Profitable congressional testimony just isn’t about how sensible or articulate company leaders are however about three pillars: preparation, messaging and self-discipline, say Dan Small and Christopher Armstrong of Holland & Knight. Within the first of a three-part collection, the authors clarify why the mindset of “I’ll simply go in and inform my story” is a one-way ticket to catastrophe.
That is the primary of a three-part collection on how company leaders can put together for congressional testimony. Developing: messaging and self-discipline.
Getting into the world of congressional testimony can usually be a wierd and high-risk expertise (simply ask Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos). In contrast to conventional testimony in litigation, testimony earlier than a congressional oversight committee could be half politics, half theatrics and half high-stakes communications. It’s also probably harmful to your authorized, reputational and coverage pursuits.
Profitable testimony is, merely put, not about how sensible, articulate or profitable you might be. You might be all these issues and extra, however usually, congressional hearings are about pushing a pre-established agenda, creating soundbites to help preconceived concepts and utilizing witnesses as punching luggage. The objective for the witness shouldn’t essentially be to win a congressional listening to. It’s very troublesome, if not unimaginable, to win as a witness, nevertheless it’s fairly attainable to lose. As a substitute, the objective is about minimizing threat, surviving and going about your life and enterprise along with your repute intact afterward. Collectively, we’ve got ready CEOs, governors, federal authorities officers, college officers and well-known people for testimony. The one factor every has in widespread is the method we employed and the outcomes that inform what we name the three pillars of testimony.
Boiled down, these three pillars of profitable congressional testimony are preparation, messaging and self-discipline. That’s what it’s about. These pillars have proven themselves in years of expertise making ready shoppers to testify earlier than Congress and in different settings, in addition to being on the opposite aspect of the desk planning technique in opposition to witnesses.
In the present day, we take care of the primary: preparation.
Forewarned is forearmed
“Forewarned, forearmed, to be ready is half the victory.” This quote is usually attributed to “Don Quixote” writer Miguel de Cervantes; it’s accurately utilized right here — and being forewarned, forearmed or ready just isn’t one thing that occurs naturally. A congressional listening to just isn’t a pure continuing, which makes it troublesome for clever, profitable people who’re used to having a mindset that claims, “I’ll simply go in and inform my story!” Such a mindset is a recipe for catastrophe on this case.
What can we imply by preparation? After we get known as in to arrange a witness for congressional proceedings, that is usually the primary — and hardest — battle. Preparation just isn’t a fast and simple factor. Assembly for an hour or two, between all of your different conferences, just isn’t actual preparation. Preparation is an intensive and in depth course of that takes a variety of steps. It requires an introduction, attending to know the lawyer, or whoever is making ready you, reviewing the info, reviewing the method, placing all of it collectively in a collection of guidelines that we’ll discuss and dealing with counsel to anticipate issues and pitfalls. All usually underneath a decent timeline.
Regardless of what anybody says, congressional oversight hearings are not often solely about discovering info. To no matter extent anybody is , that work has often been carried out behind the scenes by congressional employees, and hopefully by your employees as effectively.
From a preparation standpoint, that’s excellent news. It signifies that, collectively, we will often work out what the info are, what the questions can be and subsequently what the solutions can be. With key questions, a listening to just isn’t the time for spontaneity. Key or powerful questions must be rigorously thought-about, analyzed, answered after which practiced again and again, effectively earlier than the precise listening to. Far too usually, witnesses are requested questions that might — and will — have been totally anticipated and ready for, solely to fumble with a spontaneous reply, typically disastrously. Language issues; context issues; tone issues: All this and extra ought to have been developed and practiced prematurely.
There’s an awesome quote from a well-known trial lawyer, which though supposed for closing argument at trial, applies equally effectively right here: “It’s merely not attainable to powerfully articulate a large number of factors, one instantly following one other, extemporaneously. There’s a finest option to make a degree, and to search out it takes time and sweat on the yellow pad.”
The subsequent crucial step in actual preparation is a dry run. We are able to be taught from Dan’s traumatic expertise instructing his twin ladies easy methods to journey bicycles years in the past. Attempt as he may, he couldn’t train them easy methods to journey bicycles simply by speaking to them. Eventually, they needed to get on the darn issues, with the entire bumps and bruises, the tears, and sure, the enjoyment that got here with it.
We really feel the identical means about working with witnesses. We are able to accomplish an awesome deal by speaking with one another, however in the end, you must get on the bicycle. Eventually, you must do a dry run. We don’t imply the occasional, “effectively, in the event that they ask you this, what do you suppose?” We imply stopping the preparation course of and saying, OK, for the following two hours, 4 hours, no matter it takes, we’re going to do a dry run. In-role, hardball, uninterrupted. Then we’ll break down solutions, tone, demeanor, focus on and do it once more. And possibly once more.
The extra practical it’s, the extra useful it will likely be. The questioners shouldn’t solely be your inner group or individuals you might be already snug with. If you wish to be good and play patty-cake, do it some other place. We’re not making ready you for patty-cake. It is a severe endeavor. You need to deal with it significantly. Do a dry run, then cease, discuss it and do it once more.
The objective of each dry run, exceptional as this will likely sound, is that the witness comes out of the particular interview or testimony, or regardless of the course of is, and turns to us, as lots of our witnesses do, and says, “Oh, you guys have been more durable than that!” That’s the objective of a dry run.
The subsequent steps are reviewing the method (self-discipline) and reviewing the core themes (message). These are the fundamental steps to this in depth and intensive course of. In our subsequent two articles, we’ll tackle these different pillars.
Profitable congressional testimony just isn’t about how sensible or articulate company leaders are however about three pillars: preparation, messaging and self-discipline, say Dan Small and Christopher Armstrong of Holland & Knight. Within the first of a three-part collection, the authors clarify why the mindset of “I’ll simply go in and inform my story” is a one-way ticket to catastrophe.
That is the primary of a three-part collection on how company leaders can put together for congressional testimony. Developing: messaging and self-discipline.
Getting into the world of congressional testimony can usually be a wierd and high-risk expertise (simply ask Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos). In contrast to conventional testimony in litigation, testimony earlier than a congressional oversight committee could be half politics, half theatrics and half high-stakes communications. It’s also probably harmful to your authorized, reputational and coverage pursuits.
Profitable testimony is, merely put, not about how sensible, articulate or profitable you might be. You might be all these issues and extra, however usually, congressional hearings are about pushing a pre-established agenda, creating soundbites to help preconceived concepts and utilizing witnesses as punching luggage. The objective for the witness shouldn’t essentially be to win a congressional listening to. It’s very troublesome, if not unimaginable, to win as a witness, nevertheless it’s fairly attainable to lose. As a substitute, the objective is about minimizing threat, surviving and going about your life and enterprise along with your repute intact afterward. Collectively, we’ve got ready CEOs, governors, federal authorities officers, college officers and well-known people for testimony. The one factor every has in widespread is the method we employed and the outcomes that inform what we name the three pillars of testimony.
Boiled down, these three pillars of profitable congressional testimony are preparation, messaging and self-discipline. That’s what it’s about. These pillars have proven themselves in years of expertise making ready shoppers to testify earlier than Congress and in different settings, in addition to being on the opposite aspect of the desk planning technique in opposition to witnesses.
In the present day, we take care of the primary: preparation.
Forewarned is forearmed
“Forewarned, forearmed, to be ready is half the victory.” This quote is usually attributed to “Don Quixote” writer Miguel de Cervantes; it’s accurately utilized right here — and being forewarned, forearmed or ready just isn’t one thing that occurs naturally. A congressional listening to just isn’t a pure continuing, which makes it troublesome for clever, profitable people who’re used to having a mindset that claims, “I’ll simply go in and inform my story!” Such a mindset is a recipe for catastrophe on this case.
What can we imply by preparation? After we get known as in to arrange a witness for congressional proceedings, that is usually the primary — and hardest — battle. Preparation just isn’t a fast and simple factor. Assembly for an hour or two, between all of your different conferences, just isn’t actual preparation. Preparation is an intensive and in depth course of that takes a variety of steps. It requires an introduction, attending to know the lawyer, or whoever is making ready you, reviewing the info, reviewing the method, placing all of it collectively in a collection of guidelines that we’ll discuss and dealing with counsel to anticipate issues and pitfalls. All usually underneath a decent timeline.
Regardless of what anybody says, congressional oversight hearings are not often solely about discovering info. To no matter extent anybody is , that work has often been carried out behind the scenes by congressional employees, and hopefully by your employees as effectively.
From a preparation standpoint, that’s excellent news. It signifies that, collectively, we will often work out what the info are, what the questions can be and subsequently what the solutions can be. With key questions, a listening to just isn’t the time for spontaneity. Key or powerful questions must be rigorously thought-about, analyzed, answered after which practiced again and again, effectively earlier than the precise listening to. Far too usually, witnesses are requested questions that might — and will — have been totally anticipated and ready for, solely to fumble with a spontaneous reply, typically disastrously. Language issues; context issues; tone issues: All this and extra ought to have been developed and practiced prematurely.
There’s an awesome quote from a well-known trial lawyer, which though supposed for closing argument at trial, applies equally effectively right here: “It’s merely not attainable to powerfully articulate a large number of factors, one instantly following one other, extemporaneously. There’s a finest option to make a degree, and to search out it takes time and sweat on the yellow pad.”
The subsequent crucial step in actual preparation is a dry run. We are able to be taught from Dan’s traumatic expertise instructing his twin ladies easy methods to journey bicycles years in the past. Attempt as he may, he couldn’t train them easy methods to journey bicycles simply by speaking to them. Eventually, they needed to get on the darn issues, with the entire bumps and bruises, the tears, and sure, the enjoyment that got here with it.
We really feel the identical means about working with witnesses. We are able to accomplish an awesome deal by speaking with one another, however in the end, you must get on the bicycle. Eventually, you must do a dry run. We don’t imply the occasional, “effectively, in the event that they ask you this, what do you suppose?” We imply stopping the preparation course of and saying, OK, for the following two hours, 4 hours, no matter it takes, we’re going to do a dry run. In-role, hardball, uninterrupted. Then we’ll break down solutions, tone, demeanor, focus on and do it once more. And possibly once more.
The extra practical it’s, the extra useful it will likely be. The questioners shouldn’t solely be your inner group or individuals you might be already snug with. If you wish to be good and play patty-cake, do it some other place. We’re not making ready you for patty-cake. It is a severe endeavor. You need to deal with it significantly. Do a dry run, then cease, discuss it and do it once more.
The objective of each dry run, exceptional as this will likely sound, is that the witness comes out of the particular interview or testimony, or regardless of the course of is, and turns to us, as lots of our witnesses do, and says, “Oh, you guys have been more durable than that!” That’s the objective of a dry run.
The subsequent steps are reviewing the method (self-discipline) and reviewing the core themes (message). These are the fundamental steps to this in depth and intensive course of. In our subsequent two articles, we’ll tackle these different pillars.
