Much of the buzz around innovation centres on NewLaw and disruption to the traditional law firm business model. That’s not to say BigLaw is not being innovative, but the traditional time based model, while fraying around the edges, remains largely intact.
Without buying into the debate about the end being nigh for BigLaw, one thing is certain: you don’t have to completely cannibalize your own business model to gain the benefits of innovation.
Being innovative can be as simple as trying something different.
A great place to start is on the business development (BD) front. As an outsider looking into the law firm, it’s a given you have to be a good lawyer, but improving your BD skills can be key to reducing stress, getting the quality of work you want, and making in-roads towards that elusive work/life balance.
Here are five tips to be more innovative:
1. Assess the status quo
Before you can do something new, you need to have a good sense of where you are currently at. Put simply: how have you found your current clients? What has worked in terms of BD, what isn’t working? What are the patterns, the similarities? What are clients saying?
Okay this might be obvious, but it’s easy to get stuck in a bit of a rut here, simply replicating what you’ve done in the past, even if very successfully, but you haven’t stopped to consider whether it’s effective as it used to be.
The other benefit of taking time to take stock, is that it can help fight the boom or bust mentality that can develop when BD is put on the back burner – you’re flat out with current clients, and then all of a sudden as the work hits a lull BD becomes a pressing priority.
2. Adopt an innovation mindset
An innovation mindset is one that’s open to change, willing to learn, and comfortable with failure. This may seem simple, but it can be difficult to implement and can appear to be at odds with what makes for a good lawyer – being right!
When it comes to BD, ditch those perfectionist tendencies and be prepared to try things out to see if they work, if they don’t, accept the failure as learning experience and move on. The quicker and more adept you get at trying new things and learning from the process, the quicker you’ll get better results.
3. Try new ideas
My work with senior lawyers is largely about helping them find ways to have a successful, fulfilling career without having to work longer hours. This means working smarter, not harder, which requires innovation. The key here is to go for low lying fruit first, and while we’re on the clichés: there’s no need to reinvent the wheel.
Innovation only has to be new to you to get the benefit, it doesn’t necessarily have to be revolutionary or disrupt the whole industry. Yes it has to disrupt, but it can be as simple as changing the current way you’ve been doing things.
· So what are other lawyers doing that you haven’t tried?
· What are your colleagues doing inside your firm?
· What has your BD/marketing manager being saying but you’ve been ignoring?
· What are they doing in closely related professions?
· What are your clients doing on the BD front?
It’s great to look outside the traditional BD methods, but it might be a good start to have a hard look at those core activities and see how you can shake them up. For instance:
Seminars – try a webinar, niche more, make it more interactive, entertaining, or explore new partnerships. Video your seminar and post it on LinkedIn. William Arruda has a great article in Forbes on how to maximize the value of your presentations.
Case notes/articles/updates – target your clients more directly, including publications or online spaces your clients may read. Don’t write for lawyers if your clients aren’t lawyers, use LinkedIn, podcasts or video to get the point across. Shaun Temby at Maddocks has a great animated case note/update.
4. Reassess and seek feedback.
When you try something new or different, it isn’t always going to work; so failing quickly is key. That is, make the assessment about how effective the new method or activity is and replicate it or dump it. Move on to the next project.
And seek feedback, both formally and informally – in fact the latter dropped into the casual conversation is often the most insightful. Feedback is the key to improvement – after all, the information already exists, clients already feel a particular way about what you are doing, the information is just new to you. Armed with this information, you can really hone in on what’s working.
5. Get it into the routine.
Necessity can be a great innovator, but also a harsh master – if you only wait until you are pushed to do things differently, it may not be too late, but it will be stressful. So get innovation into the routine, make it a habit. Start now. Set yourself the goal of having a pet innovation project each month, quarter, or every 6 months, whatever works for you. Engage your team in the process.
Wrapping it all up
Innovation isn’t always about being on the cutting edge of technology or entirely disrupting your business model, it's about doing things differently, adopting a mindset open to learning and change. And no matter where you are in your career you can always apply these five steps to get a fresh perspective and benefit from being a little more innovative.