Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/74024
Wisdom and Choreography: How KM and LPM Help Create the Legal Dance However, because LPM is more of a process improvement methodology than KM, quicker gains and more robust benefits can be achieved in technology applications in the arena of LPM. KM projects require significant research, compilation, cataloging and data retrieval tools to provide maximum success in delivering benefits to the law firm. Until the body of knowledge has been fairly and fully defined, accessing it is less than helpful. KM is best accomplished when the scope of a firm's knowledge has been identified, reviewed, edited, restated and categorized for future use. In stark contrast, LPM can deliver process improvement benefits immediately. A key principle of project management protocols is "start where you are." Knowledge of project management principles and complex statistical process control tools is beneficial, but not essential, to improving process outcomes and efficiencies. A lawyer does not need to understand the complexities of a Gantt chart or the process symbols of a Pert chart to become more efficient. Nor does a lawyer have to spend years learning how to effectively use sophisticated project planning tools, such as Primavera or Microsoft Project. Therefore, technology applications that incorporate the functionality of process improvement can begin to quickly return economic benefits to lawyers who have yet to attend their first Six Sigma course. Lawyers who choose to increase their knowledge and proficiency of project management methodologies will benefit from the exercise and expenditure of time invested in learning these principles. However, it isn't necessary. Software technology that does the process work of planning, budgeting and executing projects can become a lawyer's trusted tool just like email has supplanted the role previously played by the U.S. Postal Service and the Pony Express that preceded it. Technology solutions are extremely valuable to KM initiatives only after the body of trustworthy knowledge has been identified and cataloged. While technology can advance the utility and value of KM solutions once developed, LPM technology can be the solution to process improvement without regard to the level of project management knowledge on the part of the user. With user adoption as the measure of success for any software solution, an LPM technology that does not require Six Sigma certification or training will appeal to far more lawyers than a trip to the local learning lab and several weekends of study. Legal users need LPM technology that performs these functions in real time and across the enterprise in all projects simultaneously. The Difference Between an Encore and a Flop LPM and KM quality and efficiency initiatives will set apart the winners from the losers in the increasingly heated competition for client satisfaction and loyalty. The successful and surviving law firms will do both LPM and KM extremely well. However, these innovative business efforts are not interdependent and need not proceed from the other's success, implementation schedule or methodologies. In fact, LPM can provide positive results in terms of efficiency, quality and predictability much quicker than KM proficiencies can be achieved. The quicker payback achievable through LPM suggests that its implementation might be more attractive to many firms as a beginning point. In fact, profitability achieved through effective LPM can offset the costs and even provide economic resources needed to develop robust KM solutions. Both tools will proliferate in the legal services industry, but neither need be the predecessor nor the determinant of the other. As corporate clients turn to their law firms in increasing numbers to demand that legal services be delivered with the same attention to efficiency, price certainty and on-time delivery that all other vendors are expected to provide, lawyers seeking to maintain this business and increase their market share will rely on tools that help them improve their existing legal practice processes while better managing them to profitable outcomes. The "low hanging fruit" in achieving efficiencies in the practice of law under the current circumstances of the legal industry will prove to be the process improvement resources of LPM and the technologies that support it. ILTA White Paper 51