In these times of remote work, the ability to bond and brainstorm is scarce, and most General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officers are worried about the expense of a department or leadership “retreat.” However, for a minimal investment, a team workshop can reduce business and legal risks, create efficiencies, and result in higher quality work product. A workshop can benefit your team in many ways, including some of the following considerations:
Retaining and Motivating Talent
The job market for attorneys is still hot. And, where remote work is allowed, it’s easy for one of your lawyers to take another job without needing to move. I’ve encountered situations where a lawyer from a less expensive market – like Austin – gets a big raise by taking a job in a more expensive market like Los Angeles and doesn’t have to relocate.
Losing a good attorney costs the time of finding and onboarding a replacement, the effort to draft and post a job description, review resumes, and interview, plus several months of onboarding. A team workshop — where friendships are made, constructive ideas are shared, and missions are agreed upon — creates loyalty and enthusiasm within the department. People feel part of something larger with clarity of purpose, thus aiding in talent retention.
Legal Problem Solving
At an in-person workshop I ran, a lawyer from Illinois was talking with a lawyer from Germany about a significant, frustrating financing transaction. “What?!” exclaimed the German lawyer, “You’re dealing with that too? I have a similar problem in our German office.” So, the two lawyers created a committee and devised a way to write one type of master contract for this transaction that could work across the organization in multiple parts of the world.
The in-person meeting allowed these colleagues to share information and develop solutions that saved the company hundreds of thousands of dollars, all while crafting a better legal solution. Furthermore, these two lawyers grew in stature and leadership skills by running this committee and presenting solutions to senior lawyers and businesspeople at the company.
The result from this department workshop was money and time saved, cross-border drafting and review of documents to reduce risk, and more engaged attorneys.
Strengthening Company Culture
There is absolutely no substitute for guided department or team meetings when it comes to developing and strengthening culture. Identifying shared goals and addressing concerns in a safe, team environment inevitably leads to constructive and educational solutions.
At one off-site team meeting, a lawyer from the U.S. and one from Mexico met and shared examples of their differing diversity needs. This resulted in a better understanding and resolution of how the entire law department and corporation could support colleagues and improve equality in different parts of the world. It also resulted in the law department taking on pro bono work in Latin America, which made the entire department and the Board of Directors proud.
Team Building Meetings Save Costs
As you can see from the above true stories, departmental workshops pay for themselves; inefficiencies are uncovered, and best practices are developed. Your company’s business leaders, who might be invited to the meetings, inevitably learn about the law department’s challenges. This could provide the opportunity for them to mingle with the lawyers in the law department, cementing relationships and opening up lines of communication.
Additionally, compared to hiring a consultant for a limited amount of time and scope to plan and run an effective program, there is a very low cost to an off-site in-person meeting. In-person meetings are the preferred format since they allow for more casual talk and bolster all the benefits discussed above. The investment you might spend on travel is more than made up for by the opportunity to solve legal and business problems in person, consolidate work, share solutions, reduce outside counsel fees, and retain talent. These meetings can often be held in conjunction with other company or business meetings, essentially covering the costs and getting more from your investment.
Even if the meetings are not in-person, conducting remote team workshops where the agenda and objectives are to have the time and structure to strategize, design solutions, collectively understand department and business goals, and build trust, is invaluable.
Schedule a Legal or Compliance Workshop with the Help of BarkerGilmore
“Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people.” – Steve Jobs
Planning a department workshop, whether in-person or remotely, provides an excellent and cost-effective opportunity for employees and leadership to brainstorm, solve problems, gain more visibility into the business, and more but for minimal investment. It can also help build a strong company culture that people enjoy participating in, helping to foster employee satisfaction.
If you or your colleagues are interested in planning such a meeting, myself and the team at BarkerGilmore would be happy to advise you on best practices and how to handle key details.
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