Think Bigger

I've recently upgraded (the understatement of the year) to an Apple Cinema 30 inch display and I can't describe how much of a positive difference it has had on my work. Just the ability to see multiple windows at the same time has been a tremendous time-saver.

So, since I know a bigger screen helps me to work faster, I decided to try a another "does size matter?" experiment. I grabbed a pad of 18"x24" drawing paper and a marker and sat down to do some brainstorming.

What I found is that the extra room on the paper gave me permission to think bigger.

• Doodles? Check.
• To Do list? Check.
• Mindmap? Check.
• Notes? Check.

All on the same page.

If you've got something you'd like to think about in a different way, go ahead and up-size your canvas. I bet you'll find the extra space will give you (or your clients) more room to be creative. Give it a shot and let me know how it works for you.

Criminal Defendants: What I Learned

Want to know what defendants really think about their experience with the judicial system? Add Courthouse Confessions to your reading list. It is a blog by Steven Hirsch, and he interviews people as they leave the courthouse. In many ways, it reads like a more real-life version of Esquire Magazine's What I've Learned series.

Some gems:

Moral of the story is my friends, hang with people in your caliber. Ifyour a person person hang with good people. That's the moral of thisstory. I'm a good person. I consider myself a good person. On a scaleof one to ten I consider myself an eight.Timothy Jones

I kinda felt better on the sofa than I did feel in jail. 'Cause I don'thave like a violent history, I don't have no crime, I don't have norecord, period. Honestly, I should've stayed at home, it would've beenmore comfortable.Jamali Brockett

I just got out on five hundred dollars bail and I'm stressed out andI'm mad but um this is life, so this is what it is. Come to find outthe marijuana that was supposed to be sold was Lipton tea.Tyrone Carter

I'm here on assault charges which I obviously didn't do. All theassaults that I actually have done, I've never been to court for. Daniel Sbarra

Let me say on the record, I'd like to apologize to the City Of New Yorkfor taking a pee. I'd like to apologize to the garbage man that took mypee away in a garbage truck. There's a reason that garbage man getspaid more then the police. Mark Mark Mark

Never buy phones off the streets. You know, I gotta go to a store anddo like everybody else does. I'm not really interested in phones, longas I can make a call, you know? Cori DeSilva

Actually I'm proud and happy that I hit the cops. They deserve it. I feel better. Now I feel better.Evan Munoz

Graffiti is a part of my life. I start when i was a kid. Its like aspirit, it's my life. I'm a student in graffiti design. Writing on thewall is like I was here, I was in New York, I was in Paris, I was inAmsterdam. It's like a dog make a pee on the wall. I'm animal.Esteban Gonzalez

So she actually gave me a second chance at getting community service.So when I signed up for community service and they gave me the dates toappear I got drunk again and lost the paper work. Ian Jernigan

As long as I don't sell no more weed to uncover cop, I'm good money. Kevin Dorsey

In my opinion drugs, selling drugs in my opinion is not a crime, in myopinion.... I'm not doing a publicservice but in my opinion at the time I was doing more like anentrepreneurship, an opportunist, I saw a large market, decided to gofor it, supplied their demand.Jonathan Sierra

I stole a bra. I did. 'cause I wanted it, and I didn't have enoughmoney.... Sure, I would [do it again.]I had so much fun coming here to court, I met beautiful people, and Isaw that it's not as bad as you think. They were all laughing, thewhole time through, we were laughing, joking. Stay good, don't do badthings, you know? Do good things, don't steal. Janet Braha

I may look like sh*t right now, but when I dress up and do my hair, andeverything, I look very elegant, very classy. But my dream is to keepstudying politics and run for the presidency when I get older.... I'm not gonna say that I'm gonna win, but I can say that I'm gonna trymy hardest, because I have a lot of great ideas on a lot of differentthings, and I think I can make a difference and make a change, a betterchange in the world.... I feel that I'm qualifiedfor that. Judy Guadalupe Schiller Perez Aversa

The Curse of Almost Done

A few days ago, I wrote about how I was suffering from The Curse of Almost Happy. I realized that being "close to" fulfillment in my life and career wasn't close at all. So, as I've spent this past weekend knocking off several things on my "To Do for Too Long" list, it hit me that a cause (companion?) to that Curse is another one: The Curse of Almost Done.

Unless you're a hyper-productive, always-on-top-of-everything person, you know what I'm talking about. The Curse of Almost Done is evident all around you. It manifests itself the moment you put off completing those last few steps of a project that is "almost done." It keeps you from picking those projects up and finishing them now because you've got more important things to start, and since they are, after all, "Almost done."

Well, I've battled the Curse of Almost Done all weekend. I'm finally happy to unveil the new LexThink.com. It isn't done, but it is done enough.

Let me know what you think. Still to come: links to my presentations, a client intranet site, some video, my first e-book, and a top-secret project that will launch in two weeks (I promise).

So what's on your "To Do for Too Long" list? Set aside a day each week where you swear to not start anything new. Use that day just for completing things. "Finish Fridays" anyone?

My iPhone Sucks

Ok, I said it. My iPhone sucks!

I used to love my iPhone, but now I love my iPod Touch. The funny thing is, I've not gotten a second device. Rather, the "Phone" part of the "iPhone" doesn't work much at all. That's unless you think it is acceptable to drop one conversation FIVE FREAKIN' TIMES in 30 minutes! Seriously, I've now started phone conversations apologizing for the dropped call that's inevitably coming before I want the call to end.

The iPhone's my only phone. As someone who spends a good part of their day using the phone, this is simply unacceptable. This is my first bad experience with an Apple product -- and I've been a fanboy since I bought the original Macintosh in '85 with money earned during the summer of my junior year of high school.

I'm off to AT&T tomorrow to figure out what to do. I simply can't have a phone that's not one most of the time. AAAAAARGH!

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.

Free Fee-Setting Advice

From my friend Gerry Riskin comes a link to this Report on Fee Setting for Professionals. In it, an all-star cast of legal innovators and business gurus answer the question: What one piece of advice do you need to know to get the fees you deserve?

I'd highly recommend reading Gerry's post to get a peek at what's in the report, and then downloading it (sign up required).

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:

1. Make a list of the truly "excellent" things your firm does.
2. 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.

The Curse of Almost Happy

Though I doubt that many of you noticed I was gone, I've taken almost a month and a half off from blogging. I've been working on the next LexThink event (though not enough -- more on that later), turned 40 and traveled to London (twice) and Paris to facilitate a few sessions for XPLANE.

While I've been working, eating and drinking my way through Europe, a few things hit me. Call it a mid-life crisis, or just a wake-up call, but while I have a good life, an incredible daughter, and the support of great people around me, I realized that I'm not happy.

Just Almost Happy.

I've lead much of my life in this perpetual state of what I'll call "Almost Happiness" that has (until this summer) been more than enough. However, taking my daughter to her first day of kindergarten and meeting a handful of people here and abroad who possess an incredible passion for their work and a single-minded belief that they're going to change the world has persuaded me to step back, take a look at my priorities and decide that Almost Happy isn't enough.

I'm rejecting Almost Happy. I'm saying "Close Enough" isn't anymore. I'm tired of leaving so many opportunities waiting at the dooruntil they grow tired of knocking and decide to move on down the block. I'm inspired to find my One Thing to make the world better.

I resolve to:

• Follow my passions, honor my principles and strive to create something new every single day.
• Nurture my intelligence, creativity, passion and wit, and judge my life by the things I experience and not the things I possess.
• Refuse to let one day go by without realizing that my daughter is my purpose in life, and to build my life for her, not around her.
• Focus on delivering “amazing” and “way beyond ordinary” in everything I chose to do.
• Choose my clients as carefully as friends, knowing that I work best when they are one in the same.

And this blog is where I'm going to be sharing my journey. But don't worry, I'm not abandoning the underlying purpose of this blog: to make lawyers better. In fact, I'm going to embrace it. You'll see lots more ideas, original thinking and links to amazing, outside-the-box content. I'm going to make this blog (and LexThink) the place to go for lawyers out to dramatically change their practice.

I hope you'll come along for the ride!

Advertise, and clean up!

Via Springwise:

GreenGraffiti creates advertising ondirty city streets and walls using the clean, green power of plainwater. Armed with just a template and a high-pressure water sprayer,the company has "cleaned" advertising messages out of the dirt onbehalf of clients including Elle, Telfort and Universal Music. Nopaper, no ink, no printing process—GreenGraffiti's ads are completelycarbon-neutral, it says. They last up to six months, depending on foottraffic, and cost a fraction of the price of traditional outdoor media,the company asserts.

If you are looking to do some advertising, this could be a clean (and fun) way to go. Just make sure they find enough room in the stencil for your disclaimer!

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.

 

http://static.slideshare.net/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=if-id-only-known-then-1216655290742855-9

view presentation (tags: creativity advice innovation lessons)

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?

Still Not LinkedIn?

If you're not using LinkedIn (or not using it enough), check out this Common Craft video that explains what LinkedIn does and why it matters.

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.

Your Customers Don't Want to Need You

I've been doing a lot of speaking lately, and have been revamping my presentation quite a bit to focus on just a few key themes. I'm going to share a few of them in the blog, and would love your feedback. Right now, I'm organizing my talks around a series of truths or "new rules."

Here's the first:

Your clients need you less than you need them. They don't want to need you at all, and they're willing to pay for the privilege.

Zen Your Way Out of Bad Meetings

Conflict Zen has become one of my "must reads" lately. Author Tammy Lenski shares Seven Simple Hacks Guaranteed to Improve Your Meetings that collects several of her posts on conflict resolution in groups. I'd recommend her tips to any lawyer who meets with clients regularly, especially this one:

Have you ever been in a meeting where the chair asked somethinglike, "Does that plan sound ok to everyone?" Perhaps there was a briefpause, an assenting remark or two, a couple of nods and silence fromthe rest. "All right, then it’s a go," the chair may have said then.

Silence does not mean "Yes, I agree." Silence can mean: I’m stillthinking about it. I may agree but am not sure yet. Yes, I agree. No, Idon’t agree but I’m not going to say it out loud here. No, I don’tagree but I’ll never admit to it.

If you’re trying to make a wise and effective decision in a group,avoid the "assumed yes" trap. When there’s silence, ask those folkswhat their silence means. Don’t challenge, invite.

Silence usually means I’m thinking.

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!