Several people have asked me what the big deal is about having a strategic plan. I believe that you need a starting point before you start planning, a resource that documents your intentions and desires.  The strategic plan is a living document that changes over time based on your experiences. The starting point for a strategic plan is your values.  The conclusion of a strategic plan is your operating plan.

In the beginning, we started with a blank page. We may have been born with some internal values, but we are easily influenced.  As we grow, we have experiences, are introduced to a culture, accumulate family traditions, and are exposed to many beliefs and religions. We all eventually merge all these elements into a set of values that we will use to mold our life. With all these variables, I can say that what works for me does not always work for you. Our influences are all different.

Once we develop a belief system, we look for reinforcement showing what we believe is right. As this bond grows, it becomes more challenging to modify your belief. A conflict may show up as we move to another culture of venture into a business. We are now faced with having to decide to change. We should be looking for information to expand our belief system while we remain aware of our existing belief system.  The concept is to accept small changes that can improve your outlook, not a wholesale replacement.

When writing a strategic plan, you combine your existing belief system, skills, and resources to form a purpose or mission. That can be for a business or a life.  Once you start to execute a strategic plan, you will be exposed to new experiences and beliefs that can suggest improvements to your plan.

The key that I take away from this is to keep an open mind. Seek new skills and experiences. Don’t be reluctant to ask for help or share your plan with others. This will create additional sources for information.  Stay focused on your plan.  Accept advice as information, not a directive.  

Leadership Principles:   

• Show up Authentically, Use Your Emotional Intelligence, and Distribute Power.   
• Do What You Love.  Choose Your Work with Intention.  
• Be Clear About What You Need and Do Not Hesitate to Ask for It.   
• Be Curious and Keep Learning.   
• Network to Give Away, Not receive.  
• Trust Yourself.  

Introduction:   

I was asked to give a presentation about leadership.  I immediately thought to myself, who am I to tell anyone how to be a leader?  What do I know about it?  Why do I believe my Firm is big enough and bad enough that folks ought to follow my principles?  

Here is why I pushed beyond my fear to speak to you today. I believe with all my heart that running a dominance-based, hyper-competitive, emotionally repressed company that only focuses on the bottom line is doomed to fail.   The pandemic has taught us that many people genuinely hate their work and their work culture.  We are having a “quitting” crisis in America, causing companies to scramble for talent.  More people, particularly young people, choose less income rather than working in a dysfunctional environment.  Young people will walk away because they have better options.   

I want to share what I’ve learned along my journey in hopes that it will be helpful to you and perhaps inspire you to think about organizing your companies outside of the traditional paradigm.  

It was not part of my plan to start a law firm and grow it to become the state’s largest plaintiffs’ employment firm.  Had someone told me that in 2008, I would have laughed hysterically with you.   

In 2001, I left the workplace to be a stay-at-home mom with my three small children.  In 2008, when the youngest started school, I ventured back out into the legal field by sitting for the North Carolina Bar.  Even though I was admitted to New York and Washington D.C. bars, I had been out of the game too long to waive into North Carolina.   

I went to the Bar preparation classes and diligently spent my evenings studying after the kids went to bed.  I passed and became a fully licensed attorney again.  Now what?   

I began job hunting in earnest, but I only had a vague plan of what I wanted to do.  I envisioned working part-time as a contract attorney (meaning I would do legal research and writing projects for law firms that were overflowing with work.)  Or I might join a Firm or a nonprofit in a small, supportive role.  

I revised my resume, got my power dresses from the dry cleaners, and launched my campaign to find a job.  After several months of getting doors slammed in my face, I realized that I was unemployable by traditional law firm standards.  My seven-year absence from the workplace meant that I was technologically illiterate.  I had no real legal specialty, having bounced around from prosecutor to civil litigation to nonprofit advocacy.  I graduated from a good state law school but nowhere near prestigious enough to open doors.  I hit a dead end.   

I decided that if no one was going to pay me to do anything, I might as well do something I liked. I liked being a lawyer, so I took an unabashed look at which areas of the law spoke to me.  I wanted to be an expert in a subject that I cared passionately about. I enjoy all aspects of being a lawyer, advising, advocating, and trying cases.  But I don’t enjoy it in a vacuum. I had to care about the legal theory, and tax or corporate law was not going to get me out of bed in the morning.  I chose employment law.  Unlike many lawyers, I did not “fall” into this field.  It didn’t become my area of expertise because it was my first job out of law school.  I didn’t do it because I thought it would help me pay off my law school debt. I chose it because I knew that I wanted to represent people who were mistreated at work.  I wanted to help women who were sexually harassed.  I wanted to help people of color who were discriminated against.  Hence, I landed on my first leadership principle – Do What You Love and Choose it with Intention.  

I found a woman who was (and still is) regarded as one of the state’s finest plaintiff’s employment lawyers.  She kindly agreed to meet me, and during that first meeting, I told her that I would like to work for her.  She told me that she wasn’t hiring.  I showed up at her office anyway. Thankfully, she let me stay (she has a great sense of humor), and I spent the next year sitting at a table outside her office learning about employment law.  She graciously allowed me to shadow her during all aspects of her cases, and, eventually, I began to get my clients.  I moved into a tiny office next to hers, which had a door! I was thrilled.    

I started to get overwhelmed with clients and realized that I needed help.  I placed an ad in Craig’s List, of all places, and shockingly found a brilliant and highly knowledgeable employment law attorney who was looking for part-time work.  He was like a gift that fell from the sky, and I could not believe that I was that fortunate.  And yet, I was clear and intentional about what I needed at that moment, and I did not stop seeking it. I landed on my second principle – Be Clear About What You Need and Do Not Hesitate to Ask For It.  

Things began to snowball after my partner joined me.  I grew out of a small office and into a larger one with room for a receptionist and paralegal.  I knew nothing about management and leadership, so I sought help from another wise woman who ran a law practice consulting business.  I literally sat at her dining room table or on her living room floor, absorbing her knowledge gained from 30 years in the business. Out of this experience grew my third principle – Be Curious and Keep Learning.  

With her expert help, I wrote my first business plan that year and held my first Firm-wide meeting.  I started formalizing the business by drafting an employment manual and job descriptions.  I engaged a marketing company to help create a logo and messaging.  I said yes to any opportunity to meet people, share my knowledge, and assist where I could.  I created a sizable and robust referral network by giving away my time and whatever knowledge I had.   I had my fourth principle – Network to Give Away, Not to Receive.  

From these experiences, and based on my loosely thought-out leadership principles, I had a small and relatively successful firm.  I decided that to grow; I needed someone with more financial and business acumen than I.  I decided on some level that I wasn’t good enough to do this alone. I bought into the notion that I needed a “real” businessperson, someone with an MBA! I hired a man who looked great on paper and met all my criteria. This turned out to be a huge and costly mistake. And, like all spectacular fails, it taught me great lessons.  I realized that I needed to Trust Myself.   

I learned that following the advice of the Wall Street MBA guy was inconsistent with my vision of the Firm.  We constantly clashed about strategy, personnel, and financial decisions.  The result was a workplace that was awkward and tense.  No one at the Firm was happy.  Sure, we were making money, but we were losing people, and it wasn’t fun anymore. I needed the Firm to be a place of joy again, or it wasn’t going to survive.  At least not with me at the helm.  

I began the transformational work of showing up authentically, speaking vulnerably about my challenges, and distributing power within the Firm. This has become my most treasured principle.  I did not do this lesson alone.  I had the benefit of an extraordinary Executive Coach who helped me realize that leading my way, a more relational female way, was not only OK but powerful and effective.   

It was (and still can be) exceedingly frightening to discuss leading from a relational viewfinder. Today, our Firm does not look or operate like a traditional law firm. The traditional law firm model is organized along clearly defined hierarchies, with power and financial success held by an elite few. Competition and long work hours are encouraged, and few have a say in how the Firm functions.    

• We created a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee that is run by non-attorneys.  They develop programs for the Firm to facilitate discussions about race, gender, and oppressive systems of power to transform those discussions into action.  We have collectively read books and done firm-wide workshops.  These are not easy conversations to have, and they can be particularly challenging for attorneys who are not used to being challenged by non-attorneys.    
• We created a Leadership Council made up of paralegals, non-attorneys, and attorneys.  They are my trusted counsel on all Firm matters, including the Firm’s finances, business development plans, and long-term strategic objectives.  They have a seat at the table and a voice that is valued.   
• We started a mindfulness practice.  We meet twice a week to engage in mindfulness meditation and then discuss our experiences.  The mindfulness practice is a firm-wide program and not led by attorneys.  
• We have Town Hall meetings every other month where the entire Firm comes together.  The Leadership Council sets the Town Hall agenda and selects the speakers.  At these gatherings, I share information about the Firm’s values, mission, and goals, but I do not spend the entire time talking “at” the group.  Other Firm members also speak about agenda items that we have agreed upon. We have had some phenomenal breakthroughs at these events – laughter and tears in equal measure.   

 A significant part of my job is to attract and keep good people.  My goal is to harness the energy and talent of our workforce.  I start by coming from a place of authenticity.  Of curiousness.  Of distributive power.  Here are some things that I say at almost every Firm meeting:

• I don’t have all the answers 
• I value your honest input.   
• I appreciate that you keep me accountable.  
• I want you to be happy with what you do.   
• I listen when you tell me your needs.  
• I’m flexible about what this job is and how/where/when it can be done.   

Why do I think this approach has been successful? We were able to adapt to remote practice during Covid quickly.  We never stopped seeing clients, and we never laid-off employees.  We have created new positions in the Firm (Law Practice Manager, Case Manager, Director of Litigation Practices) based entirely on maximizing the strengths of each of the extraordinary people in these positions.  All three equity partners have been named as “Super Lawyers” in their field. The media regularly calls us to appear on TV  as “experts” in employment law.  We have a diverse workforce. We’ve moved into two other states and are actively recruiting more attorneys in more jurisdictions.  

Is it a perfect Utopia where we hold hands and sing, and money effortlessly rains down on our heads? Not yet.  But I believe that we have an engaged, creative, compassionate, trustworthy, highly functioning, and competent workforce because we have a more authentic, relational, and emotionally Intelligent workplace than most law firms.  This environment, in turn, makes me a better lawyer, leader, and person, and I’m profoundly grateful for that.    In sum, my advice is, show up authentically, be emotionally present and available, distribute power, and you will be the beneficiary of profound gifts in your work and life.

Case management systems are an excellent tool for any law firm.  This is generally a software program that organizes case information and interfaces with other tools like Microsoft Office, Quickbooks, or other business systems.  These case management systems can manage cases and the business with all the information they have access to.  I have worked with systems like Trialworks, Needles, Clio, and Litify over the years, and they all are sound systems. The problem I see is getting everyone to use them. 

These systems are costly and require some level of IT support. To justify this overhead expense, the systems are used for multiple purposes.  HR likes to use the reports to evaluate performance, the law firm administrator likes to track the status of cases, the business manager wants to use the reports to measure return on investment, and the attorney likes to use the case tracking to keep critical dates and notes.  There are other functions that these systems can do, but those are the primary functions I find.  All of these functions rely on the data being entered into the system.   The problem is, not all the data is important to everyone, so sometimes the data is not entered.  Once that happens, the reports are no longer complete.

The question I have is, how should we create enthusiasm for data entry.  A daunting task at best.  There is the reward idea; if all the data is entered, everyone gets a bonus or something like that.  There is the other side of that coin; if the data is missing, nobody gets a bonus.  Most of the time, that also gets sifted down to individual roles.  Not very efficient and very labor intensive to do all that tracking.  The best approach I have found is to form high-performance teams. Everyone on the team knows what is required and why.  Everyone on the team wants the team to win. Winning is about more than settling a case.

Now, it is easy to get bogged down in performance measurement and data analysis. The best way we have found to prevent that is a Balanced Scorecard approach, which looks at four critical areas: financial performance, client service, internal business processes, and staff. The case management system is the central collector of data that can produce reports on each area. The team wants to be the best in all areas of the scorecard.  All the other elements of a high-performance team come into play, and the case management system is utilized more.

With all this thought out and documented in the strategic plan, we can implement the program. One of the challenges is to define the data requirements for each of the areas of the balanced scorecard.  Financial is usually the easiest because that is most likely what you have always measured.  Client service is also a standard measure; you have to relate that measure to data in the case management system. Process efficiency or effectiveness is a bit tricky, but not that difficult to accomplish. Most of the time, we found that staff measurements were the most difficult to define. There are a lot of papers on the balanced scorecard, and we have written several. The data and measures are influenced by the case management system software you are using.

The staff will follow what they perceive as important to the law firm owner and the administrative policies of the firm.  If the only focus is money, client satisfaction, number of cases settled, or something else, that is what you will get.  If all you care about is one measure, then why spend the money and time to install a case management system with a lot of function.  Don’t buy bells and whistles you do not intend to use. On the other hand, you may want to reconsider your limited focus. I suspect that the final decision will be based on the work environment you have or want.  Most law firms are going with a remote element, some form of a team environment, and a focus on some combination of balanced business metrics. 

Did you find some neat ideas in this blog? What are the exciting ideas you came up with, and how are you implementing them? Let me know by contacting me at dwfavor@catalystgroupinc.com.

Our last entry started a discussion on teams, so this week I am starting a series about team dynamics. A team is a group of individuals working together to achieve a common goal. Teams typically have members with complementary skills and generate synergy through a coordinated effort, which allows each member to maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. Team members like to feel like they are a valuable member of the team, and each has a perceived and real assignment within the team. Ideally, the perceived and real match.  When that all works its magic.

The primary difference I see between regular teams and High-Performance teams is how ridged they stick to the rules. High-Performance Teams have well-defined goals that are in agreement with the overall expectations or vision for the team. This is often not the case, and a team is just a gathering of skills to get a job done. Just as important as the mission of the team is the culture of the team. High-Performance Team members identify with the team and are proud of it. Members place the team first and know that team effort is key to overall success. They celebrate the accomplishments of the team and recognize the contributions of members. This is different than regular teams. Notice that a High-Performance team celebrates the team’s success but only recognize contributions. 

High-Performance Teams are constantly learning and continuously improving. True transparency allows a team to quickly adapt to unexpected events. Each member knows what is important and each member is committed to action. They are clear about what results they are committed to and they review and measure results frequently. They quickly resolve conflicts and move forward. A key element of the culture is the realization that trust is an essential ingredient. They communicate openly. They believe in a feedback culture, actively giving and seeking feedback. Many times I have seen teams that are not like this, especially in “professional” groups where each member is seeking success and recognition for themselves.

Sometimes ego gets in the way. Since all the members have knowledge of all elements of the mission assigned, sometimes a member will expand their role beyond their assignment. Gradually they start to take over roles. I have found teams that were really one active member with a lot of assistants. It is no longer a team. As this happens, members become disenfranchised and dropout. It was not unusual to find members waiting for orders and doing nothing. The team starts to lose synergy, and effectiveness drops. The perceived or real leader pushes harder for control, and the team dissolves.

It is the job of the leader to make sure that all members are participants, and it is the team that gets external recognition. Both overzealous and nonparticipants should be removed or reassigned from the team.  That is why I see skilled people pulled from teams. They can be valuable assets, just not team players.

I believe that becoming a leader is a journey.  You start as an employee. If you know how you will have a job is a saying that I remember from college. As an employee, you would have skills, and you would understand the job.  As you excel in the job, you get promoted to a management position. A manager understands the business plan, has a common purpose, good communication skills, and maturity.  The saying that goes with this would be if you know why you will be the boss. 

That brings us to leadership. If you can see the future, you will be the leader. That means you understand the strategic plan. A leader will have team spirit, passion, and empathy. Team spirit is when you really feel invested in reaching a goal together and are there to support each other.  Passion is a feeling of intense enthusiasm towards the vision expressed in the strategic plan and the mission of the team. Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference.

The leaders will have a direct impact on the effectiveness of your business, team, or even a country.  The managers control resources and will have a direct impact on the efficiency of your business. While leaders and managers impact all aspects of your business, the skill level and attitude of your employees or staff will have a direct impact on your return-on-investment.

Did you find some neat ideas in this blog? What are the exciting ideas you came up with, and how are you implementing them? Let me know by contacting me at dwfavor@catalystgroupinc.com.

Why did the plan fail?  This is often a question we hear in business, but it is not happening only in business.  I recently was part of a planned family event.  I mean, a planned event. Everything was thought out, or so we thought.  At the last minute, someone changed the plan without notifying the other members of this team.  This resulted in nine different events to be replanned and rescheduled.  Now, let me say upfront that it was more frustrating than it was a major problem.  When asked why they changed their mind, there was no good reason, and it could have stayed as-is.  When we mentioned the impact of this action, we got a confused look.  As we discovered the full effect, there seemed to be no awareness. Each of the nine events was minor, but a lot of time and energy was expended, correcting the course of events that could have been avoided.  The same thing happens in business.  If this happens a lot, the business process breaks down.

Over the years, I have seen several reasons as to why this happens.  Some people just do not like planning.  Not only dislike planning but can not do it and see no reason for it.  For these people, they would not recognize the nine things that did not happen above, and if told about them, would not see the relevance.  Their view was so focused that they never saw the big picture. That is the “being nice” side of this discussion. Some people just do not care, even if they understood the big picture. They want a specific task to do, and that is it.  This last group is best assigned task to do and are not team players or leaders. 

For the people that do not plan, some will become good team players if they know the details.  If they are told why and what about their assignment. One way to make that information available is to include them in the planning. That is also the “being nice” side of this story. Often, they either do not have the ability to see the big picture without a detailed explanation, or they just don’t care. Back in the ole days, we would call these people high-maintenance employees. It requires more energy and time to include them in the team. It is the responsibility of the leader to provide that information and to determine the benefits to the team.

Often the changes made are individually minor and easy to ignore.  It is the cumulative effect that becomes the problem.  Other than cost, there is an impact on the team.  Team members see this happening and gradually become a reactive only set of resources instead of a high-performance team. The adverse effect of this plan breakdown is poor process efficiency.  I have seen businesses where this is the norm.  They start with a great plan and a well-documented process but gradually bypass steps.  Over time the strategic plan becomes a dust-gathering forgotten document.  The rationale is, we always end up OK.  What they failed to recognize is that it cost more in time and money than it should have.  In a very competitive environment, you cannot afford to accept that deal.  This becomes a challenge for the team leader.

This discussion does not mean that there are never times when a break from the process is warranted. As my father would tell me, stuff happens.  What the team leader must do is recognize when this is becoming the norm. Did you find some neat ideas in this blog? What are the exciting ideas you came up with, and how are you implementing them? Let me know by contacting me at dwfavor@catalystgroupinc.com.

Most law firms face stiff challenges in today’s marketplace. Changing demographics, new technologies, aggressive competition and Coronavirus, demand that firms change the way they do business.  Often firms respond to these challenges by trying to do what they have done in the past. Those that thrive change to address reality.

Many small businesses, like law firms, are adding work-at-home positions, four-day workweeks, and online client contact. All of these changes affect the work culture and how you do business.  You may look at the big picture and decide that a smaller office space is needed to compensate for the remote users.  Technology may change to support remote users or online client contact.  Some expenses will be added and some deleted.

One of the fundamental business metrics is return-on-investment (ROI), sometimes referred to as profit margin.  In this new work-at-home world we find ourselves, we must consider more variables and expenses when we look at the business metrics. If you are doing strategic planning, SWOT analysis, or Needs assessments, you will see this complexity. Your team must define how to collect the data needed, how it will be analyzed, and what the goal is. I would consider what the ROI was in the past and focus on meeting that number and then plan to improve.  First, find your profit by subtracting total expenses from the revenue. If that is a negative number, you can stop there. To find the margin or ROI, divide the profit by the revenue.

Overhead is another popular metric used to group expenses that are necessary for the business but cannot be associated with the production of the products/services being offered.  You do not want the larger portion of the total expenses to be overhead. You can debate expenses like the cost of a case management system, but most count this as a production cost, not as overhead. The cost of legal staff (attorneys, paralegals, etc.) are part of production, but the cost of administrators or support staff are considered overhead. Other expenses, such as rent, utilities, business insurance, and supplies that do not become a part of any products or services, are overhead expenses.  You now have to consider where to track the remote office expenses. I would suggest that it is overhead and not production, just like building costs. Other expenses like the cost of medical records, accident reports, and depositions, are part of production.

The other popular metric in this group is the burden rate.  The burden rate consists of costs associated with employees (or staff) over and above gross compensation. This includes health insurance, license fee, training, etc. (Basically, any costs associated with your employee that is not their salary or pay). When you hire an employee for your law firm, they will cost more than the hourly wage (or salary) you pay them. The additional cost of that employee is known as the burden. The burden cost is important to compute and understand because it includes a variety of significant costs that are part of overhead and are related to employment. So it is a way to further breakdown overhead expense.

Knowing the burden allows a firm administrator or manager to determine the real cost of hiring an employee. The problem we have with burden is deciding what part of overhead is a burden.  If you have to purchase a new license for your case management system, that is a burden.  How much of the cost of the building is burden?   To get a true burden, you should use only expenses directly related to an employee. Once you have the burden cost, you can create a percentage of overhead, a rate per hour average for all staff, or a dollar amount to be added to a salary.  Most small businesses use a burden rate based on total hours worked and apply that rate to the hours of the new employee.  Not a perfect measure, but it will give you a good idea of the total cost for an employee.

Our original question was, how does all of this change in this new environment? If you were able to cut building or office expenses, factor that in.  If you had to purchase equipment for a home office, spread that cost over the first year. Whatever variables you consider, I would keep it simple.  Select data elements that are easy to collect data for and are stable over time. Often the cost of a remote employee is not the same as an employee in the office.  How did your burden change? What was the impact on overhead?  Do you need some new categories in your chart of accounts in your financial system to collect data?  All of these questions should be addressed when doing strategic planning.

Besides the financial impacts, there may be a security impact. You may have workers looking at business data and systems at home. Consider what kind of support a remote user needs and factor in the sensitivity of the data being presented remotely.  You may have to make a change in the IT support you have as your remote users expand. These actions will create an expense.   Are you going to supply the laptops, internet lines, or other equipment? When are your employees considered to be “on the clock”?

I would suggest that it will be six months to a year for the new work environment to settle down.  You will learn as you go.   Along the way, design a data collection strategy and improve it as you build the new environment. Don’t wait until the business fails to start developing a new work culture.

Did you find some neat ideas in this blog? What are the exciting ideas you came up with, and how are you implementing them? Let me know by contacting me at dwfavor@catalystgroupinc.com.

For more information on creating a strategic plan that works, contact cheryl@catalystgroupinc.com.

Most law firms face stiff challenges in today’s marketplace. Changing demographics, new technologies, aggressive competition and Coronavirus, demand that firms change the way they do business.  Often firms respond to these challenges by trying to do what they have done in the past. Those that thrive change to address reality.

Many small businesses, like law firms, are adding work-at-home positions, four-day workweeks, and online client contact. All of these changes affect the work culture and how you do business.  You may look at the big picture and decide that a smaller office space is needed to compensate for the remote users.  Technology may change to support remote users or online client contact.  Some expenses will be added and some deleted. 

One of the fundamental business metrics is return-on-investment (ROI), sometimes referred to as profit margin.  In this new work-at-home world we find ourselves, we must consider more variables and expenses when we look at the business metrics. If you are doing strategic planning, SWOT analysis, or Needs assessments, you will see this complexity. Your team must define how to collect the data needed, how it will be analyzed, and what the goal is. I would consider what the ROI was in the past and focus on meeting that number and then plan to improve.  First, find your profit by subtracting total expenses from the revenue. If that is a negative number, you can stop there. To find the margin or ROI, divide the profit by the revenue.   

Overhead is another popular metric used to group expenses that are necessary for the business but cannot be associated with the production of the products/services being offered.  You do not want the larger portion of the total expenses to be overhead. You can debate expenses like the cost of a case management system, but most count this as a production cost, not as overhead. The cost of legal staff (attorneys, paralegals, etc.) are part of production, but the cost of administrators or support staff are considered overhead. Other expenses, such as rent, utilities, business insurance, and supplies that do not become a part of any products or services, are overhead expenses.  You now have to consider where to track the remote office expenses. I would suggest that it is overhead and not production, just like building costs. Other expenses like the cost of medical records, accident reports, and depositions, are part of production. 

The other popular metric in this group is the burden rate.  The burden rate consists of costs associated with employees (or staff) over and above gross compensation. This includes health insurance, license fee, training, etc. (Basically, any costs associated with your employee that is nottheir salary or pay). When you hire an employee for your law firm, they will cost more than the hourly wage (or salary) you pay them. The additional cost of that employee is known as the burden. The burden cost is important to compute and understand because it includes a variety of significant costs that are part of overhead and are related to employment. So it is a way to further breakdown overhead expense.

Knowing the burden allows a firm administrator or manager to determine the real cost of hiring an employee. The problem we have with burden is deciding what part of overhead is a burden.  If you have to purchase a new license for your case management system, that is a burden.  How much of the cost of the building is burden?   To get a true burden, you should use only expenses directly related to an employee. Once you have the burden cost, you can create a percentage of overhead, a rate per hour average for all staff, or a dollar amount to be added to a salary.  Most small businesses use a burden rate based on total hours worked and apply that rate to the hours of the new employee.  Not a perfect measure, but it will give you a good idea of the total cost for an employee.

Our original question was, how does all of this change in this new environment? If you were able to cut building or office expenses, factor that in.  If you had to purchase equipment for a home office, spread that cost over the first year. Whatever variables you consider, I would keep it simple.  Select data elements that are easy to collect data for and are stable over time. Often the cost of a remote employee is not the same as an employee in the office.  How did your burden change? What was the impact on overhead?  Do you need some new categories in your chart of accounts in your financial system to collect data?  All of these questions should be addressed when doing strategic planning.

Besides the financial impacts, there may be a security impact. You may have workers looking at business data and systems at home. Consider what kind of support a remote user needs and factor in the sensitivity of the data being presented remotely.  You may have to make a change in the IT support you have as your remote users expand. These actions will create an expense.   Are you going to supply the laptops, internet lines, or other equipment? When are your employees considered to be “on the clock”?

I would suggest that it will be six months to a year for the new work environment to settle down.  You will learn as you go.   Along the way, design a data collection strategy and improve it as you build the new environment. Don’t wait until the business fails to start developing a new work culture. 

Did you find some neat ideas in this blog? What are the exciting ideas you came up with, and how are you implementing them? Let me know by contacting me at dwfavor@catalystgroupinc.com.

For more information on creating a strategic plan that works, contact cheryl@catalystgroupinc.com. 

For the majority of remote teams, communication is the key to success. Each member of the team must know what the others are working on. This is something that can be easily lost when the entire team is working remotely. Remote teams simply cannot function with inadequate communication between its members. Short daily meetings over Skype or Zoom is a great way to do this. The truth is, it doesn’t matter which remote tool you decide to use; just as long as your team has a good line of communication, your remote workers won’t feel isolated from one another. The key is that all members of the team have access to it and can use it. 

Zoom sets up easily, and team members seem to adapt quickly. There are a few things to keep in mind with any of these tools.  You need a web camera and a microphone, which is standard on most laptops but need to be added to workstations.  Next, remember that you have an active camera and microphone once the meeting starts. Some security considerations must be thought through because you are extending a business discussion into a home or location outside of your control.

The lack of company culture can plague any remote team. Sure, it’s easier for the boss to pop in to chat with a team that works in the same office, but this doesn’t mean that you can’t do the same with a remote team. Set up a daily Zoom meeting that is more like a coffee break than a formal meeting. Other tools allow you to chat, exchange messages or E-mail, or just talk. You don’t need to get fancy, just be available. Here are a few ideas to create highly motivated and productive teams:

• Prioritize regular check-ins so team members feel you are paying attention to them.
• Instead of the phone, use Zoom; activate your camera during the call and encourage others to as well, so your team does not lose their sense of community.
• Virtual meetings may not create the same interpersonal connection of a face to face meeting. That doesn’t mean they can’t be fun. Who wouldn’t appreciate the chance to take their mind off of current events? Try to laugh before jumping into business, advice from ProHabits.com/thrive.

I have found that one of the key ingredients to work culture is regular events and a schedule.  We all start in the morning with our daily meetings and have a coffee break after lunch.  You can do the same with a remote meeting.

Again, it isn’t rocket science. Case managers and Firm Administrators should be working hard to ensure that each member of their team has a clear idea of their expected working hours, all deadlines, what it is that the team is working towards, and even the policy on taking sick days. Establish a routine and have team members check in often. Not keeping track of what’s being done, who is doing what, and who isn’t doing what they are supposed to, is something that can destroy any team.

You should be aware of how much work your remote team is getting done, and at what rate? Luckily, there is a simple way to make sure you don’t end up in this situation, and it’s also an easy fix if you do find yourself in it: monitor and evaluate your remote employees using the same KPIs you would when dealing with in-house workers.  There is an assumption that you have agreed to performance metrics.  Most law firms use a case management system to track cases and can use that same tool to keep track of work done.  The remote teams we have set up, keep track of everything they do in case notes, task checklist, and case milestones.  A few reports that are run each day or week will develop a trend which will show who the top workers are.

The amount of work being done can be too much or not enough.  Most managers are focused on getting the work done and who did the most, but you can also find a team member that does too much.  That is the person that is always online and working. They tend to burn out over time and, in some cases, can destroy the morale of the team.  Back to culture, set some expectations.  Those expectations should include breaks, family time, and time off. Everyone likes to know the rules of the game, and they all want an even playing field. It is OK to have a special project, but the norm should be the same as it would be in the office.  Tell everyone what the rules and expectations are and establish a routine.

Did you find some neat ideas in this blog? What are the exciting ideas you came up with, and how are you implementing them? Let me know by contacting me at dwfavor@catalystgroupinc.com.

I recently discussed KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), where I was asked why I needed to see the vision and the mission statements for the law firm.  The answer I provided was; the key performance indicators are based on the goals of the business, which are defined by the vision and the mission found in the strategic plan.  That got a blank stare, so I tried the more official-sounding explanation. A Key Performance Indicator is a measurable value that demonstrates how effectively the firm is achieving key business objectives. That didn’t exactly go over any better, and I was asked, what is an indicator? Before I drown in this analysis, let’s use the KISS principle.  When I use the term KPI, I think of measurements of performance.  Let me also say I have seen where every single measure is called a KPI. That makes no sense to me as not all indicators or measurements are key – some must be more important than others.

Let’s start at the beginning.  The vision statement defines what success looks like. It should contain all the key elements you want to be successful.  You could start with a simple statement saying the firm is a successful law practice.   What does that mean?  So you change it a little to be, the firm is a profitable personal injury law firm that is known for great client service.  

Now you just defined two potential measurements; being profitable and having great client service.  OK, so far.  If you decide these are key to your business, you just defined two KPIs. Now you develop a mission statement to realize the vision.  The mission could be to provide personal injury legal services.  Not very exciting, so you work on it some.  The mission is to provide legal services for personal injury clients in North and South Carolina.  You quickly find out that a lot of law firms do that, so you try and differentiate your firm.  The mission becomes; we provide timely and compassionate personal injury legal services with the best settlements in the Carolinas.  You have just defined several more potential KPIs. All of this was done before we completed the strategic plan or decided on any processes.

You complete the strategic plan and define some tools, processes, and procedures to meet your goals.  Each of those will have a few KPIs. The point of this discussion is, you will develop a unique set of KPIs based on your strategic plan. Using KPIs is a good way to look at the success of a business.  There is also a balanced scorecard approach. The balanced scorecard asks that you translate the mission statement into specific measures that reflect success. The balanced scorecard looks at the firm from four perspectives – financial, client, internal, and growth.  Within the strategic plan, you would develop measurements relative to each of these perspectives — potentially more KPIs.

One last observation, we all have a different idea of what the measurement focus should be. You can probably guess that I look at the strategic plan as the starting point to define the business.  Someone else may be focused on marketing and another on job performance. I have even seen a focus on process effectiveness.  All of these ideas are correct as far as they go, which makes my recommendation to consider all of them.  I would say that too many measurements may result in analysis paralysis.  I would aim for no more than 5 to 10 Key performance indicators.  The rest of your list of measurements are metrics to be used for early warning of problems, performance evaluations, process effectiveness, or prediction of outcomes.

Did you find some neat ideas in this blog? What are the exciting ideas you came up with, and how are you implementing them? Let me know by contacting me at dwfavor@catalystgroupinc.com.

For more information on creating a strategic plan that works, contact cheryl@catalystgroupinc.com.