My mind to your mind
People, culture and collaboration strategies sat high on the agenda at LPM South 2020 in London. Josh Adcock reports on the insights gained and ideas exchanged at this meeting of minds.
With all the constant buzz around technological gizmos, gadgets and thingymabobs, it can seem like the true foundation of any business – people – are sometimes overshadowed in the world of legal practice management. Fortunately, LPM South 2020, held on Monday 10 February in London, took a look at the discussions around law firms’ people strategies and challenges, exploring the many ways in which culture, change management and talent topics can affect law firm growth and success.
Of course, a little scene-setting is necessary – so the day began with a rundown of attendees’ thoughts about the legal market and its future, outlining the direction of travel for SME firms in 2020. LPM’s creative director, Rupert Collins-White, walked the audience through our 2019 conference polling data (published as a supplement alongside our December/January issue), starting with the perceived threats facing the market. Across all three of LPM’s conferences in 2019 – South, North and West – finding high-quality staff topped the list of challenges to firms’ growth, followed by barriers to creating change.
Then it was time to ask this year’s attendees for their thoughts and points of concern, with a fresh round of polling. Getting a broad gauge of firms’ attitudes, a near-majority (47%) of attendees rated the challenges facing their firms in the next two years as ‘similar to past years’, but these respondents were closely followed by 41% who said that the challenges would be ‘more serious than in past years’. ‘Finding high-quality staff’ remains the biggest perceived challenge facing firms, with 45% of attendees still listing this as their biggest hurdle in 2020 (only slightly less than the 49% who said the same at LPM South 2019), and claiming second-place was still ‘creating change in the firm’ (38% – an increase on last year’s 32%). With these two factors sharing people and culture in common, we had the thrust of the day’s talking points clearly laid out.
Breaking barriers
Disruption was certainly a big area of discussion, across many sessions – and the impact that disruptive forces can have on business growth need to be seriously considered. Edward Whittington, managing partner at Moore Blatch (to be known as Moore Barlow once its merger with Barlow Robbins comes into effect in May 2020), offered his lessons and thoughts on fostering firm culture to achieve rapid growth in his talk titled ‘Breaking the £10m/£15m sound barrier’.
Getting past this growth phase and into the next bracket is a common challenge, one that often sees firms pouring investment into their technology (see boxout on the Legal IT landscapes data session).
Whittington outlined the culture and mindset side of his approach to tackling this barrier – in other words, if you want to grow, you have to do things differently. Pointing out that the world is experiencing the technological changes of the fourth industrial revolution, Whittington emphasised the need to accept that change is coming, whether firms choose to embrace it or not.
Grappling with those changes means more than just bringing on new technologies – he said Moore Blatch’s business strategy priorities start with ‘why’, then ‘what’, and finally ‘how’.
The first is a matter of defining a firm’s purpose, he said. At Moore Blatch, this means creating an environment where people can be their best. The second point involves a clear vision around the strategic drivers attached to clients, finance, and people. And the last point requires senior leadership to be role models who can foster culture and business values. These three points, he said, will attract great people, interested M&A parties and lateral hires.
“Growth becomes part of delivering the firm’s purpose, and your staff become your advocates – growth follows those measures,” he said.
