Redwood Analytics

A few days ago I posted Why Some Law Firm Won’t Plan. The answer to that question and the one above are similar. Jeff Gillingham with London-based SSG Legal summed it up in one sentence:

The problem is that culture eats strategy for breakfast.

Gillingham’s comment appeared in the July/August 2007 edition of Managing Partner. He was writing about selecting the right successor to a retiring managing partner and was making the point that selecting a successor who is counter culture is a path to trouble. But his comment also explains why so many law firm plans go nowhere. The culture (the core beliefs and biases) of the entrenched partners controls behavior. A firm’s culture is a product of the people in the firm. You don’t change a firms’ culture without changing the people.

Any plan with a chance of success has to start with the answer to the question, Who are we and what do we believe?. You can’t ignore the answers and planning without asking the questions will be a waste of time. A plan has to build on the firm’s culture and on the firm’s strengths if you expect buy-in by the firm’s legal and administrative team.

It is not surprising that people rising to a leadership position feel they have a mission to transform the organization. Few people move into a leadership position with the mandate to preserve the status quo; however, transformation is too strong a word. Transformations require either brain surgery or wholesale personnel changes. I should add that transformations are rarely successful. Rather than a mission to transform the firm, what people really want is to energize the firm. Problems tend to hide opportunities and usually solve themselves through the pursuit of opportunities. Weaknesses are often no more than strengths carried to an extreme. Rather than eliminating a weakness, a sound plan can harness its strength aspects. Perceived cultural negatives are likely to be the building blocks of a firm’s value proposition and brand. A plan that works will energize the firm rather than transform it. It will capitalize on the strengths of the firm’s culture. It will pursue opportunities rather than problems. It will market the firm’s culture as a strength.

A new leader or a new plan that is counter culture will go nowhere. Culture will win every time. As Gillingham says, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”.

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