What Lawyers Could Learn about Client Relationships …..from Psychologists

Posted on 1 October 2012 by tonyreiss
Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud (Photo credit: Psychology Pictures)

We tend to think that we’re rational and have a logical basis for making decisions. Behavioural psychologists show that we’re wrong if we think that. How can lawyers benefit from greater insights into the strange workings of clients’ brains?

Kahneman, in Thinking Fast and Slow, writes about brains having two modes – System 1 which is automatic and thinks quickly with minimum effort and System 2 when we are giving our full mental attention to something. He shows that System 1 can easily overtake the workings of System 2, because it’s lazy!

Consider the question he puts in his book to demonstrate this point:

A bat and ball cost $1.10. The bat costs one dollar more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?

The number 10 probably came to your mind. But if you thought 10c you were wrong. That would mean the total cost is $1.20. The correct answer is 5c. This is an example of System 1 thinking taking over.

Here are just a few tips from Behavioural Psychologists on how to work with clients or staff differently to get more positive responses.

1.  First impressions really do count

Getting off to a good start in interviews or client meetings has thought to be important for a long time. Now there is scientific evidence that this is true.

Ask yourself what you would think of these two candidates:

Jo: bright – analytical – hard working – authoritative – emotional – stubborn

Sam: stubborn – emotional – authoritative – hard working – analytical – bright

If you’re like most of us you will have viewed Jo more positively than Sam, yet both have the same attributes. Being stubborn after you know they are bright might be thought of as a positive trait. But knowing that a stubborn person is intelligent somehow is seen potentially as a dangerous combination.

Apparently we should consider human beings to be like machines that jump to conclusions, many of which are wrong! Let’s be honest, most firms make poor judgements about lateral hires and we can all think that just because a person is a good lawyer, that they will become a good partner!

Learning for professionals: Try not to jump to conclusions too early when interviewing potential staff. Be rigorous. Be clear about the attributes you’re looking for. Look for hard evidence that they have delivered in the past.

2.  When offering prices for your work, use anchors, but not the nautical kind!

I’ve tried this experiment a couple of times and it demonstrates this point well. I ask everybody to write down the date of the month that they were born on and to focus on this figure. Then I bring out a decent bottle of wine and say I’m raffling it for an important charity and to invite bids. Believe it or not, those people with birthdays at the end of the month are more generous! Honestly, they are! This is the so-called anchoring effect.

One experiment on the powerful effect of anchoring was carried out at the San Francisco Exploratorium where visitors were asked:

Is the height of the tallest redwood more or less than 1,200 feet (c 400 metres)? What is your best guess about the height of the tallest redwood?

A second group was given a low anchor of 180 feet (60 metres). The two average answers were 844 feet and 282 feet, producing an anchoring effect of 55%.

Learning for Professionals: Before quoting a price, go through the risks to the client of not doing a thorough job and the benefits to them of having the job done well. Provide a project plan with the list of tasks and make sure the client is clear about the complexity of these tasks. This will have the effect of getting the clients to imagine the likely price. Then offer your price. Hopefully it will be less than they imagined and they’ll go ahead thinking they’ve got a bargain!

3.  Be generous when networking – potential clients will reciprocate

In Cialdini’s book, The Psychology of Persuasion, reciprocity is considered one of main elements of influence. If someone invites us to a party we tend to invite them back. We feel obliged to return favours.

This technique is widely used in the commercial world:

  • supermarkets offer us free cubes of cheese on the deli counter
  • smiling shop attendants hand out sachets of free product
  • direct mailing envelopes contain free gifts.

In an experiment in the USA some subjects receive an unsolicited can of Coke from another ‘spoof’ candidate. Others received nothing. When the spoof candidate asks the subjects if they’d be prepared to buy some raffle tickets, those that received the free Coke buy twice as many tickets as those not offered Coke. Furthermore they spend more than the value of the Coke!

All these techniques work because they successfully create a deep sense of obligation.

Learning for Professionals: Be generous in your networking. Think about what your prospective clients would value. Much of the time, it’s your attention – somebody that’s prepared to listen and perhaps offer some straightforward advice. Another way of being generous is to give up time to connect some of your contacts to other contacts. These psychological studies suggest your generosity will reap rewards.

4.  Provide positive evidence that you will be effective and add value

System 1 is basically lazy. It jumps to easy conclusions often with little evidence. So if we provide some straightforward positive evidence that we will deliver results, prospective clients will take the easy way out of decision-making and imagine you being successful.

The alternative requires a lot more effort by the client to imagine all the data they haven’t got. Kahnemann calls this effect WYSIATI – What You See Is All There Is.

Learning for Professionals: To win work from new clients, tell stories of how you’ve helped other clients. One firm I know has produced a video providing testimonies. If a client is keen on getting a deal done in 12 weeks, provide a project plan showing you get it done in 11 weeks

There are lots of other wonderful social experiments that can teach lawyers about the strange and wonderful behaviour of human beings. If you would like to know more I recommend these two books for starters:

Influence – The Psychology of Persuasion, Robert Cialdini – Harper

Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman – Penguin

Posted in Business Development and Selling, Coaching and Training, Fee Negotiating, Leadership and Management, Networking | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

What Makes the Difference Between Great Trainers and Good Trainers – I’m not talking about shoes!

Posted on 19 September 2012 by tonyreiss
Adidas Tamai women training shoes

Not these kind of trainers!

Like most of us, I’ve experienced being at the receiving end of some great training, as well some mediocre stuff.

I’ve become interested in what makes great trainers great. I’ve started a programme of watching their actions more intently and I’ve interviewed a few to try to ascertain what they are doing and how they are being that helps make them so effective.

Here are what I think are the differences.

  1. Great trainers have a greater desire to make a difference. They have a bigger drive, an ambition, a passion to deliver great work and create shifts.

I know some trainers who spend as much effort interviewing their clients to ensure the client is as passionate as they are in making a difference. If the trainer doesn’t sense that the equivalent passion is there, they’ll turn down the work opportunity.

Great trainers tend to not like just running a training course. They’ll want the underlying business objectives, systems and processes aligned with the training objectives. They’ll want ongoing support in place for participants, in the form of action learning sets and sponsoring mentors. They want these things in place because they know they all contribute to making a difference.

This desire to make a difference is also evident in their relationship with the individuals attending the programmes. They listen to participants more intently. They want to get to know the participants better. They are more rigorous on action planning and follow up to ensure results are achieved.

2. Great trainers find it easier to connect with the group and to get into a state of ‘flow’. Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi is credited with being the founder of this concept and it is particularly well established that top sports and musical performers attribute their high performance levels to being in a state of flow.

A good trainer can often be too self conscious to be truly present and truly connected with the group and the individuals in the group. Great trainers find a way to get above this and control their state to give the group their full attention.

Even great trainers will get knocked out of their state of flow. An interruption, a change to the schedule, a difficult challenge from a participant will all have the effect of spoiling the state. I watched one great trainer and how she dealt with such occasions. It was marvellous. She simply stepped back, took a couple of deep breaths, stood up a little taller, raised her chin, stepped forward and she was back in flow. It just took 3 or 4 seconds.

For more information on this concept of flow see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)

3. Great trainers are skilled in being both highly supportive and highly challenging and can judge in the moment where to be on that spectrum. Some trainers have a tendency to want to be liked too much. They focus primarily on being highly supportive, but not particularly challenging.

As we all know, each group of participants is made up of:

  • The Prisoners – who are sat there screaming in their heads ‘let me out!’
  • The Protestors – who say out loud from time to time ‘ but that won’t work’
  • The Passengers – there for the ride, not really committed but also not disrupting proceedings.
  • The Participants – there to learn!

Some of them are likely to benefit from some change in the way they think or behave and this is likely to require some tactful challenge! Some of this challenge might take place in the group discussions. Some of it might be better done offline in a more private space. But great trainers tend to have the courage and skills to have these conversations if they judge that this will enhance their learning.

4. Great trainers are less ‘me, me, me’ and tend to be less directive and more facilitative. They seem to have less of an ego and are comfortable not necessarily having full control over what is happening. They will listen to the group and judge in the moment how best to deliver the programme for the good of the participants. Other trainers tend to like the limelight too much and stick to the script for too long because of their anxiety of losing control.

Great trainers recognise that ultimately the choice and the responsibility to engage and learn is that of the learner. Trainers can increase the chances of this but not secure it. Whilst passionately wanting to make a difference, great trainers are confident enough not to be too attached to whatever the participants learn.  As a wise dean of a law school once said ‘They will learn what they will learn…we can support this but not do it for them.’

I remember being on a 4 day pilot programme with one of the oil majors. The trainer could sense the participants weren’t all fully engaged and helped facilitate a process for a redesign. We lost a couple of hours, but the participants were all thrilled with what resulted.  And they thought the trainer, who seemed to be a particularly modest chap, was a star!

Great trainers are more open to their own personal development, to explore their strengths and vulnerabilities. 

5.  Great trainers have a more respectful attitude towards participants. They show a respectful understanding of others’ challenges and difficulties, with patience, acceptance and, importantly, without judgement.

Furthermore they believe in the inherent capacity of people to engage their inner resources to learn and develop – if they choose to do so.

They have a positive and encouraging regard for others and are good at identifying strengths in everyone they work with.

In a nutshell, great trainers are:

  • Passionate about really wanting to make a difference
  • Able to find and hold a state of flow
  • Skilled to work in a highly supportive and highly challenging way and can judge where to be on that spectrum in the moment
  • Modest and comfortable being less directive and more facilitative
  • Respectful and non-judgemental in their attitude towards participants

Hope you can find some! They’ll be worth it!

Thanks to Elaine Hynd at Lumina Consulting for some insights and additional comments in this blog (www.luminaconsulting.com)

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Coaches – Are We Challenging Enough?

Posted on 18 September 2012 by tonyreiss
Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Come to the edge. We can‘t. We‘re afraid.

Come to the edge. We can‘t. We will fall!

Come to the edge. And they came.

And he pushed them. And they flew.

By Guillaume Apollinaire

Coaches need to be more challenging! That’s one of the main conclusions from the book Challenging Coaching by Ian Day and John Blakey.

When asked to score their coaching style on a scale from 0 (supportive, attending to the clients agenda, with empathy, summarizing and active listening) and 10 (challenging, positively confronts, holds the client accountable, provides honest feedback, challenges assumptions and the coach uses intuition and takes risks), most coaches score themselves between 3 and 6. Perhaps not surprising as most coaches want to help and support people.

However, the authors argue that too often in business (and in life in general) people actively avoid challenging interventions fearing that these will cause disruption and create ill-will. A high level of challenge is not inherently ‘wrong‘. Indeed the absence of challenge in a business environment risks complacency, indulgence, apathy and disinterest.

What are the skills needed by coaches to be highly supportive and highly challenging?

Feedback – providing challenging feedback that informs and inspires, and ensures that praise and recognition for a job well done are balanced with honest feedback on mistakes, learning, and failures.

Accountability -coaching clients are held accountable for commitments without blame or shame. Accountability is extended from personal commitments to alignment with the values, strategy, and ethos of the wider organisation. The coach anticipates the rising tide of accountability in the world at large and is a role model this behaviour in their daily work.

Courageous goals – moving beyond rational, incremental goal-setting models such as SMART, to goal-setting that engages the right-brain attributes of courage, excitement, inspiration, and transformation.

Tension—tension is constructive and is used to optimise performance without risking burnout. Tension in a conversation can be calibrated and dynamically adjusted to ensure peak performance.

Systems thinking— coaching within the big picture issues such as sustainability, values, ethics, and the long term performance that reaches beyond the immediate individual and touches on deeper organisational change. The coach can learn from the world of systems thinking which enables the coach to be a positive agent of change for the wider organisation.

By using the acronym FACTS they grounded the approach in a word that sums up a theme of realism, honesty and challenge. Many coaches may say that they do many of these things already, however, the authors encourage coaches to turn up the volume and consistently do more and take risks to push further.

My own view is that there is probably something in this idea. As coaches, we can want to be liked too much! The challenge for coaches though is to judge where to be on that spectrum at any moment in time. And that’s quite a challenge!

For more information see http://challengingcoaching.co.uk/wp-dev/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/AoEC-article-March-2012.pdf

Challenging Coaching–Going beyond traditional coaching to face the FACTS is published by Nicholas Brealey Publishing

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The Art of Asking for Referrals – The Power of Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Posted on 17 September 2012 by tonyreiss
If Satisfied...

If Satisfied… Tell Others

Asking for referrals is probably one of the most effective business development activities. It costs you nothing and yet can have a hugely positive effect on your income stream. It seem obvious to me that it’s so much more powerful when somebody else says ‘You’re great’ than when you say it – particularly when the ‘somebody else’ is already trusted.

Most clients who are delighted with your service will be pleased to be asked to provide referrals. It can help develop a stronger sense of a partnering relationship. Also we typically feel good when we can give something to somebody. So why doesn’t happen much?

When we discuss this technique with partners we discover that they find the idea of asking for referrals uncomfortable. They fear it might be seen as too pushy or they fear being rejected by the client. Also they rather naively think that referrals might be being made without asking for them. The harsh reality is that hardly any are. Your clients probably think you’re too busy!

Here is a straightforward four step process for asking for referrals which isn’t pushy and which is designed to be effective.

1.    Seek feedback on your work to date

The pre-requisite for a successful request for referrals is that you have a delighted client. By asking for feedback and hearing their level of delight, you can be sure to proceed. If you receive some degree of criticism, you may be better to forego making the request until a later stage. You could say something like this:

“We value our relationship with you and would appreciate knowing the extent to which you are entirely happy with the service we’re offering and whether there are any areas we can improve”

2.    Make your request for referrals and explain why

Start by reminding the client of the trust they are placing in you and leverage off this to make your request.

“We appreciate the continued confidence you place in us delivering a good service. We are keen to maintain our excellent reputation and seek to expand so we can continue to invest in quality people and more innovative processes etc. We would appreciate you mentioning us to others. We will look out for any such referrals and put extra effort into ensuring we impress any new client, thereby making a good impression on you, as well as us.”

3.    Provide any guidance on how a referral could be made

It will help if you make it easy for your client to make referrals, so make the process clear and comfortable: 

“We would suggest you mention to [specify types of organisation and roles] that we’ll offer a free consultation and not charge anything until we have provided a fee quote and your referral has agreed to proceed with us”

4.    Appreciate the client for prospective referrals and follow up

You will increase the chances of the client taking action if you reinforce your appreciation and offer some kind of incentive. Also it will be important to keep in touch with the client and reinforce your appreciation.

“Any referral you make will be greatly appreciated and we will acknowledge those referrals with [a small payment, a gift, a reciprocal arrangement of referrals, a thank you etc]” 

Possible Objections 

It can be important to consider what potential objections the referrer might have to your request. One possible objection is that they won’t want to share you with their competitors. They might perceive that they are getting important competitive advantage from your services.

As with all objections in the selling process it is good practice to probe and ascertain what their underlying concern is and offer a response which addresses the concern. For example:

  • You could offer the services of your other partners, rather than yourself
  • You could ask for referrals to their suppliers or customers rather than their direct competitors

Importance of Monitoring and Follow Up 

Firms should record which clients are making referrals and ensure that the firm is responding appropriately. It is pretty obvious that your clients will not want to feel unappreciated or taken for granted!

…and…if you like this blog, pass it on!

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Modelling Excellence – A Basis for Sharing Deep Knowledge and Skills

Posted on 12 September 2012 by tonyreiss
Knowledge as iceberg

Knowledge as iceberg (Photo credit: mars_discovery_district)

Within every organisation one can identify people who are masters at what they do. They might be better at selling or at negotiating or motivating a team. However, though they are good at what they do, they might not be able to easily articulate the knowledge that they have. They just do it!

One way for your firm to become the best in its class is to identify points of excellence within the firm, then make the tacit knowledge and skills explicit so that these can be transferred to others. The process by which this is done is called modelling.

The whole basis of legal training is based on modelling. The Master-Apprentice system (or ‘Sitting by Nellie’ as the process of learning as an articled clerk was called), supposedly allowed young lawyers to learn by absorbing the tacit knowledge (rather than explicit knowledge) as to how ‘master practitioners (ie partners) operated. Unfortunately the procedure was flawed because not all partners had great habits!

The practice works best when we work closely with the people who excel, and identify how they do what it is they do well. We pay close attention to the knowledge they need, the beliefs they hold, how they organise themselves, and even how they think about what they do.

These models are then translated into powerful learning programmes, which allow transfer of critical skills to others in the organisation.

Modelling involves identifying people – or teams – that are excellent, and eliciting what precisely they do (ie their behaviours) and, probably even more importantly ‘how they do it’ when they are ‘being excellent’. We know that excellent behaviour comes from a level of unconscious competence, what are often referred to as ‘habits’ – ie when we are ‘being excellent’ we are not thinking about what we are doing, we might be in a state of what’s called ‘flow’ and simply doing it!

Robert Dilts provides a useful framework for eliciting the model. The following questions can provide the basis to the conversations with the model subjects as they carry out their activities. Not all the questions will be relevant, but they provide a good list for starters.

Environment: Where and When?

  • Where and when do they engage in the activity?
  • How do they organise and manage their environment throughout the activity?
  • What was the typical environment in which they worked and how was that a reflection of who they are as people?

Behaviour: What?

  • What do they do and say when they are doing the activity?
  • What are they saying to themselves? What internal pictures do they see? What do they hear? What do they feel as they do the activity?
  • What do they do and what do they say that was characteristic of the kind of person they are?
  • What effect does their behaviour have on the people with whom they came into contact and with whom they worked?

Capabilities: How?

  • How do they do what they do, ie. with what skills and qualities?
  • What were their strategies for getting results they got, whatever they were?
  • What were the qualities that they demonstrated not only in the context of the teaching/training they gave but also in any other context?

Beliefs & Values: Why?

  • Why do they use those particular capabilities and skills to accomplish those activities?
  • What values are important to them when they are involved in those activities?
  • What beliefs guide them when they are doing them?
  • What was important to them in life and in work?
  • What was important to them in the interactions they had with the students they were training?

Identity: Who?

  • Who are they (what kind of person are they) when they are engaged in those beliefs, capabilities and behaviours?
  • What labels did they give themselves?
  • What representation did they have of themselves?

Purpose: Who else?

  • Who else are they serving with this activity?
  • What was the purpose of what they did?
  • What is the vision they are pursuing or representing?
  • What bigger systems did they consider themselves to be connected to?
  • What added value did they seek to bring to these bigger systems?
  • What legacy did they want to leave with what they did?

The answers to these questions can provide powerful insights and allow firms to codify excellent approaches and teach others.

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Five Ways to Improve Matter Profitability

Posted on 10 September 2012 by tonyreiss

Project Management

 

Given that legal markets are getting tougher, I think firms could do more to manage and improve the profitability of matters, as well as improve client service. Here are six suggestions.

1.    Review profitability by type of work

Most firms do not know how much money they are making or losing doing certain types of work. To do this properly firms need to consider the costs of using central resources (eg Credit Control, HR, Marketing etc) which, for whatever reasons, are not charged to the client. Most firms find that larger matters, where lawyers are working solidly on them throughout the day, are more profitable because this way of working minimises the down time when files are picked up and reviewed

2.    Negotiate more wisely with clients on fees

I know clients have a stronger negotiating position, but avoid capped fees if at all possible. If you cannot avoid being capped, project manage the work very tightly (see below). Offer estimated fees if you can with a clear statement of what work is included and what is not. This will make it easier to charge for any extra work. Demonstrate the value of what you are doing. Firms often seem too reticent in this regard and assume the client perceives the value of what you’re doing.

3.    Define the quality standards for the work

Most lawyers tend to deliver work at a higher or different specification to that wanted by the client. Be clear how your client intends to assess the quality of the work (ie what is the relative importance of time, cost or thoroughness?). Make the distinction as to what work is essential as against desirable or just optional. Consider where value is added and where it isn’t. Consider where costs are added, though little value.

4.    Plan your work better

Lawyers could learn from how specialist project managers do their work. Here are some basic tips:

  • Itemise tasks (ie what needs to happen in what sequence to deliver the required output). Allocate a time budget for tasks (eg 7 hours to review property leases) otherwise specialists are likely to put too much time on the timesheet – time which will have to be written off, thereby reducing profitability.
  • Assign staff to carry out the tasks who are neither too experienced or inexperienced – if too experienced, staff will be bored and if too inexperienced work will need to be re-done.
  • Consider having members of the client team assigned tasks – this will help keep costs down and might build a stronger ‘partnering’ relationship
  • For more complicated matters, consider appointing a member of your team to be the project manager. I know of one magic circle firm who recruited an interim project manager (who wasn’t a lawyer) to manage a substantial litigation case.
  • Brief staff properly as to what the overall matter is about, exactly what output is required of them, deadlines etc
  • Supervise appropriately – this does not mean going over areas of work that do not need to be reviewed.

5.    Improved cash flow

Receiving your cash earlier can make a big difference in terms of profitability. Negotiate for money on account or monthly billing where possible. If you believe the client may be slow at paying (because of their track record), allow for this in your pricing or offer an incentive for prompt payment.