Above and Beyond KM

We tell our children that work is serious business. And that’s right  — to a certain extent. However, research is reminding us that it takes more than just grim determination and single-minded focus for success at work (and in life).

Marion Chapsal recently reiterated this truth in her post, Play, laughter and creativity in coaching.  In it, she refers to recent studies in neuroscience that “show the correlation between the ability to make people feel good and the global productivity at work.”  Taking this one step further, she cites Daniel Goleman, who has done landmark research in the area of emotional intelligence.  According to Goleman and Richard Boyatzis (Social Intelligence and the Biology of Leadership, Harvard Business Review, 1 Sept 2008):

Mirror neurons have particular importance in organisations, because leaders’ emotions and actions prompt followers to mirror those feelings and deeds.

Here’s an example of what does work. It turns out that there’s a subset of mirror neurons whose only job is to detect other people’s smiles and laughter, prompting smiles and laughter in return. A boss who is self-controlled and humourless will rarely engage those neurons in his team member, but a boss who laughs and sets an easygoing tone puts those neurons at work, triggering spontaneous laughter and knitting his team together in the process. A colleague of Daniel Goleman, Fabio Sala, found that top-performing leaders elicited laughter from their subordinates three times as often , on average, as did mid performing leaders. Being in a good mood, helps people take in information effectively and respond nimbly and creatively.

In other words, laughter is a serious business.

As you start this new work week, consider if your leadership style is depressing your team and its success.  Perhaps it’s time for you to lighten up and create an environment that enhances both productivity and personal satisfaction.

[Photo Credit:  Allie Wojtaszek]

“Never underestimate the vital importance of finding early in life the work that for you is play.  This turns possible underachievers into happy warriors.“

This quotation from Sir Ken Robinson’s book, The Element,  is a good reminder for a Friday, as we take stock of the work week that has just past.  Have we spent that week in our “Element”?

For Robinson, the Element is “the place where the things we love to do and the things we are good at come together.”  When you’re in your Element, you can unleash your talents and passions to produce something that is uniquely yours.  Robinson’s contention is that when you do this, your work will come so naturally to you that it will seem like play.  Further, he believes that it is only when you operate in your Element that you are able to achieve at your highest level.   The power of this approach lies in leveraging your innate strengths.  The challenge of this approach is to identify those strengths and then use them productively.

Managers can reap the rewards of this approach if they successfully identify and use the innate strengths of the members of their team.  This requires a keen focus on individuals rather than job descriptions.  Taking it one step further, understanding where the strengths of the team as a whole lie, and then concentrating on using those strengths more consistently, can help that team operate at an optimal level.  (This is the appreciative inquiry method I’ve discussed in further detail elsewhere.)  An entire team working in the Element would be a thing of beauty.  And, it could be transformative within your organization.

What are you waiting for?

[If you're interested in learning more about Sir Ken Robinson and his views on creativity and education, see his 2006 TED Talk.]

[Photo Credit:  Sukanto Debnath]

When the first Sinatra Duets album was released in 1993, I was completely surprised.  Frank Sinatra and his producers had taken some of his classics and given them a new twist by pairing Sinatra with a curious group of artists, several of whom had little or no experience with the American Songbook.  The result was a commercial success.  It was a brilliant way of bringing Sinatra’s talents to a new audience.

Taking a page out of Sinatra’s songbook, maybe it’s time for your knowledge management team to try a new gig.  An inspired duet or two might provide law firm knowledge management with a great second act, an opportunity to bring the best of what we’ve learned to other disciplines within our firms.

What duets would be productive in your law firm?  Marketing and KM?  Professional Development and KM?  Human Resources and KM?  General Administration and KM?  Think about which of your colleagues in other departments are most open to this type of cross-pollination and then start a conversation.  At a minimum, it will give you an opportunity to know each other better and to learn from each other.  And, if you’re lucky, it might breathe new life into your firm’s perception of knowledge management.

As the video below demonstrates with great charm, it’s never too late to try a duet.

[Fran & Marlo Cowan (married 62 years) playing an impromptu recital together in the atrium of the Mayo Clinic. He turned 90 in February.]

Do current economic conditions have you concerned about the viability of law firm knowledge management? Would it be helpful to your thinking to hear from law firm KM experts on the current state of KM and where they think it’s headed? If so, consider tuning into the webinar offered by the Knowledge Management Peer Group of the International Legal Technology Association. The speakers in this moderated discussion will be

• Stuart Kay (Director, Global Business Systems, for Baker & McKenzie, based in Chicago)
• John Gillies (Director of Practice Support at Cassels Brock & Blackwell in Toronto)
• Wendy Small (Head of Knowledge Management for Eversheds LLP)

The webinar will take place on Monday, June 8, 2009 at 12:00 p.m. Eastern / 11:00 a.m. Central / 10:00 a.m. Mountain / 9:00 a.m. Pacific.

To find additional information on the webinar (including fees) and to register, please go to the ILTA website.

[Photo Credit:  Just Us 3]

If you’re ever asked for a church key, don’t assume that the person making the request wants access to a house of worship.  They may, in fact, be looking for spiritual assistance of a completely different sort.  Are you puzzled?  Well, that’s perfectly understandable if you aren’t familiar with this particular idiom.

Idioms of all sorts abound in the work of lawyers, as they do in the work of their IT colleagues.  Unfortunately, remarkably few lawyers understand  IT idioms and it sometimes appears that fewer IT folks understand lawyers.  It’s aggravating that the legal profession, which prizes clear communication, can’t consistently communicate clearly with this other profession — especially given the fact that understanding between these groups is critical to the smooth and profitable running of a law firm.

Both groups need to spend a little time thinking about why communication has proven to be so difficult.  I suspect it’s partially due to some insularity and arrogance on the part of both professions.  However, there may also be some fundamentally different ways of approaching problems (and life).  Law firm knowledge management often finds itself in the DMZ between the two groups.  While this is not an unreasonable temporary position, it really doesn’t make sense for this to be a long-term one.  Law firm knowledge managers shouldn’t merely be translators.  Perhaps we need to be the mediators who promote the long overdue frank conversation between the two groups.

[Photo Credit:  Moirabot]