Monthly Archives: October 2004

The Creativity Conundrum

Why aren’t lawyers more creative?  Not creative about solving client problems, but creative about being lawyers.  Here is an exercise:  Walk down any aisle of any new grocery store and notice how many products are there that didn’t even exist ten years ago.  Heck, just look around at the store itself and see how different the shopping experience has become in just the last decade.  Now, look at the legal profession.  Any new products?  Do our offices look different?  Have we changed in any meaningful way how we provide our services or interact with clients (apart from e-mail) in the last ten years?  Name another industry or business that has so systematically avoided innovation and shown such a disdain for new ideas.

I had a meeting on Saturday morning with another attorney and we were talking about our respective practices.  He does nothing but personal injury and I’ve sent him quite a few cases.  I shared with him some of the things I was implementing in my practice and he remarked how “creative” I was.  I responded that every lawyer I know is pretty creative when solving client problems, but that creativity  (or ability to think differently) doesn’t translate into high-level thinking about changing the way they approach the business of law.

The discussion reminded me about an article from Psychology Today titled “The Art of Creativity.“  There is a lot of great stuff on creativity in the article,  but the part that caught my eye was the list of ways to discourage creativity in children:

Surveillance: hovering over kids, making them feel that they’re constantly being watched while they’re working.

Evaluation: making kids worry about how others judge what they are doing. Kids should be concerned primarily with how satisfied they-and not others-are with their accomplishments.

Competition: putting kids in a win/lose situation, where only one person can come out on top. A child should be allowed to progress at his own rate.

Overcontrol: telling kids exactly how to do things. This leaves children feeling that any exploration is a waste of time.

Pressure: establishing grandiose expectations for a child’s performance. Training regimes can easily backfire and end up instilling an aversion for the subject being taught.

The article also fingers a bit more subtle culprit:  time.

Children more naturally than adults enter that ultimate state of creativity called flow. In flow, time does not matter; there is only the timeless moment at hand. It is a state that is more comfortable for children than adults, who are more conscious of the passage of time.

“One ingredient of creativity is open-ended time,” says Ann Lewan, a director of the Capital Children’s Museum in Washington, D.C. “Children have the capacity to get lost in whatever they’re doing in a way that is much harder for an adult. They need the opportunity to follow their natural inclinations, their own particular talents, to go wherever their proclivities lead them.”

Now, how many of these “creativity killers” are applicable to lawyers?  Can you name any law firm associate that doesn’t experience all of them nearly every day?  Is the answer to the question that started this post that our prevalent business model wrings all the creativity out of our lawyers in their first few years of practice?  If so, what can we do to stop it?

I’ve got some ideas, and I’m going to be posting a lot more on the legal creativity conundrum in the next few weeks. 

 

 

Written on 10/31/04 in Innovation, Practice of Law
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LegalMatch Revisited (Again)

I’ve kind of watched with amazement at the number of comments my posts concerning LegalMatch have generated.  Today, I received a comment to two of my posts from Lance Burton, "Director of Attorney Relation Services and Continuing Advanced Education" at LegalMatch.  His comment, "For an informed response to the many comments listed here with respect to LegalMatch please review the items at the following site."  The site is the LegalMatch Blog and I encourage readers to take a look. 

In the response, Mr. Burton first addresses my major complaint about LegalMatch, saying:

The major issue in the blogs and in other chatter concerning LegalMatch is a complaint that we use deceptive and hard sales tactics to get attorneys to the phone. I’ll be the first to say, we do whatever we can to get a minute with an attorneys to talk with us about the clients we have attracted to our website.  (Underlined emphasis mine).

and then he takes a shot at some of the people who have been leaving the comments in my blog posts:

The former employees that seem bent on making LegalMatch look like the bad guys in the ‘blogs’ and who continue to pop off about being exploited, or complaining that LegalMatch didn’t do this or didn’t do that, professing to hold special insights into how LegalMatch works, generally fall into two categories. First, there is the occasional contractors we hired who fooled us for awhile by pretending to understand the LegalMatch mission and to have the client’s interest at heart, but didn’t. We ultimately recognized the pretenders in this group whose only real interest was in lining their own pockets. They thought LegalMatch was just another Internet dot com that would yield loads of money for them to rip off. The second group of sales contractors we had to weed out were those individual who came to us as “labor fakers.” These individuals, who we asked to work hard in the interest of building LegalMatch goodwill so as to benefit our clients and member attorneys, misunderstood the work ethic necessary to keep a start up moving to solvency. Who could predict that these individuals were just too lazy and short sighted to recognize the opportunity put before them. They apparently thought they would never have to ever work hard again. Shame on them. I personally apologize to anyone who may have encountered these aberations.

I applaud LegalMatch for doing this.  I’d love to see the dialog continued on the LegalMatch blog, instead of mine.  However, the LegalMatch Blog doesn’t have comments enabled.  Oh well.

Written on 10/29/04 in Uncategorized
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Decker on Growth

Sam Decker has just written 7 Keys to Company Growth.  Really great stuff and worth the complete read.  Here are the basics to his P.A.S.S.I.O.N:

 Push the organization with big vision.

 Account for big goals.

 Seek out new ideas.

 Show wins along the way.

 Ignore distractions.

 Ownership must be clear.

 Neutralize negativity.

Written on 10/28/04 in Marketing, Money and Fees
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Why has ketchup stayed the same?

Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point and the upcoming Blink (which I can’t wait to read), wrote an article titled The Ketchup Conundrum for the September issue of The New Yorker.  In the piece, he discusses how Grey Poupon paved the way for the hundreds of varieties of mustard we see in our supermarkets today, and suggests that ketchup may be next. 

However, my favorite part of the article is Gladwell’s explanation of how Prego (the spaghetti sauce) developed their extra-chunky sauce:

Standard practice in the food industry would have been to convene a focus group and ask spaghetti eaters what they wanted. But Moskowitz does not believe that consumers–even spaghetti lovers–know what they desire if what they desire does not yet exist. “The mind,” as Moskowitz is fond of saying, “knows not what the tongue wants.” Instead, working with the Campbell’s kitchens, he came up with forty-five varieties of spaghetti sauce. These were designed to differ in every conceivable way: spiciness, sweetness, tartness, saltiness, thickness, aroma, mouth feel, cost of ingredients, and so forth. He had a trained panel of food tasters analyze each of those varieties in depth. Then he took the prototypes on the road–to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Jacksonville–and asked people in groups of twenty-five to eat between eight and ten small bowls of different spaghetti sauces over two hours and rate them on a scale of one to a hundred. When Moskowitz charted the results, he saw that everyone had a slightly different definition of what a perfect spaghetti sauce tasted like. If you sifted carefully through the data, though, you could find patterns, and Moskowitz learned that most people’s preferences fell into one of three broad groups: plain, spicy, and extra-chunky, and of those three the last was the most important. Why? Because at the time there was no extra-chunky spaghetti sauce in the supermarket. Over the next decade, that new category proved to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Prego. “We all said, ‘Wow!’ ” Monica Wood, who was then the head of market research for Campbell’s, recalls. “Here there was this third segment–people who liked their spaghetti sauce with lots of stuff in it–and it was completely untapped. So in about 1989-90 we launched Prego extra-chunky. It was extraordinarily successful.”

What untapped market is there for your services?  Can you find the unserved segment and be its “extra-chunky” Prego?

Written on 10/28/04 in Innovation, Money and Fees
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Life Laundry for Law Offices

I don’t get BBC America at home, but have heard about the show Life Laundry, and thought it had an interesting premise:

In Life Laundry, storage expert Dawna Walter helps people streamline their internal and external lives by cleaning out their clutter and offering advice, insight and top tips – while antique dealer Mark Franks help turn junk into hard cash – all in 48 hours.

But this is more than just a home makeover show. For some it’s an incredibly emotional experience as they struggle to come to terms with the past.

Faced with rooms too full of junk for their owners to use, to broken computers and washing machines that have sat idle for years, Dawna and Mark take drastic action, emptying the offending rooms on to the closest outside space.

Step-by-step they take the homeowners through their belongings sifting, sorting, and slinging out the clutter that has taken over their homes – and in some cases their lives.

From people who have allowed their possessions to take over as a result of trauma, to sentimental hoarders, over-zealous collectors and people and families whose relationships are under strain from the amount of junk cluttering their homes – the Life Laundry experts are on hand to help.

What would the Life Laundry experts find in your office?  Old computers, printers that don’t work, dozens (hundreds, thousands) of books that you don’t use anymore?  Piles of trade publications and legal magazines that you’ve set aside to read someday? Get rid of all of that stuff and be amazed at how little you really needed any of it.

Written on 10/28/04 in Innovation, Money and Fees, Resolutions
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Ergonomics for Everyone

I’m pretty happy with my actual working environment.  I alternate between my Aeron and Leap chairs, have a cord-less keyboard and mouse, and use two monitors.  Though the ergonomics of my situation could be improved slightly (maybe by throwing in some feng shui ), I feel comfortable when I work. 

It seems that work comfort was on the mind of New Zealand’s Occupation Safety and Health Service when they passed these ergonomic guidelines for the workers in the nation’s now-legal sex trade:  

  • Beds and workstations should support the worker’s back and allow for services to be performed without strain or discomfort.
  • Beds and massage tables should be adjustable to allow employees to use them without strain.
  • Employees should be trained for safe use of equipment and techniques.
  • Workers’ clothing should be comfortable and should not affect the employee’s posture.
  • Workers should take breaks between shifts and clients to avoid stress and fatigue.
  • Workers should alternate between repetitive and non-repetitive activities.

Certainly some good tips here for all us workers in the “service” business.

Written on 10/28/04 in Innovation, Money and Fees
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Innovation for Lawyers

I’ve been talking to some really smart people lately, and have been running an idea past them that I’ve blogged about before – a conference on innovation for lawyers.  The goal would be to provide attendees with both the ideas and the tools to incorporate innovation into their practices, and to give them specific things to implement when they get back to the office.

Now for the agenda:

In the morning, I want several interesting people (preferably non-lawyers) to talk about innovation in their fields.  I’d like to see authors, marketing gurus, creativity consultants, entrepreneurs, and even CEO’s of small companies tell the audience about the newest and coolest ways they are changing how they do business.  In the afternoon, we’d brainstorm about specific ways the “big picture” ideas could translate to the attendees’ individual practices.

If this seems really cool to you, let me know if you’d like to attend.  Also, if there is anything you’d like to see, drop me a line as well.  Time and place are Chicago the Sunday after Techshow (April 3, 2005).  If the interest is there, I’ll follow up with more information. 

Written on 10/27/04 in Innovation
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Grace

It has been a while since I’ve posted a picture of my daughter, so here goes:

She is two in December.  My, how time flies…

Written on 10/27/04 in Personal Info
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Can blogs make you an expert on everything?

I received this e-mail yesterday:

 Matt,

I hope this email finds you doing well.  Are you currently available for
a 6 month++ contract opportunity? We have a Client located in Downtown
Chicago, IL seeking an experienced MS SharePoint Specialist.

You will perform analysis, design and development of the firm’s newly
implemented MS SharePoint Portal. You will be doing front and back end
development using Windows SharePoint Services version1 and version2.
You will also perform on-going technical research to identify solutions
for system requirements that arise through the use of the SharePoint
systems firm wide.

They are looking to start this position as soon as they possible/as soon
as they find the right fit.

I noticed your background on the web and thought we should talk.  If this
basic description sounds interesting (obviously here is much more to the
project) and you are available please reply with your most recent resume as
a Word document.

If not feel free to forward my contact information to anyone you see fit.

I’m not even sure what Microsoft SharePoint Portal is, but my wife is from Chicago and it might be fun to go for awhile — until they find out I’m totally incompetent.

Written on 10/27/04 in Innovation
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Warmer Workers = Better Workers

Via FastCompany Now comes a link to this study that shows that warmer workers are better workers.  According to the article:

When the office temperature in a month-long study increased from 68 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit, typing errors fell by 44 percent and typing output jumped 150 percent. Hedge’s study was exploring the link between changes in the physical environment and work performance.

“The results of our study also suggest raising the temperature to a more comfortable thermal zone saves employers about $2 per worker, per hour,” says Hedge, who presented his findings this summer at the 2004 Eastern Ergonomics Conference and Exposition in New York City.

Now excuse me while I crank up the thermostat.

Written on 10/22/04 in Innovation, Money and Fees
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14 Tips to Get Blawging

Evan has a great guest post over at Notes from the Legal Underground by Federalist No. 84 that has 14 steps to “finding your voice in the blawgosphere.”  This post continues Evan’s history of some great guest posters.  If you already blog, or are thinking about starting, it offers some really good advice.

Written on 10/20/04 in Technology
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Think Tank Tuesday

Several months ago, I first posted about Think Tank Tuesday, but have been pretty silent since.  Yesterday, we had our second telephone and web conference (compliments of Zane at Conference Calls Unlimited), and I am far more excited about the concept (and the group) now than when I first started putting the idea together.  We’ve even started our own private blog to facilitate conversations and share ideas in-between our bi-weekly telephone calls. 

Our “TTT” group:

Mark Merenda

Stephen Nipper

Karen Post

Lori Richardson

Evelyn Rodriguez

Zane Safrit

Todd Sattersten

Don “The Idea Guy” Snyder

Doug Sorocco

Once we have our third “meeting,” I’ll post more about how we are using TTT to help us incubate new ideas and grow our businesses.  If anyone would like some help starting a similar group, let me know.

 

Written on 10/20/04 in Innovation
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Where have you gone Five by Five?

If you are wondering when I’ll have another of those great 5×5′s, wonder no more.  Beginning Monday, the series restarts with five intellectual property bloggers answering the question:  What five ways would you change IP law? 

For you non-IP people (like me), the topic seems a bit dry, but I’ve read most of the responses already and they are great!  See you then!

 

Written on 10/20/04 in Five by Five
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What is your Innovation Budget?

I’ve recently subscribed to Report 103, a weekly e-mail newsletter from jpb.com, an innovation company.  I found this great idea in their October 12, 2004 edition:

 Give everyone in a medium to large company an innovation budget. Each person’s budget would be based on their position in the company. Regular staff might get 2000 Euro/year; middle managers 5000; senior managers 10,000; and so on). Innovation budgets are to be used exclusively for developing ideas.

If an idea results in an RoI (return on idea), the idea owner receives an increased innovation budget based on a percentage of the RoI. Thus, innovative people get an ever larger pool with which to innovate.

Moreover, staff can form teams with each person contributing a part of their innovation budget towards implementing an idea. If the result is a positive RoI, each contributor receives an innovation budget increase based on the percentage of their budgetary contribution.

Finally, people can buy and sell ideas with their innovation budgets. If you have a great idea which you do not or cannot implement, you can sell the idea to a colleague who is interested in implementing it. The colleague then transfers part of her innovation budget to you.

Alternatively, if you have a great idea, but insufficient budget to implement it, you can sell stakes in your idea to colleagues.

Over time, the company’s most innovative people will amass substantial innovation budgets. These people can then become idea investors, providing innovation-budget-equity based investments in employees’ ideas; particularly big ideas which an individual employee would not have the budget to implement.

The beauty of the system is that it allows people to grow based upon their innovative strengths. People who are strong on creativity and ideas but weak on implementation, can sell their ideas in order to amass an increasing innovation budget.

People who are stronger on implementation, on the other hand, can buy ideas or co-operate on ideas in order to amass increasing innovation budgets.

Only those people who want nothing to do with innovation will see their budgets stagnate. But such people are usually rather boring. So we need not worry about them, need we?

Still trying to figure out how this can work in a law firm environment.  Maybe my Innovation Assistant could help.

Written on 10/20/04 in Uncategorized
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Help Wanted – Innovation Assistant

I need help.  Since I started reading blogs (and writing this one), I’ve been bombarded on a daily basis with hundreds of incredible ideas from the coolest people on the planet.  While I’ve been doing my best to share them with you while implementing some into my practice, I’ve found that the demands of my actual job are cutting into my time to innovate and think about new things. 

Therefore, I’ve decided I need to hire an Innovation Assistant — a combination personal assistant, brainstorming partner, and project manager —  to help me get some amazing and innovative projects off of my ”to do someday” list and into the real world. 

So here is the deal:  I want anyone who is interested to write me an e-mail describing what you think an Innovation Assistant should do – and then telling me why you should get the job.  I’ll pay the ideal candidate well, and they will be able to work virtually from home 10-20 hours per week. 

Written on 10/19/04 in Uncategorized
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Stupd Client Quotes

Great new website/blog called Clientcopia that collects stupid client quotes (mainly from the design industry).  From the site:

There’s no getting around it. At some point in your career, your patience will be tested with a stupid client who is so clueless that you’ll question your sanity, career choice, and the future of mankind.

You may have dealt with one already, one that just stuns you like a deer in headlights. Dumbfounded to utter anything but an “uhhh…”. Some clients have no concept of reality. They make up their mind, just to change it again to an even more hideous decision. And will end up blaming you for the mess. Can we honestly blame the client? Sure we can…

Clientcopia was created to give you an escape. Take joy in knowing you are not alone.

We all feel your pain…

Some pretty funny stuff here.  Check it out.

Written on 10/12/04 in Client Service, Technology
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Try to be Bob

Genius Hugh MacLeod has another gem (I’ve collected so many, I might add them to my garage sale).  Hugh writes about his favorite cab driver, but he could be writing about any service professional he uses:

About once a week, I have to catch the late train home. Bob the cab driver always meets me the station and drives me to my house.

Bob’s got what Seth Godin calls “The Free Prize”. He’s got what Tom Peters calls “The Wow! Factor”. He’s got something I like that no other cab driver has. It might be his jovial manner, it might be I like the fact his car is colored red. It might be the fact that he’s very reliable. The reason doesn’t matter so much. Regardless, Bob gets my business 100% of the time. When he can’t make it I let his brother pick me up instead, but that doesn’t happen too often. I call no other cab service but Bob’s. There are a lot of cab companies where I live. Cab driving is a pretty commodified business. But I call Bob. Every time. I like Bob.

The minute he pisses me off for whatever reason I’ll find another cab driver I like just as much.

Don’t forget that last sentence when you are dealing with clients.  The biggest mistake lawyers make is to overestimate their client’s loyalty and tolerance for inattention.

Written on 10/11/04 in Marketing
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Take a Clarity Retreat

Evelyn Rodriguez has a great post titled Accelerating Elusive Aha! Moments in which she talks about taking a “clarity retreat” to help her solve problems.  Evelyn is kind enough to share the creative process she uses on her retreats.  Her tips:

1. Stay Open. Ask the questions, but let go of the answers. You might think you have a solution in mind, but don’t cling to it. You’ll be surprised at how much more brilliant your breakthrough will be if you just let go of your fixation that you won’t come up with anything better than your so-so, blah(yawn) solution that’s your back-up plan. Kill the back-up plan.

2. No-Hassle Beauty. Go somewhere simple that doesn’t require a lot of pre-planning. No hassle = low-stress. This is not the time to go on a worldwind tour of Europe. Guy Kawasaki gave away a great retreat location if you live in the Bay Area in his new book, The Art of the Start. (I’m not telling in a public forum, though you can email me.) Ideally stay close to home to avoid air travel; somewhere quiet, typically in nature; and somewhere you’d enjoy being. Ideas can range from day hiking from a base camp/lodge; kayaking along a gentle river or sheltered bay; cross-country skiing hut-to-hut; soaking the gentle sunbeams on the beach as you watch the tide come in; or chilling out on the veranda sipping wine in Napa Valley. Twice I’ve gone on backpacking trips – but this may require too much preparation if you don’t regularly backpack.

 
3. Treat yourself. Re-treat yourself over and over. Make sure you are eating well (if you’re packing and making your own food, make it as simple to prepare as possible so it doesn’t feel like an ordeal…unless you adore cooking…) and sleeping well.

4. Bring a journal. Only journal if you don’t have to force the words on paper – only when and if you’re a conduit to your heart without filtering it through your head. Carry the journal wherever possible. You never know when you might want to sketch or write a poem or something seems important to jot down – leave the option open. Don’t worry if you never even crack it open. That may just be what’s needed especially if you do journal alot now. On one multi-day backpack trip to Grand Canyon, I didn’t write a single word. I thought I had “wasted” the retreat time. Nope, it turned out I needed a break from journaling as well. I was overwhelmed with ideas when I returned back home including the entire outline for a book.

 
5. Avoid email, cellphone and even blogging. Really retreat. Don’t listen to news, radio, or pick up the paper. If you are weak (as I am), you may need to go somewhere where it is impossible to stay in touch – you’d be surprised, even in Bay Area you can drive two miles outside of I-280 and be out of cellphone range and in the beauty of nature.

6. Go alone. With practice you can go with others that are also seeking time to be more contemplative, but the tendency is to be drawn to go sight-see, chat, and otherwise be distracted.

7. Focus on Being Present. I used to be pretty restless and extremely prone to boredom. If you don’t want to “do nothing” that’s fine. Fully engage with what you are doing. Anything that captures your attention fully – whether that’s because you enjoy it intensely or to let your mind wander would be deadly (whitewater-kayaking comes to mind for me). Limit your time reading – and when you do, make it inspirational instead of intellectual. The entire idea is to rest your mind. So whatever you are doing, really do it and nothing else. Be nowhere else that moment. See the glint of the water splashing on the stone, feel the caress of the wind playing through the aspen trees, note the firmness and the give as the autumn leaves crunch under your footfall, gaze at the crystal moon lying on your back against the meadow grass, admire the depth of the sheer vertical vermillion canyon walls echoing your call.

Evelyn’s blog Crossroads Dispatches continually has great posts like this one.  I’m going to schedule a clarity retreat for three days next week.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

Written on 10/11/04 in Innovation
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Idea Garage Sale — Follow Up

I’ve pretty much cleaned out my "idea closet" with my garage sale and I hope that everyone found something worth taking.  Reader (and friend) Yvonne Divita added this comment to one of the garage sale posts:

This ‘idea garage sale’ is a winner. It deserves a blog of its own…with several authors…with encouragement for input…I see some marvelous things coming out of it. Your cookbook reference to generating ideas is another great way to get the mind thinking "out of the box"…let’s find a way to start thinking "out of the book" because we too often rely on books to instruct us on how to do business. (as a writer it pains me to say that, but it’s true.) So, what kind of "out of the book" ideas can we come up with? I’ll start…first, get comfortable in your own space. You can’t begin a business if you’re still struggling to fit yourself into the space society tries to assign you. Create your own space, and fill it with your energy and your expectations. Watch how fast it fills up with useful ‘stuff.’

Any interest out there?

Written on 10/11/04 in Idea Garage Sale, Innovation
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ActiveWords in the NYT!

ActiveWords got a great write-up in the New York Times on October 3.  I still don’t use the program as much as I should, but still find it to be a great time saver.  Congrats, Buzz!

Written on 10/05/04 in Technology
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Idea Garage Sale – Cookbooks

I love cookbooks, though I’m only a fair cook.  The best things about cookbooks is they give you some great ideas of what to make for dinner — leaving the execution of the recipe to you.  Here are some of my "Idea Cookbooks" I’ve accumulated.  I hope they help you cook up some tasty ideas of your own.

Strategic Horizons Articles

Ideas for Leading with Passion

Law Marketing Portal Articles

ThinkAbout

Innovaction Awards

BullMarket

Best Business Opportunities

BrandChannel

BrainSnacks

Chasing Cool

Entrepreneurship Center

Strategos Articles

Growth Manifesto

Thinking Managers

Dumbest Moments in Business

Tom Peters Scorecard

Written on 10/02/04 in Idea Garage Sale, Innovation
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Idea Garage Sale – Building Materials for Building the Perfect Firm

Here are some "building materials" I’ve accumulated as I’ve worked on building my perfect firm. Some are extras, some were the wrong size and didn’t fit, and some are just taking up extra space in my garage. I’d love to sell the whole truckload at once, but will consider any fair offer. Just one thing — you have to come here and pick them up. 

The Office

Winning Workplaces

The Bionic Office

Sprucing Up

The Staff

Keep Those Employees Happy

How Employees can Build the Brand

The Nurturer

Losing or Firing Employees

Perks

Happiness Pays

Mentors

Leading with Passion

The Red Tape

Outsourcing

Atlas Legal Research

Appointment Quest

AnswerConnect

CyberSecretaries

Work Source Scheduling

The Business

Four Steps to Success

Getting Paid

The Board of Directors

Being Cool

Being Just Good Enough

Customer Service

The Client is Key

Financial Fitness

Managing Electronic Files

The Advertising

Web Site Tips

Good Newsletter Design

Hand Written Notes

Branding

Web Design Details

Webby Awards

 

 

Written on 10/02/04 in Idea Garage Sale, Innovation
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Idea Garage Sale – Unattributed Leftovers

Here are a bunch of ideas I’ve had lying around.  I’m sure I’ve bought them from somewhere, but I can’t remember where.  If I’ve taken them (or stolen them) from you, I apologize for not giving you credit.

Weekly Free Time — Give employees an hour of "quiet time" every week — when the phones aren’t answered and meetings aren’t scheduled — to think, read a book, or just relax.

Incorporate Design – Hire a graphic design artist (with no legal portfolio) to review the format and design of every piece of mail and every type of document that goes out to customers.  Also, find the best interior designer in your town and ask them for one hour of time to give you tips on making your office more inviting and less intimidating.  Go to the most expensive and most popular stores and restaurants in your neighborhood.  Look at how they are designed.  Look at the people in them.  These people are comfortable in those environments.  If you want those types of people to be your clients, make your environment similar.

Commit to Clients, Send a Report Card– Prepare a list of client commitments and stick to them.  Include returning phone calls within a specified period of time.  Send the commitments to clients with every bill.  Offer discounts if you don’t live up to any of your commitments.  Give clients a small discount if they send back a "Report Card" with their payment.  Make it look like the ones kids got in the fifties.  Follow up with them on any grade they give below an "A."

The Monthly Status – Get a boilerplate monthly status report saved in every client’s file with their address, etc.  Send it every month and tell them what happened on their case that month.

Find Spaces to Collaborate, Not Just to Meet — Look for space in your office where you can have a comfortable conversation with a client, partner, or staff member.  Having a white board or other brainstorming tool would be a big plus.  Make it a fun place to think.

Create a Firm Master To-Do List — This list isn’t for client matters, but for firm matters.  Make marketing and firm development high priorities.  Make sure everyone has access to the list and place at least one item on the calendar each week to make sure it gets done.

Fund a Local "Genius Grant" — Find the biggest problem in your community and have a competition to solve it.  Involve the schools and retirement homes.  Give a prize for the best solution.  Make sure everyone knows your firm sponsored the competition.  Set aside another part of the prize money to go toward funding the solution.

Start an Exclusive Client Club — Come up with an unprecedented level of service and benefits (at a premium price) and offer it only to your best three customers.  Tell them they can invite others to join the club, but they must "vouch" for the new prospect.  Wait ten years, then retire.

Rewrite all of your Firm Documents — Every week, pick one of your "standard" forms (like retainer agreement) and give it to a sixth grader.  Ask them if they understand it.  Then rewrite it from scratch. 

Offer Gift Certificates — Find some kind of work you do and prepare gift certificates.  Send a notice to your clients telling them the certificates are available for the holidays.  In an estate planning practice, encourage clients to give the certificates to young couples who’ve just married or had children and might need a simple will.  The certificate could be for a will, or even a "free" consultation.

Open Ended Billing – Send a bill with no amount on the bottom.  Make sure you communicate all you’ve done for the client, then let them decide how much it was worth.

Open All Night — Find employees who want to work second and third shifts and experiment with one or two days a month where the firm never closes.  Advertise these days, and find out how many people who’ve never had time to meet with a lawyer come calling!

Find the Smartest People — Ask everyone you know for the names of the smartest people they know.  Invite those people to an exclusive dinner and offer to pay them for one hour each month of their advice — on anything.

Give Books — Go to your local school or library and donate several books on a topic that complements one of your primary practice area.  For instance, if you do divorce work, give the school several books about how children can best deal with divorce; or give the local library several volumes on divorce for adults.  Get your name in the front of each book and get your picture in the paper.

Written on 10/01/04 in Idea Garage Sale, Innovation
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Garage Sale – GMail

Reader Steve Nipper offered up a G-Mail invite in the comments to a previous post.  I’ve got a few setting around too.  First five people to leave comments get ‘em.

Written on 10/01/04 in Idea Garage Sale, Innovation
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Idea Garage Sale – Day 1

For day one of my garage sale, I’ve collected some blog posts.  Twenty-five cents each, or five for a dollar.  If you want to buy them all, the price is negotiable.

A better voice mail greeting.

Five Balls.

Competing with Wal Mart.

The "Whole Enchilada" — Marketing to Hispanics.

Entrepreneurship Quiz

Be a "Category Protagonist"

Creativity and the Future.

Colorful Details make copy more believable.

The Being-Doing Balance.

Five tips for effective growth.

Hotel Minimalism.

Word-of-Mother Marketing.

A dozen habits of successful professionals.

Great leadership quotes.

In-and-Out ideas for lawyers.

Where are you most productive?

Is this how you listen to your clients?

Accountability Quiz.

Coach vs. Manager.

Advocating Pays.

Be a Business Advisor.

Bag the Biggest and Brag.

Targeting Workers for Benefits.

The Overworked.

What pain are you solving?

That’s it for today.  Come back tomorrow for some more great deals!

Written on 10/01/04 in Idea Garage Sale, Innovation
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Idea Garage Sale – Used Bookmarks, Cheap!

Bookmarks for sale.  These bookmarks are gently used and are in fine working condition.  I’ve grouped them as best I can.  Make your best offer!

Billable Hour Remainders

ABA Commission on Billable Hours Report

The New Law Firm Economy — Billable Hours and Professional Responsibility

Looking Beyond the Billable Hour

Step Away from the Billable Hour

Burying the Billable Hour

The short, unhappy history of how lawyers bill their clients.

The Billable Hour: Putting a Wedge Between Client and Counsel

Toys for the Kids

Mr. Picassohead

Bubblewrap

Mulletwigs

Elastic Baby

Superhero Name Creation

RetroCrush

Used Sports Equipment

Sportspages.com

Sportspickle.com

Ham’n'Egg on Golf

Cool Things Defying Catagorization

Word Count

Idea a Day

Fat Fingers

List of Bests

Wonder of it All

The Cluetrain Manifesto

What to Rent

Igougo

Non-Legal Sites with Interesting Ideas for Lawyers

We-We Monitor

Zooba

Strategic Horizons

Consultants for Love

Customer Focus Monitor

Bullfighter

Wordlab

Chinnici Direct

Lego Serious Play

Your Focus Group

We Do Stuff

Play

Dream Dinners

Aztec

Pentagram

Microbusiness

Giving Answers

Foundation Source

CMarket

Peak6

Simple Thinking

Technology Extras

Copytalk

KaVoom

Planet PDF

Mail to the Future

Clear Board

Web Design Stuff

Boxes and Arrows

Stock Exchange Free Photos

Color Schemer Online

Mandarin Design

Fixing Your Web Site

Training and Seminars

Zingerman’s Zingtrain

Customer Evalgelism U.

SolutionPeople

PopTech

Written on 10/01/04 in Idea Garage Sale, Innovation
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Idea Garage Sale.

I’ve been spending the last two weeks doing some housekeeping around the office:  closing files, throwing stuff away, reviewing every open file, and generally organizing the stuff I have sitting around.  One of the things I’ve noticed is how easy it is to accumulate things on the computer.  For instance, I have over two-hundred items in my “to blog” folder on Bloglines alone.  Add to that the hundreds of articles and web sites I’ve book-marked over the last four years and you start to get the picture of some of the electronic cobwebs in my office.

I have finally recognized that I have too many ideas sitting around cluttering things up.  For the next week, I’m going to have an “Idea Garage Sale” on this blog.  I’ll be throwing up tons of links, blurbs, and thoughts that I’ve found laying around for you to take if you want.  If there is anything left at the end of next week, it will get shipped off to Goodwill.

And as for my fellow bloggers, I know you are in the same predicament as I am.  Everyone knows that when the whole neighborhood has a garage sale, more people show up to buy and more stuff gets sold, so join me and have your own Idea Garage Sale, too.

Enjoy your shopping!

Written on 10/01/04 in Idea Garage Sale, Resolutions, Technology
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Quote of the Week

“I’ve found my niche. If you’re wondering why I’m not there, there was this little hole in the bottom…”  John Croll  (Thanks to Tom Asacker at acleareye.com).

Written on 10/01/04 in Quotes
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