Thinking Inside the Box

This article discusses an implementation framework that provides deliberate, strategic planning steps to ensure the successful implementation of your next big idea.'

Initiative Development

I've entertained hundreds, if not thousands, of “great marketing ideas” over the years. Taking a strategic pause can help determine why we are doing something in the first place or if we should do it at all. Are you responding to a client need? Or better yet, are you anticipating a client need? Are you addressing a firm need? Will this idea differentiate the firm, grow revenue or help save money? If you don't have passable answers to any of these questions, chances are it's not worth doing. If you've established that it's worthwhile, you should spend some time defining what success looks like. There is too frequent chatter at the water cooler about someone else's event that doesn't “bring in revenue” when it was only intended as a market visibility exercise. With that said, you should be clear on what your goals are.

You also should develop a project plan at the outset. Answer the basics and pull them into a planning document. Each firm should have its own standardized format. What are we going to do? Who is going to do what and by when? How are we going to pay for it? You also want to be mindful of the competitive landscape. Does the initiative help put you out front? Does it help you catch up to your peers? Are you lagging behind and this is one of several required steps? While I contend that many law firms are in a race to be second, you will undoubtedly be asked who else is doing it.'

Culture and Buy-in

Every firm has a unique culture. That means you need to think through how receptive your firm will be to the given initiative. For example, some firms require a record of any lunch meeting within their client relationship management database prior to receiving reimbursement. In other firms, the prospect of that type of initiative would be unthinkable. This requires you to understand how much change (real and perceived) is actually involved. I encourage you to develop champions for a given idea prior to floating it broadly, particularly if a great deal of consensus is required. Such a plan will result in a smoother approval process. You also need to consider who will have to execute the plan. The size of the group in particular will influence your project plan.

Communication

We know all great relationships are grounded with open, frequent communication. The same holds true for the successful implementation of an initiative. A key aspect of your project plan should be scheduled communications to the various affected constituencies with a tailored message for each specific audience. Be sure to plan out reminders and think about the most effective medium to use (e-mail is not, and should not, be the only form of communication in a law firm).

I also recommend that you consider whether or not the initiative should be “packaged.” By that I mean, should you create a branded approach to the initiative to help its success? We have several branded initiatives in our firm. This helps create a mental placeholder for the initiative and subconsciously creates buy-in.

For example, we created a number of online business development and marketing learning modules at Baker Donelson. Instead of rolling out an “online learning program,” we worked diligently to package the offering into a more digestible program called “Baker5.”

The Baker5 program gives its users the Top five things they need to know about a given area in less than five minutes. This showed our lawyers that it wasn't a significant time commitment, and gave concise tips to help their practices. A recent client-facing example is when we launched a Southeastern Emerging Companies Bootcamp series utilizing a new website (www.southeasternstartups.com) to market the programs. We had hosted several bootcamps in our footprint, but this modified packaging allowed us to showcase our footprint more deliberately and let people know we had represented startups in every state in the Southeast. I hope these examples show how packaging can play a meaningful role.

Implementation

This is where your project plan factors in. Be sure the initiative is prioritized appropriately given the proliferation of competing priorities and fire drills. Strong leadership is exhibited with the successful implementation of an initiative, particularly when there are various other initiatives occurring with ambitious deadlines. Lack of leadership can also be exposed when initiatives falter, miss deadlines or fizzle out. To ensure we manage our various initiatives well, we maintain an initiative dashboard that is built on a SharePoint platform housed on our Intranet site. This helps us track deadlines, and ownership and access progress reports.'

Since you defined success at the outset, your ability to measure it as you proceed should be fairly straightforward.

Conclusion

This framework should assist in your ability to successfully navigate the various balls you have in the air. Let's be honest: Even for a profession that prides itself on setting precedents, thinking inside the box every now and again can't be all that bad.

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Adam Severson is the Chief Marketing & Business Development Officer for Baker Donelson. He may reached at 615-726-5728 or [email protected].”

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One of the biggest challenges facing law firm leaders today is finding new and different ways to do things while keeping the trains running on time. This challenge is far-reaching and stretches law firms' budgets and their people every day.'

Technology and knowledge management teams are busy trying to create the latest tools to increase efficiency and ensure that there are adequate servers for service continuity for e-mail, document management, time and billing, and other applications. Marketing teams are trying their hardest to differentiate their firms in a crowded marketplace, ensure the client's voice is in the room, and organize around their key clients, while making sure that cutting-edge client alert gets out the door and the breakfast briefing goes off without a hitch.

This conundrum has some firm leaders drinking from a fire hose or simply putting out fires day in and day out and missing the chance to do something great! When creating new and different, I encourage you to think inside the box.

This article discusses an implementation framework that provides deliberate, strategic planning steps to ensure the successful implementation of your next big idea.'

Initiative Development

I've entertained hundreds, if not thousands, of “great marketing ideas” over the years. Taking a strategic pause can help determine why we are doing something in the first place or if we should do it at all. Are you responding to a client need? Or better yet, are you anticipating a client need? Are you addressing a firm need? Will this idea differentiate the firm, grow revenue or help save money? If you don't have passable answers to any of these questions, chances are it's not worth doing. If you've established that it's worthwhile, you should spend some time defining what success looks like. There is too frequent chatter at the water cooler about someone else's event that doesn't “bring in revenue” when it was only intended as a market visibility exercise. With that said, you should be clear on what your goals are.

You also should develop a project plan at the outset. Answer the basics and pull them into a planning document. Each firm should have its own standardized format. What are we going to do? Who is going to do what and by when? How are we going to pay for it? You also want to be mindful of the competitive landscape. Does the initiative help put you out front? Does it help you catch up to your peers? Are you lagging behind and this is one of several required steps? While I contend that many law firms are in a race to be second, you will undoubtedly be asked who else is doing it.'

Culture and Buy-in

Every firm has a unique culture. That means you need to think through how receptive your firm will be to the given initiative. For example, some firms require a record of any lunch meeting within their client relationship management database prior to receiving reimbursement. In other firms, the prospect of that type of initiative would be unthinkable. This requires you to understand how much change (real and perceived) is actually involved. I encourage you to develop champions for a given idea prior to floating it broadly, particularly if a great deal of consensus is required. Such a plan will result in a smoother approval process. You also need to consider who will have to execute the plan. The size of the group in particular will influence your project plan.

Communication

We know all great relationships are grounded with open, frequent communication. The same holds true for the successful implementation of an initiative. A key aspect of your project plan should be scheduled communications to the various affected constituencies with a tailored message for each specific audience. Be sure to plan out reminders and think about the most effective medium to use (e-mail is not, and should not, be the only form of communication in a law firm).

I also recommend that you consider whether or not the initiative should be “packaged.” By that I mean, should you create a branded approach to the initiative to help its success? We have several branded initiatives in our firm. This helps create a mental placeholder for the initiative and subconsciously creates buy-in.

For example, we created a number of online business development and marketing learning modules at Baker Donelson. Instead of rolling out an “online learning program,” we worked diligently to package the offering into a more digestible program called “Baker5.”

The Baker5 program gives its users the Top five things they need to know about a given area in less than five minutes. This showed our lawyers that it wasn't a significant time commitment, and gave concise tips to help their practices. A recent client-facing example is when we launched a Southeastern Emerging Companies Bootcamp series utilizing a new website (www.southeasternstartups.com) to market the programs. We had hosted several bootcamps in our footprint, but this modified packaging allowed us to showcase our footprint more deliberately and let people know we had represented startups in every state in the Southeast. I hope these examples show how packaging can play a meaningful role.

Implementation

This is where your project plan factors in. Be sure the initiative is prioritized appropriately given the proliferation of competing priorities and fire drills. Strong leadership is exhibited with the successful implementation of an initiative, particularly when there are various other initiatives occurring with ambitious deadlines. Lack of leadership can also be exposed when initiatives falter, miss deadlines or fizzle out. To ensure we manage our various initiatives well, we maintain an initiative dashboard that is built on a SharePoint platform housed on our Intranet site. This helps us track deadlines, and ownership and access progress reports.'

Since you defined success at the outset, your ability to measure it as you proceed should be fairly straightforward.

Conclusion

This framework should assist in your ability to successfully navigate the various balls you have in the air. Let's be honest: Even for a profession that prides itself on setting precedents, thinking inside the box every now and again can't be all that bad.

[IMGCAP(1)]

'

'

Adam Severson is the Chief Marketing & Business Development Officer for Baker Donelson. He may reached at 615-726-5728 or [email protected].”

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