In the highly time-pressured environment of a law firm, allocating time for education or training can be difficult, particularly when it concerns matters of business process and is not specifically geared towards increasing legal knowledge. Those responsible for educating fee earners on areas such as risk, time management, securitisation, or responsible conduct, for example, will recognise the challenge of deploying targeted, effective and streamlined education across the organisation.
Further, they realise that education can no longer be static and staid. To impact on today’s learner — who is ever-more entrenched in various media channels — it must include leading-edge instructional design, graphics-rich media, realistic storylines and workplace scenarios that bring education concepts to life, in order to achieve behavioural change. The optimum approach must factor in learners’ available time (almost non-existent for lawyers), must be sufficiently compelling to ensure effectiveness and send a consistent message across the firm.
Traditional face-to-face methods of teaching in the classroom are proving increasingly inefficient, ineffective and costly for firms, compared to next-generation, computer-based interventions.
Logistically, removing lawyers from their desks for extended periods of time is disruptive to work, not to mention the costs of venue hire, trainers and time out of the office. The ‘chalk and talk’ format is not practical for a law firm and does not deliver the kind of impact that drives positive business improvement.
Freshfields’ email explosion
Achieving the right blend of novelty and context for communicating email guidelines was a key objective for Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. It was sending and receiving in excess of 1.75 million email messages in a typical month and the threat that just one injudicious email can pose was widely appreciated.
While the firm had not experienced serious negative repercussions from careless or inappropriate email usage, Freshfields was keen to initiate an email education programme to reduce risk, lead by example and ensure best practice.
The need for such a programme was identified against the background of a dramatic explosion in fee earners using email — very few Freshfields staff were regularly faxing or writing letters any more. It was clear that staff needed to stop and think before they pressed ‘send’ — not only about the length of the email to their clients, but whether they should be sending it at all. There was one question they needed all their employees to consider when using email: is it sensible for me to be sending this?
Freshfields originally commissioned e-learning company, Fuel, since acquired by LRN, to meet the task of connecting time-starved fee earners with the potentially dry subject matter. Of paramount importance was to convey the significance of email best practice in a way that would generate maximum impact and retention for a diverse audience of lawyers around the world.
A module-based course was developed, based around a James Bond pastiche and featuring partner Hugh Crisp in the lead role, plus other members of the firm appearing as animated characters in a series of episodes. Each scenario represented a realistic issue, such as dealing with attachments, the use of Reply to All, and CC, in order to ground learning in a meaningful context.
The key challenge of the project was to develop a piece of learning that would relate to a large number of people spread over a wide geographical area. A further consideration was the competing demands on the busy fee earners’ time.
The course had to generate sufficient impact to ensure it would warrant, and keep, the lawyers’ full attention and it had to be delivered as quickly as possible. The content was deployed across
Fuel has recently been purchased by LRN, a global compliance and ethics solution provider that helps to make responsible conduct part of everyday business practice through executive insights, management tools and workforce education.
Since its original roll-out, course material is now situated on the intranet, as well as being made available to recruits as part of their initial IT training. The compressed visual style resonates well with the younger audience of new starters, and from all fee earners across the firm who enjoy the course while still being able to meet client expectations and billing commitments.
Repeatedly providing cost savings for the business over the long term is undoubtedly a major deciding factor for choosing an online solution. While stand-up training interventions can be inconsistent and quickly become outdated, media-rich e-learning can be easily updated in line with the latest regulation and ensure the entire target audience receives exactly the same messages from the organisation.
BlackBerry learning
A natural extension of this working model for Freshfields would be the deployment of bite-sized content to mobile devices such as the BlackBerry. More and more LRN clients are experimenting with BlackBerrys and other devices to deploy content updates and refreshers to better meet the needs of the modern worker who increasingly tends to juggle tasks during the day.
Delivering education in discrete segments promotes behavioural change more effectively than single measures, online or in the classroom. Adult learning theory stresses the importance of not overbearing the learner with information; rather to reinforce the key points at regular intervals over the long term.
Layering education through repetition is far more likely to result in lasting retention of the material, and ultimately, application in practice.
Taking e-learning seriously
The education requirements within a law firm call for an informed approach with particular considerations. Due to the highly structured format of fee earners’ working schedules, it is vital to develop relevant, engaging and accessible education programmes. Deploying computer-based courseware that brings these elements together can prove extremely successful.
Web-based programs also bring a positive return for the business. Education delivered in this way not only significantly reduces the per head cost associated with face-to-face sessions, it can be personalised to the organisation — even to the individual’s role — and contribute towards enhanced brand perceptions alongside mitigating risk for the firm.
E-learning, as a means of educating staff, is hardly a new concept — it is evolving into more sophisticated methods such as Web 2.0, serious gaming and mobile delivery. Reaching out to the media-savvy, younger generation of lawyers is becoming a top concern for firm managers. Staying abreast of available technologies and the opportunities they offer in developing and holding onto their talent is a must for those educating fee earners. n
Chris Campbell is creative director at LRN.