I thought it was a good time to jump in and say that although it may look like that bottleneck—or any other issue that you’ve spotted in your practice—is being caused by a person. It probably isn’t.

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Processes are organic

Processes usually develop organically. Someone does a task a particular way. A new person joins the organization and learns that particular way, or gets thrown into the process and figures out her own way.

Then maybe a new piece of technology comes in, or a new person appears, or new situation develops. The people already in the process adapt.

When the existing process fails for some reason, the people in the process just adapt again.

Humans adapt to broken processes

Humans adapt to broken processes all the time. We’re pretty good at it. Something doesn’t work the way we expect? We find a workaround. Maybe we share that workaround with others, or maybe every person in the process develops her own workaround.

We rarely take the time to look deeper into the process and figure out what’s broken. We don’t ask WHY we need that workaround in the first place. Instead, we just use our workaround. We let the underlying problems continue and hard-bake the workarounds into a broken process.

Focus on the process, not the people

If you want to create an efficient process, you need to focus on the PROCESS, not the people doing it. You need to invest your improvement efforts on fixing the underlying problems with the process that required everyone to build their workarounds in the first place.

So, when you’re looking at a process that just isn’t working, or you’ve used our Eight Wastes guide to identify a series of frustrations, don’t ask yourself WHO is making the mistake.

If there’s a breakdown in your process, if an error always occurs at the same place, the problem is with the process, not the person doing it.

Ask why, not who

The key question you need to ask is WHY…not WHO. We’ve got a tool for that, and you can learn more about it here.

And that’s it for this week’s tip. Join us next week for more on building a profitable and productive law practice.

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Free Webinar/Interview

Don’t forget to join me at 2 p.m. today, March 25, in the LeanLegal Community Facebook Group for our live interview with Michele Allinotte. Michele will be talking about a virtual will review service she set up for her clients, as well as how she’s automated her new client intake. See you next week.

Thanks a lot everybody!