We all learned to share as children. It wasn’t an easy lesson to learn. As a parent, I can attest to the fact that it isn’t an easy lesson to teach either.
But “sharing” really is caring. Especially today.
You hire the best and the brightest you can find. You give them a plan, the tools they need, and you put them to work. The value of your business depends on the value they create from their efforts. Bouncing ideas back and forth, solving problems, and overcoming challenges are their daily tasks. Value is created when they’re effective.
Sharing Tools of the Trade
Today, most successful businesses have some sort of internal group communication system. These tools have replaced the old water cooler where people used to gather and share gossip, ideas, and insights. The water cooler is gone (along with much of the office space and the whiteboards that used to fill the space), but sharing is still important.
Sharing tools allow the group to communicate as a group. They’re not about one-to-one communication. They’re about many to many. They make it easy for those involved to discuss matters. More importantly, they allow others to observe and contribute.
Our firm uses Chatter, which is provided alongside Salesforce. Many are using Slack, which came out of nowhere to become the major player in the market. Other tools exist, and all of the major vendors provide something for team communication. You’re likely using one of them already unless you’re working in a cave somewhere.
These tools are pretty amazing when used by the right people who value sharing. They allow free-flowing discussion about the work, and the archive created is a huge repository of answers to common questions. Beyond that, they foster collaboration on solving complex problems and inspire responses that evolve from the synergy among team members. It’s impressive.
Sadly, getting some lawyers to share their knowledge is challenging. These “sharing-impaired” lawyers are the same lawyers who hid books in the law school library back in the day.
They didn’t like sharing back then, and they still don’t share. Interestingly, this lack of sharing isn’t age specific. I’ve met a broad age spectrum of lawyers who won’t share. In fact, my sense is that some older lawyers are the most willing to share once they’re trained on the technology. It’s hard to understand why some lawyers share and some won’t, but it’s an observable phenomenon.
But sharing is important. It’s critical.
The value of your business is directly related to the engagement of the lawyers in sharing ideas, thoughts, processes, developments, and solutions.
That’s the key takeaway. Go back and read it again. Sharing = Value.
When your lawyers are sharing, they’re able to bill more time at higher rates, charge increased flat fees, and collect on value billing arrangements.
When your lawyers aren’t sharing, they’re reinventing the wheel each day. They’re stuck in place. They’re doing the same rote tasks and projects over and over again.
Without sharing, your firm doesn’t keep up. Your people fall behind. You get stuck in practice areas where fees decline instead of increase. You’re doomed to doing the routine instead of the special. You’re limited to the simple instead of the complex. Your lawyers get dumber, while others get smarter.
Sharing through tools like Slack allows you to move forward faster. These tools allow you to increase value exponentially faster. They encourage growth and development of your team at a dramatically increased rate.
Employing the tools is easy. You can have Slack up and running in five minutes. Buying and setting up a tool is ridiculously simple.
Getting your non-sharing lawyers to share is much, much harder.
How to Convince Lawyers to Share
How do you get them to share?
Some of them do it naturally. For some reason—generosity, competitiveness, a need for attention, whatever—they share. They’re awesome.
For others, it’s not going to happen. Mommy and daddy failed to teach sharing, and it’s too late to teach those lawyers.
Some of your lawyers will not use the tools or will use them only minimally.
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You need to prune those lawyers out of your organization if you’re looking to increase the value of your business. If you’re driven to deliver value to your clients, then those lawyers have got to go. Give them time to sit quietly and contemplate the value of sharing.
But some of your non-sharers are smart, right? Some are good at billing. Some are great at figuring out complicated problems. Some are doing really good work. Yep, but they’re not sharing.
Non-sharers have got to go.
It’s that important. They’ve got to go. Sharing is the engine that drives up the value of the organization. No sharing, no caring, no job. Maybe mommy and daddy can help them now?
We’ve been using these tools in our firm for a long time. We’ve had some lawyers who share and some who won’t. The income of the sharers is higher than the non-sharers. They move up in the business, they generate more new clients, and they stick around. The non-sharers fail to develop comprehensive skill sets, and they drift away. They don’t get it, and they don’t advance.
It’s interesting to watch, and it’s not entirely clear what comes first. Are non-sharers unsuccessful in their lives generally? Would they have failed regardless? Are sharers more successful without factoring in their sharing behavior? I don’t know.
What I do know is that sharers win. Non-sharers lose. And you want a team of sharers. You want people who let their ideas, thoughts, insights, etc. go freely into the business so others can benefit. You want those who enjoy teaching, kicking around ideas, thinking new thoughts, and letting others inside their brains.
Sharers come in all forms. Some are noisy; some are quiet. Some are extroverts, and some are introverts. Some are funny. Some are serious. Some are subtle in their sharing and simply ask the right questions. Sharing looks different when it comes from different lawyers.
But sharing equals value. Your business will be worth substantially more if filled with sharing employees. The more sharing, the better.
Your 4-Step Sharing Action Plan
Here’s the sharing action plan. (Feel free to share it on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Note the convenient sharing buttons on the site.)
- Hire for sharing. Examine social media profiles. See who’s already sharing insights and observations. Is your candidate blogging? Tweeting? Sharing articles on Facebook?
- Provide the tools. Keep the tools up and running in the firm. Make it simple and easy to share. Engage with it yourself and be an active sharer. Slack is the hot product of the moment, and it’s impressive.
- Reward sharing. Sharing has its own reward, but you want to improve your culture. Acknowledge the sharing. Promote and praise the sharing. Share the value created by sharing information.
- Fire the non-sharers. Think of failure to share as one step away from stealing from the trust account. These folks are stealing value from your business. Act on it. Of course, don’t fire them all today (sometimes I worry about you acting impulsively—you know who you are). But, over time, hire sharers and fire non-sharers. Clean house.
Sharing really is caring. You need to care. You need to connect the sharing to the value. It’s time for those childhood lessons to pay off.
