TED Talk Tuesday #186: How to win an argument

Watching TED Talks is a popular pastime at CN&CO. We visit TED.com regularly to clear our heads, have a laugh or get inspired. TED Talks open our minds, spark new ways of thinking and can lead to some very interesting conversations. Each week we pick a favourite and publish it on a Tuesday, because we like how “TED Talk Tuesday” sounds. It’s also a way that the CN&CO team play their part on spreading ideas and helping to make the world a better place. This week’s talk is posted by Carel and was prompted by the death of US Supreme Court Justice RBG.

I love politics – because what politicians do (and don’t do) impacts the lives of millions. Done right (servant leadership …) politics can make the world a better place.

We all have, I believe, a role to play in politics – voting, holding our politicians to account, strengthening civil society so that it can work with government and – I hope – taking the plunge and serving in positions of local and national structures.

This TED Talk features a brilliant legal mind and shows how we can all influence and make our contributions. I quote liberally from the TED site:

“Neal Katyal runs one of the largest Supreme Court practices in the world at Hogan Lovells, LLP, where he occupies the role formerly held by now-Chief Justice John Roberts. He has argued more than 40 cases before the Supreme Court of the United States and served as lead counsel in hundreds of cases. His first Supreme Court argument (at the age of 36) about Guantanamo Bay ended the military tribunals there and required the Geneva Conventions to apply to the War on Terror, ending waterboarding and ghost prisons around the globe. Most recently, he argued against the “Muslim ban” case on behalf of the State of Hawaii and will return to the Supreme Court lectern to argue the landmark LGBT rights case about foster parents, City of Philadelphia v. Fulton.

“Katyal has argued more Supreme Court cases than any other minority attorney in US history. He serves as the Paul and Patricia Saunders Professor at Georgetown Law Center and, in past years, he was a visiting professor at Harvard and Yale Law Schools. He has published dozens of scholarly articles in law journals as well as op-ed articles in the New York Times and Washington Post. He has appeared on TV with Stephen Colbert and on Netflix’s House of Cards, where he played himself.”

This talk is summarised a follows: “‘The secret to winning an argument isn’t grand rhetoric or elegant style,’ says US Supreme Court litigator, Neal Katyal. ‘It takes more than that.’

“With stories of some of the most impactful cases he’s argued before the court, Katyal shows why the key to crafting a persuasive and successful argument lies in human connection, empathy and faith in the power of your ideas.

“‘The question is not how to win every argument,’ he says. ‘It’s how to get back up when you do lose.'”

I hope you enjoy some of his tips. And I pray the US Supreme Court remains one of impartial brilliance. What those nine men and women decide affects us all.