CLE Leadership & Management
Ideas, Resources, and Techniques for
CLE Professionals
A periodic e-newsletter
By Chuck Bingaman - chuck@chuckbingaman.com
#32 December 2006
Leadership  Congratulations to Ray Ruppert, ACLEA President, and
to Julene Franki, ALI-ABA Executive Director, for launching plans for the
2008 CLE Summit titled “Equipping the Profession: Critical Issues
in Law School Education, Continuing Legal Education, and Legal Practice in
the 21st
Century.” This is an important initiative as rapid changes in our society,
in the profession, and in information technologies have dramatically changed
the environment in which lawyers work and learn.
Management
CLE
leaders need to spend more time creating “can’t miss” programs
and seeing that they are marketed as effectively as possible—the only
things that raise revenue. Meetings are increasingly visible time wasters. GenX employees in particular are resistant to meetings but accepting of technological
means of communicating. Make
sure your online registration and order forms are as simple as possible. Recent
research shows that as many as 7 out of 10 shopping carts are abandoned before
buying because users find them too cumbersome, complicated or confusing. Look
into offering certificate CLE courses—clusters of programs, immersion
programs, and blended format programs, especially on emerging topics. They
can give portable credentials some lawyers need, can satisfy MCLE requirements
for specialists that have trouble finding regular CLE courses that satisfy
them, and can bring in added revenue. Also, they can be good partnering vehicles
with other educational institutions, associations and subject matter experts. Create
a thorough routine for following up with those who make telephone or email
inquires about your CLE offerings. In the one- to three week window after
they contact your organization, they may be especially motivated to buy!
Resources Here
are two GREAT gifts for almost anyone in a business role: Leadership
is an Art by Max DePree (Doubleday 1987). A true business classic, DePree
says “leadership is liberating people to do what is required
of them in the most effective and humane way possible.” Another
important—-and much newer—-title I suggest is Nine
Shift (LERN Books, a division of Learning Resources Network, 2007) by William
A. Draves and Julie Coates. It shows the HUGE shifts we are going through
in transitioning from the Industrial Age to the Information or Internet
Age and how our entire waking hours are being restructured. Some shifts
they detail include many more people working at home, intranets replacing
physical offices, learning moving online and education becoming ‘Web-based.
Personal
Notes Having
recently returned from the LERN Annual Conference on Continuing Education
in Baltimore, I have sent my detailed report—-with
dozens of great new ideas for attracting and serving lawyer-learners—-to
CLE consulting clients. If you are interested in this report—-or
the report I wrote on the HSM World Business Forum in
September-—let
me know. I am
looking forward to next month’s ACLEA meeting in Nashville where
I will lead a session on “Ten Ways to Push Your Strategic
Planning Out of the Box” and share a session with Katie Marino
of the Hartford County (CT) Bar on “Special Issues for Small
CLE Shops.” Nashville
Co-chairs Katie Marino, Larry Center and Donna Passons—and
their committee—have created a valuable program. I hope to
see you there.
Please
keep in touch! CCB
Following 20 years as Executive Director of a major American CLE organization,
Chuck now consults and teaches on CLE strategic planning, marketing, CLE executive
hiring, and management challenges with CLE and other legal organizations, law
firms, law schools and others. He welcomes your inquiries on projects designed
to enhance your organization’s effectiveness.
You can contact
him at chuck@chuckbingaman.com, at 1-603-756-9268, or at P.O. Box 390, Walpole,
NH, USA 03068-0390. Past issues of this newsletter are archived at www.chuckbingaman.com.
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