There doesn't need to be an App for that
'Innovation' is most commonly associated with technology and business, but it happens in any field where people introduce change. An innovation is often a new product, but it can also be a new way of doing something or even a new way of thinking. Sarah Zokay-West explores some of the ways in which innovative solutions, that aren't technology-based, are being adopted at Travers Smith.
Sarah Zokay-West, Head of BD – Contentious & Advisory practices, Travers Smith
sarah.zokay-west@traverssmith.com
Somewhere in every M&BD strategic business plan you will see the desire to 'innovate'. You'll certainly see it in the plans of the Digital teams and definitely in the CRM/MarTech teams, but how frequently does it appear beyond that, into the realms of brand, client relationship and strategy, and more, into the thinking of practice BD teams? Speaking to peers in other firms, quite a lot it seems, though, perhaps contrary to perceived wisdom, not much of that is anchored in technology.
Our email inboxes are bombarded on a daily basis by those with promises of 'bigger, better, faster, and more innovative' products and solutions. Rarely do we have time to open these, never mind read them, absorb them and think about whether they would indeed be useful in making things bigger, better and faster.
Law firm BD & Marketing teams are busy. Very busy. And whilst we know we would love to think and innovate, the reality is that 'thinking time' often gets relegated to the time you have on the train on the commute home after a long day. Recognising this less-than-ideal situation, and as a small team without the luxury of hiring people into the firm with a sole focus of innovating, we decided to make that time for our team members at Travers Smith.
BD & Marketing innovation forum
Our quarterly BD & Marketing Innovation Forum is a chance for team members to get together for 90 minutes a quarter to 'play'. With no agenda, no compulsory actions and no defined follow-ups, some could argue that this is a questionable use of over 30 hours of valuable employee time every quarter. And they'd be right to exert that challenge. But despite the lack of compulsory actions or follow-ups, quite a lot has emerged from these sessions that provides the counter to that challenge.
With no real purpose other than to "think outside the box" (or even question whether there needs to be a box at all), the sessions give permission for team members to move away from the day job for a short while, to question, challenge, play, and actively engage and exercise some right-brain thinking.
Within a facilitated framework, team members are encouraged to share snippets of videos, TED talks, inspirational articles, visuals and diagrams that they have seen, to spark ideas and generate debate. Over the course of the last year or so, following these free-flowing sessions where the seeds are planted, ideas have germinated, and eventually new initiatives have bloomed.
These new approaches include an improved process for design and brand requests, a much improved (and well liked across the firm) approach to internal events, and a more effective set of communication channels for sharing information and content within the department.
“I genuinely believe that with some imagination, creative thinking and a little spontaneity at the right time, innovation doesn't have to be confined to technology or a section of a strategy and business plan, but rather can be part of our day jobs too.”
L&D – innovating and collaborating on a new level
Going beyond our own department, after creating a new client and markets strategy, it became clear that to really be successful and accelerate the firm in its chosen areas would require a deeper and more open level of collaboration between partners. Julie Stott, chief marketing officer, worked closely with Moira Slape, chief people officer, to identify a solution that would align culturally with Travers Smith and drive engagement and genuine collaboration between partners.
Whilst the adoption of a psychometric tool (the Smart Collaboration Accelerator from Professor Heidi Gardner, of Harvard Business School), was not in itself innovative, the way in which it has been deployed within the firm is a variance from the norm.
After an initial partner engagement session with Heidi Gardner at a partner retreat, members of the Client Strategy and L&D teams, alongside Julie and Moira, enrolled on a programme to become accredited facilitators of the tool and the subsequent Leadership Views. This created an in-house capability that is being embraced by the partners as they seek to work more closely together on cross-practice initiatives. For Travers Smith, this seemingly small innovative approach to embedding an external philosophy is having a significant impact.
International – innovation without borders
Those who work in large international firms will no doubt wonder why I'm highlighting working internationally as an innovation. Clearly this is something that happens every day, right? Well, for those in smaller firms, working with, learning from, and creating opportunities with colleagues in international firms definitely doesn’t take place every day.
At Travers Smith, we, like many other quality independent firms, rely on building strong and long-lasting relationships with similar firms in other jurisdictions to ensure that we can deliver the best possible solutions for our clients. Partners focus a lot of time on it, and more recently, an innovation within the BD & Marketing team has started to bear fruit too.
After an initial attempt thwarted by the pandemic, we were recently joined by a senior member of the Clayton Utz BD & Marketing team for a month-long secondment. Clayton Utz, like Travers Smith, is a quality independent firm but based in Australia. As they too do a lot of international work, they wanted to build relationships beyond the partners.
After clearing the permissions and paperwork, (which included NDAs and some slight restrictions on access to certain levels of information) we welcomed a new colleague, who joined the team here in London.
The benefits of this cross-firm, cross-jurisdiction collaboration were seen immediately, as we identified similar issues that we are all tackling, but crucially, saw the different ways in which we are tackling them. This open sharing of challenges has led to several new initiatives that we will be taking on at Travers Smith, and a couple that are making their way back to Australia too.
So what counts as 'innovation'?
Going back to the initial premise of this article, and the need to look beyond technology solutions to innovate, I genuinely believe that with some imagination, creative thinking and a little spontaneity at the right time, innovation doesn't have to be confined to technology or a section of a strategy and business plan, but rather can be part of our day jobs too. Several small successful 'incremental innovations', taken together, can have as big an impact as one large tech innovation.