Ruta Stropus, Illinois Attorney General's Office

1. Lawyers, Guns
and Money
Turning Compulsory Classes
Into Actual Trainings
Ruta Stropus

2. Lawyers
I’m so BUSY
I know everything I need to
know
Don’t waste my TIME!!!!!
Competitive mindset
Hierarchical
Law school is lecture based –
boring, not practical

3. Guns
Continuing Legal Education is a Waste!!!! I only go to these programs
to check the box

4. Money

5. Compulsory Education
 Focus is on hours, rather than improved
performance
 Very little audience engagement; mostly a
lecture model
 Subject matter expert more familiar.
Collaborative learning unknown.

6. “tellin ain’t training”
 My mission:
 Using techniques I learned from Thiagi, Colvin
Clark and countless others…….

7. Let’s take two
boring topics…..
Civility
Court
Rules

8. Civility
 The usual way – judges telling attorneys how
to behave
 My experiment – storytelling, card play, team
work, collective debrief

9. Tell your story/Listen to another
 Incivility – who in the work context has treated you
badly?
 Go to another table and share and listen
 Go back to your table and play stump the chump
 Come up with practical how to’s

10. Lesson Plan attached!!
WhyWHY??

11. Sure, but what about technical
training???
 Objective: Master the differences among
different court rules exist in different counties.
 Old way – someone distributing all the rules
and going through them, one by one…….
 New way – gaming!!!

12. “textra”
 Activity based on a text or lecture
 Lecture first
 Game later

13. You should try it!!
http://www.thiagi.com/