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Leading
and Managing Change
To
be successful in the future, lawyers must be positioned to quickly adapt
their practices to our fast-changing society. Strong leadership, a compelling
reason for change, a clear vision of how to achieve change, and team involvement
are all factors that lead to successfully implementing change.
 by
Libby Hartman
When talking with my clients about ensuring that their business strategies
are successfully implemented, I generally begin by discussing their business
case for change. Only true visionaries change without the presence of
real pain; almost always there are significant "pain points" that drive
people and organizations to change. How many of us give up our cheeseburgers
and fries, smoking, and Krispy Kreme donuts prior to having a health problem?
So I inquire, "What is the 'burning platform'? What is the compelling
reason you are asking your people to work, think, and interact differently?"
Burning platforms include such things as "Our firm will no longer be
able to serve the indigent community if we don't reduce costs," or "Our
market share is being eroded by the new law firm down the street," and
so on.
The Case for Change
Why should Wisconsin lawyers begin adapting how and what they practice?
You already have the case for change - it was presented at the State Bar's
Seize the Future conference; through the conference insights written by
Gary A. Munneke from the ABA's conference on the same topic; in the Wisconsin
Public Trust and Confidence Report; by a colleague who fired her lawyer
because she didn't have email; and by consumers who surf the Web for their
own legal information. There is a business case for the legal profession
to adapt the way it does business.
So with all the information available on the need to change, why do
Wisconsin lawyers generally resist change?
Resistance to Change: Why
and What It Looks Like
There are practical and emotional reasons why people do not like change.
The emotional reasons for not wanting to change. What is change? At its
most basic level, change is a disruption of the status quo. Human beings
are extremely control-oriented. We feel the most competent, confident,
and comfortable when our expectations of control, stability, and predictability
are being met. Change means these expectations are disrupted. Change shakes
the 4 Cs: competence, confidence, control, and comfort at their core.
Try to imagine waking in the morning and everything is different than
it was the day before. The clothing in your closet is a different style,
fabric, and color than you are used to. Things in the kitchen have been
moved around. Your spouse announces that he or she wants to change how
you as a couple interact within the relationship. On this morning you
now drive on the opposite side of the road, with the steering wheel on
the right side of the car. Your favorite coffee shop no longer serves
the same kind of coffee. The streets have been changed to "one way."
If you could imagine yourself in this obviously very dramatic depiction
of change, it isn't hard to see how you would show up to work feeling
completely out of control, confidence shaken, very uncomfortable, and
with a sense of diminished competence. While many of the scenarios above
are not likely to happen, how our world has changed in the last two to
five years brings the same disruption of "the way we have always done
things." So, we resist. We like the comfort that comes with familiarity
and don't easily recognize the benefit of doing things differently.
The practical aspects of change. For many Wisconsin lawyers, there is
no clear roadmap about what needs to change in their specific situation.
People keep talking about technology and how it is impacting the legal
profession. What does this mean? What do I need to do? Not only is it
difficult to understand what needs to be done to adapt, it is very time-consuming
to implement. Lack of time is a key practical contribution to resisting
change. Change takes time away from your practice, family, and free time.
From a practical perspective, why would anyone take time away from other
critical things to jump into what isn't clear?
Other practical barriers to change include: poor experiences with other
change initiatives, colleagues and staff who also will resist change,
financial implications, lack of belief that change is really necessary,
difficulty seeing and articulating the benefits of change, and lack of
resources and support to manage added workload and tasks resulting from
managing the change initiative.
It would be simpler if we could deal with the emotional reasons for
resisting change and then address the practical barriers to change and
get on with changing. But being human, we of course intertwine the two,
which is messy and puts us behind the curve on a change imperative. All
of this is to say - resistance to change is normal!
Page
2: How Does One Overcome Resistance to Change? 
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