Stine Arensbach has written a great introduction to Open Space, and includes some tremendous examples of how she incorporates visuals to explain the simple rules of Open Space to participants.
In an Open Space session, the facilitator asks participants what they want to talk about, trusts them to lead sessions on their chosen topics, and then gets out of their way. As someone who’s facilitated several Open Space sessions with lawyers, I’ve found it is a great way to get groups of smart people engaged and thinking together quickly and productively.
I’ll have a post up soon on some specific tips for using Open Space with lawyers, but until then, check out Stine’s entire post (and fun images like the one above).
All too often, people won’t share their own ideas because they’re embarrassed they’ll be ridiculed. Here’s a quick facilitation trick that will loosen up a room and get people sharing their ideas without the fear attribution can cause: Have a “snowball” fight.
Here’s how it works
Group members write ideas on pieces of scrap paper and crumble them up into a ball. When it come time to share the ideas, the group has a big paper fight. When finished, people pick up the paper balls, uncrumble, and read the ideas on the paper out loud.
There’s a fantastic technique over at the Gamestorming Blog called Graphic Gameplan that is great for taking a large, multi-dimensional project (like a law firm retreat or practice group meeting) and breaking it down into manageable chunks that can be done in a planning meeting with all the stakeholders present.
3. Display the graphic (above) on the meeting room wall and tell the players that the goal ofthe meeting is to get consensus around specific tasks required to complete a project.
4. Write the name of the first project to be discussed at the top left of the first column. As the group leader, you can write all associated projects downward in that same column or you can ask the players to add projects that they agree need attention. Either way, you should end up with the relevant projects listed in the leftmost column.
5. Based on the projects listed, either tell the group the time frame and write the milestones in days, weeks, or months along the top row, or ask what they think it should be and write that time frame along the top. (Note: you can also establish a timeline after step 8.)
6. Sticky notes in hand, ask the players to choose a project and agree aloud on the first step required to accomplish it. Write their contribution on the sticky note and post it in the first box next to that project.
7. Ask the players for the second, third, and fourth steps, and so on. Keep writing their comments on sticky notes until they’re satisfied that they’ve adequately outlined each step to complete the project.
8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 for every project on your display, until the game plan is filled out.
After the grid is complete with the project’s steps, make certain there’s an assigned person to do (or at least be responsible for) the task represented on each sticky note.
Using this technique with almost any big project will help kick it off and keep everyone informed on what needs to be done and who’s going to do it!
If you’re looking for a simple exercise that gets people collaborating in a short amount of time, you may want to try The Marshmallow Challenge, a design exercise that fosters collaboration, innovation and creativity.
What is the group task?
In eighteen minutes, teams must build the tallest free-standing structure out of 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of tape, one yard of string, and one marshmallow. The marshmallow needs to be on top.
I’ve done this exercise several times, and highly recommend it. To learn more, watch this TED talk by Tom Wujec:
One of the most overlooked opportunities for building collaboration and networking opportunities at most big meetings, retreats and conferences is using name tags for more than just names.
Instead of the traditional pin-on badge, rethink the name tag and make it the size of a concert credential.
Use your larger tag real estate to identify the wearer’s practice group, geographic location and even years in the firm, using easy-to-read-at-a-distance icons and colors.
Add a seven-word bio that lawyers create before the event in a firm-wide competition. If each attendee already has their agenda set, add their room/table assignments so they’ll always know where they’re going.
Here’s one I created for a 300 partner retreat last year:
If you’re willing to rethink the name tags at your next event, please send an image my way. I’d love to see what you’ve come up with!
Creating an “Answer Gallery” is one of the easiest and most effective law firm retreat exercises I use — and as a bonus, it fits perfectly between sessions or at the beginning of the day as the attendees arrive.
The goal of the exercise is simple: to engage attendees and get them thinking about the topics of the day as they answer “big” questions anonymously.
Here’s how you do it:
Post dozens of large, easel-sized post-it notes around the room.
Write a single, open-ended question on the top of each one.
Give each participant a Sharpie fine-point marker (regular pens make it hard for others to read the notes) and a 3×3 pad of colored post-it notes.
Ask everyone to walk around the room and answer the questions on the small post-it notes and then stick their answers on the big question page.
Photograph or transcribe all of the answers and share them with the group once the event is over.
“It is with words as with sunbeams. The more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.” - Robert Southey
For the last two years, I’ve been co-producer and host of Ignite Law — an evening of short six-minute presentations about the future of law practice. In the Ignite format, speakers are limited to six minutes and twenty slides (which advance automatically behind them).
While it is terribly difficult to give an Ignite presentation, it is incredibly fun to watch one. Ignite presenters who, in a normal presentation may ramble to stretch twenty minutes of content to fill an hour, must instead identify their key ideas and distill them to their essence — and even when a speaker is less than engaging, their presentation is almost over the moment it begins.
If you’re interested in using the Ignite format in your next law firm retreat to replace some of the ”mandatory” presentations like practice-group reports, legal updates and “state of the firm” speeches, following these rules will help this format succeed:
Do not make the allotted time optional. If you settle on six-minute speeches, enforce the time limit mercilessly. This is easier if you’ve got a strong emcee who will get the long-winded presenter off the stage.
Schedule the presentations back-to-back. Using the six-minute format, you can easily accomodate between seven and nine speakers in an hour-long session. Keeping several presentations together will drive the competitive impulses of the speakers and raise the energy of the room.
Follow the One Presenter/One Topic rule. If anyone asks to tag-team a presentation, don’t let them. If they’ve got too much info for just one to share, give each speaker take his or her own six-minute slot.
Don’t let the presenters control their slides. The presentations will be more fun to watch and it will be easier to stay on time when the slides are on auto-pilot (in a six-minute/twenty slide presentation, each slide is on the screen for 18 seconds).
Add all the presentations to one master slide deck. In order to keep the presentations moving, don’t let technology changes slow down the transitions. Put everything in one deck and set the transitions from there.
Eliminate the Q & A, but build in discussion time. Don’t allow the audience to ask questions, but instead schedule 30-60 minutes after the presentations are done and give each speaker their own table. When you introduce each speaker, announce that they’ll be at Table X after the session to answer any questions.
For more on hosting your own Ignite-style event, take a look at the Speaker’s Guide (pdf) we prepared for our Ignite Law speakers before our 2011 event. It has some resources and rules you may want to adopt for your own use.
I’m happy to help you if you’re considering a similar format for your next firm retreat. Let me know if you have any questions.
If you are serious about making your firm better, next time you are thinking about a law firm retreat, stop. Cancel (or postpone) your lawyer’s retreat and spend your money on a staff retreat instead.
Here are seven reasons you should consider a staff retreat this year:
1. Your staff know how your firm works better than you do. You know how your firm is supposed to work. They know how it actually works. They observe, notice and understand the little things that you may overlook. Unlocking their creativity will give you dozens (if not hundreds) of practical ideas to make your firm work better.
2. Your staff doesn’t know what your lawyers know, but they know what your lawyers should know. If you wanted to improve the efficiency of your firms lawyers by training them to do one thing better, what would it be? You might think a seminar on “rainmaking” will improve your firm’s bottom line. The staff might suggest “copier training” instead — and they’d probably be right.
3. Your staff knows how to save you money. Every single person on your staff has at least three ways to save you $100 each month. Whether you want to reduce your overhead or prioritize your technology spending, your staff will give you better ideas than your attorneys will.
4. Your clients don’t act like clients around your staff. When “on the clock,” your clients act like clients. When talking to your receptionist, secretary or paralegal, your clients act like people. Your staff know better than you what your clients hate about your firm. Ask them nicely and they’ll tell you.
5. Your staff are your best source for competitive intelligence. Want to know what your competitors are up to? Ask your staff. They talk with their peers at other firms, and they know what’s happening in your slice of the legal market. They also know (probably before you) when and why your clients won’t pay their bills.
6. Your staff can help you say no. Your staff know which clients don’t deserve your firm’s work, and which ones you should fire. They also know the least talented and productive members of your firm, but we’ll leave that topic for another day.
7. Your staff is cheap. Well, not really “cheap,” but compared to the hourly billing rates for a day of the firm’s attorneys’ time, a day-long staff retreat is a bargain. The staff probably doesn’t expect four days in Maui, either.
The most important reason to do a staff retreat, however, is that your staff will feel great knowing you value their ideas. The single most effective way to engage your employees and make them feel good about working for you is to listen to them — and asking them to help your firm solve its most pressing challenges is a tremendous way to do it.
One important key: whether you hire LexThink or someone else, you absolutely should not facilitate this one by yourself. Keep lawyers out of the room if you want your staff to speak freely. You’ll be rewarded with their candor.
And when they get back to the office, make sure they each have their own set of business cards. If you value them, there’s no better way to show it, than by allowing them to be ambassadors for your firm.
If your best clients were in charge of your law firm retreat, what would they add to the agenda? Before your next retreat, why not ask them?
Reach out to your best clients and invite them to help you plan it.
Stumped on how they’d get involved? Here are some ways they can contribute to and/or participate in the retreat:
Ask them to suggest the topics and skills they think your lawyers should focus on, and then let them lead those sessions if appropriate.
Invite them to deliver a brief “get to know our business” talk, and then ask them to stick around to answer questions from your lawyers.
Set aside at least half of your retreat’s “learning” time for sessions developed (and perhaps even delivered) by your firm’s clients.
Work with your clients to develop role-playing challenges that teams of your attorneys can compete to solve.
Invite several of your firm’s best clients to participate in the retreat and work with them to identify and develop ways your firm can serve them better.
All of these things are easy to execute, and just require the desire to engage with your best clients and the courage to hear what they might have to say.
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