Whether a crisis occurred or as a preventative measure to ensure no issues come up, Legal often enters an organization in the survival mode mindset. To truly enhance and elevate the Legal function however, the team needs to bring an organization from simply sustaining to thriving.
From technology to communication techniques, there are many ways for a company to start on the path to success. Here are three ways to move from a survival mindset to bring an organization into thriving with their agreements.
1. Set intentions.
Create a plan for the organization’s Legal health. Interviews with stakeholders and executives will showcase the critical needs. From there, benchmark current processes and set goals for the future. Increasing collaboration between teams will help expand the buy-in, awareness, and excitement around the changing face of Legal. Legal has an opportunity to come into an organization and position themselves as builders, not blockers.
2. Communicate and train.
As a result of the goals set, there will likely be changes and potentially new processes or platforms teams will need to learn. Utilize the stakeholders to communicate any new workflows and train everyone involved in the agreement process on what these changes entail. Successful adoption requires feedback and open communication, which is an excellent opportunity for the Legal team to serve as strategic advisors and a resource for the company.
3. Invest in technology.
A recent survey by KPMG confirms digital transformation is a key strategic priority for CEOs. It is also time sensitive—85% of enterprise decision makers think they have a two-year timeframe to make significant inroads on their digital transformation before sustaining adverse financial impact and/or lagging the competition. Yet according to Gartner, only 19% of in-house legal teams are well positioned to support enterprise digital efforts. Discovering and implementing good legal technology is a significant step to showing the innovative thinking that is inherent to Legal. Investing in technology that will automate and streamline workflows will take tedious, manual tasks off the Legal team’s workload and enable them to help move into the strategic thinking that will help organizations thrive.
Business leaders may just want to make sure that no problems arise and will be satisfied as long as that outcome is true. But Legal has the power to do so much more—with their expertise, they can greatly impact the potential of an organization. By moving a business into a thriving mode, Legal can focus on the strategic elements of their work to elevate a company and move toward success.
