Motivational Interviewing for Lawyers

I'm helping facilitate a workshop later today titled "Working with Difficult Clients" for Legal Services of Eastern Missouri's annual conference.  One of the exercises we'll be doing teaches how lawyers can use Motivational Interviewing techniques to get better responses from distressed clients. 

Here's a quick way example of Motivational Interviewing questions (be sure to ask them in this order):

How important would you say it is for you to ______________?

On a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 is not at all important and 10 is extremely important, where would you say you are?

Why a 3 and not a 0?  OR: Why an 8 and not a 10?

Give this method of questioning a try next time you're talking to a client.  It is a great way to understand what they think is important, and most importantly, why they feel that way.