Stop Painting a White Room White
I was talking with a friend the other day, and he was telling me how he felt that at work they kept doing the same things over and over again with similar, less-than-remarkable results. He said it was like "painting a white room white." While the new coat of white paint was fresher and cleaner than the one it replaced, nobody really noticed the difference except the ones who did the painting.
I think the same is true about the incremental changes many of us make in our business. We notice them, and over-value their worth to others even though they're not likely to realize we've made any changes at all.
Next time you contemplate a change in your business, ask yourself, "Will my clients (or co-workers) notice?" If the answer is no, perhaps you should concentrate your energies on changing something they will.
Be Mediocre Less
Bob Lotich on the Church Marketing Sucks Blog writes a post outlining some of the reasons he's Run From Churches. In my original reading, I was thinking it explained why some clients run from their lawyers, but a second (and third) look at it made me realize he's outlined lots of the reasons why lawyers are running from their clients -- and the law practice all together.
His first point is that, in many churches, everything was mediocre:
Mediocrity has been too prevalent in the church today. Be it marketing, music, teaching, evangelism or anything else, it should be excellent. Just a few hundred years ago the greatest music, paintings, literature, etc. were glorifying God. It offends me that the word "Christian" is used as an adjective that is synonymous with mediocre by some non-Christians. It should not be.
Think about the legal profession for a bit. How mediocre have we become? To paraphrase Bob, mediocrity has been too prevalent in the practice of law today. Beit marketing, teaching, client service or anything else lawyers do, it should beexcellent. Just a few decades ago, lawyers were admired, honored andthe practice of law was a noble calling. It offends me that the word"Lawyer" is now too often the punch line to jokes by non-lawyers. Itshould not be.
So here's a challenge for you:
- Make a list of the truly "excellent" things your firm does.
- Now, compare that to a list of things you do like everyone else. That's your "mediocre" list.
Which list is longer? Can you think of a way to focus less on mediocrity and more on excellence? If you pick just one item from your mediocre list each week (or month) and make it better, your clients will notice.
Lessons learned. Mostly the hard way.
Just entered a presentation to SlideShare's World's Best Presentation Contest that I've been noodling around with for a while. It uses pictures of my daughter, and is titled, "If I'd only known then .... Lessons learned. Mostly the hard way." Check it out, and give it a vote if you like it.
Take Your Customers to Work?
In the her Nature his Nurture blog, Sean Hazell suggests having a "Take your customer to work day." Here's how it'd work:
- Invite your customer into your workplace to shadow an employee; parties are encouraged to sign up and then paired.
- Open your office, back-shop, or factory doors for the day to giveyour customers a behind the scenes glimpse of your working environment.
- Your employees represent your brand for the day.
- Customers see for themselves what truly makes your company special.
Still trying to figure out just how this could work with lawyers (client confidentiality and all that), but would it be impossible to have a "take your clients to court day" once a month to give clients with upcoming court dates a stress-free preview of their day a the courthouse? They'd get a chance to know where to meet, where to park, how to get through security, etc. I did this once with a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy client (she accompanied me when we filed) and she was much more comfortable during her hearing than everyone else around her.
And, if you can't bring them in person, do you at least have pictures of what these places look like that you can share with them before they go?
Napkin Thinking for Your Practice
One thing I learned working for XPLANE, is that everyone (not just artists) can use simple visual tools to think better about almost anything. If you'd like to incorporate more visual thinking into your practicef (and communicate better with your clients), check out Dan Roam's The Back of the Napkin. It is a great book, and if you want an intro, I highly recommend downloading the Visual Thinking Toolkit (pdf), which was just posted this week.
How To Do Almost Anything
Dumb Little Man has a roundup of 15 Tutorial Websites that can teach you almost anything. Next time you (or someone you know) needs help with something, give a few of these sites a try.
A Great Traveler's Tip: Let Me Give You a Clue
Gretchen Rubin at The Happiness Project shares a great tip for traveling parents:
A friend of mine has a great tradition when she and her husband travel away from their children.Like many people, she brings her kids little presents from trips,but instead of just handing them over upon her return, she makes sureto pick the presents early in the trip, then allows her children to askfor clues. Each child gets one clue per day, and they have tremendousfun coming up with the questions, coordinating with each other aboutwho will ask what, keeping a list of the clues that have been revealed,debating amongst themselves, etc.
She says that the gift itself brings them much less fun than the guessing game.
As someone who's on the road a lot, I absolutely love this idea. Not sure it would work for clients awaiting your trip back from court.
Retreat with Me
About a month ago, I had the great pleasure of working with the Subrogation Group of Cozen O'Connor to help them design and facilitate their portion of a firm-wide retreat in Orlando, Florida. Paul Bartolacci, a fantastic attorney and great guy, just sent this testimonial I thought I'd share:
"We worked with Matt to plan and present a half day involving approximately 100 lawyers from a specific department within our firm. We were looking for something a bit different than the traditional law firm retreat program -- upbeat and innovative, while at the same time useful and giving us a strategy to move forward. Matt was perfect. He took the time to listen to what we wanted to achieve and understood our goals. He spent extra time with us before the event to really get to know us as a group and what our practice involved.Matt delivered a speech that was creative and pointed us towards new ideas and a different way to view and analyze problems. Our activities were fast paced and interactive, yet produced concrete goals and results. In short, he "got it".
This was the last session of a 3 day retreat and people left feeling very positive and focused. Following our session many members of the group commented that this had been the best session of any of the numerous retreats they attended. I would certainly recommend Matt for any law firm retreat and look forward to working with him again."
If you are looking for a speaker or someone to help you squeeze a bit more fun, creativity and focused results out of your legal event or retreat, give me a call. I'd love to help.
What's your practice plan?
Michael Hyatt shares the importance of having a "Life Plan." He talks about why it is important, and openly shares quite a bit of his own. Under the "My Colleagues" category of his plan, Michael writes:
I want my colleagues to remember my servant-leadership, myintegrity, my humility, and my commitment to having fun. I want them toremember how much they learned and grew as a result of knowing me. Mostof all, I want them to remember how I empowered them to accomplish farmore than they ever thought possible.
When you read his post, think about the things you'd include in a Life Plan for your practice. The quote above would be a great start for the "My Clients" section. Give it a try.
So you think you can dance?
For no other reason than to waste as much of your time as I just wasted of mine: The Pipecleaner Dancer. Enjoy!
You Always Have to Say "I'm Sorry."
Want to keep your unhappy clients from suing you? Apologize. Bob Sutton writes about the Virtues of Apologies and shares a NY Times article about how doctors and hospitals are reducing malpractice claims (by a sizable amount) by simply apologizing. Read the article and the post for some of the reasons why you should apologize.
What I want to share, though, is this gem from Bob's post:
[T]he best single diagnostic question fordetermining if an organization is learning and innovating as it movesforward is: What Happens When People Make a Mistake?
What's the answer for your firm?
Title Tips for Better Slides
Want to write better titles for your PowerPoint slides (and nearly anything else for that matter)? Frank Roche gives five tips to help you Write the Best Damn PowerPoint Headlines Ever:
Make it good enough to print on a t-shirt. The word Introductions isn’t good enough for a t-shirt. Say hello to my little friend is. Not every headline has to be t-shirt worthy, but that’s not a bad goal.Make it fit on one line. Hey, what you lack in quality, you can’t make up for in volume. Read the really great headline writers. I like the New York Times and USA Today, but CNN and the New York Post write the killer headlines. They’re short. Often two words. But two killer words.
Say what’s on the slide. Obscurity is great for the CIA, but we’re talking about PowerPoint and communication. If a single word will do, then please be my guest. Otherwise, write descriptive headlines. (And if you violate the “fit on one line” rule, it had better rock.)
Forget headlines. If you can’t think of a great headline, then maybe you shouldn’t have one. Steve Jobs doesn’t need headlines.
If your slide is filled with bullet points, even a killer headline won’t help. You see that little key on your computer that says DEL? Go ahead, push that one. Watch your presentation magically get better.
How many of your titles would look good on a t-shirt? Open up that last presentation and get to work!
Only the Shadow Shows.
Now, for something completely non-legal, but completely useful (and yes, I know that's redundant). From Rules of Thumb:
The fastest way to find a small object on [the] floor is to look for itsshadow. Roll a flashlight around on the floor. The object may be tinybut its shadow will be big and easy to spot!
Join Me at the LMA Senior Marketers Summit
In two weeks, I'll be speaking at the LMA Senior Marketers' Program at the St. Regis Hotel in Washingon, D.C. The event takes place June 19-20, and is titled "Thought Leadership Amidst Relentless Change." Here's the brochure.
I'll also be facilitating several fun, collaborative exercises, including a virtual scavenger hunt, a new rapid-idea generation experience, and a "build a board game" cocktail hour.
I just spoke with Pat at the LMA, and there are a few slots left (and attendance is not limited to LMA members). I'd love to see you there.
What if you ...
My friend Ernie asks the big questions:
What if every day you showed up to work, eager to do something really good? Something meaningful.What if you came up with ideas on how to do things better? Not atfirst, but only after you felt confident that you understood the pointof the work and all of the subtle forces surrounding it.
What if every day you felt a sense of satisfaction about your work?What if you could try a new approach at the very moment you realized itwas better? What if your boss completely supported this? What if you were the boss? What if you worked for yourself?
What if? Indeed. These are some of the things we'll be talking about at LexThink '08. Look for more info soon.
Who Killed the Cat?
Here's what happens when you take a comic strip about a fat, self-absorbed cat and remove the main character. From the intro:
Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from theGarfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic aboutschizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modernlife? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on ajourney deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as hefights a losing battle against loneliness in a quiet American suburb.
Sorry, Mom. ;-)
May I have your attention?
Watch this video:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahg6qcgoay4&w=425&h=355]
Remember, what we look for is what we see. It is only when we open our eyes to see everything that we notice what should be obvious.
What are you looking for in your practice? Billable hours? Maybe you should look for something different. You might be surprised at what you'll find.
Need a Vacation?
Brad Feld has a great recap of the ways he takes time off to recharge, including a quarterly, week-long vacation and semi-regular weekend getaway:
Go Dark Weekend: When I find myself feeling burned out, Ido a go dark weekend. I turn off my computer and cell phone at 6pm onFriday night and don't turn it back on until 5am Monday morning. Icancel anything that is scheduled for the weekend and just do whateverI feel like doing. This is usually a once a quarter event;occasionally more frequently depending on how busy I am. I'mconsidering doing this around each of my marathon weekends also.
Anyone reading this feeling burned out? How about "going dark" this weekend and reconnecting with your kids?
Your Brain Rules!
Want to learn more about what's going on inside your own head? Check out Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home and School by John Medina. The site (linked to above) has lots of pretty cool, short videos explaining why our brains work the way they do. Working for XPLANE, I especially liked Rule # 10: Vision Trumps All Other Senses, and it contains this rule of thumb for presenters:
You'll get 3x better recall for visual information than for oral. And you'll get 6x better recall for information that's simultaneously oral and visual.
Here's why:
- We are incredible at remembering pictures. Hear a piece ofinformation, and three days later you'll remember 10% of it. Add apicture and you'll remember 65%.
- Pictures beat text as well, in part because reading is soinefficient for us. Our brain sees words as lots of tiny pictures, andwe have to identify certain features in the letters to be able to readthem. That takes time.
- Why is vision such a big deal to us? Perhaps because it's how we'vealways apprehended major threats, food supplies and reproductiveopportunity.
- Toss your PowerPoint presentations. It’s text-based (nearly 40words per slide), with six hierarchical levels of chapters andsubheads—all words. Professionals everywhere need to know about theincredible inefficiency of text-based information and the incredibleeffects of images. Burn your current PowerPoint presentations and makenew ones.
Wow!
The Devil's In the Details
The New Yorker has created a series of 10 second animations for several of their cartoons. If you are a PowerPoint (ab)user, check out this one.