I’m excited to be partnering with Clio for their Cloud Conference in Chicago on September 23 & 24, 2013.  The kind folks at Clio have given me an entire “UnConference” track to host/curate/play with, and I will be developing two days worth of unique and fun ways for attendees to think, meet and learn together better during those times when they’ve decided to take a break from the rest of the amazing content.

I’ll have more here (and on the Clio Blog) in the next few months.  Please join us.  Early-bird pricing ends on July 1.

We will not solve problems before we are paid:

Our thinking is our highest value product; we will not part with it without appropriate compensation. If we demonstrate that we do not value our thinking, our clients and prospects will not. Our paying clients can rest assured that our best minds remain focused on solving their problems and not the problems of those who have yet to hire us.

We will charge more:

As our expertise deepens and our impact on our clients’ businesses grows, we will increase our pricing to reflect that impact. We will recognize that, to our clients, the smallest invoices are the most annoying. Through charging more we will create more time to think on behalf of our clients and we will eliminate the need to invoice for changes and other surprises.

There’s also some great advice  about being selective:

Instead of seeking clients, we will selectively and respectfully pursue perfect fits—those targeted organizations that we can best help. We will say no early and often, and as such, weed out those that would be better served by others and those that cannot afford us. By saying no we will give power and credibility to our yes.

And the best one?  Time or Thinking, What Are We Selling?

We sell our thinking but we do ourselves a gross disservice in selling it by the hour. The surest way to commoditize our own thinking is to sell it in units of doing: time. Later in the engagement, when the strategy work has been done and we are deep into implementation work, the client buys our time. It is our thinking, however, that separates us from our competition and forms the basis of our ability to premium price. When we charge for this thinking by the hour we undo much of the work of the previous proclamations. “How much an hour?” we hear the client think. “How many hours?” When we employ commodity pricing we invite commodity comparisons, regardless of the value we deliver. The defining characteristic of a commodity is an inability to support any price premium. If we cannot win while charging more, then we must face the reality that we are selling a commodity. 

I’ve already bought my copy — even though I’ve read the entire Manifesto online — because I expect to open it up again and again.  I hope you do the same.

The 2013 Edition of LexThink.1 is in the books.  We had another standing-room-only crowd who heard some great ideas about “disruption” in the legal industry.  Thanks to JoAnna Forshee and Jobst Elster of InsideLegal for making this another great event!

You can check out all the videos here, and my talk on the future of CLE  – titled “The Decline of the Machines, What the Unabomber Can Teach Us About Legal Learning” — is below.  Let me know what you think.

The hardest hitting phrase — and incidentally the one I hear most often from firms — is:

“We make sure to hire people who are a cultural fit.”

What your culture might actually be saying is… We have implemented a loosely coordinated social policy to ensure homogeneity in our workforce. We are able to reject qualified, diverse candidates on the grounds that they “aren’t a culture fit” while not having to examine what that means – and it might mean that we’re all white, mostly male, mostly college-educated, mostly young/unmarried, mostly binge drinkers, mostly from a similar work background. We tend to hire within our employees’ friend and social groups. Because everyone we work with is a great culture fit, which is code for “able to fit in without friction,” we are all friends and have an unhealthy blur between social and work life. Because everyone is a “great culture fit,” we don’t have to acknowledge employee alienation and friction between individuals or groups. The desire to continue being a “culture fit” means it is harder for employees to raise meaningful critique and criticism of the culture itself.

Look around your firm.  Next time you talk about your its “culture,” what are you really saying?  Are you rejecting people because they don’t “fit” your culture for the right reasons, or the wrong ones?

I see a familiar theme come up over and over again.  People have a difficult time separating the creation of an idea from starting to work on that idea.

Why does this matter?  It’s the classic vicious cycle for projects: Get an idea. Start doing something about it. Realize you are missing some pieces. Go retrieve the missing elements. Start going again. Get stuck again. Start again. Stop. Start. Stop. Start.  

And of course, while you are “stuck,” you don’t just sit there. You pick up one of those other great ideas and start marching along until it gets stuck. And again. And again.

Sound familiar, lawyers?  Next time a client dumps a hot, gotta-be-done-by-tomorrow matter on your desk, ask yourself if you’ll have time to plan your attack?  If not, you’ll likely get stuck in Jack’s start/stuck/stop/start-over cycle.

Give yourself time — if only a day — to separate the “plan” from the “do.”  They are not one in the same and when you treat them as such, you and your clients will likely suffer.

Voting on the LexThink.1 speaker proposals is live.  You can check all 15 submissions out and vote for your favorites here.

Annual LexThink.1 Event to Focus on ‘Market Disrupters’ in 2013

Producers Matt Homann & JoAnna Forshee to hold 4^th edition of legal innovation event eve of ABA TECHSHOW

Atlanta, GA and St. Louis, MO – February 19, 2013 – Matt Homann of LexThink LLC, a legal innovation consultancy, and JoAnna Forshee of InsideLegal, the insider’s guide to thought leadership and business in legal technology, today announced the fourth edition of LexThink.1 (LexThink Point One), an interactive and mind-sharing event that allows presenters (chosen by the community) six minutes to speak with slides automatically forwarded every 18 seconds. LexThink.1 2013 has a theme of “market disruption” and what that means and will mean to the legal community. LexThink.1, named to reflect the way lawyers bill, in 1/10 hour increments, will again take place the eve of ABA TECHSHOW, April 3rd, at the Chicago Hilton starting at 8pm.

As in past years, LexThink.1 speakers will be chosen by public online voting, and share their most creative and fresh ideas focused on market disruption and market disrupters within legal and beyond. Anyone interested in speaking at LexThink.1 can submit their ideas and topics for consideration. Speaking proposals must be submitted via the LexThink.1 site (www.PointOneLaw.com) between February 20 and March 1 and online voting will begin soon after. Anyone interested in topic submissions, voting or other 2013 event details can visit PointOneLaw.com and follow the associated twitter handles @LexThink and @InsideLegal and hashtag #LexThink.

The ABA Law Practice Management Section, which produces the annual ABA TECHSHOW, remains a main event sponsor, and will again provide the evening’s venue at the Hilton.

“LexThink has always been about legal innovation and changing the practice of law in ways to benefit lawyers and their clients. LexThink.1 is a natural extension of this philosophy,” stated Matthew Homann, LexThink founder. “The format of sharing clever and innovative ideas in short twenty-slide presentations is very engaging and this year’s ‘market disrupters’ theme is bound to keep audience members engaged and alert. LexThink.1 2013 will feature 10 legal thought leaders posing their questions following this six-minute presentation format. We look forward to seeing what topics are offered this year.”

According to JoAnna Forshee, LexThink.1 co-producer and InsideLegal CEO, LexThink.1’s unique presentation format, high caliber of speakers and content as well as overwhelming audience interest, have put the event in a category of its own. We are making sure 2013 will be no different and are confident the chosen ‘market disruption’ theme will help fuel the enthusiasm and interactivity between speakers and LexThink.1 attendees. This topic dovetails nicely with what has long been our focus at InsideLegal … spotlighting movers and shakers in our legal thought leaders program and giving them and their ideas a platform to share their ideas, trends and thought leadership.”

LexThink.1 2013 will tweak its previous format to enable more interaction during the event as well as before and after. The producers will look to fill a total of 10 speaker slots this year and will not be recording the talks for later release. Instead, the 2013 event will engage industry bloggers, commentators and leverage vibrant social media channels to not only create buzz but extend the conversation, beyond a 6 minute video clip.

Staying true to the spirit of past events, LexThink.1 2013 will be open to the public, on a first come first serve basis and complimentary tickets to the event can be ordered via the website leading up to the event. Anyone interested in event sponsorships, should contact Matt at matt@lexthink.com or JoAnna Forshee atjf@InsideLegal.com.

# # #

About InsideLegal
InsideLegal.com is the insider’s guide to doing business in legal technology – both in the US and internationally – for legal technology and law practice management thought leaders, vendors, consultants/technologists and law firm innovators. In addition to information on industry events, publications and personalities, InsideLegal.com focuses on legal technology industry market research and trends. InsideLegal.com was founded by JoAnna Forshee.

About LexThink/LexThink.1
LexThink LLC is the world’s first legal innovation consultancy.  Founder Matthew Homann works with lawyers, law firms and legal vendors as a speaker, coach, consultant and facilitator, and uses out-of-the-box methodologies to help them find new and better ways to serve their customers and make more money. Formerly called “Ignite Law,” LexThink.1 gives speakers each six minutes and twenty slides to share their vision of the future of law practice. This year’s theme is “market distrupters.”

What are people going to stop doing once they start using your product?

What does your product replace? What are they switching from? How did they do the job before your product came along?

Habit, momentum, familiarity, anxiety of the unknown – these are incredibly hard bonds to break. When you try to sell someone something, you have to overcome those bonds. You have to break the grip of that gravity.

So, when you’re thinking about your product, think about what it replaces, not just what it offers. What are you asking people to leave behind when they move forward with you? How hard will that be for them? How can you help them overcome everything that’s tugging them in the opposite direction?

When you are selling services, stop focusing on the “benefits” you offer for a moment and think seriously about the changes you’re asking your clients to make in their day-to-day routines.  If they’re moving to you from another competing service provider, contemplate the difficult conversation they’ll have firing your predecessor.

By focusing on Jason’s question, you’ll have a far better understanding of your clients’ real “cost” of hiring you, and be better prepared to address those concerns as you ease their pains of change.

“And it ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new.”

– Nicolo Machiavelli c.1505 (trans. W. K. Marriott)