Mary - I couldn't agree more with you, David Gurteen and Steve Billing. 'Think for yourself' but learn from others is becoming increasingly important in a world where 'old truths' are challenged daily but new developments.
Where we are seeing real breakthroughs at our firm is in areas where do things quite differently, make the occasional mistake, talk to others, listen carefully and adapt rapidly. For example, at the moment we are working on a couple of developments that are radically changing transparency for our clients but without threatening our lawyers or impacting our clients' internal confidentiality rules. In this instance we are planning to share email correspondence securely and in real-time. I don't think this has been done before in exactly this way. Well start small & go from there.
Gerard.
VMaryAbraham
· 2 months ago
Thanks very much, Gerard.
You and your team are famous for thinking creatively about how to improve the practice and business of law. It appears that the starting point is innovating sufficiently to make the inevitable mistake or two. Then, the key is to respond quickly. You've mentioned the need to listen carefully and adapt rapidly. Both of these essential behaviors are too frequently ignored when we are fixated on implementing best practices.
Good luck with your e-mail transparency project!
- Mary
Nimmy
· 2 months ago
Nice post!
It all depends on how desperate we are to accomplish something - quickly. We must rather let a "Best Practice" inspire us than make us want to blindly follow what it advocates. We must "derive" info from such practices rather than use them as they are. They will not be harmful as long as one focuses on the core concepts that the practice stems from and, of course, the context associated. And then, we must debate and discuss it within our own environments before we decide whether it will work for us or not...
VMaryAbraham
· 2 months ago
Nimmy -
I like your idea of distilling the core concepts derived from best practices and then adapting them for our own environments. In that way, we learn from others, borrow the best from them, but still create a solution that actually works for us. It's a win-win all around.
- Mary
Philip Struchkov
· 2 months ago
Mary,
I agree with you that "Best Practice" should not be the rule of how something should be done. I think it is more about what should be done and why it should be done. It is useful to study best practices in terms of what could be changed and what results could be achieved.
Phil
VMaryAbraham
· 2 months ago
Thanks, Phil.
It's possible that some disciplines (for example, medicine?) actually have best practices that work in most contexts and should be followed scrupulously -- at least until research shows that they shouldn't be. However, I wonder if this is the exception rather than the rule? How many other disciplines can make a similar claim?
- Mary
Philip Struchkov
· 2 months ago
Mary,
I think that the more constant subject of discipline is the wider context where best practices should be followed scrupulously. Even medicine with the human body as a subject has best practices working in most contexts but from time to time researches proof that the practice should be changed. For those disciplines which have less constant subject like KM best practices should be more general guidelines than the action plans.
Phil
VMaryAbraham
· 2 months ago
Phil -
You raise an intriguing question. Are there ANY best practices in any disciplines that may safely be followed blindly? If not, what's really a best practice?
- Mary
Philip Struchkov
· 2 months ago
Mary,
You already had answered first question in your post Resting on Your Laurels Ruins Best Practices :)
I am personally against blind following of any best practices in any case in any discipline. I know only one best practice which applies to any of discipline in any case "...actually do the hard work of thinking for yourself..". I am trying to do my best to follow this best practice every single day.
I believe that best practices should not be followed blindly but rather for should make people think themselves. However I can't say all disciplines as I have experience in some of them only.
Phil
VMaryAbraham
· 2 months ago
Phil -
As you can see, my blog posts reflect my ongoing internal conversation on these topics!
I like your nomination for the best of best practices (i.e., do the hard work of thinking for yourself). It's guaranteed to work, assuming one's thinking is sound!
All Comments
Where we are seeing real breakthroughs at our firm is in areas where do things quite differently, make the occasional mistake, talk to others, listen carefully and adapt rapidly. For example, at the moment we are working on a couple of developments that are radically changing transparency for our clients but without threatening our lawyers or impacting our clients' internal confidentiality rules. In this instance we are planning to share email correspondence securely and in real-time. I don't think this has been done before in exactly this way. Well start small & go from there.
Gerard.
You and your team are famous for thinking creatively about how to improve the practice and business of law. It appears that the starting point is innovating sufficiently to make the inevitable mistake or two. Then, the key is to respond quickly. You've mentioned the need to listen carefully and adapt rapidly. Both of these essential behaviors are too frequently ignored when we are fixated on implementing best practices.
Good luck with your e-mail transparency project!
- Mary
It all depends on how desperate we are to accomplish something - quickly. We must rather let a "Best Practice" inspire us than make us want to blindly follow what it advocates. We must "derive" info from such practices rather than use them as they are. They will not be harmful as long as one focuses on the core concepts that the practice stems from and, of course, the context associated. And then, we must debate and discuss it within our own environments before we decide whether it will work for us or not...
I like your idea of distilling the core concepts derived from best practices
and then adapting them for our own environments. In that way, we learn from
others, borrow the best from them, but still create a solution that actually
works for us. It's a win-win all around.
- Mary
I agree with you that "Best Practice" should not be the rule of how something should be done. I think it is more about what should be done and why it should be done.
It is useful to study best practices in terms of what could be changed and what results could be achieved.
Phil
It's possible that some disciplines (for example, medicine?) actually have best practices that work in most contexts and should be followed scrupulously -- at least until research shows that they shouldn't be. However, I wonder if this is the exception rather than the rule? How many other disciplines can make a similar claim?
- Mary
I think that the more constant subject of discipline is the wider context where best practices should be followed scrupulously. Even medicine with the human body as a subject has best practices working in most contexts but from time to time researches proof that the practice should be changed.
For those disciplines which have less constant subject like KM best practices should be more general guidelines than the action plans.
Phil
You raise an intriguing question. Are there ANY best practices in any disciplines that may safely be followed blindly? If not, what's really a best practice?
- Mary
You already had answered first question in your post Resting on Your Laurels Ruins Best Practices :)
I am personally against blind following of any best practices in any case in any discipline. I know only one best practice which applies to any of discipline in any case "...actually do the hard work of thinking for yourself..". I am trying to do my best to follow this best practice every single day.
I believe that best practices should not be followed blindly but rather for should make people think themselves. However I can't say all disciplines as I have experience in some of them only.
Phil
As you can see, my blog posts reflect my ongoing internal conversation on these topics!
I like your nomination for the best of best practices (i.e., do the hard work of thinking for yourself). It's guaranteed to work, assuming one's thinking is sound!
- Mary