Don't Be a Dinosaur. Digitally Transform.

When I was a young boy I used to watch reruns of the cartoon show The Flintstones every day on television. My favorite Flintstones character was Dino - the pet dinosaur of the main characters Fred and Wilma Flintstone. My 7 year old son is also a big fan of dinosaurs and sometimes I feel like I am in Jurassic Park when I enter his bedroom.

While it is fun to be fascinated with these creatures that roamed our planet for ages, as we all know dinosaurs are extinct. In Corporate America, business professionals and companies never want to be branded as "dinosaurs" as they will be viewed as being out of touch, dated and irrelevant.

Increasingly we read about businesses that become dinosaurs as they were unable to quickly change and leverage leading technology to better serve their customers and be more competitive in their industries. Nowadays every organization needs a thoughtful Digital Transformation strategy in order to survive and thrive in its marketplace.

Legal organizations also need to capitalize on opportunities to better utilize technology so they can accelerate their innovation and deliver high-impact legal services to their clients. During my keynote at the Argyle 2018 Chief Legal Officer Leadership Forum this past November in Chicago, I talked about how technology is a lawyer's best friend.

Here are some best practices for all legal organizations to embrace Digital Transformation that originally appeared in an article that I wrote for Bloomberg Law Big Law Business:

Tips for Legal Organizations to Embrace Digital Transformation

In our ever-changing and competitive legal industry where clients are increasingly expecting faster, cheaper, more comprehensive and higher quality legal services, leading technology assets – especially cloud computing-based solutions, data analytics, social media and artificial intelligence tools – can be a lawyer’s best friend. Here are some strategies to help accelerate the pace of your legal organization’s digital transformation to better serve your clients and differentiate yourself from others.

Be Bold & Embrace Change

A necessary first step towards digital transformation is to be open to change. While change is never easy, those professionals, businesses, athletes, entertainers, etc…who are most successful and drive impact over the long term constantly adapt and are willing to transform. As Winston Churchill once said, “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.”

Get Help & Learn from Others

Since not every lawyer is tech-savvy and navigating the growing technology landscape can be tricky, do not be shy in seeking assistance from well-qualified technology experts during your digital transformation journey. Working with technology professionals can also help better position lawyers to comply with the ethical duty of technology competence that has been adopted by over 30 states. In addition, be sure to embrace the growth mindset by learning from others both inside and outside the legal industry (including your own clients) on how they embrace technology to achieve more for their customers.

Define Your Requirements

Although you may enlist the support of technology experts, do not let them take control of your legal organization’s digital needs. Those lawyers who embrace a customer obsession mindset should be well positioned to serve as the voice of their clients and understand their needs. Clearly define and articulate to an information technology professional how you want to better serve your clients so that professional can be a high impact digital detective and problem solver for you.

Greater Diversity & Inclusion

Studies and data have demonstrated time and time again that those organizations who embrace diversity and inclusion as part of their culture are higher performing. Since being open to change is a fundamental component to digital transformation, a legal organization and their clients can be well served by the fresh, different and novel ideas that naturally flow from a more diverse and inclusive team of legal professionals.

Leverage Existing Technology

Buying and licensing new technology can be a very significant investment for your legal organization. Conduct an inventory of your existing technology assets, obtain any necessary training to help encourage their appropriate utilization and be sure to take full advantage of those assets so you can better serve your clients.

Test Drive Solutions

Before your legal organization goes “all in” to use and deploy a new technology solution, spend the necessary time to properly test and evaluate the various features of such solution to see if it can meet your needs. Identify a diverse team of legal professionals within your organization who are committed to demoing the solution and providing you with open and honest feedback on their user experience.

Select Only Trusted Technology Providers

Nowadays all organizations – and especially legal organizations who have access to highly sensitive data – should only use technology solutions they can truly trust. To the extent that third party technology providers have access to your data and your client’s data, be sure to engage the necessary data security, data privacy and compliance professionals that can help you conduct the appropriate due diligence to identify only those providers that earn and inspire your trust.

Set the Tone at the Top & Use Technology

For digital transformation at any legal organization to be successful, leaders like Chief Legal Officers, General Counsels, Senior Partners, etc…. need to make it a strategic imperative in their organizations. In addition, those senior leaders need to lead by example and demonstrate their own usage of leading technology internally within their organizations and with their clients. Of course, please remember that while there are some fantastic solutions in the marketplace that can help lawyers be more productive, collaborative and cybersecure, technology will only be drive positive impact with clients if lawyers actually use and deploy technology.

The words “Digital Transformation” is much more than a marketing phrase. Instead, it is a mindset and framework that can help all legal organizations reinvent its usage of digital assets to better serve their clients.

Here is a link to the original Bloomberg Law Big Law Business article and please check out my blog called In-House Consigliere.