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CLE Leadership & Management
Ideas, Resources, and Techniques for
CLE Professionals
A periodic e-newsletter
By Chuck Bingaman - chuck@chuckbingaman.com
#12
February, 2004
Leadership
 “Leaders with loyal followers are
ones who set high standards and push for
better-than-average results. But they
also understand that results are achieved not because they have the perfect strategy
or know how to give orders, but because the people who work for them feel empowered
to do their best,” according to Carol Hymowitz in her
column “In The Lead” in the February 10, 2004, Wall Street Journal. None of us has the perfect strategy,
and even if we did, it might not be perfect next month or next year. Giving “orders” is seldom effective in the
modern workplace. But we CAN work on
empowering people to do their best, and that’s a win-win for everyone. New Hampshire Bar Association CLE
Director JoAnn Hinnendael noticed in early December that 87 Granite State
lawyers were facing fines and suspensions for failing to submit MCLE reports
by the year-end deadline. Through letters,
e-mails and follow-up telephone calls, JoAnn contacted nearly every lawyer on
the list and introduced them to NHBA online learning or video or audiotapes to
get their credit and maintain their licenses. She also walked many through the NH Bar website
utility that enables lawyers to file their reports online. In the process, JoAnn countered some of the
myths and confusions about the MCLE rules and made new friends for the NH Bar
Association. Great leadership and member
service JoAnn!
Management
Last
month’s CLE L&M challenged CLE leaders to employ CKO’s, Chief
Knowledge Officers, to provide their organizations with objective research
on what practitioners want and need from their CLE organizations now. A far-out staff innovation in tight budget
times, right? In fact, Hugh
Robertson, Director of the Legal Education Society of Alberta (LESA), has
initiated exactly such a scheme by hiring a lawyer to conduct original research
among Alberta practitioners to determine their CLE needs and wants. As part of LESA’s “futures” program that Hugh
and his board developed through a strategic planning process, a senior practitioner
with technology and CLE experience is doing outreach projects to define CLE wants
and needs half time for LESA in a two-year project. He’s also looking into technology-supported
ways to deliver CLE services and products, marketing initiatives and even publications
updates. This innovative approach promises
to yield valuable information and market guidance that LESA will use very soon
and well into the future. Standing
out among your competitors demands, among other things, constantly innovating,
constantly
developing better ways of filling practitioners’ wants and needs. There are four key steps in innovating consistently
and effectively. First, define the crucial
challenges correctly. It’s not about
what you can offer but rather about what those in your markets want or would
want if they found it available. Second,
put the right people on the problems. Curious, open-minded, “close to the market” people. Third, break
down any barriers between the R&D people and the marketing people. It’s all about finding and testing for what
those in your markets will respond to. Finally,
give R&D projects the right mix of autonomy, guidance and
resources. Set the general goals but
not the paths for getting there. The
right people will find the paths or create the new ones needed.
Resources &
Strategies Many of us must
design “creative” solutions to problems daily, some
quite complex and difficult. Some say
creativity is a “gift”, a periodic stroke of mysterious magic that some have
and most of us don’t. Not necessarily
so, according to creative genius and choreographer, Twyla Tharp, in her
new book titled Twyla Tharp: The Creative Habit—Learn It and Use It for Life (Simon & Schuster,
2003). In it Tharp explains how
she organizes, focuses and manages herself to make creativity happen and gives
us many useful exercises for igniting and managing
our own creativity. It’s inspiring, challenging
and very practical. I highly recommend
it! Another new book with worthwhile
guidance for CLE leaders is e-Learning and the Science of Instruction:
Proven
Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning by Ruth
Colvin
Clark and Richard Mayer (Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer, 2002). Trying
to keep up with—and understand—the U.S. presidential
campaigns? I’ve found three valuable
web sites. First, ABC news publishes
a
daily summary of what’s going on, a kind of cheat sheet for its reporters. You can see it at http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/The
Note/The Note.html. The Columbia
Journalism Review seeks to clarify issues and correct mistakes in the press at www.campaigndesk.com. And Bob Somerby, a Washington reporter and
humorist, publishes The Daily Howler, a weblog, at www.dailyhowler.com. Check ‘em out!
Following 20 years as Executive Director of a major state
CLE organization in the USA, Chuck now consults on strategic planning,
marketing and management challenges with CLE organizations, law firms, and law
schools. He facilitates strategic planning
sessions, develops and critiques direct mail campaigns, and does operations audits
for CLE organizations. He is an affiliated
consultant with Altman Weil Inc. Chuck welcomes your inquiries. You can contact him at chuck@chuckbingaman.com, at 603-756-9268, or
at
P.O. Box 390, Walpole, NH 03068. Past
issues of this newsletter are archived at www.chuckbingaman.com.
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