{"id":5456,"date":"2020-05-14T15:59:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-14T14:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/?p=5456"},"modified":"2020-05-26T19:46:57","modified_gmt":"2020-05-26T18:46:57","slug":"remote-silos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/de\/remote-silos\/","title":{"rendered":"Remote Silos"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Some thoughts on and around one of the consultant-lingo buzzwords of the decade (or longer) and some implications when applied to business lawfirms – both in general and under Covid-19 related restrictions.<\/p>\n

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1. Silos<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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In this context, the silo usually is a metaphor for internal isolationism, for communication within but not across units of an organisation. And there is an entire industry of consultants out there who will tell businesses all over the economy that silos should be \u201cbroken down\u201d and how that might be done.<\/p>\n

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Translated to our ecosystem, the asset finance team might be one silo. The M&A folks another. The litigators a third. And the non-legal departments (finance, HR etc.) a fourth. There can be many more or different ones, following any of the various dimensions of a lawfirm and its business (industries, geographies, products, functions etc.).<\/p>\n

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Based on my experience with lawfirms across jurisdictions, my bet would be for most of you they play a role in your day-to-day experience in some shape or form.<\/p>\n

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2. Why they matter<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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A broad range of aspects of a business lawfirm’s reality can be negatively affected by strong silos. Equally broad are the potential benefits of any reduction of siloism: Staffing. Knowledge. Recruiting. Profitability. Cross-selling. Coherence. Culture. The list goes on.<\/p>\n

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Of course there are also forces that might work against breaking down silos. Budgeting and profit distribution rules can be among the factors encouraging and perpetuating silos and siloism, if set-up a certain way. On the associate side, the rules for earning and allocating bonuses are among those that can have similar effects.<\/p>\n

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3. Out of the silo - why we have it GOOD<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Contrasting business lawfirms with other organizations, the net effort to make an effective move beyond silos is comparably small. And I’m not even talking about a formal change, top down and for the entire organisation, but about adjustments in a very practical, grass-roots manner, simply made by those who care.<\/p>\n

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This is a direct consequence of the so often discussed partnership model (in whichever legal disguise): most business lawfirms usually have rather flat organizational structures, which as a reflex give individuals across seniorities a high degree of practical individual autonomy.<\/p>\n

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What happens, if just one more partner from one silo made it a habit to regularly reach out to colleagues in others? To talk about and share what\u2019s up. What might come next. What markets are looking like. And to be equally interested in hearing back? Exploring opportunities for cooperation? Yep, almost instant silo-breakdown. At least for those involved. They will like it. Rinse and repeat.<\/p>\n

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The same goes for associates. All it takes is interest, initiative and in normal times (on the non-normal ones see no. 4) a cup of coffee (to you associates: it’s good for workload, too).<\/p>\n

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When compared with larger and more deeply structured organisations, lawyers in business lawfirms will to a much lesser extent have to fight and navigate crusty corporate cultures, division handbooks, 20-year feuds between C-suite inhabitants and other possible manifestations of entrenched siloism. If anyone choses to have a real, deeper chat with that colleague in financing, it can be done right now. And nobody would even notice at first. A bit subversive? Well, maybe. But it definitely works.<\/p>\n

And if more and more colleagues do it, slowly but surely the culture shifts.<\/p>\n

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4. Out of the silo - 2020 special<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Which brings us to these days of Covid-19 related restrictions. No matter what your stance is on WFH, distributed teams etc. \u2013 can we agree that in the future we will at least not see less of these than pre-corona? Which means we\u2019ll more and more often be looking at a scenario that adds a layer of physical separation to the pre-existing organizational isolation in silos.<\/p>\n

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The principle remains the same. <\/p>\n

Given the particular structure of business lawfirms, silos still are more fragile to the impact of individual initiative than in many other organizations. Sure, increased distance (whether for health or – later – for convenience reasons) requires a more conscious behavior change. Instead of just wandering next door, we now have to pick up the phone, hop on Zoom or Teams or do whatever we do to communicate internally. But it’s still possible. And we can actually do it right now, if we chose to.<\/p>\n

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Photo by <\/span>Miguel Bernardo<\/a> on <\/span>Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n

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Some thoughts on and around one of the consultant-lingo buzzwords of the decade (or longer) and some implications when applied to business lawfirms – both in general and under Covid-19 related restrictions. 1. Silos In this context, the silo usually is a metaphor for internal isolationism, for communication within but not across units of an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized-de"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5456\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}