Peer to Peer Magazine

Winter 2019

The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association

Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/1195860

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Word to the wise. "Fail" is a hard word to use with stakeholders. Experiment makes that safer. It feels small enough where risk can be managed. And if the experiment doesn't go how we planned it, then we can evolve the experiment until we achieve the desired result. That all sounds better than "fail." We evolve the experiment rather than failing. Optimization is another way of expressing evolution. I like optimization. Evolution is a great word, but it connotes natural change. Evolution "forced" feels wrong and risky. But optimization is planned improvement, even if the iterations are small. Remember the power of TNT (tiny noticeable things). Lest you think I wrap up a 2019 column without a reference to servant leadership, let me not disappoint. I advocate strongly, as you can tell, for embracing an innovation culture. I referred to it above as developing "muscle memory" around innovation. But this innovation culture is not beneficial if we are not solving the right problems. We can come up with an amazing solution for building houses. But that may not help if what we really want to do is plant a garden. And that's where servant leadership comes in. Listening to our constituents, so that we can solve the right problems and address the appropriate business issues. And listening doesn't mean only when we Explore in preparation to Ideate. It means regularly socializing the Problem Worth Solving with our constituents to make sure it hasn't morphed then listening further as we share the results of the Experiment, then Iterate on it. Finally, we listen as we optimize. In this way, we can serve our constituents by showing leadership through innovation. As always, thanks for listening. It has been one of the great pleasures of my career to communicate with all of you during this last year. Looking forward to an amazing 2020. Wishing you everything that makes you happiest in the new year! Hugs to all! P E E R T O P E E R : I L T A ' S Q U A R T E R L Y M A G A Z I N E | W I N T E R 2 0 1 9 5 H oping this finds you preparing to wrap up 2019 celebrating in your favorite way and to welcome 2020! I don't know where 2019 went! But I do know that I enjoyed every ILTA moment! Now let's turn to the theme of this issue – Challenges and the Road Ahead. It addresses the challenges of implementing both evolutionary and innovative technolo changes. So, of course, I can going to take a slightly different approach and think about the challenges of failing to implement change. Or – more so – failing to embrace change. Our ILTA Program Planning Council (PPC) established Embracing Change as 2019's hot topic, and many of our programs and content during the past year have addressed that. We strive to ensure that ILTA is always helping you to navigate change. However, I think our greatest challenge is to stop seeing change as, well, a challenge. Let's talk first about Innovation. For the past 18 months, I have heard that Innovation is a buzz word and a flash in the pan. Yet ILTA's ILTAVATION one-day events, conference series, and virtual programming have been some of our most popular offerings. More and more of our members now have Innovation somewhere in their titles. All of that demonstrates that Innovation remains relevant. But what can you do to build Innovation into your organizational DNA? Within ILTA, we have tried during 2019 to live that – innovating with new events and digital content and – within those offerings – new formats, topics, and approaches. We are striving to lose our fear of failure, so that we can find new ways of providing value for the entire ILTA community. In our ILTAVATION sessions, we teach the E-I-E-I-O approach to Innovation (thanks, Matt Homann!). Explore, Ideate, Experiment, Iterate, Optimize We can apply that framework to make decisions and solving problems of all types. And if the E-I-E-I-O escapes you, just think of Old McDonald and his farm! If we can create "muscle memory" around this innovation approach, then innovation stops being an end in and of itself and becomes the means to accomplishing all kinds of good ends. Dearest ILTAns! F R O M T H E C E O T H E R E ' S M O R E O N L I N E ! For more great insight on the ILTA CEO, listen along online as she sits down for another CEO podcast! iltanet.org/ winter-2019 Joy Heath Rush CEO

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