It's hard to say when the great reflection started, but the pandemic certainly escalated it and made the talent wars even more acute. For some, it's now the daily reflection. So let's open this lesson at the start of a new day in the life of a working lawyer. Each day is the same, and yet each day is different. The same in the sense that physically you do the same things. Whether remotely or in the office, you switch on the laptop, maybe grab some coffee, and then set to work. Different, in the sense that each day brings fresh challenges, none of which you were adequately prepared for at law school. Now let's add another ingredient to the start of your working day, and it's the question law firms often forget to ask: How do you feel about it? If you feel good, physically and mentally, the day holds no fears, and you work well.

But if you don't feel good about yourself, the daily prospect can be daunting and demoralizing. In years gone by, the solution was to suck it up and suffer. We saw how that ended, with an industry-wide mental health crisis and mass defections. But, as we discussed in the previous lesson, the millennial lawyer has quite different expectations, and many more options. The talent wars were the catalyst for a new approach from law firms, as they seek to meet lawyers' expectations, to be developed, to be valued and to enjoy what they do. Law firms are now asking the right question, so what is the answer?

As with so many things in Lean Adviser, the answer is found by turning the proposition on its head. If you feel well, you work well, but also, if you work well, you feel well. As law firms are now learning, there's more to working wellness than offering flexible hours, smoothie machines and weekly yoga. Those are just mitigation measures. Real working wellness is about the work itself. Not the type of work, or even the volume of work — because all legal work is demanding — but the way of doing the work. After all, the question that eats at the stressed associate each morning isn't "what work will I do today" or even "how much work will I do today?" it's always "how will I do the work today?"