Page 26 - Law Society of Hong Kong MPMC Manual v8 - With checklists (1 March 2018)

Practice Management Course | Unit 3
Talent Management

Lazear and Michael Gibbs, Personnel Economics in Practice (John
Wiley & Sons, 2nd ed, 2009) 161-162.

Time pressure is another important factor that may inhibit
collaboration. Unless you are in a firm that has a value-based pricing
business model, most law practices, by the nature of their timesheet-
based business model, impose significant time pressures on their
employees, which makes these employees less inclined to invest
precious time in collaborative activities. It is important for leaders to
foster an environment where employees do not feel unduly penalised
for taking time to collaborate with others.
Systems and Working together is costly and time-consuming. This entails the
processes implementation and execution of systems and processes in every
context where collaboration may be necessary or desirable.
Law practices that lack the appropriate software (such as
collaborative platforms, videoconferencing applications and scheduling
software) and processes (such as rules and protocols for scheduling
meetings and enabling remote team activities, and norms for inter-
group collaboration) impede effective collaboration. When setting up
organisational processes to facilitate collaboration, it is important to
design them to be complementary to each other. For example, rules
and practices regarding remote collaboration must be closely coupled
to the software and hardware available for videoconferencing and
mobile devices.

17. In summary, as discussed above, there are many factors that deter collaboration,
and each one may be dealt with differently:

• Regardless of our natural tendencies, we should find a way to contribute
more effectively.
• We need to change our perception of our roles from passive to active.
• We need to manage up and create better opportunities to work together,
when necessary.
• We need to find ways around any systems or roadblocks to help us work
together better.

How to fit in and boost your contribution to the team and practice group
18. Working effectively within teams requires a commitment to managing relationships
and understanding (and responding to) different people’s perceptions, motivations
and drivers of behaviour.

19. Although the key to having a great working environment and to maximising team
performance is to capitalise on the different backgrounds, perceptions and diversity
of the team members, such diversity is also a key source of conflict. We tend to
clash with people who are different from us.

20. Understanding team dynamics is critical. We need to understand a little more about
how and when we perform at our best and what drives our own behaviour. In
addition, we need to reflect on how others do their best work and what drives their
behaviour, and how that is different from ourselves. Most crucially, we have to
understand how group interactions shape the working environment of each
individual, so as to design the team to enable everybody to be at their best.

© The Law Society of Hong Kong (2018) Page 22