The Birth of Innovation Requires the Death of Perfection

With great pleasure I am able to announce the (e-)publication of the Inaugural Summer 2006 issue of "Innovaction" Magazine, published by the College of Law Practice Management. 

Available here, its theme is "celebrating innovation in the practice of law," and contains contributions by, among others:

• David Maister
• Patrick McKenna
• Gerry Riskin

and yours truly.

David profiles Exemplar Law, a nonconformist startup law firm if ever there were one, which I've written about as well, and which::

• refuses to bill by the hour, instituting fixed fees only;
• interviews 300 applications for every lawyer it hires (interviews, not reading applications);
• requires business degrees or experience from lawyer-candidates;
• offerings clients a "satisfaction guarantee;" and
• invokes a "No Grinch" approach, meaning you cannot buy your way into Exemplar Law with a book of business; teamwork is the order of the day.

David closes with eight trenchant questions about Exemplar, including "If you were a client, would you hire them?"  "If you were a competitor, what would you worry about?"  "If you were an experienced partner, would you join Exemplar?" and "If you wanted Exemplar to succeed, what piece of advice would you offer?"

Silvia Coulter writes on "Innovation in Leadership," and reprises that it all begins at the top:  "The managing partner facilitates the breaking down of barriers across the firm’s management team. Her actions set the stage for the success of the professional team, the innovative undertakings they produce, and ultimately, the firm."  And if you have a different kind of managing partner?  "Yet in many firms, we still see partners undermining the professional team, and managing partners succumbing to strong voices and individuals who think only of themselves. Innovation stops dead in its tracks; the rhythm goes flat and the firm takes a step backwards."

  My piece, on Reed Smith's and DLA Piper's alliances with Wharton and Harvard Business School, begins:

"When invited to write about “innovation” among large law firms, one’s immediate temptation might be to ask for a different assignment—one with a
real, not an imaginary, subject matter."

To read the rest, you'll just have to go there (it's at pages 16 through 25).

Next in the publication is Patrick McKenna, with "The Road to Innovation:  Ten implementable steps to enhancing innovation in your firm."   Here are my favorites:

• "Invest a portion of your management time living in the future."  Devote at least 25% of your time in meetings not to the present but to ideas for changing and improving things.
• "Steal the best ideas from other professions."  Brainstorm with clients, academics, and researchers; I guarantee they'll have a different perspective.
• "Champion your internal entreprenurs."  Change isn't always top-down.  As Patrick puts it:  "One of my most startling discoveries has been this: innovations do not usually come about because of any direction, intervention or incentive provided by your management committee. They came about largely from, as Peter Drucker first expressed, “having a mono-maniac with a mission!”"

It's no longer "lead, follow, or get out of the way:"  It's "lead, or get blown away."

Merrilyn Astin Tarlton, Simon Chester, Matt Homann, Dennis Kennedy & Dan Pinnington populate a roundtable that considers:

• billing
• client relations
• management
• marketing, and
• talent recruitment

All I can say on this is, will the billable hour ever die?

Finally, my friend Gerry Riskin wraps things up with this challenge (emphasis supplied): 

"The birth of innovation must follow the death of perfection.The legal profession is all about perfection—perfection is a legal deity, and to speak against it is heresy! Legal agreements are never completed, after all— they just reach the stage where clients are allowed to sign them."

Wisdom distilled:  To midwfe innovation, you must slay perfection. Ponder that.