LexNova Guild Communitas: Efficiency vs Progress with Dr Jason Fox 🦊

In this special People in Legal roundup from the Lexnova Guild's Communitas conference, Dr Jason Fox joined Chantal McNaught for a thought-provoking conversation about the "provocation and curse of efficiency". Jason, a complexity practitioner and self-described wizard, challenged one of the biggest assumptions shaping modern professional life. That faster, more optimised, more automated always means better. 💡 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀: ↳ Efficiency can create the illusion of progress, while distancing us from what really matters ↳ Default thinking may help us move faster, but it can also narrow how we see the future ↳ In law, future relevance may depend less on hyper-rationalisation and more on human judgement ↳ Burnout, legacy systems, and machine-like ways of working are signs that something needs to change ↳ The real opportunity is not to outcompete the machines, but to become more deeply human in how we work One idea that really stood out: "Is this meaningful progress, or are we potentially perpetuating a rich delusion of progress?" It is a sharp question. Especially for legal professionals navigating AI, change, and increasing pressure to do more with less. This is a short promotional special, but the ideas inside it are anything but small.