How To Shift Your Law Firm Culture

Shifting culture takes time. It's not as simple as kind of going in, firing everybody and starting over again because, frankly, most of us can't afford to do that. So, how do you shift the culture? Here’s what to do, and, especially, what NOT to do.   In this episode, we discuss: Having a reset conversation and following through with new rules. The importance of enforcing the new rules. Hiring people that will fit your culture and know the rules from the start.   Allison Bio: Allison C. Williams, Esq., is the Founder and Owner of the Williams Law Group, LLC, with offices in Short Hills and Freehold, New Jersey. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, is Certified by the Supreme Court of New Jersey as a Matrimonial Law Attorney, and is the first attorney in New Jersey to become Board-Certified by the National Board of Trial Advocacy in the field of Family Law. Ms. Williams is an accomplished businesswoman. In 2017, the Williams Law Group won the LawFirm500 award, ranking 14th of the fastest-growing law firms in the nation, as Ms. Williams grew the firm by 581% in three years. Ms. Williams won the Silver Stevie Award for Female Entrepreneur of the Year in 2017. In 2018, Ms. Williams was voted as NJBIZ’s Top 50 Women in Business and was designated one of the Top 25 Leading Women Entrepreneurs and Business Owners. In 2019, Ms. Williams won the Seminole 100 Award for founding one of the fastest-growing companies among graduates of Florida State University. In 2018, Ms. Williams created Law Firm Mentor, a business coaching service for lawyers. She helps solo and small law firm attorneys grow their business revenues, crush chaos in business and make more money. Through multi-day intensive business retreats, group and one-to-one coaching, and strategic planning sessions, Ms. Williams advises lawyers on all aspects of creating, sustaining, and scaling a law firm business – and specifically, she teaches them the core foundational principles of marketing, sales, personnel management, communications, and money management in law firms.   Contact Info: https://www.lawfirmmentor.net/speak-with-a-growth-strategist   My favorite excerpt from the episode: TIME: 00:04:18 (40 Seconds) You have to induce people to follow your rules. Right. Just simply saying, hey, I know we've been doing it this way for the past five years, but now new rule. And hope that they simply follow the new rule. Some people will, right. Some people by virtue of you stopping and having a conversation with them, it's going to jar them into a new course of behavior. But for most people, the vast majority of people are creatures of habit, right? So they have been pretty automatically engaging in behavior in a certain way, not because they wanted to do something to you or even for you, but because they fell into a modus operandi. To change that, it is going to take some time.