This article originally appeared in the June 2009 issue of Accounting and Financial Planning for Law Firms.  ©2009, Incisive Media US Properties, LLC. Further reproduction or distribution prohibited.

Does your firm have a strategic plan? Do you know where that strategic plan is currently located? Is it tucked away in a dusty folder, hidden among a pile of abandoned firm initiatives? Or is your plan integrated into the fabric of your firm - indoctrinated into your firm’s practices, people, and culture?

Unfortunately for many law firms, strategic plans frequently remain in the form of untouched documents, failing to materialize as a part of the firm or its people. Research indicates that 90% of organizations fail to effectively execute their strategic plans[1]. The reasons for this are varied, but, as discussed later in this article, most hinge on the fact that strategy implementation is resource intensive and challenging. Nonetheless, strategic planning remains a top priority among successful law firms, based on the fundamental notion that an effective strategy offers unique opportunities for market differentiation and long-term competitive advantage. Given the importance of strategy and its execution, firms today are increasingly asking the question - what are the best tools and methodologies to enable effective strategy implementation?

This article originally appeared in the June 2009 issue of Accounting and Financial Planning for Law Firms.  ©2009, Incisive Media US Properties, LLC. Further reproduction or distribution prohibited.

Does your firm have a strategic plan? Do you know where that strategic plan is currently located? Is it tucked away in a dusty folder, hidden among a pile of abandoned firm initiatives? Or is your plan integrated into the fabric of your firm - indoctrinated into your firm’s practices, people, and culture?

Unfortunately for many law firms, strategic plans frequently remain in the form of untouched documents, failing to materialize as a part of the firm or its people. Research indicates that 90% of organizations fail to effectively execute their strategic plans[1]. The reasons for this are varied, but, as discussed later in this article, most hinge on the fact that strategy implementation is resource intensive and challenging. Nonetheless, strategic planning remains a top priority among successful law firms, based on the fundamental notion that an effective strategy offers unique opportunities for market differentiation and long-term competitive advantage. Given the importance of strategy and its execution, firms today are increasingly asking the question - what are the best tools and methodologies to enable effective strategy implementation?

Challenges in Strategy Implementation

All too often, law firms dedicate substantial internal and external resources to a strategy development process, but ultimately, fail to move the firm in the direction identified or realize the benefits of their investment. Why is it that so many firms fail in strategy implementation?  The most common reasons include: 

• Insufficient partner buy-in: In conducting strategic planning, firm leaders and partners involved in the process develop a strong understanding of the business imperative behind the chosen strategy and the need for change in order to achieve partner goals. However, partners removed from the process may struggle to identify with the goals and strategies outlined by firm leaders. These partners may not see a need for change, and without understanding the background and rationale for the chosen strategy, these partners may never buy-in to strategic plan and, as a result, will passively or actively interfere with the implementation process. 

• Insufficient leadership attention: Too often, law firm leaders view the strategy development process as a linear or finite initiative. After undergoing a resource intensive strategic planning process, the firm’s Managing Partner and Executive Committee members may find themselves jumping back into billable work or immersing themselves in other firm matters, mistakenly believing that writing the plan was the majority of the work involved.  Within weeks of finalizing the plan, strategies start to collect dust, partners lose interest, and eventually, months pass with little or no reference to the plan or real action from firm leaders to move forward with implementation. 

• Ineffective leadership: Leading strategy implementation requires a balancing act – the ability to work closely with partners in order to build cohesion and support for the firm’s strategy, while maintaining the objectivity required in order to make difficult decisions. Strategy implementation frequently fails due to weak leadership, evidenced by firm leaders unable or unwilling to carry out the difficult decisions agreed upon in the plan. To compound the problem, partners within the firm often fail to hold leaders accountable for driving implementation, which ultimately leads to a loss of both the firm's investment in the strategy development process as well as the opportunities associated with establishing differentiation in the market and gaining a competitive advantage.

• Weak or inappropriate strategy: During the course of strategic planning, the lack of a realistic and honest assessment of the firm will lead to the development of a weak, inappropriate or potentially unachievable strategy. A weak strategy may also result from overly aspirational or unrealistic firm leaders or partners who adopt an ill-fitting strategy with respect to the firm’s current position or market competition. Without a viable strategy, firms struggle to take actions to effectively implement the plan identified. 

• Resistance to change:  The difficulty of driving significant change in an industry rooted in autonomy and individual lawyer behaviors is not to be underestimated. More often than not, executing on strategy requires adopting a change in approach and new ways of doing things. In the context of law firms, this translates to convincing members of the firm, and in particular partners, that change is needed and that the chosen approach is the right one.

By developing an awareness of these hurdles and traps which lead to failure in implementation, firms can learn how to adapt their approach and develop tools to assist them in more successfully executing on their strategy.

Tools for Success in Strategy Implementation

As a first step in ensuring the successful implementation of the firm’s strategy, firm leaders must take early and aggressive action to institutionalize the strategy within the firm. The Managing Partner, Chair, and other key leaders must demonstrate visible ownership of the firm’s strategy, communicating clearly with partners about the details, value and importance of the strategy to the firm. Members of management should also seek input and support from key opinion leaders and rainmakers early-on and request their help in championing the strategy to other partners within the firm. Over time, such actions will assist in generating buy-in among partners, leading to greater overall support for the strategic plan and the changes inherent in its execution.

Having successfully sold the main tenets of a strategic plan to the partnership, firm leaders must then reorient themselves around the task at hand: strategy implementation. This is where the real work begins. To facilitate more effective execution, leaders should take the following critical actions:

Implementation Support Structure: To support effective implementation, firm leaders should ask the question: does the firm have the right leadership, governance and operational structure required to support effective implementation? Are the right people serving in the right places? Very often, firm leaders demonstrate the behavior of dynamic and influential visionaries.  However, such leaders may lack an attention to detail and the organizational skills required to effectively drive day to day action. By assessing whether the firm has the right people in the right places, a law firm can better ensure that visionary firm leaders are appropriately supported by individuals who can get the daily actions of implementation done.

Implementation Planning: A fundamental and critical step in moving forward with strategy execution involves planning. Implementation planning entails developing a detailed outline of the specific actions and sub-actions, responsibilities, deadlines, measurement tools, and follow-up required to achieve each of the firm’s identified strategies.  Implementation plans often take the form of detailed charts which map the course of action for firm leaders over a 24-36 month time period. Achieving a level of detail in these plans provides for a tangible and measurable guide by which both the firm and its leaders can asses progress in implementation over time.

Alignment of Management Processes: Successful implementation of a law firm’s strategy also requires alignment of the firm’s partner compensation system, performance management approach, and other related practice group and client team management structures and processes with the firm’s chosen strategy. The most common (and perhaps critical) example of a structure necessitating alignment is that of partner compensation. Very often firms adopt strategic plans which require partner collaboration and teamwork in order to achieve success, yet fail to modify the partner compensation system to reward such activities. Failure to align management processes and structures with a newly adopted strategy frequently results in a stall out of implementation efforts, as members of the firm direct individual behaviors to align with the firm’s historic rewards system, and not the newly stated strategy.

Measurement, Follow up and Accountability: A key component of success in implementation involves holding firm leaders and partners accountable for actively driving and supporting execution. Whether individuals are assigned discreet implementation activities (e.g. hire lateral IP partner) or asked to participate in ongoing efforts to support strategic initiatives (e.g. expand existing Energy clients), measurement and follow up is required. What actions have been taken to expand work for existing Energy clients, and how much new business has been generated from these efforts? By following up and assessing progress in implementation at regular intervals (e.g. monthly or quarterly), firms can more effectively determine whether current implementation activities and assignments are working, or whether a different approach is needed. Such assessments are crucial in ensuring that action is taken and progress is made on strategy execution.

Incorporating Organizational Learning: As an evolving and recurring process, effective strategy creation and implementation necessitates ongoing review of the firm’s chosen direction.  The strategic planning process entails periodically evaluating the firm’s strategy in light of internal and external changes and incorporating lessons learned into the implementation plan. This key component of strategy implementation ensures that the firm’s strategy remains dynamic and drives ongoing competitiveness in the market.

In the context of law firms, strategic planning represents a methodology for developing a shared organizational view of the desired direction for the firm and outlining the process by which the firm will move in that direction. For many firms, movement along the firm’s chosen strategy can be intensely challenging, and too often, implementation efforts fail.  In order to realize the potential and value in a firm’s strategy, law firm leaders must dedicate themselves to driving successful implementation. This requires planning, resources, time, attention, leadership and courage. Yet, the investment in implementation is not without its rewards. By focusing the necessary energy on implementation, your firm’s strategy will no longer be the one collecting dust. If implemented properly, your firm’s strategy will be living and breathing inside your firm and driving your firm towards market differentiation and competitive advantage.