“The law firm of 2025 will not have a particular size, talent, or make up, or revenue. It will be the best at implementing change.” This quote comes from a session where the Denton’s Global Chair and the Microsoft Associate General Counsel were sharing the stage with their international colleagues in the audience. Implementing change. Blasphemy in an industry built on mitigating risk?
So what has to happen for change to be more comfortable? Here’s where resilience enters the stage. Being more agile as an organization requires courage to make mistakes that propel trust and growth, and building agility is easier when you are more resilient. Let’s measure your firm’s culture of resilience:
- How optimistic are you? What level of recognition do you have for positive outcomes?
- How much self-assuredness do you have? Do you realistically understand your capabilities?
- To what degree are you open to ideas? This means stepping past, “we tried that already”, and “it won’t work here” to explore options.
- How proactive are you? When a problem emerges, are you solving for right now, or for future times?
These are simple questions, and the leaders who have this conversation begin to see where they can raise the bar on implementing change, which is the proactive path to long term success.
About Judy Hissong
Judy Hissong is the President of Nesso Strategies. A former law firm Chief Operating Officer, she helps firms become more profitable by developing leaders. Her mission is “world domination for Good.” By creating actionable, lightbulb moments that leaders want to share and spread, she intends to improve the world one person at a time.
