the [non]billable hour

May I have your attention?

Watch this video:



Remember, what we look for is what we see. It is only when we open our eyes to see everything that we notice what should be obvious.

What are you looking for in your practice? Billable hours? Maybe you should look for something different. You might be surprised at what you'll find.

Are your customers, or your employees, always right?

For another worthwhile read this morning, check out the Top 5 Reasons Why "The Customer is Always Right" is Wrong from the Chief Happiness Officer Blog.  Reason Number 4, it results in worse customer service:

[W]hen you put the employees first, they put the customers first. Put employees first, and they will be happy at work. Employees who are happy at work give better customer service because:

• They care more about other people, including customers
• They have more energy
• They are happy, meaning they are more fun to talk to and interact with
• They are more motivated

On the other hand, when the company and management consistently side with customers instead of with employees, it sends a clear message that:

• Employees are not valued
• That treating employees fairly is not important
• That employees have no right to respect from customers
• That employees have to put up with everything from customers

When this attitude prevails, employees stop caring about service. At that point, real good service is almost impossible - the best customers can hope for is fake good service. You know the kind I mean: courteous on the surface only.

Do you put your customers first, or your employees?

Need a Vacation?

Brad Feld has a great recap of the ways he takes time off to recharge, including a quarterly, week-long vacation and semi-regular weekend getaway:

Go Dark Weekend: When I find myself feeling burned out, I do a go dark weekend. I turn off my computer and cell phone at 6pm on Friday night and don't turn it back on until 5am Monday morning. I cancel anything that is scheduled for the weekend and just do whatever I feel like doing. This is usually a once a quarter event; occasionally more frequently depending on how busy I am. I'm considering doing this around each of my marathon weekends also.

Anyone reading this feeling burned out? How about "going dark" this weekend and reconnecting with your kids?

Got Anxious Clients?

Think about it. Every client who enters a lawyer's office is anxious. In fact, they'd probably prefer going to the dentist. That's why this article on How to Deal with Anxious People is important reading. It sets out some research, with some valuable tips for deciphering visual cues, that every lawyer should know. Here's why:

The more you talk over or at anxious people, the more pressure you put on their middle brain and the more they will close their minds to what you are saying.

Alternatively, the more you talk to an anxious person -- or even better yet, with them -- the more you alleviate that pressure and the easier it is to access their upper brain and open their minds to you. Here's a critical point, though: the approach you may think you are taking in a conversation with an anxious person may not be the approach the other person perceives.

Also worth remembering when you are confronted with that big guy in the bar who accuses you of cheating at pool.

Notice What's Right Before Fixing What's Wrong

So often, we focus (obsess?) on fixing what's wrong with our selves, our families or our businesses.  For a week, try to focus instead on what's right.  Make a list of the three things that are the "right-est."  Take your three things and do just one thing this week to make them even better.  Challenge your family, friends, staff and even clients to do the same.  You can always go back to worrying next week.

Thanks to The Next 45 Years for the inspiration!

How to Run Your Law Firm Like a Startup ... or Not.

Jason Calcanis heads up Mahalo, a human-powered search engine.  In this post, widely circulating around the tech/startup blogosphere, Jason gives 17 tips on saving money while running a startup that will (I didn't say should) surely resonate with some BigLaw managing partners.  Some of his "really good" ideas (since toned down a bit in an update to the post):

• Buy everyone lunch four days a week and establish a no-meetings policy. Going out for food or ordering in takes at least 20-60 minutes more than walking up to the buffet and eating. If you do meetings over lunch you also save that time. So, 30 minutes a day across say four days a week is two hours a week... which is 100 hours a year. You get the idea. 
  
• Don't buy a phone system. No one will use it. No one at Mahalo has a desk phone except the admin folks. Everyone else is on IRC, chat, and their cell phone. Everyone has a cell phone, folks would rather get calls on it, and 99% of communication is NOT on the phone. Savings? At least $500 a year per person... 50 people over three years? $75-100k
• Buy your hardest working folks computers for home. If you have folks who are willing to work an extra hour a day a week you should get them a computer for home. Once you get to three hours of work a week from home you're at 150 hours a year and that's a no brainer. Invest in equipment *if* the person is a workaholic.
  
• Fire people who are not workaholics... come on folks, this is startup life, it's not a game.  Don't work at a startup if you're not into it.  Go work at the post office or stabucks if you're want balance in your life for realz.
• Get an expensive, automatic espresso machine at the office. Going to starbucks twice a day cost $4 each time, but more importantly it costs 20 minutes. Buy a $3-5,000 Jura industrial, get the good beans, and supply the coffee room with soy, low fat, etc. 50 people making one trip a day is 20 hours of wasted time for the company, and $150 in coffee costs for the employees. Makes no sense.
• Stock the fridge with sodas---same drill as above.
  

Sound like BigLaw to you?  Well, except for the awesome coffee machine.  That's not a cost like copies that you can pass on to clients.

This Speech Sponsored by ...

My pal JoAnna Forshee has (finally) started to do some blogging at her new venture InsideLegal.  She recently hosted the InsideLegal Summit, and it appears to have been a fantastic success.  The one topic that really caught my eye was the debate surrounding the "Pay to Speak" trend.  What is Pay to Speak?  It is when conferences (like LegalTech*) allow vendors to "sponsor" a conference track.  The controversy, which has been brewing in the legal conference industry for a while, is over what level of control the vendors have over their sponsored track, and what responsibility conference organizers have to disclose that control.

Why is this a big deal?  If a (fictional) company XYZ Discovery Solutions pays $25,000 to sponsor the "Electronic Discovery" track at a conference, what do they get for their investment?  More specifically:

• Does XYZ get to pick the topics for the track?  
• Does XYZ get to choose the track's speakers, favoring those who sell or promote XYZ products, and excluding other speakers who don't?  
• Does XYZ have a responsibility to present information the attendees want to hear instead of information they want attendees to hear?

If the answers to any of these questions are yes, do the attendees know that the "CLE accredited" sessions they attend are given by a hand-picked roster of sponsor-friendly speakers?  And are any CLE accreditation rules compromised?

Right now, the answers to these questions aren't clear, and I'm sure each conference organizer and each sponsor approach the "sponsored track" differently.  I don't think the sponsored track should go away, but I do think some disclosure is in order.  Just as lawyers must avoid actual or apparent conflicts of interest (which in some cases can waived by agreement), conference organizers must recognize the inherent conflicts that arise when a for-profit vendor sponsors, designs and staffs a CLE accredited, "educational" session  

At a minimum, the conference must disclose whether the speakers in a sponsored track are chosen by the conference or by the sponsoring vendor, and whether those speakers are paid by the vendor.

I applaud JoAnna and her InsideLegal partner Jobst, for getting this out in the open.  Your comments are welcome.

* I use LegalTech as an example here only because I know they have sponsored tracks, and the InsideLegal Summit happened in NYC at the same time of LegalTech.  I don't know what the vendors get for their investment and what rules (if any) LegalTech places on the speakers or the content in those sponsored tracks.

(How) Do You Take Credit?

Here's a great idea for ways to remember the folks who've helped you along the way, from this post on How to Take Credit:

So when the time comes to take the stage, remember that you didn’t get here alone: go ahead, grab the microphone and acknowledge your team. Do it before a crowd and in e-mail. Say it with bonuses and baked goods -- but be sure to say it. No one likes to be left out. By sharing the credit the right way, you won't diminish your own accomplishments, you'll add to them by building a reputation as the kind of person people want to work for and for your focus on developing others.

Not sure whom to credit? In their book, Becoming a Resonant Leader, Annie McKee, Richard Boyatzis and Frances Johnston suggest keeping running lists of peers who have helped you along your route to success -- along with notes about what you actually learned from them. Keeping such a list will likely help ensure that you don’t forget them in your acceptance speech.

I really like the idea of keeping a running list of people who've helped you along with a note or two about how they've helped.  This is a pretty powerful way to not only remember how you've gotten to where you are, but to also remind you to give help to others who seek it from you.  More on this in the next post.

Kill Your Projects, Not Your Clients

Here's an interesting idea from Scott Young that may just help with your growing to-do list:  Set up a Project Kill Day. In short, you schedule a distraction-free, off-site day to "kill" off one of your projects.  Check out the entire post for his step-by-step guide.

Not sure which projects you have that merit an entire day?  Try writing down the first client-related task you think of in the morning and the last one you think about before bed.  If it is the same one for more than a day or two, kill it before it kills you!

An Interview with Me

Just in case you're interested, I've did an interview with Stacey Antoine Savariau last week.  In it, I talk a bit about innovation, law practice and becoming a former lawyer.  It's here if you'd like a listen:

Build a Better Firm Workbook

While I finish the e-book, I thought I'd share a workbook of sorts that I've been using as a handout when I speak to groups about building innovative law practices.  I hope you like it.

Think REAL Big: Ten Ways to Build a Better Firm.  (Download pdf)

A You-Tube for Legal Docs? Check out DocStock

Here's a profile of DocStock, a site allowing people to find and share professional (including legal) documents. 

The profession is changing, my friends.  What are you doing to be ready?

Boise, Idaho ... Here I Come!

I'm going to be in Boise, Idaho on Monday (November 5) to speak about innovation for lawyers to the Idaho Bar Association.  If you are in the neighborhood (and really, who isn't?) come on by. 

15 Thoughts for Law Students: A Mini-Manifesto

I've written a few mini-manifestos for clients and lawyers before and remain quite enamored with the format.  Here's one for law students with some random (semi-related) thoughts on law school and the legal profession.  Let me know what you think, and feel free to add your own in the comments.

1.  Law school is a trade school.  The only people who don't believe this to be true are the professors and deans.

2.  Want to piss off your professors?  Ask them if they've ever run a successful law practice.

3.  Being good at writing makes you a good law student.  Being good at understanding makes you a good lawyer.  Being good at arguing makes you an ass.

4.  You can learn more about client service by working at Starbucks for three weeks than you can by going to law school for three years.

5.  Law school doesn't teach you to think like a lawyer.  Law school teaches you to think like a law professor.  Believe me, there's a huge difference.

6.  You can get through law school without understanding anything about what it is like to be a lawyer.  That is a terrible shame.

7.  The people who will help you the most in your legal career are sitting next to you in class.  Get to know them outside of law school. They are pretty cool people.  They are even cooler when you stop talking about the Rule Against Perpetuities.

8.  Your reputation as a lawyer begins now.  Don't screw it up (and quit bragging on your MySpace page about how drunk you got last night).

9.  Law is a precedent-based profession.  It doesn't have to be a precedent-based business.  Be prepared to challenge the prevailing business model.  Somebody has to.

10. Experienced lawyers work with clients.  Young lawyers work with paper.  You like working with paper, right?

11. You are about to enter a world where getting your work done in half the time as your peers doesn't get you rewarded.  It gets you more work.

12. Except for prosecutors and public defenders, nobody tries cases anymore.  Especially not second year associates.

13. You have a choice:  You can help people and make a decent living, or you can help corporations and make a killing.  Choose wisely. 

14. There are plenty of things you don't know, and even more things you'll never know.  Get used to it.  Use your ignorance to your benefit.  The most significant advantage you possess over those who've come before you is that you don't believe what they do.

15. People don't tell lawyer jokes just because they think they are funny.  They tell lawyer jokes because they think they are true.  Spend your career proving them wrong.

Web 2.0 Replaces Lawyers Again?

Brian Benzinger at Solution Watch writes about a new service called Tractis, which "allows you to negotiate and execute worldwide legally binding contracts online."  Significantly, the service also has sort of a contracts wiki that allows folks to upload contracts and templates that can be edited, commented upon, tagged and shared.  Very cool/scary for lawyers.  Find out for yourself and take the tour.

Making Partner (Over)Bites!

From Indexed:

The Mobile Lawyer 2.0

It has been a long while since I've been so WOW'd by a business model as I've been this morning.  Simply put, this is the BEST template I've seen for building a home-based practice from, of all people, a physician.  Dr. Jay Parkinson, MD is building a web-based medical practice.  From his website:

• I AM A NEW KIND OF PHYSICIAN.
• I strictly make house calls either at your home or work. 
• Once you become my patient and I've personally met you, we can also e-visit by video chat, IM and email for certain problems and follow-ups.
• I'm based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  My fees are very reasonable.
• I'm extremely accessible.  Contact me by phone, email, IM, text, or video chat.  Mon-Fri 8AM-5PM.  24/7 for emergencies.
• I specialize in young adults age 18 to 40 without traditional health insurance.
• When you need more than I provide, I make sure you wisely spend your money and pay the lowest price for the highest quality.
• I've gathered costs for NYC specialists, medications, x-rays, MRIs, ER visits, blood tests, etc...just like a Google price search.
• I mix the service of an old-time, small town doctor with the latest technology to keep you and your bank account healthyl

How much for this service?  According to the "How it Works" on his site, his fee is "far less than your yearly coffee budget but a little more than your Netflix."  His web site also provides "Real Life Examples" that describe, in plain English, how you'd use his service.  Oh, and he's blogging, too.

Lawyers, if you are looking for a real dose of inspiration (or a glimpse to the future of mobile practice) you HAVE to check this Parkinson's site and business model.  Simply brilliant.  Great idea, great web site, amazing copy.  If I were still practicing, I'd steal it in a heartbeat.  Look at it now.

Via: Zoli's Blog.

Justify that Messy Desk

From an 2002 New Yorker Essay from Edward Tufte: 

Paper enables a certain kind of thinking. Picture, for instance, the top of your desk. Chances are that you have a keyboard and a computer screen off to one side, and a clear space roughly eighteen inches square in front of your chair. What covers the rest of the desktop is probably piles—piles of papers, journals, magazines, binders, postcards, videotapes, and all the other artifacts of the knowledge economy. The piles look like a mess, but they aren't. When a group at Apple Computer studied piling behavior several years ago, they found that even the most disorderly piles usually make perfect sense to the piler, and that office workers could hold forth in great detail about the precise history and meaning of their piles. The pile closest to the cleared, eighteen-inch-square working area, for example, generally represents the most urgent business, and within that pile the most important document of all is likely to be at the top. Piles are living, breathing archives. Over time, they get broken down and resorted, sometimes chronologically and sometimes thematically and sometimes chronologically and thematically; clues about certain documents may be physically embedded in the file by, say, stacking a certain piece of paper at an angle or inserting dividers into the stack.

But why do we pile documents instead of filing them? Because piles represent the process of active, ongoing thinking. The psychologist Alison Kidd, whose research Sellen and Harper refer to extensively, argues that "knowledge workers" use the physical space of the desktop to hold "ideas which they cannot yet categorize or even decide how they might use." The messy desk is not necessarily a sign of disorganization. It may be a sign of complexity: those who deal with many unresolved ideas simultaneously cannot sort and file the papers on their desks, because they haven't yet sorted and filed the ideas in their head. Kidd writes that many of the people she talked to use the papers on their desks as contextual cues to "recover a complex set of threads without difficulty and delay" when they come in on a Monday morning, or after their work has been interrupted by a phone call. What we see when we look at the piles on our desks is, in a sense, the contents of our brains.

Ah, now I know the piles are there for a perfectly good reason.  Thanks to Stephen O'Flynn for the tip.
 

Thoughtful Law Blog

David Bilinsky has a great new blog:  Thoughtful Legal Management.  Check it out!

Raise the Roof or Lower the Ceiling?

I found something interesting in a study titled The Influence of Ceiling Height: The Effect of Priming on the Type of Processing People Use (via Science Daily -- my new favorite RSS subscription):

“When a person is in a space with a 10-foot ceiling, they will tend to think more freely, more abstractly,” said Meyers-Levy. “They might process more abstract connections between objects in a room, whereas a person in a room with an 8-foot ceiling will be more likely to focus on specifics.”

The research demonstrates that variations in ceiling height can evoke concepts that, in turn, affect how consumers process information. The authors theorized that when reasonably salient, a higher versus a lower ceiling can stimulate the concepts of freedom versus confinement, respectively. This causes people to engage in either more free-form, abstract thinking or more detail-specific thought. Thus, depending on what the task at hand requires, the consequences of the ceiling could be positive or negative.

If you are designing your next office or workspace, should you build in different ceiling types and plan to do different kinds of work in each one?  For lawyers, should you take your depositions in low-ceilinged rooms?

LinkedIn for Litigation?

Guy Kawasaki explains how to use LinkedIn's Reference Check Tool to avoid bad bosses.  In essence, you can input a company name and a range of years to find people who worked at the company during a given time period. 

This would be a great tool for locating potential witnesses in a litigation action.  Input the plaintiff/defendant company name and the years before, during and after the actionable conduct.  LinkedIn will serve up a list of people who may know a bit about company/facts/etc.  Even better, they may no longer be employed and more likely to help you.

I'm Sorry for Your Loss. Was He Funny?

A quick tip for meeting the family of a decedent at estate wrap-up time, courtesy of Tricks of the Trade:

If you have to interview a grieving family after a death, a good question to ask is: "Did he have a good sense of humor?"

This will almost always shake the family out of their grief, making it easier for them to talk to you, and bring up an anecdote that really shows the character of the dead person.

Make Tomorrow E-Mail Free

How about implementing "No E-Mail Fridays" at your office?  Check out this ABC News article to learn why it may be a good idea.

Talk Really Isn't Cheap

Lisa Hanneberg writes about the high cost of communication.  Required reading (if you've got the time) before you send out that next e-mail to 50 people or schedule that next two-hour meeting.  If you haven't got time for the whole post, just think about this:

If your department budget was charged $100 for every minute you spent communicating, would you choose your words more wisely? It is likely that the costs are that high or higher.

Join Me March 8th for a Teleseminar

I'd like you to join me for a teleseminar on March 8th, titled: Think Real BIG -- Ten Creative Strategies for Building an Innovative Law Practice.  It is part of the online-only Career & Practice Development Conference. 

I will share ten unique and easy-to-implement strategies to help you create an innovative, service-centered law practice that you'll love as much as your clients do.

The teleseminar takes place from 1:00 - 2:00 pm EST and the cost is $59.00.  You can register here.

Lawyers Appreciate ...

Last week Gerry Riskin asked me to write a post that  begins with the words “Lawyers Appreciate”  (the idea was originally conceived here).  Here’s mine:

Lawyers Appreciate Gifts.  Here are three things I’d like to (belatedly) give all my lawyer friends for the holidays:

1.  A family who loves them.

2.  A community who respects them.

3.  Great clients who pay them. 

And if I didn’t spend all my budget on those three things, I’d add four more:

4.  One hour each day to dream about how they’d make their business better.

5.  The courage to try the things they’ve thought up. 

6.  The wisdom to ignore those who say those things can’t be done.

7.  Friends like Gerry to cheer them on.

17 Lawyer Tips: A Mini Manifesto

After writing 15 Client Tips: A Mini Manifesto, I figured that turnabout is fair play.  Here are 17 for Lawyers:

1.  Whenever your clients don’t understand what you are doing for them, they think about what you are doing to them.

2.  Many of your clients remain your clients because it is a pain in the ass to find another laywer – not because they love you.

3.  Every time your clients get your bill, they think about how beautiful your office is and about the nice car you drive.  And they wonder if you are worth it. 

4.  If your office is a dump and you drive a wreck, they wonder about that too.

5.  If your client doesn’t pay you, fire them.  Don’t ignore them.

6.  At least once a year, tell a client, “It’s on the house.”

7.  Taking a client to play golf doesn’t show how good a lawyer you are.  It shows how good a golfer you are.

8.  Quit being a pompous, demanding jerk around the office.  If you can’t keep good staff, you don’t deserve good clients.

9.  Your clients will always know their business better than you do.  They may even know the law better than you.  Make sure to seek their advice before giving yours.

10.  A lawyer charging extra for stamps and copies is like a car wash charging extra for water.  Stop it now.

11.  Your clients have wants.  Your clients have needs.  They often don’t know the difference.

12.  Whenever you interrupt a client meeting to take an “important” call, your client thinks about hiring another lawyer.

13.  Imagine a world where your clients knew each month how much their bill from you will be so they could plan for it.  They do.

14.  If you hate being a lawyer, be something else.  You are smart.  You’ll figure it out.

15.  A bill is not communication.  At least not the good kind.

16.  When is the last time you called a client just to thank them for being your client?  That’s what I thought.

17.    People don’t tell lawyer jokes just because they are funny.  They tell lawyer jokes because they think they are true.  Spend your career proving them wrong.

LexThinking Again 2.0

Dennis, JoAnna and I are working on a few new LexThink! events.  The one that’s almost ready for prime time is described here in Dennis’ post.  Check it out. 

Right Way Writing

Dumb Little Man has compiled a list of 50 Writing Tools from Poynter Online.  If you write at all, it is worth your time to check out some of the Poynter articles.  An amazing resource!

Get Your Lawyers to Use Technology

Here’s an interesting tip to spur firm-wide adoption of  new technology:  Cut Off Non-Adopter’s E-Mail. 

Make Someone Else's 'Employee of the Month' Yours

Gerry Riskin and Michelle Golden have been talking about the importance of having a great receptionist.  Having had two amazing secretary/receptionists (Janelle and Sandy, thank you!) in my last two jobs, I second (third?) this sentiment. 

Now, how do you find that perfect receptionist?  Here are some tips on recruiting great retail employees, from a blog I’ve just moved from “probation” to my regular reads called Just Looking, that may give you some ideas:

Find the Employee of the Month wall in the retailer.   Normally this is back near the offices in a hallway that is accessible by the public.   Write down the names of the last 6 people who won, and then go find them in the store.   Walk up and congratulate them on winning and ask why they got the award.  You might have a great conversation that could end with "Here is my card, if your interested in examining other opportunities give me a call"

Look at stores that are not in your industry.   Too often, sales managers will only recruit from of retailers like themselves.  I found great luck recruiting in retailers outside of my industry.   Blockbuster Video was a great place to recruit entry level sales and customer service reps.     Anyone who walked out from around the counter to ask me if they could help me find something, got my attention and my card.    

Always Be Recruiting.   Don't ever stop, because you never know when you might run across someone that would be a great member of your team.   I can remember two instances of this happening.  One was when I was out to dinner with some friends.   The waitress was amazing and during our chatter I found out she was looking for a part time job.   I ended up hiring her for for the holiday season and we both were very satisfied with her 4 month stay.  The other instance was when I answered the phone and a telemarketer began his pitch on the other end.    It was one of those telemarketers that didn't give up at the first no, but kept the tone very light hearted.   He came in and interviewed for a full time position.

Recruit for the right traits not just sales skills.     There is no way you will ever be able to evaluate a potential recruits selling skills effectively but you can get a good feel for their passion and enthusiasm.    My goal when recruiting is to find someone who is outgoing, passionate and enthusiastic about what they are selling.     I can't teach passion but I can teach someone with passion how to channel it into selling better.

Set a Recruiting Goal when you go out.     If you head out to go recruiting without a goal, all you will get is 2 to 4 hours of walking around.    Set a goal of coming back with 4 to 5 names to call and at least 2 business card drops.   A business card drop is when you introduce yourself and give them your card with a suggestion they call you.     The list of names are of people who you will call later that day and invite them to come in for an interview.

Keep a People Pool.   Don't toss out information from old interviews.  Make a file and keep it around for later job opportunities.   You never know when a position will open that might be perfect for someone you didn't consider before.

Network with other Sales Managers.   Find sales manager in other stores that do not compete with you directly.    They might be interviewing a candidate that needs more hours or income then they can afford, that might be perfect for your job.    A lunch, once a month with a few of these other sales managers could help you locate the people you need.  Who knows, maybe they might have a current employee who is looking for a change that is the perfect recruit.

Top Ten Things They Never Taught Me ...

Michael McDonough has an article in the Design Observer titled The Top 10 Things They Never Taught Me in Design School that made me think he was actually writing about Law School.  Here are a few:

1. Talent is one-third of the success equation.  Talent is important in any profession, but it is no guarantee of success. Hard work and luck are equally important. Hard work means self-discipline and sacrifice. Luck means, among other things, access to power, whether it is social contacts or money or timing. In fact, if you are not very talented, you can still succeed by emphasizing the other two. If you think I am wrong, just look around.

2. 95 percent of any creative profession is shit work. Only 5 percent is actually, in some simplistic way, fun. In school that is what you focus on; it is 100 percent fun. Tick-tock. In real life, most of the time there is paper work, drafting boring stuff, fact-checking, negotiating, selling, collecting money, paying taxes, and so forth. If you don’t learn to love the boring, aggravating, and stupid parts of your profession and perform them with diligence and care, you will never succeed.

7. When you throw your weight around, you usually fall off balance.  Overconfidence is as bad as no confidence. Be humble in approaching problems. Realize and accept your ignorance, then work diligently to educate yourself out of it. Ask questions. Power – the power to create things and impose them on the world – is a privilege. Do not abuse it, do not underestimate its difficulty, or it will come around and bite you on the ass. The great Karmic wheel, however slowly, turns.

10. The rest of the world counts.  If you hope to accomplish anything, you will inevitably need all of the people you hated in high school. I once attended a very prestigious design school where the idea was “If you are here, you are so important, the rest of the world doesn’t count.” Not a single person from that school that I know of has ever been really successful outside of school. In fact, most are the kind of mid-level management drones and hacks they so despised as students. A suit does not make you a genius. No matter how good your design is, somebody has to construct or manufacture it. Somebody has to insure it. Somebody has to buy it. Respect those people. You need them. Big time.

I’d love to get a list of those things you wish they’d taught in school, but never did.  Leave a comment, e-mail me, or trackback to this post and I’ll compile them all for a future post. 

The Myth of the "Short" Meeting

In practice, I always preferred a face-to-face meeting with my clients to a telephone conversation or an exchange of correspondence.  I believed in-person conversations were much more effective and better for both client and lawyer — and still do.  However, it is important to keep in mind the true costs (to the lawyer and client) of that “short” meeting.  From 37signals:

If you’re going to schedule a meeting that lasts one hour and invite 10 people to attend then it’s a ten-hour meeting, not a one-hour meeting. You are trading 10 hours of productivity for one hour of meeting time. And it’s probably more like 15 hours since there are mental switching costs associated with stopping what you’re doing, going somewhere else to do something else, and then resuming what you were doing before.

Remember how valuable your clients’ time is.  Though you may not think their time is worth as much as yours, at the end of the meeting, neither of you will get that time back. 

technorati tags: meetings, productivity, client+service

Computer Programs I Want: ToDo-per Scooper

Saw this about scheduling productivity “dashes” on 43 Folders, and had this thought:

Say you’ve got 10 (30, 200?) items on your To-Do list, and you are so overwhelmed, you don’t know where to start.  What you need is a Random Task Generator, (alternative title “ToDo-per Scooper”).  Here’s how it would work:

1.  It would take the list of your to-do’s, either inputed directly or scoured (scooped?) from your Outlook tasks list, along with the estimated amount of time you think each task will take. 

2.  It would automatically add 50% more time to your estimate (to account for innacurate and overly-optimistic estimating).

3.  Whenever you set aside a certain amount of time on your calendar for non-specific task completion, it would fill in that time with a randomly-selected To-Do (or To-Do’s) that fit the time you set aside.

4.  The randomness could be changed to give more weight to more important tasks — kind of like adding more balls for the bad teams in the NBA lottery.

BONUS:  If this feature were incorporated into an enterprise-wide calendaring and task-management program (legal software vendors, are you listening?), the business could set aside an hour each day when everyone could get access to a fresh set of to-do’s to complete in that hour.  I think it could make the whole enterprise more productive.

Anyone want to build this application with me?  Or is it already out there?

technorati tags: productivity, procrastination, lifehacks, software, web2.0

Be Ready to Leave Your Best Message

Here’s a great tip to keep in mind next time you call a client:

Prepare for every telephone call expecting to get voicemail. This will help you focus your message and prevent rambling. You should treat your voicemail message as a short presentation, thinking it through ahead of time, not during the recording…

From this 1999 Report, via 43 Folders. 

Know What You Don't Know

Ben Folds, from the song “Bastard” on Songs for Silverman:

“Why you got to act like you know when you don’t know?”

How many of us are afraid to admit to a client that we, “just don’t know” the answer?  Ben Folds would suggest:

 “It’s OK if you don’t know everything.” 

It really is.  Next time you don’t know, say you don’t know.  Your clients may appreciate your candor.

Lessons for Ford, and for Lawyers

In The Truth About Cars, Robert Farago offers up his prescription for an ailing Ford:

You want bold moves? Kill Jaguar. Kill Mercury. Sell Volvo. Sell Mazda. Sell Land Rover. Cut half the remaining models and plow money into the ones that survive. Re-invigorate your rear-wheel drive, box-frame car with new sheetmetal, a bad-ass motor and a killer cabin. Build a world-beating Lincoln luxury sedan. Make the Ford Focus the world’s best small car. Get the Explorer’s mileage into the mid-20’s. Develop a more powerful engine than the Hemi and stick it into everything-- including a new minivan. Set SVT loose on the entire model line-up. OWN quality interiors. Don't badge engineer ANYTHING.

Lose the glass fishbowl; redesign Ford showrooms to look like a modern retail outlet. Trim the dealer network and sell cars on the web. Undercut everyone’s price with every vehicle. Interact with every single customer on a regular basis via internet. Institute no-haggle pricing. Make financing cheaper. Drop 80% of your print budget and dominate the web. Do it all, and do it all at once-- regardless of cost. Then sell value for money. Ford: the best car money can buy.

Imagine a big law firm (or any law firm) making similar moves.  What would that advice be, and what would the resulting law firm look like?

Deposition Tips

It has been over 18 months since I’ve taken a deposition, so I’ll pass this one on for what it is worth:  Take Great Notes from LifeHacker.  Some great tips for general notetaking, and a few that would work well for depositions.  For instance:

[U]se a simple system of symbols to make off 4 different information types in the column space left in the margin.

• [ ] A square checkbox denotes a to do item
• ( ) A circle indicates a task to be assigned to someone else
• * An asterisk is an important fact
• ? A question mark goes next to items to research or ask about

After the meeting, a quick vertical scan of the margin area makes it easy to add tasks to your to do list and calendar, send out requests to others, and further research questions. (This method is the brainchild of Michael Hyatt, someone who clearly has mastered the art of attending meetings.)

Time Alone for the Zone

Jason Fried has some great advice on how to get into the zone:

Getting in the zone takes time. And that’s why interruption is your enemy. It’s like rem sleep – you don’t just go to rem sleep, you go to sleep first and you make your way to rem. Any interruptions force you to start over. rem is where the real sleep magic happens. The alone time zone is where the real development magic happens.

One tip to help you create some alone time is… Set up a rule at work: Make half the day alone time. From 10am-2pm, no one can talk to one another (except during lunch). Or make the first or the last half of the day the alone time period. Just make sure this period is contiguous in order to avoid productivity-killing interruptions.

How much more work would your business get done if you set aside “zone” time.

Is it all the same thing?

Will lawyers ever realize that it is all the same thing:

We don’t spend 2 hours every day on marketing, we spend all day on marketing. We don’t spend 1 hour every day figuring out the best way to communicate what our products do, we spend all day figuring out the best way to communicate what our products do. We don’t spend 3 hours on interface design, we spend all day on interface design.

When the edges are blurred, and one thing is many things, you can achieve so much more with less time, effort, and people.

Good work for clients is marketing.  Sending a fair bill is client service.  Returning telephone calls and e-mails is relationship building.  It is all the same thing.  Go read the original post and the comments.  Great Stuff!

Only Make Smart Mistakes

Steve Pavlina sets out 10 Stupid Mistakes Made by the Newly Self-Employed.  They are a worthwhile read (go to the post for his explanation of each), even if you’ve been self-employed for a long time.  I know I still make a few of these stupid mistakes.  How about you?

1.  Selling to the wrong people.

2.  Spending too much money.

3.  Spending too little money.

4.  Putting on a fake front.

5.  Assuming a signed contract will be honored.

6.  Going against your intuition.

7.  Being too formal.

8.  Sacrificing your personality quirks.

9.  Failing to focus on value creation.

10.  Failing to optimize.

Does More Time Equal More Money?

Here’s How to Have a 36 Hour Day.  Now, for you lawyers out there, leave in the comments section your suggestions on How to Bill a 36 Hour Day.

Productivity Test

Need to get more done?  Try this tip from Scott Berkun:

Here’s a test to help sort how your attention is working for you. Make a list of all the things you read, check, skim, or browse every day (Include every gadget or device you use once a day). Make a second list of why you’re spending your attention on them. What are you trying to achieve or feel? Rank the first list based on the second. Then cut the first list in half or by one-third and see what happens.

Do Your Trial Exhibits Pass This Test?

Dave Gray has been doing some terrific blogging at Communication Nation.  In this post, he shares the results of a study about how people create visual diagrams.

A 1997 study found that when people create visual diagrams, they use about 6 to 12 visual elements, or "nodes" to describe a system.

What's interesting to me is that this is true no matter what tools they used and regardless of the complexity of the system.

Dave suggests that the ways people create diagrams is related to the ways people understand diagrams from others.  His thoughts:

1. People construct "mental models" when trying to understand how things work

2. Most mental models seem to be made up of 6-12 components

3. A diagram with more then 13 components will probably not become integrated into people's consciousness as a mental model

To me, that means that if you want your system to be understood and integrated into people's thinking as a mental model, you had better boil it down to a simple picture.

If you are a lawyer that uses diagrams to communicate with clients (or juries), you should take another look at your materials and see if you can simplify them.  Maybe Bill Gates should take the same advice:

In this slide alone, I count almost 40 components — and I’ve seen a lot of trial graphics that are a whole lot worse.

Sketch a Solution with Clients

Ever have a client that’s has a problem you are struggling to solve?  Here’s a tip from Noise Between Stations that could help:

When you’re trying to solve a problem and you’re stuck it’s because you’re trying to solve it in your head. Just as you can do simple calculations in your head but need a calculator for everything else, you can’t solve tough business problems in your head.

When you draw, build, write, or use something that is physical, your physical senses help you understand more about the situation. You more fully understand the problem than if you only thought about it. Financial analysts do this by writing calculations on the back of a napkin or playing with numbers in a spreadsheet. Designers do this by sketching on paper or carving foam in the shape of a product. Engineers do it by combining parts they have on hand to make something new.

…

It’s important to ignore how well you’re doing what you’re doing, because that will distract you from accomplishing the goal. This may go against our usual inclinations to do things “right.” We’re taught to think things through and carefully design a solution. But when you’re stuck we need to overcome this tendency. Free your mind from all the rules you normally follow. Pick up the pencil and just sketch.

You might even use techniques you know to be incorrect because they help you move more quickly. This is good. The are only two guidelines here:

1. Do it quickly
2. Create something tangible

I can’t recommend this tactic enough.  When I was mediating custody disputes, I used huge easel-sized 3M Post-It notes to sketch out custody scenarios with my clients.  I’d draw a month’s worth of days in a grid, and would give each client their own big Post-it to diagram their ideal custody situation.  Often times, once the parents got up and put marker to paper, they broke out of their mindset that a reasonable custody arrangement couldn’t be negotiated.

If you have an office or meeting room, take down some of your diplomas and expensive art work and instead throw up some big Post-it notes (or a whiteboard) on the wall and see how many more client problems you’ll solve.

Technology does not equal productivity.

Here’s a must-read article from Wired, that shows how technology has made us less productive.  Some quotes from the story:

Workers completed two-thirds of their work in an average day last year, down from about three-quarters in a 1994 study, according to research conducted for Day-Timers, an East Texas, Pennsylvania-based maker of organizational products.

The biggest culprit is the technology that was supposed to make work quicker and easier, experts say.

"Technology has sped everything up and, by speeding everything up, it's slowed everything down, paradoxically," said John Challenger, chief executive of Chicago-based outplacement consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

"We never concentrate on one task anymore," Challenger said. "You take a little chip out of it, and then you're on to the next thing. It's harder to feel like you're accomplishing something."

Client Experience Matters

Found this article (via Digg) titled Why Features Don’t Matter Anymore: The New Laws of Digital Technology.   In the author’s words, “user experience (along with a strong brand, and clever marketing) is much more important for the success of a device then technical specifications.”  There is much to be learned here for all service providers as well, so I encourage you to read the entire article with that in mind.  Here are the author’s 10 fundamental rules (read the article for his explanation):

1) More features isn't better, it's worse.

2) You can't make things easier by adding to them.

3) Confusion is the ultimate deal-breaker.

4) Style matters

5) Only features that provide a good user experience will be used.

6) Any feature that requires learning will only be adopted by a small fraction of users.

7) Unused features are not only useless, they can slow you down and diminish ease of use.

8) Users do not want to think about technology: what really counts is what it does for them.

9) Forget abo