Why (and how) are people who make things so generous and other thoughts and feelings from the COLPM Futures conference
Life demanded a concise engagement with the College of Law Practice Management Futures Conference. In that 36-hour whirlwind I learned so much from so many people who gave me specific things to think about. And now I am confused. I will ramble through my thoughts and feelings...
Why are the people who have the most intense demands on their time the most generous? I started writing down the list of people who gave me something of specific value at the event...and then I stopped because I got tired. I am also an introvert who struggles to remember names (????). But I observe a trend...??
These people are entrepreneurial makers. They have extreme demands upon their time. They somehow figure out how to balance the Eisenhower matrix of urgency and importance to both execute and invest. My work focuses on helping people pause long enough on the urgent to pay attention to the important. I fail. So much. I welcome your perspective that helps me understand this counterintuitive phenomenon. Speaking of makers...
Suffolk University Law School hosted the conference and WOW! Dyane O'Leary helped me see the special things they are making with their educational experience. And guess what? People like Quinten Steenhuis and David Colarusso are elite product makers. If you care about access to justice care about their work. The building blocks they are creating with their experiments are instrumental for transforming access to the legal infrastructure that powers civil society, at-scale (note: mad props to Jonathan Pyle for Docassemble). I must find a way to support them. Speaking of scale...
The constant theme across so many of my conversations was the need for common information frames that help us build systems that honor our primary constraint-human thinking capacity. There was a moment at the conference that recognized some great work a law firm has done to classify matters with machine learning. One of the honorees noted their organization's needs were special. I started to spin when I heard this. I believe this perception holds us back and causes MASSIVE effort duplication. My friend D. Casey Flaherty registered dissent that I share. I suspect some received this as unkindness. If true, that is valid perspective and also unfortunate. These people made something cool. He honored the greater value of what they made and the spirit of our gathering by pausing us to examine a widely held cognitive dissonance. We need to change this perspective to scale our industry and grow the value we deliver through our work. We cannot interoperate like a real industry without a common, standardized frame. Speaking of standards...
Half of my conversations ultimately circled back to "Are you looking at SALI?" If you make technology things for the legal market and you expect to have a conversation with me plan for two questions:
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We need these to successfully build on the foundations we already have. BTW, these conversations on what we might build together only happen when referred through a trusted advisor who truly understands our needs and preferences (???). Cold calls from sales people are punishing me and my peers, so, we tune them out. This causes the sales people to turn up the volume and intensity. This approach to enterprise sales messages a fundamental misunderstanding of how we perceive opportunity and make decisions as organizations and individuals. The reflection above highlights a curious intersection...
One of the big themes that came out of the Futures conference was the importance of understanding that humans perceive, decide, and act based upon thoughts AND feelings. We must honor both to lead effectively. This conference gave me an experience with compelling thoughts and feelings. That made it more effective. It also highlighted that thoughts and feelings thrive in an environment of psychological safety. For example, I presented a slide with Adam Smith and Wu Tang clan quote. Not many communities give you the space to do that. I am grateful. Speaking of gratitude...
Thank you for making me smarter Terri Pepper , Jeff Carr , Patrick Lamb , D. Casey Flaherty , Jae Um , Jennifer Leonard , Quinten Steenhuis , Gina Passarella , Patrick Fuller , Brad Blickstein , Katherine Lowry , Tanisha Little , Olga V. Mack , Rob Saccone , Christian Lang , Nicole Bradick , Robert Taylor , Catherine Krow , Firoz Dattu , Natalie Robinson Kelly , Robert DILWORTH , Cat Moon ?? , Nicole Nehama Auerbach , Ignaz Fuesgen , Ron Friedmann , Pratik Patel , T. Elonide Caldwell-Semmes , Dyane O'Leary , Liam Brown , Caren Ulrich Stacy , Alex Hamilton , Dave Hambourger , Deborah Read , and so many more wonderful people who are omitted because my memory and thinking capacities are too limited.
Founder Elevate's Integrated Law Firm, VP and Deputy General Counsel, Elevate, Former Founder of Valorem Law Group
2 年Just now reading this post, Jason Barnwell, and I enjoyed your take on the conference. As you may know, there were "planted" provacateurs in the break-out rooms. At first, I was convinced you were one, but then when I saw you interact during the rest of the conference, I realized that this is your nature, regardless of being assigned such a role. I mean that in the most complementary way. You have the ability to bring discussions to a different level simply by asking questions (no one else will ask) or suggesting a viewpoint no one has considered. For that, I am grateful.
Jason - thank you for this analysis and also for your participation. Our storytellers set the tone for openness and honesty that carried through to the rest of the conference and set an important tone that made this conference unique from others I've been involved with. It was a pleasure to work with you.
Global Head of Innovation, Factor
2 年Oof, tough to argue that any of our convos made you smarter, Jason, but it was a freaking delight nonetheless. Never enough time to hang out.
AI Lead @ MinterEllison | Writing about productivity and artificial intelligence.
2 年Really glad that you shared your experiences/reflections here Jason. This bit particularly resonated with me: "One of the honorees noted their organization's needs were special. I started to spin when I heard this. I believe this perception holds us back and causes MASSIVE effort duplication." I feel that we could come up for a fun name for this cognitive bias...Snowflakeism? And I completely agree - we must get better at standardisation, if we are to scale progress and value creation. Thanks again for sharing :)
General Manager and Associate General Counsel
2 年Caitlin (Cat) Moon I read this and thought about your comments on the importance of integrating play into our lives to help us grow: https://fs.blog/learning-baggage/