A very happy new year to you!
I know, I know, I don’t know how we’re only 2 weeks into 2021 either.
To keep sane I’ve been trying to make progress on my new year’s resolutions.
As it turns out the tradition of making new year’s resolutions originated in ancient Babylon.
Originally they were promises that people made to the gods in return for financial good fortune.
In particular for getting out of debt.
Debt can mean a lot of things.
Alacrity is a tech start-up.
As we develop our platform there is always a trade off between doing things ‘perfectly’ and doing them quickly.
We agree amongst ourselves and of course with clients, where it’s worth investing in ‘perfect’, and where ‘good enough’ will do just as well.
If we don’t do things ‘perfectly’ then we accumulate tasks that we eventually have to come back and fix and improve.
In the parlance it’s called technical debt.
As we’ve been reconnecting with clients after the break it’s amazing how many people have been talking about the debt they’ve accumulated in the legal department.
Of course, they don’t talk about it as legal debt.
It’s normally something like: ‘I have a bunch of contracts that are woefully out of date and need sorting’, ‘We really need to speed up our contracting process’, ‘We’ve not really been on top of what our law firms are doing’.
It’s stuff that needs to be done but isn’t necessarily at the very top of the list.
The worry of course is that it’s not at the top of the list because it has been ignored or isn’t well understood.
We often find that clients are amazed when we get under the hood and show them what they’ve been missing.
Ask me about the client that thought they were spending £10m on legal services but was actually closer to £100m!
The point, of course, isn’t to clear all of the legal department’s debt in one go.
It’s to get a start on it.
Start with the right bit of the debt and you’d be surprised how much lighter the load gets.
There are a couple of tips for good new year’s resolutions that I think are equally valid in legal:
- Make them achievable – just like you’re not going to go to completely give up fried food, make a resolution where you can lay down a concrete plan with parameters that fits in with everything else going on.
- Put a timeframe on it – abstract goals don’t happen. Plan a realistic start and accomplishment date. Then put them in your calendar.
- Tell a friend – accountability is key. Tell your CFO or members of your team what your goal is and how you plan to achieve it. Talk to a peer who has already achieved what you’re trying to do and tell them. Ask whoever you tell, to check-in with you weekly or monthly to see how it’s going.
It’s also important to understand that there’s absolutely going to be some discomfort with change.
There’s little fun about going to the gym for the first time and inevitably feeling like death.
In the long run though, you’ll be much better off.
There are more easy wins out there than most people realize, it’s about just putting your head down and getting on with it.
So what’s your legal new year’s resolution?
Novus Annus!
Christopher Thurn
Founder – Alacrity Law
