“The organisations we created have

become tyrants. They have taken control,

holding us feered, creating barriers that 

hinder rather than help our businesses.

The lines that we drew on our neat 

organisational diagrams have turned

into walls that no one can scale or 

 penetrate or even peer over.” 

Zero Space: Moving Beyond Organisational

Limits by Frank Lekanne and René Tissen

I spent 14 years in practice. In most

 businesses that would be an age and

you would expect to see change of some

sort. Not seismic in all cases, but at least

movement beyond zero on the innovation

meter. However, I can honestly say that

legal practice wasn’t just resistant to change,

it positively blocked it at every turn.

It may be one cliché too far, but since

when did any great, dare I say, world-class

 business become that way by standing still?

You know, driving the strategic bus by

constantly looking in the rear view mirror.

Of course all those hardened, seen it,

done it brigade will always sit on the

fence or crow from the side lines that if

the business sticks to the kniing, and

deliver on their word that the good ship

PEP will keep rolling in. But we all know

that this Dickensian view is a fallacy. Not

least because clients will decide more or

less what you do. The simple point. If you

don’t provide them with what they want or

need, they will go elsewhere. In the glory

days, they were ignorant because the choice

didn’t exist but with so many oerings

coming up the rails, even those practices

that thought their rms immutable from

change are having to address the reality that

they may even have to open for lunch.

I appreciate that this message is a lile

threadbare now but even if you have

refreshed the technology, bued up your

website and started to think about business

development, the fundamental aspects

of your business remain static: people

management, training, leadership and

systems development.

 Word on the street

Right now, there will be a few partners

 jumping up and down, chastising me for

my ignorance of their business. But, having

spoken at my fair share of legal events, I

can tell you that the word on the street (or

should I say shop oor) is that the good

ship out-of-date still looks much the same.

And, if I needed proof, you can think about

puing this in your pipe. The biggest

dierentiator for any professional service

rm is its people. If that’s right then how

many rms have:

1. Thought of transforming their rms by

“rst geing the right people on the bus

(and the wrong people o the bus) and

then gured out where to drive it”? (Jim

Collins, Good to Great)

2. Invested serious money in people

development. And I don’t mean

the obligatory CPD, but proper

management training with a world-

class centre of excellence?

3. Despatched a few of the elephants in the

room, like underperforming partners, or

addressed those people that are holding

the rm back?

4. Installed a rst class and recognisable

mentoring or management programme?

 

I know that many of you will sco at this

list, not least because of the P&L constraints

 but, frankly, until you address these and

other so issues, it’s pointless going

round the houses about change. It just

won’t happen.

Even if all this people stu seems like

hard work, you could try appointing

someone to sort out the internal grunge.

Tom Peters calls them a ‘Chief Hurdle

Removal Ocer’ (CHRO). I suspect that

that is bit too tongue in cheek for most but

rather than allowing the managing partner

to get mired in the goo, why don’t you

nd someone, preferably from outside the

industry, whose sole objective is to turn all

those yawn-worthy and verbose to-do lists

into action plans. I wouldn’t have any great

expectations in the early days, but, over

the long haul if the partnership is prepared

to cede more than a miniscule amount of

control and not have to convene meeting

aer meeting to ratify every decision then

you might just get things moving forward.

Redefne and refne

One nal point to bear in mind. It’s great

to see projects take o, and I’m a rm

 believer that more oen than not execution

determines, or at least inuences, the

strategic direction of a department. But, if

you are not careful, with all this unblocking

going on and tactical frenzy you might just

wake up one morning to discover you have

turned the rm into something distant from

the vision you had in mind. I recognise

how hard it is to redene or rene who or

what you are – your vision, purpose and

mission. But take it from someone who

spent many years in the trenches, having a

great leader is one thing, but knowing the

general trajectory is essential when it comes

to geing yourself up for another month of

fee earning.

And without wanting to get into

the semantics, what you do is a given.

How you do it is usually well articulated.

But why you do it (and not the money)

is much harder. Nail that one and unblock

the thinking on change, and you might

 just nd that you need more than the

obligatory away day to capture the brilliant

ideas that pour forth.

Change. Who’s up for it?

management business development

9 July 2013 SJ 157/27 17 www.solicitorsjournal.com

The legal profession hasn’t just been adverse to change,

says Julian Summerhayes, it’s been actively ghting it off 

Going forwards,not backwards

Julian Summerhayes is a

non-practising solicitor.

He runs a business

development consultancy 

(www.juliansummerhayes.

com)