Implementing Collaboration Tools

AuthorDennis Kennedy - Tom Mighell
Pages255-259
255
Implementing
Collaboration Tools
We’ve given you a lot of advice and tips on selecting collab-
oration tools. Let’s assume that you’ve done your research,
considered your options, worked through your checklists,
and developed your strategic plan. In this chapter, we discuss
some practical pointers to help you implement your collabo-
ration tools. It’s time to roll up your sleeves and get to work.
To do that, let’s first take a step back and consider how
the most commonly used collaboration tool—email—was
implemented in many law firms in the early 1990s. While
most of us would like to believe that forward-looking lawyers
jumped on board the email train to provide better service to
clients, or that client needs pushed lawyers to use external
email, in many firms that was not the case. What was the
actual driving factor? Managing partners of law firms found
that external email was an easy way to communicate with their
children in college. Suddenly, the objections to email, the slow
decision-making process, and the many concerns disappeared.
The mandate went out to implement email systems for commu-
nicating with clients. As a result, lawyers who had learned to
exchange email with their children became comfortable with
the technology, and the transition to using email with clients
was easy and all but seamless.
The same pattern repeated itself with instant messaging,
Facebook, Instagram, and other social media tools. Will it also
happen with collaboration technologies? Don’t bet against it.
The lesson here is that when you place collabora-
tion tools in the hands of motivated users who want to
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