vacation
Here is a chance to put some work-life balance into practice. I'll be on vacation this week and will resume blogging next week. Have a great week.
busy v. productive
What's behind the cycle of overwork and burnout plaguing the legal profession? This article suggests that it may be a lack of productivity. It seems that the "average American wastes more than two hours a day at work" as we "surf the Internet, socialize with colleagues, and conduct personal business." Such poor time management skills engender late nights and weekends on the job at the expense of our personal lives. According to the piece, one antidote to this inefficiency is "scheduling, prioritizing, and setting goals. That includes figuring out the three, four, or five things that produce the greatest results, and concentrating on those." At sidebar, the article offers some other handy tips for working smarter. Adding to the dialog on workplace productivity is this expose on Best Buy's three-year-old ROWE initiative. Short for "results-oriented work environment," ROWE allows Best Buy employees to "work when and where they like, as long as they get the job done." Although the "transition required a lot of deprogramming of old attitudes," employees give ROWE high marks, asserting that the freedom it affords "is changing their lives" and making them "more productive." One of the more unique, and tricky, aspects of Best Buy's program is that employees don't opt in or out individually. Rather, whole departments sign on to be part of ROWE as a unit. And what group has yet to give this highly praised flextime option a go? You guessed it - Best Buy's legal department.
are you an untouchable?
I'm a huge fan of Thomas Friedman's book, The World Is Flat. For those of you who haven't read his insightful and engaging account of the new age of globalization, this article presents a nice overview of Friedman's ideas. In a nutshell, he asserts that "we are now in the process of connecting all the knowledge pools in the world together" and, as a result, "we are on the cusp of an incredible new era of innovation, an era that will be driven from left field and right field, from West and East and from North and South." Having read and re-read Friedman's book, I'm grateful that Anita Sharpe at the Worthwhile blog linked to this transcript of a commencement address he recently gave at Williams College. So, what advice did Friedman offer those entering the real world beyond the ivory tower? Among other bits of wisdom for the road ahead, he shared what he terms a "survival strategy" for a flat world: "Do what you love." Friedman's strategy rests on a simple fact of life in a flattened world: "The good jobs that will remain will be those that cannot be automated or outsourced; they will be the jobs that demand or encourage some uniquely human creative flair, passion and imagination. In other words, jobs that can only be done by people who love what they do." He calls such people "untouchables." I wonder how many of this year's law school graduates would rank themselves among this group.
dreaming big
Thanks to Curt Rosengren for directing me to Kirsten Johnson's blog, dream big. Kirsten's a life coach, a profession and process I've discussed here and here. She has a very easygoing, approachable writing style. Check out her most recent post on doing "what you love." Kirsten makes a good point about the company we choose to keep on "our quest to go after our dreams." We need to learn how to deal with discouragers and surround ourselves with people ready, willing and able to be "cheerleaders" for us as we go along. As Kirsten states: These are the people "who are hopeful about following their dreams and will relentlessly encourage [us] to follow [ours]." I decided a while back to closely associate with people who genuinely support my efforts to create a new training and development business. This has meant disconnecting from a number of well-meaning, but negative sorts who tend to focus soley on the hurdles and struggles I may encounter. Keeping this good company has been invaluable to me. Kirsten reminds us, and I've experienced first hand, that we need to constantly ask ourselves: "Who are [my] cheerleaders? Do [I] need to recruit more?"
training the trainer
As I've mentioned, I'm launching a new business venture focusing on my work as a speaker, trainer and consultant for lawyers and business leaders (I'll post my updated programs soon). As with any new venture, while I go along, I'm learning quite a bit about the nuances of business development and how to be a savvy solopreneur. From presentation skills to podcasts to teleseminars to e-commerce, it's been a nice learning curve. I've received a lot of assistance from the blogging community along the way. Michael Pollock is doing a fabulous job of helping folks like me through the information and insights he shares at his smallbusinessbranding and SavvySoloCast blogs. I also learn a lot about real world teaching and training from posts like this one from Kathy Sierra at CPU. In the spirit of true niche presence, there's even a blog devoted to informing training and development professionals. Beyond this Net support, I greatly benefit from the steady stream of wisdom and practical tips I receive in my work with T. Harv Eker's team at Peak Potentials Training and from many others. Paulo Coelho states it well in his book The Alchemist: "When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it." As I start this new solo enterprise, I'm very grateful for the strong support network I've cultivated and continue to build.
the law's corporate culture
This article on corporate culture (flagged by Carolyn Elefant at My Shingle), highlights the decaying "culture of the legal profession and the high cost that its predominant behaviors and values wreak on the industry." Drawing from a working paper by the MIT Workplace Center, the piece points to findings that the legal industry's "emphasis on `total commitment' as a basis to enter the partner ranks [ ] not only makes work-life balance unachievable, but will in the long run hurt law firms because it alienates large numbers of employees and potential employees while requiring unsustainable levels of growth in billable hours." This is not a novel observation, as discussed here and here. But, the question evidently remains: how can the legal profession stop the downward spiral and foster a positive workplace culture? As a good first step in this healthy direction, lawyer and author Stewart Levine (who I've previously posted about) offers a new survey-based assessment tool for decoding firm culture and understanding the "critical role" it plays "in the success and quality of any enterprise."
mastering positive psychology
I previously talked about the science of happiness and the related field of positive psychology - which focuses on studying and building human strengths. According to a recent article, the University of Pennsylvania is bringing this positive scholarship into the mainstream by offering the first-ever master's degree program in applied positive psychology. At the school's Positive Psychology Center, students from a cross-section of professions will learn the history of the field and develop "techniques for incorporating the principles of positive psychology into their lives and jobs." At the end of the piece, the Center's director of education, James Pawelski, shares his hope that the program will help filter the precepts of positive psychology to other academic arenas, encouraging a "more holistic education that centers on self-development in addition to mental development." I think this would be a real boon to the standard law school curriculum.
lawyers: who we are and the good we do
Today's events in London are a sorrowful reminder of the conflict plaguing our world today and the innocent people who suffer because of it. I'm also reminded of how important it is for lawyers to acknowledge the significant role we play in managing everyday conflict. I recently gave two programs at the Rhode Island Bar Association's Annual Meeting. While there, I met RIBA's current President, Philip M. Weinstein, and heard his stirring talk about the role of lawyers in our society. His message is captured in this timely article in which Weinstein dedicates his year in office to raising "a consciousness amongst us as to what is important in life - not only as lawyers but also as people." Declaring lawyers "the peacemakers of society," he asks his membership (and, really, us all) to "take a look at how we conduct ourselves - be it at depositions, trial, negotiations, or anywhere else. Do we treat others as we would like to be treated?" Weinstein ends his commentary with the following poem by Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott. I think it well punctuates his rousing call for us to reconnect to who we are and what we value most.
Love After Love
The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
how to build successful business relationships
Thanks to Carolyn Elefant at My Shingle for the nod to one of my earlier posts on networking and for the heads up that Keith Ferrazzi is giving a free seminar on Relationships for Success this Thursday, July 7, 2005, 12:00-1:00 p.m. EST. I think that those of us in the legal arena will find Ferrazzi's guidance timely and relevant. As I've discussed before, lawyers attending my seminars regularly declare their poor people skills one of the biggest hurdles in their quest to attain success and satisfaction in our profession. Lawyering is essentially about human relations and we need to understand and master our multi-faceted role as relationship navigators, managers and facilitators in order to optimize our lives in the law.
