Three steps to take your firm from surviving to thriving
By Affinity Consulting
Do you have a nagging suspicion that you’re missing something when running your firm? Maybe some key insight that would make your firm more competitive. Or perhaps a way to run your firm more efficiently to even better serve your clients. Here are three steps to help you get on the right track – taking your firm from surviving to thriving.
Step 1: Gain clarity
Positive change starts with absolute clarity. Cut through the noise and identify the root causes of the issues keeping you up at night, not just the symptoms. Clarity comes from avoiding superficial answers.
Maybe everyone in the office knows that something “takes too long.” We know intuitively that the answer isn’t “do it faster.” If that would fix it, it would be fixed. More often, something “taking too long” has more to do with repeated, disparate interruptions than with a lax worker or slow technology, for example. If one person answers the phone, greets visitors, and prepares letters for mailing or emailing, then letters being slow to mail probably isn’t the result of the person or internet speed.
Step 2: Get insight
Leverage the power of perspective to change how you think about your firm’s future. Tap into the wisdom within your firm and uncover better, smarter ways of working. Generally, the people doing a process daily, such as paralegals, intake personnel, and receptionists, have the best understanding of how client-facing interactions really go. Better understanding how things happen or are handled now in the present day is a more valuable starting point than the memorialized platonic ideal stored in a 10-year-old binder on a dusty shelf.
Step 3: Develop your roadmap
Finally, understand where you’re going and how to get there. Your detailed, actionable practice analysis report empowers you to confidently take your next steps toward an efficient, highly successful practice.
Profound transformations start with a crystal-clear understanding of your most significant challenges and exciting opportunities. Focus on the following three key areas of your practice.
People
Your people – your employees and clients – are your greatest asset and greatest source of insight. Open dialogue is critical to the success of organizational change. Take the time to listen to, document, and thoroughly explore challenges, suggestions, and concerns offered by your team and clients. Go beyond the “what” to understand and communicate the “why.” Using a people-first approach, you turn skeptics into champions for change.
Process
“The way we’ve always done it” is the enemy of efficiency. Sometimes, it just takes a fresh pair of eyes to see your processes’ time- and energy-wasters. Think of process steps as puzzle pieces. How can they best fit together? Document how you do things now. Do this in a thorough, detailed way. Once you know the step-by-step of how you do things now, which sometimes differs markedly from existing written procedures, then it’s time to find levers to adjust, goals to change, and measurements of success.
The ultimate goal is to eliminate waste, cut procedural clutter, improve efficiency, and document everything to ensure that folks complete things the same way every time. Or at least most of the time.
Technology
Even the best, most expensive technology can’t save you from underlying process inefficiencies. That’s why you must start with people and processes and then explore technology solutions.
This approach lets you deploy technology precisely in line with what you need — nothing more. Sometimes, a team simply needs more training on your existing solution. Sometimes, a reconfiguration of a current solution does the trick. Whether it’s new software, a complete system overhaul, or optimizing what you already have, your target should be to get the most for your technology investment.
Conclusion
Identify and prioritize your firm’s steps to advance from surviving to thriving. Get the right people in the right roles following the right processes and having solid tech support. Then, you’ll go from feeling overwhelmed and stuck to empowered, confident, and optimistic about your firm’s future.
For more resources to help you build, manage, and protect your practice, visit The Missouri Bar’s Law Practice Management Resource Center.