I had a friend who recently applied for a second mortgage. There was a minor title issue that anyone could see was irrelevant to the approval. Yet the lender’s AI system spotted it and spit out an email saying the loan officer couldn’t approve the loan. When my friend contacted the (human) loan officer, he quickly noted the error and approved the loan.
But this is the danger we face in the age of AI: LLMs and bots making decisions. An overreliance on metrics and AI summaries. And mistakes that humans would have easily thought through and not made.
And it’s a particular problem for law which, as I recently wrote, thrives on ambiguity and nuance. More experienced lawyers, at least the good ones, understand this.
The trick is to impart that knowledge and training on younger lawyers and those they supervise. For this, the answer isn’t focusing on AI. It’s creating better lawyers and having partners pay attention to how the younger ones are working.
Perhaps it’s time to reinstitute and reemphasize the old managing by walking around concept.
Managing by Walking Around
Years ago, there was a management concept known as managing by walking around. It was based on the notion that managers who leave their offices and spend informal time talking with those they supervise will yield greater productivity and better work product. It drew upon the practices at Hewlett-Packard where leaders were expected to be visible, accessible, and engaged. It involved asking questions, listening, and face-to-face communications.
The idea and its soundness were reiterated to me in a recent MacSparky blog post by David Sparks. Sparks is a real thought leader in the tech and Apple space. And because he is a former practicing lawyer, he understands the practice and the impact of technology on it. In his recent post, Sparks talked about the fact that Walt Disney was at Disneyland constantly, walking around checking on anything and everything. Including painters freshening up various areas in the early morning. As Sparks put it, “Walt wasn’t checking a spreadsheet or reading a report from a middle manager. He was standing over a painter at 7 AM because the paint mattered to him.”
Sparks mentioned this and other CEOs to demonstrate how passionate they were about their company’s product instead of the business. To me, it’s the similar concept: managing and supervising by walking around demonstrates how supervisors should care about the product being produced.
The Practice Group Leader
I once had a practice group leader who every day would walk the halls in the late afternoon. The rumor always was Charly was checking to see who was working and who had left early. In hindsight, while Charly wanted to see who was working, he was really doing more. Charly didn’t just look in your office, he stopped by and chatted a few minutes about what his team was working on and what cases we were prioritizing. He asked questions and gave his ideas.
Charly wanted to be sure we were handling our cases correctly and making good decisions because he cared about the product we were producing for the firm’s clients. It took time and energy on his part to do that when he could have been sitting in his office billing time. He was being a mentor.
And we all benefitted. My work got better with his guidance. My business development skills sharpened as I listened to his ideas and got to ask questions. And every now and then, he would learn something from me and say, “That’s a good idea I hadn’t thought of.”
It was from those 6 p.m. discussions that I got my best ideas. Charly made me, and all of us, better lawyers.
MBWA Will Matter Even More Than Ever
The whole concept of managing by walking around (MBWA), however, has become a bit lost. Remote work, doing more by Zoom, increased emphasis on billable hours and revenue, and less emphasis on listening and guidance by older lawyers have resulted in the concept fading from view.
But add to all this the temptation to use AI to make decisions and you have all the more reason to do more walking around, listening, and chatting. Relying on LLMs to make strategy decisions and prioritize tasks and work results in potentially bad and costly decisions like the loan decision that almost cost my friend a loan. And as we move away from time-based billing to value-based billing, maximizing that value is essential. And that’s what managing by walking around can do.
All the more reasons we need more Charlys in the legal world and less reliance on dashboard non thinking. We need senior lawyers who take time to ask and listen. Who themselves understand how to use AI and its benefits and risks. Who can ask how their team is using AI and make sure it’s done to enhance the work and not a mere shortcut. Who care about the team, and its work product.
So, let’s get the old managing by walking off the shelf, dust it off, and apply it to today’s new reality.
Before it’s too late and we end up with lawyers who know how to prompt but not how to practice.
Stephen Embry is a lawyer, speaker, blogger, and writer. He publishes TechLaw Crossroads, a blog devoted to the examination of the tension between technology, the law, and the practice of law.
The post Managing In The Age Of AI: Bring Back Walking Around appeared first on Above the Law.
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