational scene.  I’ve got my own opinions about how I would like the vote to turn out (although candidly I’m not thrilled with any of the candidates across the board).  But I respect that different people are going to reach different conclusions and based on my experience yesterday, the most important thing is people need to get out there and vote!

It’s likely to be a hassle, but I encourage you to take the time and make it happen.  I bet you’ll end up with a sense of pride that you might not have expected.

Shawn Kinkade   Kansas City Business Coach

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It’s been going on since 1984 and every year it’s expanded to become bigger and better.

The focus of TED is to bring together interesting people and challenge them to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (give or take a few).

The gamut runs from inspirational to educational and instructive to entertaining and very funny.  Imagine being able to hear from some of the most interesting people in the world in 18 minute chunks – for free!

If you’ve never had a chance to check it out, it’s well worth spending some time to explore – you can find the starting place at TED.org.

Below is one of the more recent postings from a magician / mentalist named Keith Barry.  I had never heard of him, but based on the show he put on here, I’m sure we’ll all be hearing a lot more about him in the future – fantastic stuff!

Take a look:

If for some reason the embedded player doesn’t work, here’s a link to the video.

Share your comments here – I’d love to hear your thoughts on the arm twisting.

Shawn Kinkade www.aspirekc.com

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