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CCCA_V6No4_Dept-ProjectMgmt2-FIN_CCCA_V6No4 11/26/12 6:19 PM Page 16 Legal Project Management Putting You on the Path to Strategic Legal Planning Step 2 of 4 By Melissa LaFlair ou dream of retiring your firefight- oriented, please note Ying equipment and moving to a that the elements of world where you strategically plan Step 2 are fluid and your legal efforts in advance. This iterative in nature. As piece addresses Step 2 — Assessing you gather and assess Alternatives of the four-step path to one alternative you strategic legal planning (outlined may well discover below).As I mentioned in the first piece, other needs for infor- the key to making this dream a reality is mation or alternatives. working smarter, not harder, using proj- Therefore working on the elements set 80-20 rule) states that roughly 80 per cent ect management philosophies, tools and out below in parallel is often the most of the effects/problems/outputs come techniques. Using the four-step process, productive and efficient approach. from 20 per cent of the causes/inputs. 1 I did just that and met with greater suc- Keeping this in mind, look for patterns or cess and benefit with each application. Step 2 — Assess alternatives repeating inputs. The approach enabled me to build an Gather inputs For example, if it seems that last minute internal and external legal team integral In order to determine how best to requests from the Marketing Department to my organization’s business. achieve the outcome that you identified trigger many of the legal group’s overtime in Step 1, you need to collect data that hours and budget challenges, gathering relates to the specific output that you are data related to those requests and chal- STEP 1 Review status quo interested in improving. Gather informa- lenges would be relevant. Factual informa- tion that helps identify and quantify the tion such as month-over-month legal stays relevant inputs that create the current until 9 p.m. four days out of five to address STEP 2 Assess alternatives outputs. As with Step 1, you will make same-day deliverable requests received at significantly more progress if you stay fac- the end of the day from the Marketing tual. To the extent this data isn’t being Department is relevant data. So too is data STEP 3 STEP 1 review status quo Plan “The Plan” tracked, either make your best estimation regarding the impact such requests have on or start tracking it. (i) overtime costs, (ii) the capacity to satis- Execute and monitor The information does not need to be fy other requests, (iii) the extent to which STEP 4 “The Plan” granular or perfect but it does need to be other matters are sent to external counsel relevant. The appropriate level of detail and (iv) legal’s ability to address long-term will be determined by the objective, the initiatives.When collecting data, be sure to For those of you who missed the first nature of the inputs and the benefits that also understand the context of the other piece in this series, Step 1 involved assess- you think will materialize by making departments and your organization as a ing your status quo and identifying your changes to the status quo. It is helpful to whole — if the Marketing Department desired outcome.A copy can be found at start by identifying the main inputs that receives requests from potential clients LEON ZERNITSKY/ILLUSTRATION SOURCE ccca.dgtlpub.com/2012/2012-09-30/ lead to the current output before drilling moments before they ask legal for the pdf/Legal_Project_Management.pdf down into the more detailed inputs. Note related deliverable, that is helpful data that For those of you who are sequentially the Pareto principle (also known as the impacts available alternatives. 16 CCCA Canadian Corporate Counsel Association WINTER 2012