ACC Northeast Chapter“Strategic Planning Doesn’t Have to Hurt!”

10 October 2019

Susan Hackett

CEO

Legal Executive Leadership, LLC

hackett@lawexecs.com www.lawexecs.com@HackettInHouse +1.301.785.5534

Copyright © 2019, Legal Executive Leadership, LLC

Sponsored by Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Today’s topic:

• Why does today’s practice environment beg for strategy, as never before?

• At the center of all strategic change is the need for people to change.

• Strategy helps us prioritize and deliver large-scale changes, via manageably scaled efforts and resources supporting the process.

• What is our strategy and how do we find and articulate it?

• What goes into the strategic planning process? (esp. for those who want to move quickly and to scale to the department’s resources)

• What kinds of tactics will we consider as we write our plans.

What’s Strategic and What’s Tactical?

• What is Strategy? ______

• Why is it important to develop a strategy and a plan for your law department? ______

• Do you need to engage in formal, traditional strategic planning processes to develop a great strategy and plan? ______

• Once you have a strategy in place, then you’re ready for a strategic plan?The plan will outline what you do need to do to fulfill your strategy

“Strategic GPS” - What’s your starting point/current state?

- Where do you want to go/what’s critical to achieve? - Who’s involved in the process, coming along?

- How will you navigate from point to point?- How will you adjust along the way?

How do you counter lawyers’ / teams’ reticence to change?

Help them see their higher use

Tempt them with better work: define where they’re going before pulling the chair out from under their current roles

Metrics and incentives, but also performance evaluation based on concrete and objective criteria.

Encourage and reward experimentation; publicly forgive those who fail along the way (so long as they learn from the fail, & try again)

Offer training, experimentation and development opportunities

If workers don’t change, move them or let them go; they can’t stay and choose not adapt

Iron Mountain LegalLeadership Project

19 September 2017

Finding your higher use, your higher value

Do you work at the bottom or top of your license?

Higher Value Attributes for Lawyers/Legal TeamsApply experience, expert judgment and savvy (plus data) to:

• solve or advise on legal problems, especially ‘unseen-by-others’ problems,• translate legal concerns into understandable/actionable business practices,• prevent problems from arising with preventive and compliant strategies,• assess, minimize or advise on the necessary re-balancing of risk,• fill service gaps by creating or delivering solutions other workers or teams are not equipped to

develop on their own,• provide considered and trusted guidance to help clients navigate unknown or stormy,

dangerous waters,• advise on the better course (offering a perspective that protects the organization, its

stakeholders, and the brand by supporting ethical, longer-term, and sustainable decisions).

Spot trends or connect disparate dots to help clients get out in front of others, or see around the corner to anticipate what’s coming; and/or

Identify, translate, and articulate legal concerns that can be connected to business strategy and practices, by communicating in a manner that facilitates clarity, and promotes clear, concise, and actionable directions.

Higher Use Roles for Lawyers/Legal Teams: “Working at the top of your license…”

The Trusted Advisor

Legal Work Done “Smarter, Not Harder”

Working Collaboratively and Leading Teams

Keeping the Ship on Course

Harnessing Data and Technology

Anticipating What’s Next

#DoLessLaw – Do More …?

You can perform more than one of these roles at a time, or perform them at different times for different work …

Assess workload, and workflow:

Is this the right work, performed by the right people, the right way?

Strategy(before you write a strategic plan)

How do you develop and target the right strategy and the strategic plan to

deliver on it?1. Gain Insight

2. Focus on Competitive Advantage

3. Align with stakeholders

4. Execution / Management

5. Continuous Improvement

Looking for help in designing your strategy? Why not ask? (and listen?)

Tip 1: What is important to lawyers

is often different from what is important to clients.

Sample Strategies: • Improve outcomes for your client – focus on delivering results, not reporting activity

• Own more segments of the clients’ business – deliver the product or solution (often a priority in companies moving toward global expansion or digital transformation).

• Focus on improved collaboration: between internal and external teams

• Communicate and report in a more transparent fashion

• Deploy technology to drive performance data, and corresponding analytics

• Anticipate client needs / create resources to empower clients to DIY their own solutions, to run better and faster.

• Improve risk assessment & management … beyond enhanced compliance programs

• Eliminate (not better manage) disputes/litigation/fails

• Develop new skills and partner with expert providers to cover gaps – re-tool the team

• Adopt high-performance evaluation standards and metrics and hold teams accountable

… what else? …

To illustrate the process…

Align the legal department

with the company’s emerging business priorities,

by filling gaps in current and anticipated service provision,

and improving customer satisfaction and user experience.

Strategic Planning(writing goals, creating a plan, and selecting the tactics

and metrics that help you deliver on the plan)

19 September 2017Changin

Change in practice:

Sustaining vs. transformative change …

19 September 2017

Sustaining vs. Transformative Change …

So how does all of this help you write a strategic change plan?

Once you’ve got a strategy that guides your plan (what’s in and what’s out), and you’ve chosen the work you’d like to prioritize, then it’s up to your people …

You don’t write the plan; your teams do. If they won’t do it, it won’t get done.

Charge them to choose some sustaining change projects and target a few transformative ones. Require metrics and deliverables consistent with the strategy.

Tip 3: Engage the WHOLE team in planning, and center the plan on collaboration.

Lawyers don’t have to be expert in every discipline, but they must understand how different members of your team bring value to delivering your result, and how to fill gaps in the legal department’s traditional skill sets. Leverage operational skills/leaders in your plan.

Relationship

Lawyer

Senior Lawyer

Junior Lawyer

Operational Help

Senior Lawyer

Client or

Product/ Service

Relationship Lawyer

Service Delivery Expert

Senior Lawyer

Junior Lawyer

Operational Lead

Data / Technology

SystemsClient

Versus

Client Centric

Lawyer Centric

Tip 3 Continued:(Re)Consider Service Models

Tip 4: Legal services is a talent business.

Since our focus is on change, execution of your strategy may require you to re-tool.

Competencies or disciplines (beyond

legal expertise) that will help in-house

legal teams demonstrate distinguishing

value to corporate clients

Finance / Budgeting

Business / executive management

Fee valuation / Cost of service

Cross border service

Metrics, Measurement, KPIs

Advanced communications

Knowledge-based service delivery

Compliance systems

Project management

Process management / lean matter mgmt.

Staffing, workflow & people management

Data and information technology

Automation / Use of technology systems

Collaboration and teaming

Risk Assessment and Management

Leadership

Competencies

It’s all about me, the lawyer! It’s all about you, the client!

Capabilitiesversus

SAMPLE Strategic Planning ProcessSAMPLE STRATEGY / PLANNING PROCESSSetting Strategy:

Survey the team and clients, conduct interviews, research what the “current state” is.Identify – with internal team and external input – what the future will require. Define what future jobs will

include so that team members can see how letting go of current practices will free them for higher uses.Put together a strategy that helps you get from Current to Future state.

Writing/Implementing a Plan:Engage the team in putting together a plan: the plan is relatively easy: it’s changing the the way the team

and each team member works that is hard. So make sure the team builds consensus; show support.Target a plan that prioritizes delivery of the right work, the right way, with the right people.Assess how to deliver an aggressive set of operations improvements – find or develop operations

leadership and empower staff members to share and deploy their “non-legal” expertise.Create client service playbooks that help to define and codify department operating procedures.Install a tech platform to create consistency, transparency, reporting and data around workflows.Improve outside counsel guidelines, relationship systems; help providers understand what is expected of

them. Make internal and external workflows and deliverables consistent.

Now and next: Metrics, reporting and accountability: Measuring results and client satisfaction, and then doing it all over

again, and again, and again. Tactics change; Strategy is a constant Northstar. Change is an Iterative process.

Conclusions ….

More questions?

Thank you for your attention …

Susan HackettLegal Executive Leadership, LLChackett@lawexecs.com+1.301.785.5534