legal sanity

I’ve been happily immersed in a flurry of articles on user innovation. My regular visits to Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge lead me to a great Q & A piece titled How Kayak Users Built a New Industry. In it, Harvard professor Carliss Baldwin discusses her recent study of the rodeo kayak industry that showed how user innovations become commercial products (pdf). According to Baldwin, many product innovations originate with a user who “opens up a new ‘design space’” by doing something different with a product that’s “exciting to other users.” This initial change compels those other users to “look for ways to improve on the original innovation.” In this way, the design space grows to include a community of co-innovators in which “improvements to the basic innovation are freely shared, tested, and pushed forward.”

The business wisdom of embracing and encouraging the citizen-innovator is conveyed in a Wired Magazine article called Geeks in Toyland [tipped by The Power of Influence blog]. The piece chronicles a decision by the Lego Group to enlist the aid of its user community in upgrading the popular Mindstorms robot kit. The main user-innovators worked in secrecy on the project for 11 months, compensated only by their love of the product and “a few Lego crane sets and Mindstorms NXT prototypes.” Notably, the article winds down with a reference to MIT professor Eric von Hippel, a scholar who worked with Carliss Baldwin on the rodeo kayak study and wrote the book Democratizing Innovation.

After consuming this information, I asked myself who are law firm users? Clients, to be sure. But, lawyers are users, too. In fact, in many ways, they’re the first-line consumers of the firm’s brand and business cultures. This is a belief I’ve expressed before in posts on law firm evangelism. And it begets a related query: what would law firms look like if they considered their lawyers a potential community of user-innovators and actively nurtured that potential? What positive shifts in the firm’s environment, service model, and employee commitment and morale would result? Stated differently: to what extent do law firms damage themselves by ignoring or supressing their resident lawyer-mods?

It seems that, even without their firms’ nod, many lawyers are embracing the role of the citizen-innovator and are coming together in communities – such as the blogosphere - in which they openly share their inspiring ideas on legal service innovation. Eventually, some of these innovators will leave their firms to market their ideas as solutions to the legal profession’s long-standing problems. They might even become industry leaders in the not-too-distant future. One such innovator to watch is Exemplar Law Partners, LLC, which offers us a glimpse of its cutting-edge work at the blog, inside the firm of the future.

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A topic I’ve regularly visited here is the power of apology as an aid to dispute resolution; legal service delivery; and business assessment.

The National Law Journal (by way of law.com) provides us with updated coverage on the subject in an article called Emerging Med-Mal Strategy: ‘I’m Sorry.' The piece reacquaints us with the full disclosure/early offer policies that are taking a foothold in the medical liability world. Grounded in the efforts of The Sorry Works! Coalition, these policies - and the programs they beget in hospitals across the country – aim to facilitate communication and early settlement in cases of medical mistake.

Under the program model, affected families come away with an understanding of “what happened to them or a family member while in a health provider's care." In some instances, they receive a doctor’s apology for the error.

Lawyers praise the programs for fostering an “open exchange of information, particularly between experienced counsel, that enables the early settlement of meritorious claims.” Other proponents point out that, in practice, the policies tend to elicit more transparent, honest and open exchange than up front apologies. They also stress that, in institutions enforcing such policy programs, “straight talk about mistakes and compensation offers” coexists with an equally “vigorous defense of cases in which [the institution] believes no mistake” was made.

The potential reach of these kinds of conflict resolution initiatives – favoring open and honest exchange between would-be litigants – is enormous. It will be interesting to see how the model evolves in the medical dispute context and is adapted to serve the larger legal industry.

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It’s been some time since the last installment in my series of posts on rainmaking for lawyers. I’ve been looking for something new and different to augment the ongoing dialogue on this important topic.

My weekend Web patrol lead me to a very interesting and relevant post from morepartnerincome called Motivating Law Firm Rainmakers. In it, blogger Tom Collins highlights a sales theory of psychiatrist and anthropologist G. Clotaire Rapaille.

According to Collins, Rapaille posits that it’s “not the attorneys’ sales successes that drive them, but the value placed on the struggle” to bring in new business. So, law firms looking to motivate their lawyer sales force - including those practitioners who typically avoid rainmaking at all costs – should celebrate and acknowledge rainmaking failures as well as successes. As Collins sums it up: “You can motivate existing rainmakers and encourage others to become rainmakers by creating a culture where it is not a failure to come home empty-handed if you hunted well.”

Adding some valuable insight into energizing existing and prospective rainmakers, Worthwhile Magazine has come out with a list of the Top 50 Songs to Fire You Up. You’ll find the song roll here.

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Management consultant Lisa Haneberg has a new book out called Focus Like a Laser Beam: 10 Ways to Do What Matters Most. I’m looking forward to imbibing the insights Haneberg offers up here. I’ve been a regular reader of her blog, Management Craft, for quite some time. She’s got an easy and engaging writing style and I find her thoughts on leadership and business effectiveness highly relevant to my professional focus on helping people energize and optimize their life in the law.

According to the book’s promotional material, in this latest endeavor, Haneberg extols the virtues of focus as a vital business and leadership skill. Launching from the premise that the “ability to focus helps separate the good from the great in all professions and disciplines;” Haneberg looks to the qualities and mechanics of laser beams for instruction and inspiration on developing the focus we need to survive and thrive in today’s fast-paced and rapidly changing business environment.

For more on Haneberg’s book, you can check out an interview and review linked to in a recent 800-CEO-Read blog post. Hanberg has also launched an excellent podcast series called Fireside Chats about Management and Leadership. These “informal conversations with respected business thinkers and bloggers” converge around the “theme of helping people focus and succeed.”

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Much buzz has been stirred by longtime blogger Denise Howell’s poignant, powerful and candid post titled Have Aeron, Will Travel. In it, Howell shares her thoughts and observations concerning her recent, forced departure from a Biglaw firm. Although she never cites the reasons for the “separation,” Howell devotes a sizeable chunk of post space to reflecting on the importance and “business realities” of work-life balance programs in the law.

In the spirit of res ipsa loquitur, I’m going to let Howell’s excellent commentary speak for itself. But, to do it proper justice, I want to highlight some of the links in the chain of conversation her sharing has generated. Ernie the Attorney remarks on Howell’s desire to funnel any prospective professional endeavors through a “stringent ‘how much do I really love that?’ filter.” Also noting the filter metaphor, Gerry Riskin observes: “A firm cannot prosper without keeping its best people and the best people will always have choices which they will exercise based on their drive for self actualization.”

Taking a slightly different approach, David Maister seizes the opportunity Howell creates for him to explore if it’s really possible for a law firm to offer “a wide variety of personal choices on work intensity.” After reviewing some of his earlier work on the issue, Maister says: “I would love to believe that a single business entity could offer choice of intensity - but I'm not sure it can if it is aiming to be among the best in its field.” What Maister seems to be saying here is that lawyers ultimately need to ensure that their firm’s culture syncs with their deeply held values and work-life needs or preferences. To expect that law firms will sacrifice their greatness for our individual good might be a very unrealistic and unreasonable expectation.

Whatever position we take on this very important topic; Howell has done us all a great service by being so open with her opinions and feelings at this pivotal point in her personal and professional evolution. We’re all looking to grow and we’re all seeking happiness that can be elusive at times. We gain vital perspective, strenghth and mutual understanding when people, like Howell, are brave enough to share their struggles and triumphs with us. The insight gained on a personal and collective level can only benefit us, the firms we work for and the legal profession.

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In my recent post on fueling lawyer happiness, I discussed the XE Factor - a teaching model of human energy exchange I devised to help lawyers and other service professionals I work with better understand how a particular person, issue, interaction or job impacts them on an energetic level. I believe that much of the work-related conflict, stress and discontent we experience stems from our inability to gauge, protect and renew our personal energy stores.

As he’s done before, blogger and passion catalyst Curt Rosengren again highlights the importance of understanding this dynamic of human energy depletion, conservation and generation. In a post on Energy catalysts he observes: “People who feel vibrant and alive because they're doing what they're meant to be doing are inherently energizing to be around.” Rosengren dubs these people energy catalysts. On the flipside are the energy sappers [also known as energy vampires]. These “people who are dissatisfied with where their lives are taking them can be a drain, sucking the energy out of their surroundings” and the folks they interact with.

Most of us go through the day without considering our own energy state. We know that we’re feeling put off, tired, overwhelmed and disheartened, but we don’t attribute those feelings to impaired energy. In a new Fast Company article called Is Your Boss Killing You? we learn more about the great havoc wreaked by workplace energy sappers. The piece leads off by citing study findings suggesting that “caustic, abrasive, and overbearing bosses just might be taking years off their employees' lives.” It goes on to offer expert views on ways people can avoid or re-route this energetic drain, such as “looking at pictures of their families, visualizing a beautiful vacation spot, or even trying to imagine a problematic situation as comical rather than stressful.”

Additional insight into personal energy management comes from an article in the July 2006 Law Practice Today titled Meet the Most Powerful Stress Manager: Your Heart. In it, Kim Allen and Bruce Cryer of HeartMath LLC outline the heart’s role in creating and maintaining a positive energy flow in the human mind and body.

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Inspiration is a great motivator in business and other arenas that derives from a number of sources. When I need to clear my head and gain perspective on a work or personal matter, I often go for a walk in a local nature preserve to enjoy its inspiring calm and beauty. If I’m in a foul mood because of stress, horsing around with my kids provides a healthy dose of inspiration in the form of laughter and lightness. In this spirit of inspiration, I offer a trio of articles I came across in my recent Web wanderings.

Blogger Dick Richards of Come Gather Round points us to his terrific article on The Anatomy of Empathy. Profiling the empathic ways of “three accomplished leaders,” Richards inspires us to access and refine our own ability to empathize with our clients and colleagues by (1) stepping into their emotional world without losing ourselves in it and (2) communicating that we understand and accept their emotions.

In his Wired Magazine article What Kind of Genius Are You?, author and blogger Dan Pink introduces us to economist David Galenson's theory about creative genius. According to Galenson, genius comes in “two very different forms, embodied by two very different types of people.” The first type he calls conceptual innovators. These people “make bold, dramatic leaps in their disciplines. They do their breakthrough work when they are young.” On the other end of the creative genius continuum are experimental innovators who, “like Auguste Rodin, Mark Twain, and Alfred Hitchcock proceed by a lifetime of trial and error and thus do their important work much later in their careers.”

Pink has a way with words and ends his piece with this insightful remark about Galenson’s theory of late-blooming genius: “It’s no justification for laziness or procrastination or indifference. But it might bolster the resolve of the relentlessly curious, the constantly tinkering, the dedicated tortoises undaunted by the blur of the hares.”

Last, but not least, is a csmonitor.com story called Out of the Elevator. It discusses the work and mission of Muzak, a marketing company that provides audio arcitecture and branding services. Recognizing that music’s inspirational force is an “emotional power that can be harnessed,” the company helps clients create a musical atmosphere that gives customers a “warm feeling that ultimately cements loyalty.”

This certainly inspires me to ponder what kind of “aural environment” (aka soundtrack) would best complement the lawyers, law firms and other businesses I work with. 

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I’ve previously set out my views on self-expression as a vital business skill. I recently came across a post by Ernie the Attorney that touched on this topic. In it, Ernest Svenson takes a frank look at his penchant for self-revelation as a blogger (although I suspect that penchant carries over to other sectors of his life). Among the reasons he proffers for his openness is this one: “I believe that if you are open with people they are more likely to open up too.”

The mutual understanding and connection that Svenson seeks to cultivate via his self-reflection and revelation is something I also strive to forge in my business relationships. That’s because I’ve seen time and again how people engage and energize one another through this dual exchange of self-currency.

A great example of self-expression as a powerful connector can be found in an inspiring post from Dan Hull celebrating the 20th anniversary of the day he quit drinking. Now, Dan always has something interesting to say through his blog, What About Clients? But, imbued with the power of story and self-reflection, this post proves particularly impactful and memorable. We take a heart-felt ride as Dan recounts how “lots of people, including adventuresome fire-breathing trial lawyers with one dash of the wrong DNA, do finally give up booze so they can tap into and use the gifts they have, and grow.”

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Several months back, a New York Times article spurred a great deal of discussion and commentary on biglaw’s missing women and the legal profession’s gender gap.

The discussion continues with this new Small Firm Business article in which White & Case administrative partner Karen Asner shares her take on Where the Women Are in the law. Asner cites the statistic that, starting “in the fourth or fifth year, women depart law firms in greater numbers than men, leaving fewer of them in the partnership pool.” While women’s struggle with work-family obligations does spur this exodus, according to Asner, it’s not the primary reason behind it. Instead, she says, “the biggest reason women lawyers leave a firm is because they are dissatisfied with work itself or feel stalled in their careers.”

Assessing the origins of this dissatisfaction, Asner points out that many female lawyers feel that their work doesn’t support their career goals of “helping others” and promoting the “greater good.” Being less inclined to tout their individual accomplishments, women are also “less likely to be singled out for exciting, cutting-edge assignments” that often lead to firm-wide recognition and partnership promotion. Asner goes on to address strategies law firm’s can pursue to increase the number of women partners, including: “business development, alumni relations, peer support, networking and career development” initiatives.

After finishing my initial draft of this post, I saw that blogger Carolyn Elefant adds an interesting coda to Asner’s perspective in a Legal Bog Watch post titled Where the Women Aren’t. In it, Elefant relays ideas on why there are relatively few female Supreme Court clerks.

In addition to the above offerings, some terrific guidance channels through a new contribution to Change This called The Working Mother’s Manifesto: This is How We Do It (pdf). Written by Carol Evans - the CEO and president of Working Mother Magazine - the manifesto offers invaluable insight into challenges and triumphs commonly experienced by the 26 million mothers in today’s full and part-time workforce. Evans closes the piece with this remark about working mothers: “even though people ask us over and over ‘How do you do it all?’ the more interesting question is, ‘why do you do it all?’ We do it all because we want to live full lives.”

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It’s widely reported that a workforce favoring idealism and work-life synergy (pdf) is taking up residence in the legal profession and affiliated industries. Because of this population shift, law firms with an authentic culture in which employees feel connected to the larger organization and to each other by deeply held values, standards and principles will likely gain a competitive edge with workers and clients alike.

While the task of fostering a genuinely engaging business culture may seem daunting to some firms, there’s ample empirical evidence that it’s a smart and effective business strategy. As blogger-author John Moore observes in a recent post on competitors’ ill-fated attempts at Mimicking Whole Foods Market: “It’s the people that matter more in creating a brand than do products or programs.” Moore then states: “WFM understands the power of a knowledgeable, caring, and passionate workforce in creating highly satisfied customers. They’ve created a company culture which connects with their team members (employees) and they in turn, pass that connection onto WFM shoppers.”

Similar proof is offered in a post on the ROI of Employee Engagement from the Be Excellent blog. It cites a recent study evincing that “a well-substantiated relationship exists between employee engagement - the extent to which employees are committed, believe in the values of the company, feel pride in working for their employer, and are motivated to go the extra mile - and business results.” Among the statistics the post culls from the study is this impactful one: “High engagement companies improved 19.2 per cent while low engagement companies declined 32.7 per cent in operating income over the study period.”

Beyond reasoning by anaology from the outside business world, law firms can look to one of their own to glean the importance of enhancing the lawyer experience [what I refer to as Lawyer Experience Management (LEM)]. In a candid article featured at lawjobs.com, midsize firm Steefel shares the remedial steps it's taking in the face of marked lawyer turnover. Notably, a “renewed emphasis on mentoring” is central to its efforts to make the firm “more attractive to lawyers and clients at a time when both are gravitating toward national firms.”

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Becoming a solo practitioner was a natural progression for me. I’d grown up in a family that valued solo work and it seemed part of my destiny. When I opened my own firm, I relished the independence it afforded me. But, I quickly learned that, to maintain that independence, I needed to cultivate a network of business mentors and associates to help me along my path. Thus was born my understanding that, in the world of solo law practice, our independence requires connection to, and camaraderie with, others. 

With the July 4th holiday upon us here in the U.S., many of us find ourselves contemplating what being independent really means, both on a national and personal scale. Weighing in on this front is a New York Times article by Henry Fountain titled The Lonely American Just Got a Bit Lonelier. It cites new findings that Americans are now “lacking in people to tell their deepest, darkest secrets. They've hunkered down even more, their inner circle often contracting until it includes only family, only a spouse or, at worst, no one.” We’re depriving ourselves of varied deep and significant interpersonal relationships. According to the piece, this relationship atrophy is attributable, in part, to extended work hours and longer commutes. 

As I’ve previously discussed, lawyers I talk to frequently share how lonely and isolated they feel. This lawyer loneliness is a major force behind attrition in the legal profession. It’s a pervasive condition that merits open conversation and concerted remedial efforts among law firms, practitioners and professional groups.

So, especially on this important day, I'm thankful for my network of family members, friends, business associates and fellow bloggers who help me stay allied and rooted in my independence.

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When I consider An Inconvenient Truth - the new documentary account of the dangers of global warming - and the current energy deficit in our country, it strikes me that the depleted state of the natural world mirrors the depletion and need for renewal that many lawyers experience today. 

In my work, I often talk to clients about their energy state. I ask them to consider how a particular dispute, issue, interaction or job impacts them on an energetic level. Is it filling or depleting their energy stores? Does it make them feel upbeat, positive and excited or bring them stress, anger, resentment or even physical illness? When we gauge situations and people we encounter at work and elsewhere by this yardstick – which I call the XE [energy exchange] Factor – we close in on a better understanding of why we come away from exchanges feeling fueled or exhausted. 

Over at The Occupational Adventure, Curt Rosengren has written a great post along these lines called Feed the positive & eliminate the toxic. He says: “Every day we’re surrounded by inputs that either feed our energy or drain it. And for the most part we don’t spend all that much time managing those inputs.’’ To help us become better energy conservationists and builders, Rosengren makes the following suggestion: “Sit down and make a three-columned list. In the first column, make a list of all the things in your life that feed your positive energy. In the second column, make a list of the things that drain it. In the third, make a list of things you could build into your life to ‘feed your mind with material of hope and possibility.’" 

For some insight into how other practitioners have (re)energized their lives in the law, you can read a 2001 ABA Journal article by Jenny B. Davis titled Life In Question: How Five Lawyers Worked Out Answers of Their Own and its 2006 follow-up, Life In Question … Continued. The articles profile lawyers who reached personal and professional turning points that compelled them to “question their own choices or the direction of their own lives.” 

The important message that we’re our own first line of defense in protecting our personal energy level is embedded in a csmonitor.com commentary by Jeffrey Shaffer called July 4 is for fireworks; every day is ‘personal independence’ day. In it, Shaffer points out that “challenges to our personal independence” – to those values, concepts and rules of self-conduct that inform our integrity – often arise during exchanges “with friends and fellow citizens.” 

Finally, you’ll find more inspiration on fueling personal happiness at The Happiness Project [hat tip Curt Rosengren] a blog by author and former lawyer Gretchen Rubin. And this week’s Coast to Coast podcast by bloggers J. Craig Williams and Robert Ambrogi features The Fun Side of Lawyers.

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