When US astronauts first went into space in the 1960s they quickly discovered they had a problem.
Their pens didn’t work.
Earth’s gravity is what draws ink from the body of a pen to the tip.
In zero-G, all bets were off.
NASA put some of its best minds to work to develop a solution.
Several years and a few million dollars later, they had engineered a pen which worked in both the heavens and on Earth.
How did the Russians solve the same problem?
They brought pencils.(1)
When I first heard this story many moons ago(2) I found myself wondering what exactly the astronauts needed pens in space for in the first place.
As it turns out, the majority of the time it was to complete checklists.
The physical act of checking boxes helps ensure that all of the things that need doing actually get done.
There’s a surprisingly large body of research about how the checklist prevents errors in any number of situations.
Atul Gawande actually wrote an entire book about it entitled The Checklist Manifesto.
Pilots, doctors and chefs all regularly use checklists to ensure consistency, safety and quality.
So why don’t we use them to convey the critical things we need from firms?
We hear from clients over and over again that law firms don’t deliver what they want.
This misalignment is what leads to cost overruns, delays and inefficient service delivery.
My challenge to in-house teams is to suggest starting with a simple checklist as your scope.
Break it into two sections.
The first are the overall outcomes you’re seeking from this matter.
The second section contains the concrete deliverables as you see them.
This list of drafted and negotiated documents.
This piece of advice which addresses this specific issue.
The more detailed these are the better. Use lots of sub-bullets where you have detail on what needs to happen for a given item.
It helps structure your thinking so that it’s clear and concise.
I can’t tell you the number of times that the act of making a grocery list has prompted me to think if I was missing anything from the cupboard that I needed to add to the list.
Narrative scopes are often about as effective in conveying the wishes of a client as Powerpoint presentations with large blocks of text are at holding an audience’s attention at a conference.
Structuring your scopes as checklists enables both sides to achieve better outcomes.
Law firms can give proper estimates of the time and cost of work and can ask any clarification questions upfront.
At the end of the matter clients can match the deliverables they’ve received to the checklist and establish if they got what they were promised.
If there are disagreements you’ve already put a framework for resolution in place.
When used effectively this delivers the transparency and clarity that helps everyone get what they want.
Don’t discount the power of the humble checklist.
Box checked,
Christopher Thurn
Founder – Alacrity Law
(1) https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nasa-spent-millions-on-a-pen-able-t/
(2) Pun entirely intended
