Pathway to Success Step 5 – Innovation

You probably already hear a lot of talk about innovation.  And it probably sounds something like. “You need to innovate in your law firm or you will be left behind.”  My guess is that when you hear this you wonder what innovation is. You probably also think, “Everything has been working for our firm so far. Why change?”

So what is innovation?  When I think of innovation it’s about how to solve problems and the process that you go through to solve those problems.  In order to solve a problem and innovate you first need to determine what problem you are trying to solve. Once you know what the problem is then you can follow the rest of the Pathway to Success model by Testing, Understanding, and Doing.

Think about what Thomas Edison went through as he was trying to solve the problem of how to create a better way to light a building. He decided to create a light bulb. You may not be aware, but it took him 10,000 different designs before he finally got one that worked.  He followed the Test, Understand, and Do model, which will I will talk more about in the coming weeks.

You might be wondering whether you need to innovate at all in your law firm. I strongly agree that you need to innovate in your law firm. The reason is that there are signs in the legal market place that are showing that staying with the current way of running a law firm will likely not work 5 to 10 years from now.

Here are some of the things I see happening.

• There is real movement towards the communization of legal services.  Firms that work with corporate clients are starting to see this. Gone are the days where you if you are the only firm in town that you are the only option. With the internet and with companies looking at ways to save money, we are seeing a trend of companies willing to shop around for legal services.
• The internet has changed how your potential clients find information. We now live in a DIY world where you can find anything you want to find on the internet.  Studies are showing that the middle class is using law firms less than they used to.

Now is the time to start innovating before it’s too late and your competition has already passed you.  If you would like more help in understanding how to innovate in your firm or if you have an idea that you want to put into practice, call us at (801) 766-3183 and we can work with you on your next innovation project.