{"id":855,"date":"2022-05-17T15:10:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-17T13:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/attorneyatcode.com\/?p=855"},"modified":"2024-08-05T12:38:25","modified_gmt":"2024-08-05T10:38:25","slug":"how-to-motivate-lawyers-to-innovate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/attorneyatcode.com\/cs\/how-to-motivate-lawyers-to-innovate\/","title":{"rendered":"How to motivate lawyers to innovate?"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you want to be an innovative legal organisation, you simply need to motivate lawyers to innovate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I already summarised the five mindsets that every lawyer should drop to actually innovate here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, to be successful, innovation efforts need to be multi-directional. Bottom-up. Top-to-bottom. Left-to-right. Diagonal. 3D. You name it<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how to motivate lawyer colleagues to find time for innovation even when flooded with Client work<\/strong>, internal stakeholders\u2019 needs, <\/strong><\/span>and all sorts of general pressure?<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read my six (6) tips on how to motivate lawyers to innovate!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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#1 Empower<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

People like autonomy and love tinkering.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So your first step should be to give your people something to tinker with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

M\u016f\u017ee se jednat o sandboxes<\/strong>, demos<\/strong>, innovation labs<\/strong>… Any safe place to get their hands dirty without having to ask someone for help and\/or permission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If someone has an a-ha! moment, they need to get up and running asap. Feeling like you can do something real yourself is important<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Give this power to individuals, even if you have a designated innovation team.<\/strong> It is a lot less hard and intimidating to pitch an idea if you already have some idea on how it may work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides, doing something independently with a tool for the first time when the client is already on board is way too late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to motivate lawyers to innovate by empowering them?<\/strong> Throw agency around like confetti and allow anyone to try out even a seemingly stupid idea every once in a while. Don’t overly check on them in the meantime.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

#2 Listen<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To be honest, this is the hardest for me, personally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I train my colleagues all the time (here is how I do it!<\/a>), so I naturally love sharing shortcuts, tips, and breakthroughs. I mean – I run a legal innovation blog!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ale pozor, empathic listening is one of the strongest tools<\/strong>. Ask your peers about their problems, their feelings, and reservations. And after you carefully listen to their answer, go and give them the gadgets to get it done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tailored innovation advice will always convey the value of innovation a million times better than showering one-size-fits-all fixes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to motivate lawyers to innovate by listening? Listen to people and then go back to #1<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

#3 Celebrate<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If someone comes up with something cool, throw a party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Talk about the solution on your team review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Give them a cupcake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make them Innovator of the Month<\/strong> (that gets a cupcake).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be loud and deliberate about giving credit and voice to those who promote healthy and innovative culture in your company. <\/p>

Thompson Reuters once published a post on the Archangels of Innovation<\/a> as “a driving force behind the legal innovation movement and should be rewarded as such. However, they are are neither acknowledged or supported very much by their organizations at the moment<\/em>.” And that is very true and very awful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don’t be part of the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to motivate lawyers to innovate by celebrating? Give your innovators a cupcake (and by cupcake, I mean agency and recognition).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

#4 Inspire & share<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Take a moment to compare the tech industry (vastly disruptive) and law (not). Where is the key difference?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides being empowered by technology, a big thing is that IT is inherently open source. So much is shared, and through the act of sharing, inspiration and new ideas keep on flooding in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You probably can\u2019t share your template bank online. But you can be that one colleague who showcases all the cool tricks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to motivate by inspiring? Show them what you did, how it works. Train people. Talk about ROI on your past projects and why did they work. Or why<\/strong> they didn\u2019t.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

#5 Measure<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In order to make the whole thing make sense, you need metrics.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a starter, include time for innovation in your KPI (and make sure everyone know how this is evaluated). But law isn’t just about the hours (here, I said it!!!). Look at benchmarks of products, usage of your tools, ROI, satisfaction rates, whatever will help you understand where you are.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Put some qualitative metrics in the bunch as well (hence #2). Listen to how people are feeling about all that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without having your metrics, any effort is likely to fade and be forgotten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to motivate lawyers to innovate using metrics? In the UN we used to say: you measure what you treasure. Put the effort to show that innovation matters and how.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

#6 Create opportunities<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Innovation does not just happen.<\/strong> Just like with everything in life, sometimes it takes getting a cup of coffee and sometimes the $$ for innovation education programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to create opportunities for innovation? Get people together. Throw a hackathon, roundtable, gaming night<\/strong>, whatever works in the context of your team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shrnut\u00ed na konec<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Innovation is a lot of play that requires a lot of work. So take it easy on yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n