Gary Klein can tell law firms a lot about working under pressure and uncertainty. He is a research psychologist and pioneer of the field of naturalistic decision making, as well as author of (among others) the book “Seeing What Others Don’t”. People pay attention to this guy: his work is used by the US armed forces, and he helped to redesign the White House situation room process.
Klein also developed the concept of garden path thinking. He illustrates the idea by explaining how, when his wife complained that her front door key didn’t work, Klein assumed that as his own key worked fine, it wasn’t the door but rather her key that was at fault. When the new key he had made also stuck, he assumed the problem was the key cutting machine, so he went to another key cutter. Eventually, he realizes that all of the keys, including his own, stuck. He lubricated the door lock and suddenly, all keys worked just fine.
Garden path thinking is when we head in a particular direction and can’t be easily turned off of it. As a strategic advisor to law firms, I see this all the time. More recently it’s been evident in the meetings where I present my research to a firm, and end with the resulting strategic plan. It quickly becomes apparent when lawyers are prepared to change, and when they really just want to continue down their existing garden path of beliefs and actions.
I’ve seen it when I’ve worked with law firms to implement on their plan. In some instances, the actions might get so watered down that it’s actually pointless to do.
I’ve seen this when clients call me in a panic to help deal with a crisis, and I find that it’s the result of the same old thinking and reactions that we had worked on replacing months earlier.
I’ve seen this in lawyers I’m coaching who want a better outcome, but just can’t seem to change their personal behaviors to cause that different outcome.
I’ve seen it in frustrated Managing Partners who desperately want to initiate change in their firm, but can’t get past their own belief system about how a firm should run.
Lawyers can try to justify garden path thinking by referencing the importance of precedent, or fear of making a change before ten other law firms do it first.
Change requires that we support our desire for a different outcome with actions different than we’ve done in the past. Change is difficult for lawyers at the best of times, so this is no easy feat.
But the biggest concern I have with garden path thinking in law firms today is when they are debating how to be structured and how to manage for the future. Because there is no garden path to follow. Not really. The old conditions for running a firm have changed, and are about to change even more fundamentally, thanks largely to AI. Senior Partners can no longer tell Junior Partners how to run the firm because they haven’t had to do it in this reality.
The greatest value senior lawyers have within their firms is not their personal experience and history, but rather their larger body of knowledge and its application to totally new scenarios. Great leadership will be less about precedent and more about applying common business sense in brand new and ever-changing conditions.
In this law firm future, if you’re on the garden path, it’s probably taking you to the trash can. The alternative? Stop fighting the need to shift. Embrace the concept that new pathways might be exciting and productive. Be truly open to new ways of doing things.
Heather Gray-Grant is a business strategist, marketing expert and executive coach for law firms, lawyers and administrators. She can be reached at heather@heathergraygrant.com