June 8, 2005
Planning Moderator
I previously posted “The Structure to Structured Planning”. If you have not read that posting you might want to read it now. This posting deals with the moderator’s approach during the planning session. There are two main approaches for conducting strategic planning sessions. One is the Brainstorming approach and the other is the Consensus Process. I favor the latter. Both require someone from the outside or a planning team member to be the moderator.
The Brainstorming process during the opportunity section would go like this: “ For the next 30 to 45 minutes (and without discussion or making any judgments), let’s list on these flip charts every opportunity we can think of to improve our law firm from the standpoint of partners, employees, clients, etc.” That is done in rapid open forum. The moderator begins to reduce the list. For example, the moderator might ask the group to classify each item as one that would have a major, moderate or insignificant impact on the firm. Moderate and insignificant items would be left for another day. Attendees would then be asked to rank the impact of the remaining list, eventually reducing the list in an effort to uncover the opportunities with the most impact on the future success of the firm. Remember, one of the reasons for the planning process is to get the entire team unified behind the main things on which the firm will concentrate. That doesn’t mean they are the only things the firm will do. The organization will likely accomplish little if it doesn’t concentrate on something.
The second approach, which I prefer, works like this. I would ask each planning team member to write down what he/she think would be our best 10 opportunities for increased performance and health of the firm during the planning period ahead (a three- to five-year period). Once every team member has completed his/her task, I would ask them to number the items on their list from 1 to 10. The item given the number 1 ranking would be the best opportunity. I would then ask them to draw a line between items 5 and 6 on their list. I would go around the room asking each member for his/her number one item. If the next person's number one item had already been mentioned, they would give me their number 2 item, etc. That process would continue until the top five items for each of the participants were among the listed items on one of our flip charts. This process builds the confidence of planning members because those participating in the process discovered there is a lot of commonality among their lists. Planning is a discovery process. Sometimes it is the discovery of the obvious; sometimes a new light bulb goes on. The similarity of the list illustrates that planning is going on continually, not just when the planning team assembles off site or in a conference room. Sometimes the planning process just makes it possible for the organization to work together to go where they already thought the firm should be going.
Now, with everyone’s top 5 items listed, the moderator will ask the team to rank the entire list of items (probably 12 to 15 items). After they have done so, the moderator tallies the results. I use several methods, but the simplest is a show of hands. “Who has this item listed as their number one?” I would move to the next item and ask again, “Who has this item as number one?” Repeat the process for the planning team members' number two items, etc. Generally you need to run through the list no more than 5 times to see a clear pattern. Most midsized firms will limit its Main Thing opportunity list to 3 to 8 new main opportunities. These are the biggies: getting out of the practice area, developing a new practice area, shutting down an office, acquiring expertise in employment law, upgrading the firm’s business system, revising the firm’s compensation system, implementing a system for measuring client satisfaction, revising the compensation system to include mentoring as a part of the computation formula. Implement a program to increase the firm’s leverage from 1.1 to 2.1, implement a training program, and install a mentoring system to increase utilization of new associates in their first year, etc.
Planning is a discovery process. Sometimes it is a discovery of the obvious and sometimes it breaks new ground. The one thing you can count on is that we are far more likely to get there if we know where we are going and how we are supposed to get there. I refer to that as "I65 North". I65 North is a reminder that the law firm business is a journey and that the leadership’s job is to get all of the firm’s people traveling in the same direction.
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Filed under Planning by Tom Collins