ources

Action Plan for Objective 2:

• Create schedule for referral communications by September 7
• Contact three referral sources per month and schedule coffee, lunch, etc.

Without goals, it is difficult to concentrate and avoid distractions. Although the goals themselves may change, having the goals is exceptionally important. In order to reduce stress, you must increase your control over your environment. Paying attention gives you much more control. Establish priorities, match skills to the challenges you’re presented with. Stress comes from doing what you hate OR avoiding it.

Evaluate and Revise
The final step in the planning process is to Evaluate and revise the plan. Planning is an ongoing process. As your firm changes, the marketplace changes and

Imagine trying to do one of those 1000 (or more) piece jigsaw puzzles without looking at the picture – without having any idea what the finished puzzle would look like. Now imagine that you’re doing the puzzle without the picture, but not all of the pieces in the box belong to the same puzzle. How do you know which ones belong? How can you complete the puzzle effectively? Failing to develop strategic plans for your law firm is like trying to do the puzzle without knowing which pieces belong or what the end result is supposed to look like.

Strategic Planning Made Easy
The four steps in the EASE method of strategic planning will make your planning a breeze: Envision, Analyze, Strategize, and Evaluate.

Envision the Result You Want
What does a law firm’s strategic plan look like? Every strategic plan must start with a vision of what you want the end result to be. This is the first step in the EASE method – Envision.

The vision is like the photo on the puzzle box – it’s a detailed picture what you want to get out of the plan. For example, if you’re working on a firm business plan, you’ll create a vision of what you want your practice to become. It will include such things as: what you’ll be known for, how you’ll serve your clients, what areas of law you’ll practice in, how much revenue your firm will make, how many offices you’ll have, how many employees will work for the firm, and what the firm’s core values will be.

Analyze Where You Are Now
The next step in creating a plan is to Analyze your current situation. Take stock of where you are, who your best and worst clients are, what practice areas you focus on now, where your revenue comes from, how your clients are referred to you. You’ll also analyze your competition: who are they? Why do clients choose you over your competition? What does your competition offer that you don’t? What changes are occurring in the marketplace? What are your potential clients’ needs and wants? Which pieces fit with your vision, and which don’t?

Strategize How You’ll Get To Your Vision From Where You Are Now
After you’ve taken stock of your current position, it’s time to Strategize. This step consists of setting broad goals and identifying objectives that will help you reach those goals. You’ll create action plans with specific deadlines for completion. The action plans break down your objectives into discrete steps, so that you can move toward those goals.

For example, if a firm goal is to increase referrals and client loyalty, you must ask questions like: What kind of service do my potential clients expect? How can we provide those services in a way that distinguishes us from the competition? How can we package our services to be more attractive to our target market?

Here’s an example of the beginnings of what such a plan might look like:

Goal: Increase client loyalty and referrals

Objective 1: Create client survey program

Action Plan for Objective 1:

• Research client surveys on the internet by September 1
• Write first draft of client survey by September 15

Objective 2: Improve relationships with good referral sources

Action Plan for Objective 2:

• Create schedule for referral communications by September 7
• Contact three referral sources per month and schedule coffee, lunch, etc.

Without goals, it is difficult to concentrate and avoid distractions. Although the goals themselves may change, having the goals is exceptionally important. In order to reduce stress, you must increase your control over your environment. Paying attention gives you much more control. Establish priorities, match skills to the challenges you’re presented with. Stress comes from doing what you hate OR avoiding it.

Evaluate and Revise
The final step in the planning process is to Evaluate and revise the plan. Planning is an ongoing process. As your firm changes, the marketplace changes and y

plan look like? Every strategic plan must start with a vision of what you want the end result to be. This is the first step in the EASE method – Envision.

The vision is like the photo on the puzzle box – it’s a detailed picture what you want to get out of the plan. For example, if you’re working on a firm business plan, you’ll create a vision of what you want your practice to become. It will include such things as: what you’ll be known for, how you’ll serve your clients, what areas of law you’ll practice in, how much revenue your firm will make, how many offices you’ll have, how many employees will work for the firm, and what the firm’s core values will be.

Analyze Where You Are Now
The next step in creating a plan is to Analyze your current situation. Take stock of where you are, who your best and worst clients are, what practice areas you focus on now, where your revenue comes from, how your clients are referred to you. You’ll also analyze your competition: who are they? Why do clients choose you over your competition? What does your competition offer that you don’t? What changes are occurring in the marketplace? What are your potential clients’ needs and wants? Which pieces fit with your vision, and which don’t?

Strategize How You’ll Get To Your Vision From Where You Are Now
After you’ve taken stock of your current position, it’s time to Strategize. This step consists of setting broad goals and identifying objectives that will help you reach those goals. You’ll create action plans with specific deadlines for completion. The action plans break down your objectives into discrete steps, so that you can move toward those goals.

For example, if a firm goal is to increase referrals and client loyalty, you must ask questions like: What kind of service do my potential clients expect? How can we provide those services in a way that distinguishes us from the competition? How can we package our services to be more attractive to our target market?

Here’s an example of the beginnings of what such a plan might look like:

Goal: Increase client loyalty and referrals

Objective 1: Create client survey program

Action Plan for Objective 1:

• Research client surveys on the internet by September 1
• Write first draft of client survey by September 15

Objective 2: Improve relationships with good referral sources

Action Plan for Objective 2:

• Create schedule for referral communications by September 7
• Contact three referral sources per month and schedule coffee, lunch, etc.

Without goals, it is difficult to concentrate and avoid distractions. Although the goals themselves may change, having the goals is exceptionally important. In order to reduce stress, you must increase your control over your environment. Paying attention gives you much more control. Establish priorities, match skills to the challenges you’re presented with. Stress comes from doing what you hate OR avoiding it.

Evaluate and Revise
The final step in the planning process is to Evaluate and revise the plan. Planning is an ongoing process. As your firm changes, the marketplace changes and

who your best and worst clients are, what practice areas you focus on now, where your revenue comes from, how your clients are referred to you. You’ll also analyze your competition: who are they? Why do clients choose you over your competition? What does your competition offer that you don’t? What changes are occurring in the marketplace? What are your potential clients’ needs and wants? Which pieces fit with your vision, and which don’t?

Strategize How You’ll Get To Your Vision From Where You Are Now
After you’ve taken stock of your current position, it’s time to Strategize. This step consists of setting broad goals and identifying objectives that will help you reach those goals. You’ll create action plans with specific deadlines for completion. The action plans break down your objectives into discrete steps, so that you can move toward those goals.

For example, if a firm goal is to increase referrals and client loyalty, you must ask questions like: What kind of service do my potential clients expect? How can we provide those services in a way that distinguishes us from the competition? How can we package our services to be more attractive to our target market?

Here’s an example of the beginnings of what such a plan might look like:

Goal: Increase client loyalty and referrals

Objective 1: Create client survey program

Action Plan for Objective 1:

• Research client surveys on the internet by September 1
• Write first draft of client survey by September 15

Objective 2: Improve relationships with good referral sources

Action Plan for Objective 2:

• Create schedule for referral communications by September 7
• Contact three referral sources per month and schedule coffee, lunch, etc.

Without goals, it is difficult to concentrate and avoid distractions. Although the goals themselves may change, having the goals is exceptionally important. In order to reduce stress, you must increase your control over your environment. Paying attention gives you much more control. Establish priorities, match skills to the challenges you’re presented with. Stress comes from doing what you hate OR avoiding it.

Evaluate and Revise
The final step in the planning process is to Evaluate and revise the plan. Planning is an ongoing process. As your firm changes, the marketplace changes and

es into discrete steps, so that you can move toward those goals.

For example, if a firm goal is to increase referrals and client loyalty, you must ask questions like: What kind of service do my potential clients expect? How can we provide those services in a way that distinguishes us from the competition? How can we package our services to be more attractive to our target market?

Here’s an example of the beginnings of what such a plan might look like:

Goal: Increase client loyalty and referrals

Objective 1: Create client survey program

Action Plan for Objective 1:

• Research client surveys on the internet by September 1
• Write first draft of client survey by September 15

Objective 2: Improve relationships with good referral sources

Action Plan for Objective 2:

• Create schedule for referral communications by September 7
• Contact three referral sources per month and schedule coffee, lunch, etc.

Without goals, it is difficult to concentrate and avoid distractions. Although the goals themselves may change, having the goals is exceptionally important. In order to reduce stress, you must increase your control over your environment. Paying attention gives you much more control. Establish priorities, match skills to the challenges you’re presented with. Stress comes from doing what you hate OR avoiding it.

Evaluate and Revise
The final step in the planning process is to Evaluate and revise the plan. Planning is an ongoing process. As your firm changes, the marketplace changes and

ources

Action Plan for Objective 2:

• Create schedule for referral communications by September 7
• Contact three referral sources per month and schedule coffee, lunch, etc.

Without goals, it is difficult to concentrate and avoid distractions. Although the goals themselves may change, having the goals is exceptionally important. In order to reduce stress, you must increase your control over your environment. Paying attention gives you much more control. Establish priorities, match skills to the challenges you’re presented with. Stress comes from doing what you hate OR avoiding it.

Evaluate and Revise
The final step in the planning process is to Evaluate and revise the plan. Planning is an ongoing process. As your firm changes, the marketplace changes and your clients change, the plan needs to change, too. The results of the actions you’ve taken must be evaluated to determine whether they’ve been successful, and whether they’re likely to continue to be successful.

In order to evaluate, you’ll have to keep track of your progress as you go along. Recognize that continuous testing (and making mistakes) is the only way to determine what really works and what doesn’t. Law firms often fail to set aside the time to look back to see whether their efforts have been successful, or to continue testing once they think they’ve found something that works. But to improve sometimes means taking risks and changing something that works to see whether you can make it work even better.

Put the Puzzle Together with EASE
Using the EASE process: Envision, Analyze, Strategize, and Evaluate, you can create a plan that will help you put the pieces of your law firm puzzle together:

Envision what you want – create the picture of what you’d like the result of the plan to be.

Analyze where you are now – and ascertain which pieces belong to the your vision and which don’t

Strategize how you’ll get from where you are to your vision – which part of the puzzle should you work on first? How will you put the pieces together?

Evaluate what you’ve done- determine whether you need to change to make a change, or what the next steps will be.

Once you know what the end result is supposed to look like and how you plan to get there, you can concentrate on putting the pieces in place to create your vision.

(c) 2007 Allison C. Shields and Legal Ease Consulting, Inc. This article may be reprinted, but must include the copyright and resource box below.