Peer to Peer Magazine

14 PEER TO PEER: THE QUARTERLY MAGAZINE OF ILTA | SUMMER 2016 BEST PRACTICES The Continuous Learning Imperative for Law Firms The future belongs to the digitally literate — those who move beyond using soware to using technology to leverage their more complex cognitive, motor, sociological and emotional skills. To thrive, we must be able to produce at an elite level. To become the elite, we must be able to focus deeply and learn hard things quickly, making connections and recognizing paerns. For organizations, we must adopt a business architecture that supports continuous learning and knowledge sharing. Resilient About Resisting Change Law firms are resilient — resilient about resisting change. Law firms follow traditional hierarchical business models while their corporate clients are shiing to new business models, creating a workforce of interconnected, highly empowered collaborative teams. Firms must be resilient about embracing changes that create learning organizations: » Encourage challenging the status quo » Transition from controlling to enabling conversations » Accept that technical skills are basic business skills » Leverage new learning methodologies and technologies » Move from learning being event-driven to continuous » Understand that innovation comes from failure To stay competitive, legal professionals must continually learn and build new digital competencies and organizational proficiencies. Breaking Through the Noise As technologists, we tend to focus on the technology and can lose sight of the people. We are all distracted by digital interruptions and suffer from information overload. Aention spans are at an all-time low. We have "We are in the early throes of the Great Restructuring. Our technologies are racing ahead but many of our skills and organizations are lagging behind." — Eric Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, "Race Against the Machine" by Tami Schiller and Michelle Spencer The Continuous Learning Imperative for Law Firms

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