legal sanity

Regular readers here know that I’m a big fan of author/right-brain-champion Daniel Pink and his take on our new Conceptual Economy that places a premium on creativity in business.

Lawyers aren’t known for being a creative lot. This is evidenced by the enduring nature of the billable hour over alternative fee structures, among other business practices. Some will undoubtedly say: “You can’t change our stripes. Creativity is best left to other professions.” But, I think this is a copout. There’s a wealth of creativity to be tapped in our ranks if we can just find the right inspiration and outlets.

On the inspiration side, you can take a look at a great series of Fast Company posts on the business of creativity, including one featuring the 10 Most Creative People in Sports and one on the Top 10 Most Creative People in Health Care. Imagine what a post on the Top 10 Most Creative People in the Law would include.

On the outlet side, maybe it’s about taking baby steps to tapping and expressing our creativity. Marketing is one area that’s creativity-friendly. Lawyers are already venturing into this creative realm via LinkedIn; Twitter and Facebook.

For more on the marketing front, there’s a great new book from legal marketing expert Paula Black titled: The Little Black Book: A Lawyer’s Guide to Creating a Marketing Habit in 21 Days. If you purchase the book in the next 48 hours, you’ll also receive The Smart Lawyer’s Toolkit, a compilation of advice from more than 30 sought-after experts in the legal arena (including yours truly). My advice comes by way of an interview I did with Gerry Riskin, author of The Successful Lawyer, about the challenges facing attorneys in today's economy. You can learn more about Paula’s book and complementary toolkit here.

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I’ve been interested in psychologist Daniel Goleman’s work since reading his book on Emotional Intelligence years ago.

Along with thinkers like:

Dan Pink 

Hugh MacLeod 

Kathy Sierra 

Chris Brogan

Tim Sanders 

Pam Slim 

Goleman has inspired me to look at the legal profession through a broader social-cultural lens.

As a culture, we’re becoming more and more right-brained in orientation. We now place a premium on authenticity, emotion, creativity, meaning and honesty in our personal and professional interactions.

In a recent post for Harvard Business, Goleman writes that consumers are calling for a new kind of openness - a radical transparency that “converts the chains that link every product and its multiple impacts — carbon footprints, chemicals of concern, treatment of workers and the like — into a force that counts in sales.”

To keep up with this demand, Goleman notes, businesses should engage their consumer community (in the law, this would be a firm’s clients, lawyers and non-legal staff) and make it easy for community members to offer feedback and comments. If they drop the ball on this front, big brother is ready to step up in the form of open mike watchdog sites like GetSatisfaction.com.

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