Peer to Peer Magazine

50 free trials of technolo may not be a great use of the firm's resources. Even where partners are appropriately knowledgeable and engaged, the organizational structure of law firms may act as a natural barrier to full adoption of any change, technological or otherwise. Unlike corporations where leadership mandates the tools and processes used in delivering its products, few firms employ a top-down leadership model. Each attorney is free to proceed as he or she best sees fits, and no one partner imposes his or her will upon their peers. The partnership model may also encourage partners to focus on practice specific gains versus technolo investments from which they may never benefit. This model in law firms may lead to poor adoption of purchased technolo and inefficient processes that are difficult to change. A law firm may be one of the most challenging environments within which to create change and it can only occur when enough influential and motivated people are actively engaged. How do we get enough influential people to support and use new technolo? Do we simply pick the best technolo and cross our fingers? No. The success or failure of technolo and change is not nearly as passive as the word 'influence' seems to suggest. Identify motivated and influential populations within the firm. While selecting the right technolo is essential to widescale acceptance, high- quality technolo procurement does not itself ensure success. Technolo adoption is not the exclusive responsibility of IT or of your learning and development team. Any adoption strate will fail to be effective if attorneys are not in the drivers' seats. Contrary to popular belief, attorneys do not fear change. Instead, they are differently motivated and differently influential at different points in their careers. Equity partners have significant influence within the firm but have ever-expanding obligations to financial and business performance, people management, and business development. Increased responsibilities such as these leaves little time for investigating the latest and greatest technologies. Leading change takes time that these key members of the firm simply do not have. By contrast, there is likely no attorney population more motivated to change than junior associates. However, they lack the experience with the lifecycle of a case to have credibility or influence with their more senior peers. For these reasons, junior associates are better positioned to provide input at three critical junctions: 1) identifying business problems that technolo can solve; 2) conducting thorough trials of new technologies; and 3) accepting and fully engaging with selected technologies. The most influential and motivated attorneys fall somewhere in the middle. New partners, now faced with increased responsibility for profitability and utilization, seek better tools and process improvement. Senior associates, at the precipice of partnership, must find ways to differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive landscape. In this way, mid-level attorneys are uniquely positioned to drive change and improvement. In order to successfully leverage these groups of highly motivated and highly influential attorneys, commit the bulk of your resources to engaging with these groups and remove barriers which may discourage their engagement. Choose paths of least resistance. Simon Sinek, renowned motivational speaker and organizational consultant, famously said, "The goal is not to do business with everybody who needs what you have. The goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe." While this concept may be dismissed as overly simplistic or impossible in the context of a law firm, it underscores that each of us has some level of autonomy when it comes to our work. The success or failure of technolo and change is not nearly as passive as the word 'influence' seems to suggest.

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