Technology Butterfly

In the list of words guaranteed to leave a buzzing noise in lawyers' ears, “technology” has to take first place—closely followed by “transformation” and “innovation,” of course. Law firms and legal departments are under pressure as never before to compete on productivity, value for money and digital capabilities. If you follow the press, the books and the conference circuits, it is so-called legal tech that holds the key to competitive success in this brave new world. But it is one thing to identify your killer app and get the funding to procure it. The hard part is getting it to work and deliver the promised transformation.

Legal organizations are not alone with this challenge. A recent report from digital services firm, Econocom, for example, showed that, while nearly two-thirds of U.K. companies are currently working to implement new technology, one in five have already launched what they consider to be an unsuccessful digital transformation project. And more than half admitted that their project failed because the company had struggled to get to grips with the new technology.

Our experience backs up this research. In our work—consulting with businesses, partnering with clients to integrate legal technologies and designing and implementing legal function transformation projects—we have seen the quality and range of legal tech tools out there. But, perhaps ironically, the real challenge often tends to be the human element.

So we know that technology-driven transformation can be hard to do. But we also know why, along with the steps that can be taken to mitigate the risks and define a clear path to success. Here are three lessons that point the way.

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Lesson One: What makes sense on paper does not always work in practice

There is an unavoidable reality gap that sits between a project's design and the practical implementation of that design. Even experienced advisers, both from the legal and technology arenas, can be wrong-footed by this reality gap.

Yet we should not be so surprised by this, as there has been plenty of research on the topic. In Malcolm Gladwell's book Blink, the author gives the example of a famous taste-testing program that Coca-Cola ran against Pepsi in the 1980s. The testing was based on taking a single (blind) sip of the competing drinks, which despite the test's simplicity and intuitive good sense produced a misleading set of results. Because it turned out that sipping a cola is not the same as drinking a whole can. This did not become obvious until after rounds of testing and product iterations had shown the distinction: consumers who preferred Pepsi after a single sip preferred Coke when they had the full can to enjoy.

In the same way, some process innovations in a legal function sound perfectly rational in principle, but putting them into a live environment, rather than inside a sandbox that does not replicate all the operating features of the department, may be the only way to highlight defects that do not appear in the logic itself. Allowing a phase in the project for testing is therefore only part of the equation: the type and quality of testing are also paramount. And being able to interpret the test results, perhaps even interrogate them in the right way, also requires sufficient time to be built into the project plan.

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Lesson Two: Communication is a critical activity

The importance of getting communications right cannot be overstated. When implementing any transformational change in a legal function, whether it be driven by technology, process/tool optimization or realignment of staff, the teams who will be affected by the change must be informed, guided and indeed reassured by appropriately calibrated messages from various parts of their organization. Inspirational vision statements from top leadership are welcome, but more practical, directional guidance will be required from middle management.

These downward communications must also be coupled with a process of feedback and listening, so that the affected staff feel that their concerns are understood and that they are part of the change process. And they will have concerns. A 2017 study by the American Psychological Association concluded that 55% of staff who were experiencing organizational change at work reported feeling chronic stress, compared with only 8% reporting such levels of stress in work environments that were not undergoing significant change.

One-shot communications are not enough, either. The business must take care to ensure that the right messaging is being repeated and adjusted as the transformation project unfolds. A common mistake organizations make is to think that a new technology may be self-evidently an improvement on the status quo, and that staff only need to be given user instructions and the rest will fall into place. This is often a misplaced confidence on the part of management. So technology transformations should be treated the same way as major business restructurings, which always require clear and consistent communication both to stakeholders and participants.

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Lesson Three: Change is like a military battle

It is a trope that the best military planning needs to factor in a degree of chaos once the enemy is engaged. We have found major change programs to be much the same—less bloodshed (hopefully), but just as much noise and confusion. No matter how thorough and well-planned the change management project, following launch there will be unforeseen problems, delays and challenges. One of the keys to success is to maintain the necessary agility, flexibility and attention to people that will keep the project on track, despite the swerves and pivots that may have to be taken along the way.

This is another reason why two-way communications are so critical, just as with a military operation. Keeping both management and staff informed of progress and issues, and having the responsiveness to move quickly as new information comes in, will help to ensure that the project stays close to its design and does not stray into Game of Thrones script territory. Transformation is not necessarily easy, but it does not have to be that hard either.

Sylvain Magdinier is a Vice President with law firm Marshall Denning, operating in commercial partnership with UnitedLex to bring Enterprise Legal Services to corporations around the world.