FIVE STATEMENTS: The Future State of Innovation in Legal

 FIVE STATEMENTS 
...On The Future State of Innovation in Legal

The global legal market – consumer and commercial - is experiencing a once-in-a-lifetime stress test, much like nearly every other industry and human alive.

We're all feeling the push-pull between our focus on just existing and the compulsion to leverage this huge shift in the industry and society as we know it to do something GREAT.

Now, let us make it clear that we at Bold Duck aren't only in the business of bursting bubbles. We're all for sharing brilliance - and defining what exactly should be dubbed brilliant - but in these (post-?) apocalyptic circumstances, we have to advise that while intentions to INNOVATE are likely good, we need you to hold the freakin' phone, just for a sec.

The prudent (and cunning) action is to double-down on addressing core foundational operational challenges within your organization or legal team – whether you are a court system, law school, law firm, in-house team, legal tech provider, or legal aid.

Dancing on the grave of status quo and proclaiming that now everyone must and should innovate is A COMPLETE WASTE.

Now, if you don't know us well yet, know that we're not about to sell you a bad bill of goods. 
Our observations are based on current conversations with the leaders and directors across the legal market whose ears we get to turn.

We've also honed a unique perspective from the many many many (more than a few) hours that we've spent hanging out with and working alongside not just CFOs, CIOs, and practice group leaders, but also business teams and in-house leaders from the Ops side to legal practitioners. 

SO HERE'S THE DEAL

There’s No Magic Here…

 1. THERE'S NO MAGIC HERE 

First, the simple fact that there is a crisis doesn’t magically imbue teams with the capability to generate innovation.

If your organization did not have the tools, skills, and resources pre-crisis, you certainly don’t have them now. 
BUT, that doesn't mean you're stuck. It means it's time to think differently.

 2. IT'S MORE THAN MINDSET 

Convert your desire to be innovative into motivation to improve. Yes, mindsets may have shifted in recent weeks. In the most-narrow of tunnel visions have been forced to become more "open" to new approaches, but mindsets alone are insufficient (see No.1, above). Businesses right now are motivated to preserve themselves in crisis.

They are deeply concerned about reducing burn rates, retaining talent, de-stressing systems and processes that have been bent and broken in the initial response, and finding that every dollar matters when trying to fill the pipeline.

Motivation right now is to stabilize things and wring out costs. 

Seize This!

Going after uncertain "innovation" right now will produce incalculable strain, fatigue and stress. Solely cutting costs is no path to profits either. Seeking to improve is stewardship and often creates cost savings while improving business performance - in the short and long term.

 3. INNOVATION IS AN OUTCOME 

It is not an activity, a title/role, or a committee. It's just better not to focus on this word right now and instead turn to tackle operational challenges (removing waste, calculating resource scarcity and need, bettering connections between people and systems). This will lead to improvements that matter right now and potentially true innovation, in the rare case.

 4. HUMAN EXPERIENCE = OPPORTUNITY 

Legal in the broadest sense (from law and policy to services and technology) has been slow to “discover” UX (user/human experience). This is about how humans (citizens, consumers, employees, customers, lawyers) actually interact within the legal ecosystem. Legal has an extremely poor track record on this front which and can explain many of the disconnects that have been studied in legal education, A2J, BigLaw culture, work/life balance of the profession, the middle-class legal gap, and other segments and phenomenon.  

Focusing on user experience nets out positive gains in almost every case.

Many UX issues arise and are found within the operational environment of teams.

Also, a bad habit in legal is to focus on the front-end of innovation
 - "the shiny object" -  
and not on integrating it into business practices and systems.

This lack of thoughtful integration breeds organizational complexity and friction.

 5. FOCUS ON DESIGN AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Design and entrepreneurship are what you must embrace. Whereas innovation is all too often used as a catchall term for creating new ideas, services, things - it fails to evoke a clear sense of purpose and value. Design is about creating something that addresses a real problem with a real solution - often in an entirely new way.

Entrepreneurship is about bringing the "new" to market. This means that someone will actually use it; ideally, seeking it out (and paying for it directly or indirectly). Being an entrepreneur is also about claiming your place as a founder, and having a founder's mindset.

When we think link designers and entrepreneurs, instead of innovators, we are more prone to consider the human and business realities of our ideas - not the idea itself. This helps ensure we use evidence-based approaches to assess sustainability, cost, market-size, and whether anyone will actually care about the idea (versus creating "cool" things in search of a problem or need).

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SO, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?

GET MOVING! Here are some prompts to get you going

• FIRST OFF: Include business teams and practice teams
  

• ASK: What irritants do people feel when trying to get their job done?
  people = you, your teammates, your peers, your customers and clients and your leaders
  

• ASK: Does the irritant interact with others? How? How often?
  interact = created by, made worse by, hidden by, softened by, observed by, or occasionally prevented by
  (THINK HONESTLY ABOUT YOUR OWN ROLE IN ALL OF THIS...)
  

• ASK: If this irritant was corrected, how would it measurable improve business?
  measurably = tangible movement of an accepted and respected metric showing before and after
  

• DON'T FAKE IT. Be real. If you don't have good answers that others agree with, then STOP. 

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 CONGRATS on your NEW
2020 design & entrepreneurship strategy 

The global legal market is being presented with a grand opportunity to usher in its (next) age of entrepreneurship.

It is about going back to what drew many of us to the profession - we want to help people navigate the legal system. It's not about technology or killing the status quo.

Now is the time to make our teams and organizations better by focusing on what causes human frustration and making them easier to do business with - as customers, clients, and employees. Improving these will establish the foundation necessary for innovative outcomes.