This is a great piece by Neil Araujo at iManage - looking at the 5 Best Practices for successful Digital Transformation.

The first point he raises is this :

"Recognize that digital transformation is a process that begins with change to a firm’s culture"

People, Process & Technology is the drum we beat, regularly, to the same tempo. I have spent the best part of 15 years in Professional Services, working for one of the Big 4, Top 20 Law Firm and Global Real Estate firm, in a Business Development role. It is a unique sector, and one that I love. You are working with highly intelligent individuals who have, to all intents & purposes continued in higher education.  Their careers are spent continually learning at a very cerebral level. They are studying their craft, to be able use this knowledge they have acquired to help solve the most complex business problems.

Their world is being challenged from all sides now, technology will replace some types of advisory work, where the output has to be interpreted, so rather then reading case law or by the volume, this can now be done in the blink of an eye,  but what do you then do with that data? How does that makes us think differently about what has been the norm? There is also now the real threat from the Big 4 to the "Traditional Legal" sector, notwithstanding will we see an "Uberisation" of law? I doubt it at the high end complex end, however, run of the mill stuff - who knows

All this means that the market is very competitive and Lawyers are having to accept that they are also sales people - which is not what they set out to be, they wanted to be Lawyers. This is evermore important for the younger generation of Lawyer coming through the ranks.

I work with a number of Law firms, helping them understand why social is an absolutely critical part of their business development strategy, and it is they, the Lawyers, who have to own this, not BD, Marketing or PR. 

What has been a common theme from all of the workshops I run is this. Fear.  Varying levels, but there is a fear - what if I get it wrong, what if no-one reads my post, what if, what if, what if. For those of you that are familiar with Myers Briggs, it is accepted that most Lawyers are on the "I" side of things "Introverts" vs Sales who are typically "E"side of things "Extroverts". You have to understand and respect this in order to be able understand this in order to help  them change how they think about this. This is why this is done over a 12 week programme of workshops to get them to think differently. This cannot be achieved in one "Linkedin Training" session.

The other theme is Permission - am I actually allowed to do this. Yes. However, they have been given no framework within which to work through, hence they don't do it.

Finally - I don't have the time. I get quite robust with this and challenge as to why. I have to get them away from thinking like this - this is not a question of time, but a question building it into your day to day. And everyone will be unique in their approach. I also have proof of busy Partners who are more than capable to find the time on both Linkedin & Twitter to be social. And the resulting business conversations this yields.

I do however believe more can be done for the new generation of Lawyer who is still studying at University or those considering an LPC - for me it is astounding how little awareness there is of how to use social - and this with the alleged Millenial Digital Native....

I tweeted about this on the news of Christina Blacklaws being appointed the new President of the Law Society for England & Wales - she even retweeted my tweet - how times are changing.