Walker Clark
Worldview Archives
Rethinking Performance Metrics
Old paradigms about how to measure performance might be preventing, rather than motivating, your law firm's success.
Law firms thrive on the quality of their legal services and client relationships. In this context, qualitative goals, not just rigid numbers, are more indicative of progress and can have greater diagnostic value in detecting and addressing problems before they become crises.
Beyond Mere Words
Empty slogans, exhortations to work harder, and irrelevant "best practices" are not only ineffective; they often are counterproductive.
They do not promote clarity. Instead, most people are left to wander in the fog, from data point to data point, without understanding where they are going or why.
Metrisiphobia
Why are some lawyers afraid of performance measurements?
In many cases, it is because the management of the firm doesn't understand, and therefore fail to communicate, the benefits and advantages of better performance measurement for each lawyer.
Watching How the Numbers Move
Most law firm leaders and managers watch their numbers very closely, but they often fail to notice how those numbers move.
Understanding variation in performance — how the numbers move — can provide profound insights into improving profitability.
Practicing Law in the Dark
Do you really know how profitable your practice is?
Do you know which factors are most important to your profitability?
For a surprising percentage of lawyers and law firms, the honest answer to each of these questions is "not really." They are practicing law in the dark.
It is not surprising that they frequently stumble over obstacles and fall into holes that other law firms easily avoid.
Looking Back to Look Forward
As law firms begin a new fiscal year, whether in January or at some other point in the calendar, most of them overlook one of their most powerful and reliable planning resources, last year's performance. Year-end financial data and the collective experiences of a firm's partners can help detect the probable causes of serious, often chronic, strategic, financial, and operational issues.
Change Management and Strategic Success
Over the years — and especially in the past eight years — our firm has observed a direct positive link between the skill with which a law firm manages change and its return on investment in strategic planning.
The Numbers Fog
Earlier this week, I had the privilege of teaching an advanced course in Law Practice Management as part of an LL.M. program. The class included associates, in-house counsel, and partners from some of the best law firms and legal departments in the region.
What particularly impressed me by the people in the class was their ability quickly and efficiently to penetrate through numbers and surface details in the fiendishly devious case studies I presented, to diagnose underlying issues and vulnerabilities that were the real potential causes of the problems, and to find solutions that could produce lasting results.
As we worked through the eight case studies, I thought about how, unlike the students in the class, many lawyers and law firms never take the time or invest the intellectual effort to do that. Instead, they frequently focus on obvious, quick-fix responses that usually only cover over the basic issues, which always return sooner or later and sometimes worse than ever before.
