For a risk adverse profession, there are risks in not innovating
One of the impacts of COVID-19 and remote working has been the need to rely on technologies that enable effective collaboration within teams. For years, I have been bemused by the reluctance of law firms to adopt technologies which were widely used in other businesses. In particular, there was a lack of project management and team communication software. The thinking seemed to be that unless the software had been specifically developed for use by legal firms, it had no place in the world of legal.
How things have changed in the space of a couple of months! Yet the risk adverse attitude of some lawyers in refusing to utilise software and applications which promote collaboration in remote teams is actually creating a risk for those firms. This week I was told that one firm was reluctant to utilise all features of Microsoft Teams because of security concerns, despite a number of Australian courts utilising it for court hearings.
So I was delighted to learn that the Victorian Legal Services Commissioner is utilising Slack as a means of communicating and collaborating effectively in the remote working world. Slack is a collaboration platform which integrates with numerous apps and enables teams to streamline their work. One of its features is the capacity to capture conversations relevant to a particular project or matter, within the matter “channel”. This is a far more effective approach than traditional email.
The VLSC is also utilising Trello, which is a Kanban board project management application. Lawyers have been slow to adopt a project management principles, despite the increasing complexity of legal work. Yet in other knowledge and consulting firms, a project management approach is seen as fundamental.
The startling thing about this is that neither Slack nor Trello are traditional legal software. Surely the fact that the regulator and other Victorian government bodies are utilising these, is a reason to consider whether they, or alternative like Microsoft Teams, have a place in managing remote work environments?
The VLSC approach to the use of this software was to put procedures in place to manage risks. Users are made fully aware of how the product is being utilised and a risk-benefit approach is adopted. But the message here is that just because there is a risk doesn’t mean that there should be no innovation. It is a matter of weighing up the risk and considering how risks can be managed. A reluctance or refusal to innovate needs to be recognised as a risk in itself.
