Page 12 - Strategic Planning for Law Firms

Strategic Planning for Law Firms
The Why Is More Important than the What
Why an organization exists is more important than what it does. As strategic planner, Simon Sinek, says, “Start With Why.” “Why does your law firm exist?” “Why do you and your attorneys go into the office every day?” “Why do you serve the clients you serve?” Your team and your clients are less interested in what you do than why you do it. The Why – your firm’s mission – directs everything else. Start with why and everything else will follow. To summarize, Sinek says, “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”
Why Do Companies Craft Strategic Plans?
Companies craft strategic plans because they work. So many business books we read – Good to Great, The 4 Disciplines of Execution, Measure What Matters, Leaders Eat Last – extol the benefits of strategic planning. Companies that succeed, that win, that exceed expectations are ones
who engage in strategic planning, draft strategic plans and enact them. Companies have been crafting and using strategic plans to beat their competition for years. Show me a successful company, and I’ll show you a company that engaged in strategic planning.
What Can Law Firms Learn from this Process?
Strategic planning can teach law firms how to be more profitable, how to better serve their clients, improve their culture, and improve the quality of the careers and lives of their lawyers. The process is transformative for both the firm and its team. We lawyers create a case plan when we first get a matter. We define a win with the client and devise a plan to achieve it. Strategic planning isn’t much different. We define where we want to be and devise a plan to get there. We are trained to think strategically. It doesn’t take much to translate our skill set into one that adopts and applies strategic planning.
SECTION 01 WHAT IS STRATEGIC PLANNING
4
©2021 Federation of Defense & Corporate Counsel