If you are a solicitor or accountant, it may be that whilst you’d never be so naive these days as to say so out loud in a board meeting, you don’t have much truck with phrases like “change management”. In the pantheon of acceptable speech, for many serious ‘hard subject’ professionals, it sits down there somewhere between “best in class synergies” and “turning values into actions” in terms of the quiet contempt which it inspires.
And yet… Any partner or director who has tried to implement new systems within their firm will recognize immediately the core challenge which besets such an enterprise. People may want the benefits of what you’re proposing (Well, some may, at least); but they sure as hell don’t want the disruption, the expense and the overall hassle and risk of obtaining them. If we define this challenge under the broad heading of “resistance to change”, we find some common but deep seated underlying themes, the understanding and addressing of which can mean the difference between success and failure. Let’s take a look at each in turn.
1. Deep Conservatism.
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Particularly in older firms with proud histories going back to times of yore, there can be a profound sense that, in an uncertain world, the old, traditional professional values of caution, carefuleness, and not-jumping-on-bandwagons, have served the firm well in the past – particularly during difficult times when many others were going under – and should not be lightly abandoned. This is an immensely powerful sentiment which must be respected even as it is overcome. It can only really be addressed by constant reassurance and a willingness to take the time to demonstrate that new ways of doing things can sit within such a framework without subverting it.
- Why us? Why now?
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There will always be people within a firm or industry who say “Why us, why now?’. For them, in the face of strengthening headwinds, there is a certain denialism involved, which we have seen particularly in relation to, for example, the extension of anti-financial crime and due diligence laws to solicitors and accountants. “How can this be happening?”, these people ask, “Has the world gone mad?”. Well, maybe. Yet the reality is that the regulatory vice is tightening. Professional firms will increasingly be made an example of over the next three to five years and will need to invest in better and more effective compliance. There’s no half measures here – the brightest search lights of education and training must help the blind to see.
- Prisoner Syndrome.
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At the other end of the spectrum, there are firms which have already invested significantly in systems and digitization, but for whom the experience has been, frankly, underwhelming if not downright disappointing. Faced with calls for improvement and remediation, the cry goes up “God no, not again!” These firms are effectively prisoners; prisoners of an unhappy past and, sometimes, of mercenary software companies whose cynically poor client service levels and refusal to contemplate product adaptations and customization reflects their confidence that their clients are stuck with them if they do not wish to undertake a painful technology extraction and replacement process. The approach here must be to challenge these assumptions with the formation of what is essentially the Escape Committee. Fellow prisoners must be contacted, evidence collected and retained, contracts checked, warnings issued and action taken. This is the L’Oreal strategy (Because you’re worth it…aren’t you?)
- The Tail Wagging the Dog.
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Sometimes, for essential processes like onboarding, firms end up with a jumble of workstreams, some manual, some digital, which, somehow nevertheless, kind of works. Sort of. In charge of this minestrone of processes is a committed, hard–working individual – let’s call her Doreen or him Dave – who also realizes, however, that this combination of complexity and necessity has made them, well, indispensable. They’ve become the operational backbone of the firm and if they don’t agree to it, it’s not going to happen. Which is fine if they’re blocking bad ideas but not so fine if it has more to do with internal politics and power preservation. The solution here is tact and diplomacy combined with firmness and always to remember that when it comes to strategy and policy, it is for management to decide and employees to provide.
- Luxury Procrastination.
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Sometimes a feature of large organizations whose ARR can sustain hefty cadres of non fee-earners, these are people who, someday, somewhere, at some point, would like to have implemented (note the tense) a new system, but for whom the process of actually doing so must necessarily lie at some point in the future, turn right at tomorrow and carry straight on to the far side of forever. The days turn into weeks, the weeks into months and still no consensus emerges. The solution? Process, outcomes, deadlines with, when it’s required, the Gordian Knot option as a go-to back-up.
Let us help.
At Marker, we can help you with your (⚠️ jargon alert) *transformation journey* because we’re not just a legal, regulatory and technology company. Depending on who you are and what you need, we’re also reassurers, educators, chain-breakers, diplomats, trusted managers and, yes, slicers of Gordian knots.
Contact us today to kick-start your journey to complete simplicity.
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