Sometimes, the hardest thing about change is knowing where to start. Maybe you read our tips on value and waste, or you downloaded our guide to the Eight Ways to Stop Losing Time & Money in Your Practice, and you’ve got a long list of possible targets. Pick the wrong one and you may end up biting off more than you can chew, or wasting energy on a project that doesn’t have much impact.

The result? You and your team are even more frustrated than before.

You need a quick win to get started.

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Welcome to Gimbal’s Tip of the Week, where you get practical, actionable advice you can use right away to start building a more productive and profitable legal practice.

Because inefficiency and skepticism go hand-in-hand in our profession, choosing the right starting point for your process improvement initiative can seem overwhelming.

Today’s tip is simple: start with a business or administrative process.

There are three reasons for this.

1. Business and administrative processes usually apply across your practice, so improvements you make to one process (for example, intake or invoicing) will affect every single file you handle.
2. Improving an administrative process will benefit the lawyers without requiring them to change the way they actually practice law. In our experience, attorneys are more likely to accept an administrative change (even one that requires a change in their behaviour) than a change to a practice step.
3. Business and administrative processes are typically shorter and more occur more frequently. Plus, they often have more defined timelines and fewer contingencies. You’ll see the results of your change more clearly and more quickly.

With this week’s tip in mind, here are your action items:

1. Identify a business or admin process that YOU feel is delivering the fewest of your clients' or firm's needs OR is creating the greatest frustration.

If you need help on this, check out our tips on using Kano’s model. 

2. Find specific opportunities within that process to make value-adding improvements

If you need help identifying improvement opportunities, download our free guide: 8 Ways to Stop Losing Time & Money in your Practice. 

3. Prioritize your list of opportunities. Start small, with a change that’s easy to implement and has a big payoff. Early success will help build buy-in for this and other changes.

Check out our tip on PICK charts for help with this third action item. 

We encourage all of our coaching clients to start process improvement with a business or administrative process. Once you have a few quick wins under your belt, you’ll be better able to tackle more challenging legal processes.

I know sometimes that seems easier said than done, so if you want ongoing support to grow your business, why not join the Practice Accelerator coaching program? You’ll get group coaching and 1:1 calls with us every month, plus expert insights on pricing, legal technology, business development, and more. Enrolment for the program is open again and we’re accepting new members right now! 

And that’s it. Join us next week for more on building a profitable and productive law practice. In the meantime, don’t forget to check out the different resources we mentioned. The links are in the show notes.