Einstein once said, "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction."

 

Over recent years, to address the world’s climate change challenges, the sale of electric vehicles has ballooned. Furthermore, electric car owners will tell you that their cars are faster, more efficient to run, quieter, and less costly to maintain than comparable petrol or diesel engine cars. This is because electric motors are built on a simple and smart design with far fewer moving parts. In contrast, dated internal combustion engines require increasingly greater complexity in an attempt to compete.

 

As Einstein alludes, when designing systems, processes, or structures, keeping it simple is often challenging to achieve. Yet with sufficient time and deliberate thought, simplicity can be accomplished, leading to a smarter result - more effectiveness and easier to maintain.

 

Within law firms, we are often exposed to an array of unnecessary complexity developed over many years, where a healthy dose of simplicity would be welcomed by most. Introducing simplicity to achieve smarter outcomes can be applied to a cross-section of businesses operating within these law firms.

 

Common complexities encountered include:

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• Business systems, including system integrations and workarounds that are confusing to navigate, impose inefficiencies, are prone to system errors, and can cause performance degradation;

• Business processes that are sometimes out-of-date and cumbersome, prone to human error, and often include manual review or approval touch points that offer no intrinsic value;

• Client billing and reporting with comprehensive manual interventions that impact the timeliness of these deliverables are often fraught with poor data and can incite mistrust.

• Teams, titles, roles and layers of structure that impose unnecessary cost distribution across the many businesses within law firms provide limited or no benefit.

 

If you have the courage to introduce simplicity, we believe your firm will benefit through the efficiencies gained, lower costs, greater convenience, and less frustration. Simpler and smarter often requires less human sweat and result in more time available to focus on core business and new opportunities.

 

Contact us if you would like to learn more.

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Robert Wagner, Partner, Harriss Wagner Consultants and Advisers

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