What Do These People Have in Common?

Question: What do these people have in common?

• The President of the Boston Celtics
• A leadership and organization development consultant, coach, and trainer who works with NASA astronauts
• Northwestern University's Vice President of Change Management
• Liberty Mutual Property's Chief Counsel
• A former law firm executive director turned executive chef
• Clifford Chance's Regional Chief Operating Officer for the Americas Region

Answer: They are all part of the faculty of LSSO's 5th Annual RainDance Conference, May 6-8, 2008 in Boston, MA at the Hilton Boston at Logan Airport.
LSSO's RainDance Conference™ is conceived and designed for senior leaders in law firms and legal departments. It's the place where sophisticated professionals and industry thought leaders turn for their own professional development. Once again, RainDance features a stellar faculty of sales and service experts with the experience and insight to help you develop competitive, effective sales, service and process improvement strategies and tactics. At RainDance, there’s 100% chance for rain.
Please join us, our faculty and a stellar group of attendees at LSSO's RainDance Conference.

RainDance Conference 2008 Faculty & Programs

• Jake Julia, Associate Vice President of Change Management, Northwestern University, Effectively Managing Organizational Change: A Science and an Art
• Harris E. Berenson, Esq., Asst. Vice President /Chief Counsel, Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, Developing, Maximizing and Maintaining the Inside Counsel/Outside Counsel Partnership
• Rich Gotham, President, Boston Celtics, Sales and Marketing – Lessons from the NBA
• Howard K. Shafer, Former law firm Executive Director turned Chef, What Law Firms and Lawyers Can Learn From Culinary School
• Leo Bedard, Capitol Project Manager, How To Survive as a Project Manager and a Consultant Utilizing Efficiency And Process Improvement Techniques
• Gary Mitchell, Managing Director, GEM Communications, The Law Firm of the Future
• Mark Stevens, CEO, MSCO, God is a Salesman
• Andrew Cline, Cline Consulting, Teams that Lead & Follow: Dynamic Roles for the Moment at Hand (Interactive, Experiential Learning Session)
• Sally Fiona King, Regional Chief Operating Officer for the Americas Region, Clifford Chance, Global Leadership In a Time of Economic Uncertainty: Keeping Your Eye on The Forest as well as the Trees
• Becky Dowd, Director of Business Development, Kirkland, Albrect & Frederickson and Barry MacQuarrie, Kirkland, Albrect & Frederickson, Project Balance: A Case Study from the Accounting World on Workflow Improvement and Happier Professionals

See you there!

SNEAK PEEKS! RainDance - May 6-8 - Boston

SNEAK PEEKS! Or, rather, listens... check out two interviews of RainDance 2008 speakers:



First, check out Howard K. Shafer, a law firm executive director turned culinary student. His program is "Lessons to Law Firms From Culinary School." http://www.legalinsight.com/RainShafer_000.html



Then, listen to the remarkable Andy Cline short clip about his program "Teams that Lead & Follow: Dynamic Roles for the Moment at Hand." He should know - among other things, this is a guy that works with NASA astronauts after all.

http://www.legalinsight.com/RainCline_000.html



We have a tremendous faculty, as always, featuring fresh voices, unique perspectives and sophisticated content. This is the conference where senior leaders go for their own professional development. If that's you, we look forward to seeing you there.



-Catherine

BIG NEWS! Six Sigma Lean Process Improvement for Law Firms and Legal Departments

In May, LSSO will launch the legal industry’s first process improvement certification programs designed to provide enhanced innovation, quality and efficiencies, and, in turn, increase profitiabilty and service in law firms and legal departments.

Up until now, law firms and legal departments have had to first learn about process improvement from programs designed for other industries, and then to figure out how to apply those concepts and tools in their own organizations. These programs change that, since they are designed specifically for the legal industry. Toward that end, LSSO is extraordinarily fortunate to work with Laura Colcord. She is an internationally-known Process Improvement expert who has pioneered the use of Lean and Six Sigma methodologies in a number of non-traditional applications.

As a former corporate counsel and LSSO Co-Founder, I have been interested in developing a program that teaches Six Sigma, Lean and other process improvement methodologies in the context of what law firms and legal departments face. I am thrilled that we have yet another groundbreaking offering with our white, yellow and green belt programs!

When we 3 LSSO co-founders got our green belts together (scary for the rest of the room, but that's another story), we agreed that it would be so much more valuable to have learned this from the perspective of our industry - shorten the learning curve, immediate application and so on.

Sure, some of this stuff can cause the eyes to glaze over a bit. But the fact is, this is is bottom line stuff, it's real and it's flat out fantastic when you put it to work. I'm finding lots of examples of firms and departments using it already but I'll be there are plenty more who are doing it well under the radar. Those who are engaged in process improvement are ahead of the game. And if you ask me, they upping the stakes for their unwitting competitors. Please join us on May 8 in Boston for the inaugural white belt program (it's an adjunct to RainDance May 6-8 in Boston, register at www.legalsales.org). Click on the above link for more info and to register.

-Catherine

Would you buy from this company?

With our focus on sales, service and process improvement, I'm always tempted to share the rather abundant number of "bad service" stories I have in this space. Usually, I can control the urge, but not today.

Today I am wondering whether anyone else would do what I did. Let's say you had a need for a new technological product. And then let's say that a vendor (which would also be working with that service or product) with whom you had a long standing customer relationship recommended three options.

Then, let's assume you did your due diligence and made your choice based on a number of factors, including an impressive sales experience. And you proceeded to complete an online application, which did not work the first time. So you re-entered all the data required and it does not work the second time!

Then, let's say you email the nice sales person who's provided all the info to you and explain you are having a problem. Say the response is: "yeah, we know there's a problem, sorry about that, but that's why I attached a pdf of the application for you." Um, HUH? The irony of a tech solutions provider wanting a new customer to trust them in spite of their failure or inability to correct a tech problem seems to escape both the sales person and the company itself.

So, would you buy from that company? And what about the referror who sent you there? How would you deal with their disappointment that you were not giving that particular suggested vendor the business (because it would have been easier for them, they know the product, etc.)? How would you react when your proposal went up significantly so that you could pay for them to overcome their learning curve with the other two of the three?

Maybe it's just me, but I don't feel like buying.

-Catherine