CLE Leadership & Management
Ideas, Resources, and Techniques for CLE Professionals
A periodic e-newsletter
By Chuck Bingaman - www.chuckbingaman.com
#2 November, 2002
For many CLE organizations, the last couple of years have seen flat or declining course registrations and publications sales. These grim realities have reflected the rather sour economy, profit squeezes on practitioners, the blows to travel volume from terrorist attacks, and perhaps a growing boredom with CLE as we know it. It has not been the easiest time to be a CLE leader. But, in fact, tough times are the times that demand the BEST in us.
Now is the time to face the whole gamut of problems we face with realistic, positive approaches, determination, and the will to turn things as positively as we can. And it is time to make sure communications with all of our staff members, volunteers and Board members are as open as possible so that everyone is part of the solutions we need.
We'll always have problems, but we can hope that their severity will abate. And, working together with the terrific volunteers and colleagues most of us have, we CAN lead our organizations to better days ahead. This newsletter is designed to provide resources to support the best in CLE leadership.
Leadership
The October 28 issue of U.S. News & World Report carried an extensive
excerpt from a new book titled An Army at Dawn: The War in North
Africa 1942-1943 by Rick Atkinson. (2002 Henry Holt & Co.).
It traces the story of the new commander of American and allied armies
Dwight D. Eisenhower, a then inexperienced commander, who suffered many
setbacks and struggles with his own morale, but carried on to overcome
the defeats, hardships, political demands and difficulties, and emerged
as the strong leader history now portrays him. In one letter to his
son John, written in the depths of Ike's difficult winter, he said,
"I have observed very frequently that it is not the man who is so brilliant
[who] delivers in time of stress and strain but rather the man who can
keep going indefinitely, doing a good straightforward job." Brilliance
and heroism, of course, can play their parts, but mostly we can succeed
in our leadership challenges by not giving in to temptations to quit
but rather carrying on and on and on doing what we know we can do.
Share your leadership and information. Many CLE directors hold periodic
update and planning sessions with their key reports. You can bring others
on your staff into the performance loop by sharing minutes of those
meetings, minus, of course, very sensitive items such as personnel evaluations
and decisions, with your whole staff. Not infrequently, such minutes
will spark questions, suggestions and comments that are very helpful
to the whole organization.
Management
One of the most important things managers do is to listen to customers.
And yet too often we fail to do so with the planning and intensity it
needs. Recently I participated a conference call with a half dozen Illinois
trial lawyers to discuss their CLE needs and wants. We sent around a
pre-conference memo asking them to think about trends, recurring issues
and new problems in their litigation practices, and we included a list
of course titles we were thinking of planning for 2003. The probing
for problem areas in their practices generated several solid ideas for
worthwhile courses that we had not thought about. The review of our
ideas-many based on prior courses-was valuable but not as valuable as
THEIR practice-based suggestions. Moral: really seek practitioners'
ideas about current problems and draw them out for great ideas for CLE.
One of the top ideas to come from the conference call was to build a
course around a huge personal injury verdict that was awarded in Chicago
last summer and to persuade the lawyers involved to do the program in
a "lessons learned" format in which they would trace their thought processes
from beginning to end. It's now on the Illinois CLE schedule for spring,
and it promises to be a great learning experience.
Resources
& Strategies
Want some new ideas for upgrading your workplace and maybe raising
morale? Take a look at www.greatplacestowork.com.
It's got all kinds of great suggestions that you can implement in your
shop.
Here's a valuable new book to add some substance and structure to your
business promotion efforts. Jump Start Your Business Brain by
Doug Hall, with the sub-title of Win More, Lose Less, and Make More
Money is a gem! (Brain Brew Books, 2001, Cincinnati) Hall has worked
out a system-even computerized it-for forecasting the likelihood of
success for new business products and services. It's very logical based
on what Hall calls the three laws of marketing physics: offering an
"overt benefit" that specifically, obviously and directly tells the
customer what's in it for him, giving "real reasons for the customer
to believe you'll deliver what you say you will, and offering a dramatic
difference between your product/service and that of your competition.
Hall's book is filled with great examples. His framework is perfect
for CLE planners to weigh potential courses, publications, and other
offerings for their likelihood of success-or to re-structure current
plans to increase their likelihood of success. Nothing in the book is
revolutionary or even new, but his structure for positioning our services
will shape up any CLE planner or marketer that gives it serious thought.
Take a look!
Following an award-winning 20 years as Executive Director of Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education, Chuck now consults full-time on management problems and opportunities with CLE organizations and law firms and with IICLE. Chuck welcomes inquiries about possible consulting engagements from CLE organizations, law firms, publishers and others. In addition to his personal consulting work, Chuck is an adjunct consultant with Altman Weil Inc., the leader in legal consulting. Contact Chuck at chuck@chuckbingaman.com, at 603-313-1920, or at P.O. Box 390, Walpole, NH 03068.