On the 8th of March, International Womens’ day will be celebrated around the world. Organisations and groups can choose the theme they wish to adopt for 2010.
We have chosen a theme close to our hearts, retaining talented women in law.
So much has been written as to the reasons why women lawyers, despite entering the profession in ever increasing numbers, do not continue their ascent “up the ladder” to achieve partnership or a management position. Many firms and companies, recognising this trend, have tried to plug the drain of talent by offering “flex-time” or “part-time” working arrangements.
In my opinion (supported by the candid feedback of fellow female lawyers and ex-lawyers), there is a fundamental reason why these options are only ever going to achieve a measure of success. Most women are prevented from reaching partnership or management positions because the organisations they work for value time, not results. Female lawyers, especially those with family responsibilities, desire and require autonomy and control over their work, and their work choices, which is very difficult to achieve if “time” is the main measure of success.
In traditional law firms, time recording forms the very foundation of the business model. Lawyer’s bonuses and opportunities for promotion are more often than not linked to meeting or exceeding a set number of billable hours per year (sometimes in excess of 2000 hours), rather than the quality of the work performed or the results achieved for the clients. For those without family commitments, this number of billable hours may be achievable, but for those trying to balance work and life commitments, the focus on time spent, rather than actual results produced for clients can prevent advancement.
In his book “Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us” Daniel H. Pink challenges traditional assumptions around what motivates us to achieve high performance and satisfaction at work. In a chapter focused on the benefits of self-direction and autonomy in the work place, Mr. Pink makes some really insightful points about lawyers and the failings of the traditional legal workplace:
“…at the heart of private legal practice is perhaps the most autonomy-crushing mechanism imaginable: the billable hour. Most lawyers – and nearly all lawyers in large, prestigious firms – must keep scrupulous track, often in six-minute increments, of their time…As a result, their focus inevitably veers from the output of their work (solving a client’s problem) to its input (piling up as many hours as possible). If the rewards come from time, then time is what firms will get. These sorts of high-stakes, measureable goals can drain intrinsic motivation, sap individual initiative, and even encourage unethical behaviour”.
A shift in mindset is required. Instead of valuing presentee-sim and time recording, the benchmark of success should be the successful completion of the task, the actual result achieved for the client. If legal organisations were to trust that the professionals they have hired can get the work done to the satisfaction of the client, it should not matter whether this work is done at home or in the office, in the morning, before the school run or in the evening once kids are in bed. These legal professionals have years of experience and are being trusted to complete transactions worth millions, yet are not trusted to balance their commitments – which just does not make much sense to us.
A Results-Only Work Environment (or ROWE) advocated by Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson in their book “Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It” changes the focus from hours to outcomes. The message “It doesn’t matter where you work, or when you work, as long as the work gets done” permeates the book. For example:
“There’s a misperception out there that just because a manager lets an employee go to a dentist appointment then that’s flexible working. That’s not flexible working at all. ROWE is really putting the freedom and the power back in the employee’s hands to determine what and how and when people work best. A Results-Only Work Environment is about recognising and acting on people’s need to have more control over their lives to meet all the demands in their lives.”
We love this idea at Latitude South and hope that this approach will catch on as the next generation of managers and decision-makers lead their organisations. Many detractors will say that client demands preclude such a significant organisational change. We disagree. Our experience has been that our clients’ value expertise and experience and recognise that it is these inputs that produce the outcome, the results they require. The work must still be done, yes, but it does not always need to be performed between the industrial age hours of 9am – 5pm, in the traditional setting and in a traditional way. Yes, changing to a results-focused approach can be challenging, yes it does require significant organisational change and, for many, it may feel a step too far. But the benefits to your organisation, your clients and your employees’ satisfaction, are huge.
And if it means retaining talented, experienced women lawyers in the profession, then isn’t it at least worth thinking about?
