Today we’re talking about the opportunity we all have, right now, to reset “normal.” Despite the uncertain times we find ourselves in, this is our time to create stronger businesses.

At Gimbal, like in your firm, we spend a lot of time thinking about how to navigate the pandemic. With these tips and our new Virtual Coffeehouse series, we’re trying to provide you with as much useful information as we can to help you through it.

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Today’s tip is this: use any extra time you have right now to start planning for the recovery.

That’s what we’re doing at Gimbal. We’re asking ourselves what kind of company we want to be when this is over. If you can, we encourage you to do the same.

Whenever we talk about change in law firms, we hear, “but…that’s the way we’ve always done it.” It’s the biggest barrier to action we see.

Today, you have an unprecedented opportunity to bust through that barrier.

Why?

1. Because there has been a seismic shift in the way we now have to provide services.
2. You likely have more time to think hard about what you do now and how you do it; and
3. (and most importantly) you have already proven to yourself that you CAN change.

For example, you’re probably reading this from your home office. You probably haven’t been into your firm in days, if not weeks. You may be using technology you were previously unfamiliar with, meeting with clients virtually, figuring out how to do all those in-person things in new, creative, and yet-still-value-adding ways.

All of a sudden, you have learned that you CAN provide your legal services in a totally new way.

In fact, you’re already THROUGH the barrier.

So take the opportunity to identify what wasn’t working about your old ways. Look for the things that took longer than they should, or seemed harder than they needed to be. These are the wastes in your practice. Right now, you have the opportunity to eliminate them, so you can come back to your regular practice finally free of the inefficiencies and constraints of your old “normal.”

Download and work through our Eight Wastes Guide. Identify the inefficiencies in your old normal. Then use your renewed confidence in your ability to change—and change fast. You might

• Create a new process or improve an existing one.
• Reallocate work to a different, lower cost or more efficient resource.
• Create that practice guide you’ve always meant to write to help others do their work, or
• Eliminate the friction in a key process like new client onboarding, or billing & collections.

IF you start to invest time and effort now to understand how you’re working under the current “work-from-home” conditions and plan how to implement the positive changes into your practice going forward, you’ll be ready for the recovery (and there will be a recovery) with a more efficient, more profitable, and more productive practice.

Be well, stay safe, and be patient. These are trying times for us all.

See you next week.

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