July 10, 2006
Law Firm Training–"Mostly Useless"
David Maister’s article Why (Most) Training is Useless deserves your attention. The article is a culmination to date of his thoughts on the subject. His observations have been evolving through a series of blog posts and prior writings which he references in the post introducing the above article.
Maister is particularly addressing the role of training in achieving “change,” especially cultural or strategic changes. As usual, his insight stings but hits its mark. Training is not the right tool to implement change. Done right for the right reason, it can alleviate the negative consequences associated with even positive changes. Training accomplishes little or nothing on its own, however!
As Maister points out:
“Bringing about change is immensely difficult. It requires that managers address questions in four key areas:
- Systems: Does the company actually monitor, encourage, and reward this (new) behavior?
- Attitude: Do people want to do this? Do they buy in to its importance?
- Knowledge: Do they know how to do it?
- Skills: Are they any good at implementing and executing what they know?”
This is Maister’s “Right Approach”:
“The correct process in thinking about training would be to sit top management down and ask: “What are people not doing that we want them to be doing? And do we really know why they aren’t doing them?”
Then it will be necessary to figure out a complete sequence of actions to address each of these questions:
- What behaviors by top management need to change to convince people that the new behaviors are really required, not just encouraged? If the behavior is going to be optional, then so should the training be.
- What measurements need to change?
- What has to happen before the training sessions occur in order to bring about the change?
- What has to be in place the very day they finish?
A full change program would include, at least, an examination of the following:
1. Scorecards (new, permanent measures of performance being trained)
2. Coaching (continuous monitoring and follow-up on the new metrics)
3. Tools (to help implement the training, in place before the training)
4. Training
5. Rewards and/or recognition for achievement
Why (Most) Training is Useless is much more than a recital of best practices for training. It deals with the things one has to have in place to be successful…period. Maister is particularly addressing issues involved in “big” strategic and cultural changes. But change is a constant in business, and the fundamentals for managing change are the same—only the scale of management efforts differs with the magnitude of the change.
One of the cornerstones for morepartnerincome.com is the belief that business, like life, involves constant change. It is a journey, and the role of the law firm’s leadership is to get its entire organization moving in the same direction—something I call I-65 North. To successfully navigate change and achieve its benefits, one must first understand it. The chart below shows what change tends to look like:
Change results in a downward spike in performance. It takes time and “KASH” before the change curve turns upward and the new targeted level of performance is achieved. KASH stands for new Knowledge which, when combined with the right Attitude, results in new Skills, which, through use, become Habit. It is at the point when use becomes habit that the change curve finally reflects the achievement of the targeted higher performance level.
Management’s job is to take action to reduce the size of the downward spike and to provide the conditions for the curve to turn upward sooner rather than later. Start with the right way to implement change - incrementally. The smaller the change, the shallower the downward spike.
Second, use the following tools:
1. Form a Change Group. People resist change that they don’t understand or change that is “done to them.” By forming change groups to help prepare and plan for the change, you give people the opportunity to buy into it. That makes the change, and the plan for making it successful, their own. This also helps supply the key ingredient of successful change—attitude.
2. Make sure all those affected have the needed new knowledge. Don’t skimp on training. Let the change group participate in determining the training plan and in disseminating the needed new information throughout the firm as needed.
3. Measure and recognize (ceremonialism) early achievements and people accomplishments.
4. Give the areas affected by the change extra management attention until the desired improvement has been achieved. Increased attention alone has a positive (though short term) impact on performance, thus flattening the downward spike of the change curve.
5. Give change a chance. Remember, it takes time for new skills to become habit.
If there is an essential element, it is the “A” in KASH. Without the right attitude, the objective of change cannot be achieved. As Jim Collins has written and David Maister would surely agree, “First get the right people on the bus.”
Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris, Inc. For information about Juris® products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income, go to www.Juris.com.
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Filed under Firm Culture, Management by Tom Collins