Meet Marjorie “Midge” Dearborn, a fictitious GC of a fictitious automaker. The year is 2020 and here's a typical day from Midge's future diary.

8:00-Tennis. That Wimbledon dream isn't getting any closer. Just a thought.

9:00-Driving in. Listen to mindfulness app “No Mud, No Lotus.” Wow, that's fitting. A few years ago, work was a struggle through mud, followed by near-drowning. Now it's mostly sunshine.

10:00-BRED boards. Weekly departmental catch-up. Our reliable departmental assistant has managed logistics, and the full department is on time, present and prepped. Sounds obvious, but it's important. My role is to manage my managers, supervise my supervisors and protect my processes. We start with our BRED boards. It's an acronym from the Lean Adviser methodology that means “Big Rock Every Day.” Each of us, me included, should have completed five “big rocks” last week. Now for accountability, then planning and commitments for this week. Without prep, structure and discipline, we could've spent 90 minutes. We do it in 30.

Two department members are located with me. They are my first line, an ex-accountant called Wayne County who helps manage budgets, audit committees and governance. Then there's Rosie, our junior. Rosie is an original thinker, that's a key credential. She helps everyone with everything. We haven't figured out her future, but it's bright. That's it. Three of us here, three in the field. The department I inherited was twice the size and half as involved.

My three “station chiefs” are all lawyers. They have great skill sets and mindsets. They leave the floor and go to the businesses where they're located. Just as I expect outside counsel to come here, so I expect my lawyers to go to our clients, sit in their businesses, specialize in them. The business leaders all seem happy to have a lawyer on their teams. These station chiefs are located within Purchasing, Brand Protection and Product Quality, all broad canvasses. For PQ, for example, my station chief sits in the engineering community to oversee certification, quality alerts and recall decisions. The role includes litigation management, so it is supported by a secondee from the law firm which tries or coordinates the bulk of the cases. The secondee's salary and travel costs are transparent to me, and I cover a fair share.

10:30-Email Slot 1: In the bloaty era this was a drag. Insisting on the businesses and external counsel adopting lean comms may be the best thing I've done, and it cost me nothing. Rule 1: mark it FYI or Action Required. Rule 2: “News Before Context” and so on. My first filter is “FYI.” I speed-read and delete. The system has directed a copy to the e-file. My second filter is “Action Required.” I speed-read and reply, forward or carry over for consideration. Third batch, everything else. There should be none, but there is. Delete, block, reply “TLDR” etc.

Time to originate some email. Send email to department: “Any nominations for our 2020 Dean of Lean award? Business folks only, sorry!” Send one to a colleague: “Any joy?” the context being clear from the thread. I do send longer emails, also shorter ones, such as “Thoughts?” “Nope!” “Really?” Someone once called an email from me a “Midge Nudge.” I'm fine with that, which is just as well because it stuck.

11:30-Spare Slot 1. Coffee, carbs and whatever comes up. Today it's comms coaching with Rosie. We discuss a bloated email which we all got from Puffin LLP. Rosie notices they cc'd four others at the firm. Way too many recipients. Rosie will draft an “out of process” rebuke for me to send.

Noon. My big rock for today, Edit RFI packs. These will be a template email about process, then two pages about the project written by the business, background, goals and parameters. I read the (maximum) five pages of core dox, then edit the narrative. 2+5, that's it. When I first told the businesses that, if they can't do that, I won't run an RFI, there was resistance. Turns out they can. When will I read responses? I won't, because there won't be any. All firms are pre-credentialized for: a) sector specialism b) lean c) diversity and d) pro bono. They just have to consider conflicts and then say in or out. Firms hate writing pitch documents as much as I hate reading them. There's a Q+A window for email ­questions—to the business not me—to clarify the project. Then they attend a workshop pitch. That's usually me, a station chief, a business leader and the fact-holders. One key question: How would you do this? Show us your plan, let's improve it together, then make sure you deliver it within parameters. If you can't, you'll be expected to explain why. This project, like all our projects, will end with a wrap-up event, blunt learnings, authentic accountability.

1:00-Canteen Planned Lunch Meeting.

2:00-Budgets Meeting. Wayne has marked up costed road maps from law firms on upcoming projects, shows me selected pages. Too fat, too tight? We discuss causes, motives and our response.

2:30-Law Firm Meeting. One partner from my “bet the farm” firm, endless institutional knowledge, reliable and trustworthy. Several sensitive topics, not for this diary!

4:00-Voicemails. “Hi there, this is Hector from Shiny Software Solutions we'll be in area next week and …” deleted. “Good day Marjorie, this is …” deleted. If you're calling me “Marjorie,” we never met.

4:30-Email Slot 2.

5:00-Planning. Tomorrow I have the 7:30 board meeting. I'm working on them to move these to lunchtime. I used to go to a variety of 7:30 in-person meetings, with our various groups committees, then I'd send Wayne, then we agreed that 7:30 meetings are just a bad idea, so we won't take them. After a period of adjustment and dismay, our colleagues got used to this. We're all adaptable.

Drive home. Listen to Van Morrison. Surely an Irish guy would sing about a green-eyed girl, no? Just a thought.

Alex Geisler is a London-based litigation partner with Duane Morris and creator of the Lean Law Program. If you enjoyed this article, click here for more information on Lean Adviser Legal, a complete legal process management program.