By Shaun Jardine
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In this excerpt from Ditch The Billable Hour, Shaun Jardine discusses how the move from billable hours (and even fixed prices) towards Value-Based Pricing requires significant cultural change in most law firms.
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Changing the culture where you work starts with not letting negative people and circumstances change you.
Jon Cobb
No Moment of Truth should ever be taken for granted, for no matter how small it may be, in the long run, each one determines the destiny of your firm.
Ron Baker
Anyone who has been involved in a cultural change project will know it takes time… lots of time. It is hard work, but the work becomes easier if it is shared by many hands.
This section – P#8 Passion – aims to project you into the future, where the change from your hard work and effort is embedded.
CREATING A NEW CULTURE
So, at this point, where are you in the planning and implementation process? What have you got? Hopefully…
- You will have a documented Plan outlining the steps required to reinforce and sustain the change required.
- You will have given people time to mourn their losses. Remember the change curve graph. Remember, you will always be further along the graph and in front of many who will still be feeling upset.
- You will be providing skills, knowledge, and habits training.
- You will routinely recognise accomplishments.
- You will have developed performance measures to continually monitor the results and identify future improvements.
- You will be making adjustments to your Change Vision and Strategy to reflect new learnings and insights. You know VBP is an art, not a science.
- You will encourage people to be open to new challenges and aware of the work required for the next changes.
- You will be measuring the benefits of the VBP change and communicating them across the firm. Make sure you continue celebrating success.
- Communications will continue so your troops understand the change and the benefits.
- New people will have joined the business, and VBP will be new to them. They will have been inducted into your VBP procedures.
- You will not let have let communication become a form of osmosis.
- You will continue to create and recruit Pioneer penguins who work in the key areas of the business; candidates who can engage with people in their team to support them and answer questions or concerns.
- You will seek customer feedback through carefully designed surveys and interviews.
- You will build feedback into continuous improvement and celebrate and publicise the successes.
CULTURE CHANGE COMES LAST, NOT FIRST
It is important to recognise and appreciate that changing culture comes last. Only after people have changed their actions can there be a change in culture. Again, this is why creating a system and process is so important. We need people to change.
Most alterations in cultural norms and shared values will come at the end of the process.
The change you want will be results-driven. New approaches will sink in and become practice after success has been shown. The new ways will be demonstrably better than the old.
You will have been communicating lots. Not just at team and firm meetings but also by giving feedback, creating case studies, internal memos, cheers to peers’ cards, one-to-one meetings, etc. Communication – you know – is vital.
Some of your people may still be reluctant to acknowledge and try the new practices; they will need encouragement. You ultimately may need to part company with some of your people.
Change management is hard, and many projects fail. Yours should not be one of them.
Listed below are some of the areas to keep an eye on, to ensure your project succeeds.
- Not making the VBP project a strategic priority. It needs to be. Believing that just because the CEO says ‘Make it so’ is not enough.
- Leaders/Partners/Stakeholders not supporting the project, losing enthusiasm, and allowing complacency to become the norm will kill your project.
- Neglecting to make some of the tough decisions, which can include taking on the Resistors and Naysayer penguins.
- Not truly integrating the Vision into the way your business works.
- Failing to create a sufficiently powerful Pioneer Penguin Group.
- Allowing obstacles to block change.
- Not celebrating wins enough.
- Lack of training, coaching, and mentoring.
- Poor communication – not repeating messaging often enough.
- Inadequately rewarding those who have engaged with VBP and increased revenue is also to be avoided. Celebrate their achievements.
- Openly rewarding lawyers who have not engaged in VBP. Avoid Partner patronage.
- Believing that implementing VBP is a technological solution. Technology can help, but lawyers must be trained so they can learn how to implement VBP and then use the technology provided.
- Not creating Plans to replace key leaders of change as they move on. You must ensure that their legacy is not lost or forgotten.