Do you really know how work gets done in your practice?

We’ve talked a lot lately about getting the right processes in place to deliver what your clients want and need. If you’re still reading, it’s because you want to improve your processes…but until you know how you’re working right now, you can’t actually make any improvements. 

So much of what we do as lawyers happens inside our heads. The thing is, when your process is inside your head, you can’t see where the problems are. And if you can’t see the problems, you can’t fix them.

Making your work visible is a prerequisite for making it better, and it’s that second of the 5 questions we’ve been talking about:

What does the client want or need?

How do we work now to get that result?

Why do we do it that way?

How can we do it better?

Is our new process delivering what the client wants and are we following it?

Today’s Tip: make your process visible.

Write it down. Map it out on your wall in sticky notes or onscreen with something like Miro. Once you see your work, you can start to improve it.

This works. We helped one large firm redesign their patent process. They knew there were unacceptable delays and write-offs, but they weren’t sure what was causing the problems.

We started by mapping out the entire process. When we did this, they identified a single step that created a 3-week delay. Ultimately, they eliminated one step and made a few other minor changes. The result: a faster process that reduced write-offs and aligned with what their clients truly wanted.

For one of our small firm clients, we redesigned their intake processes. By mapping out how they were actually working, they identified at least 5 places they could standardize their processes to eliminate complexity and streamline their process to better serve their clients.

This Week’s Action Item: Map out a simple process (maybe intake - that’s a challenge for many firms) and ask yourself these two key questions:

1. What’s taking longer than it should?
2. What feels more complicated than it should?

These two simple questions will help you identify roadblocks that are negatively impacting you or your clients (or both!). Once you’ve identified your roadblocks, you can start to make improvements.

Implementing these changes can take time, and we know it’s easy to get distracted by work. Plus, if you’re in a small practice, you may not have the staff to help you or even other lawyers to bounce ideas off of…. That’s why we created Practice Accelerator!

Could you do it on your own? Sure. But with Practice Accelerator Coaching you can do it faster and more efficiently. Instead of letting urgent trump important, or being trapped in a productivity-killing combination of urgent client matters and too much administrative work, you can get answers and advice, personal support in monthly 1:1 accountability calls, and expert business advice from industry leaders in our expert insight sessions.

So are you ready to get guidance and support as you improve your practice? Then our Practice Accelerator is where you want to be.