In an excellent book “Bill What You’re Worth”, David W Cottle repeats a story from a surgeon:
”Do you know how long it takes a good surgeon to remove an appendix from first incision to closure? Seven minutes. If you gave me two hours with anyone smart enough to finish college in five years, I could teach him or her how to remove an appendix. It’s really very simple.
But do you know how long it would take me to teach that same college graduate what to do if something went wrong while removing that appendix? Six years of medical training.”
A couple of lessons from this – when purchasing a service, you should be paying for skill rather than time spent.
Secondly, you should be focussing on outcome, which defines value, rather than the mechanics of the task itself. The value with the surgeon is the successful removal of the appendix, and resolution of any complications, rather than the time taken. As someone else put its – you are buying the hole not the shovel.
Some consultants, when advising about cost management, emphasise the desirability of ensuring that the least expensive fee earners do the greatest proportion of the work. This can be a false economy – it may be more effective for a skilled and experienced lawyer to undertake the work, providing a better outcome.
Legal project management requires that the lawyer and client define the acceptable outcomes and work backwards from there. How often does your lawyer ensure that everyone is clear on what "done" looks like and what are acceptable outcomes. The surgeon has a very clear view of this and it is a successful removal of the appendix without causing harm to the patient, and in the manner which is most likely to ensure a speedy recovery. He or she also has the knowledge about the best methods to achieve the acceptable outcome, even if there are problems in the procedure. The college graduate does not.
