Establishing a Work Flow Process in Your Firm

We are continuing to talk about "getting the work done" as one of the five things that make up every business in the world. As you know, the other four are as follows: "clients or customers," "administration," "billing," and "getting paid."

What I would like to talk about this week is office procedures for establishing a work flow process. In doing this we have to talk about what is a priority, how to establish a priority and why and how priorities change and how to deal with the changing nature of priorities.

The ironic thing about every piece of legal business is that it has a life of its own. If you stop to think about it, every piece of legal business starts with some communication with the client. We have talked about the various ways that you can come across these pieces of legal business. Once you have come up with a contact from a possible client, you need to follow through on the engagement. Once the engagement is taken on, you can go through the various administrative steps that we have previously described. Once the file gets opened, you are now ready to "get the job done."

Over the years I have found that every piece of legal business fits into one of two categories. It is either litigation or non-litigation. I previously discussed the various steps that you can take in dealing with each of these. These steps range everywhere from collecting the facts and the documents or the evidence to ultimately closing the deal or trying the case. I am not going to repeat all of those various steps in this article.

What I would like to talk about is how to determine what it is that is the next thing that you should try to work on

I have recently read regarding the "Seven Habits of Successful People" by Steven Covey. The seven habits are as follows: 1) Be proactive; 2) Begin with the end in mind; 3) Put first things first; 4) Think win/win; 5) Seek first to understand, then to be understood; 6) Synergize; and 7) Sharpen the saw.

I think you can see how all of these seven habits make sense in a law firm. Let's take each one of them one at a time to see if we can expand upon some of the thoughts that go through my mind about these with regard to a law firm.

First, be proactive. I have often used the phrase "do something, do anything, even if it is not perfect, do something!" You cannot "get the work done," without doing something. I have also used the phraseology "the Swiss cheese method." Start poking holes in the project, and before long you have finished the project and all the cheese is gone. I am also reminded of the phrase "saying it is so, doesn't make it so." "Talk is cheap." I am also reminded of the phrase "getting started is the hardest part." Each and every one of these phrases is totally accurate. If you are going to be a successful lawyer, you have to be proactive and "set a plan and work your plan."

Secondly, you have to begin with the end in mind. One of my favorite quotes is "it is very difficult to remember your initial purpose was to drain the swamp when you are up to your ass in alligators." At least this quote tells it like it is, your initial purpose was to drain the swamp. That was the end you had in mind. Remember, this quote does not say it is impossible to remember your initial purpose, it just says it is difficult. You are going to be up to your ass in alligators if you practice law. You are going to have deadlines. You are going to have demanding clients. You are going to have lawyers on the opposite side that are trying to keep you from accomplishing what you try to accomplish. You are going to have judges that are busy and expect for you to meet their expectations. I could go on and on, but if you will figure out what the end result is, keep that end result in your mind and work inextricably and relentlessly towards that end, you will more often than not get somewhere at least close to your plan.

Thirdly, put first things first. There is absolutely no excuse for setting priorities. Remember the triage system. If what you need to get done will kill your client or you, that is a number one priority. If what you need to get done will hurt your client or you, that is a number two priority. If what you need to get done can be put off and no harm will come from it, that is a number three priority. Everything has a priority. The priorities change. The secret and the art of practicing law is to recognize, understand and embrace the priorities.

Fourthly, think win/win. Whether the thought of win/win has to do with you and your client, you and your staff, you and your family or you on the other side of a legal matter, thinking win/win more often than not gets better results than thinking otherwise. If your whole thought process is that you need to win or your client needs to win and the other side must utterly lose, you are certainly going to be in for a big fight. Even in a lawsuit, if you can figure out a way to do a win/win, you are probably going to get there much quicker. Even where lots of money changes hands, it can still be a win/win if the amount of money that changes hands is less than what might have happened if you had taken the case in front of a jury. I could give you many more examples, but if you think about a way to try and have everybody come out of whatever it is you are trying to accomplish in the law to live to fight yet another day, you are probably doing things the right way. Obviously, there are times when this will not work, but I think if you go back over any part of your legal career no matter how short it may have been, you will find that often times the most rewarding experiences have been the ones that were win/win.

Fifthly, seek first to understand, then to be understood. You have heard me say many, many times a local phrase I really enjoy is "walk two moons in the other person's moccasins." Remember that knowledge is power. If you try to understand where the other side is coming from, no matter whether it is a client, again, your staff, your family or the other side, you will probably find yourself doing a better job of being an advocate, doing a better job as a negotiator, and ultimately being a better lawyer. Try to understand where your clients are coming from, identify with them, commiserate with them, sympathize with them, if you can empathize with them, empathize as well and then seek to give them your sage legal advice and counsel.

Sixthly, synergize. Covey says that synergy is achieved through the creative process. Think outside the box and bring in other opinions. Ask for input. Creativity can be intimidating because it leads you into the unknown, but often times creativity is what clients need the most. Take reasonable chances. Stick your neck out. "Behold the turtle, he never goes anywhere until he sticks out his neck." Often times, the practice of law is a series of calculated risk. The emphasis here is on the word calculated. Someone said to me once, "don't deny your life's experiences," trust yourself. Do what you think is right. All of these things will go a long way to helping you "get the job done."

Seventh, sharpen the saw. Basically what this means is to get enough sleep, get enough exercise, laugh a lot, don't take yourself too seriously, smile, catch other people doing things correctly and compliment them on the same, pay attention to your body and what it is telling you, pay attention to your mind and don't get overloaded, and even if you are not totally successful on all of these things, by taking care of yourself, the other six steps will seem a lot easier for you to accomplish on a day to day basis.

I think if you take the foregoing explanations and apply them to what you do every day in the office, I think you will see that you are actually "getting the work done." I try to do the following things at least part of every day: 1) Sit down at my home office desk and go through the mail and the bills; 2) Read my local newspaper; 3) Try to get as much paper off of my desk as I can; 4) Review my calendar to help me set priorities for the day; 5) Review my emails; 6) Return as many phone calls as possible; 7) Write as many thank you notes and congratulatory notes to people who come to my attention on a daily basis; 8) Eventually try to review some administrative things that are not client connected; 9) Review my calendar every day to see what I have done, bill what I have done, make notes about what I need to do and look at what I have going on in the next several days to a week; and 10) I try to sleep, eat, drink in moderation, exercise where possible, be involved in my community, my profession, and in particular, my family.

In short, I try to do what I can do on a daily basis to try to keep up with everything that I need to do in order to be a successful person. I have found that the one thing that seems to keep me sane, is to stay organized enough to "know how far behind I am." Remember, my philosophy is much like that of a person who holds a public office, if you ever stop running for officer, you are out of office. If you ever get caught up, you are out of business.

Next week we are going to talk about an example of a rule in your firm that you can set up that is an example of the kinds of rules that help everyone to understand not only what it takes to "get the work done," but how important it is to get the work don on a timely basis. The rule I am going to use as an example to start with is the "pre 4:44 pm/rule." I will have some other of these kinds of rules that we can talk about over the next couple of weeks so you can get the idea of how these kinds of rules can be set up in your office and how you are going to make everyone a lot happier about effectively and efficiently "getting the work done." I think you will find some of these rules quite interesting, provocative and useful.

Talk with you next week.

Jim Wirken is a civil trial attorney and the Chairman of the Board of The Wirken Law Group in Kansas City.