With the words “agility” and the need to be “nimble” echoing through the halls of our workplaces and boardrooms, it can be a challenge for legal departments to keep up. Pressures to move faster, be more proactive and forward-thinking, and to anticipate risks in an already fast-paced environment can cause real stress for in-house counsel.
I must confess that I labelled “agility” as the “A” word when it was first introduced. However, having experienced an organizational transformation to agile management practices with one organization and now embarking on it with my current organization, I’ve concluded that the legal team is in a unique position to not only support the organization through the transformation but be a key enabler of change.
If your organization is taking on a similar transformation, below are a few lessons learned through my experience that may assist you in yours.
Be Engaged
Our job as in-house counsel is to support the business. We can’t achieve this goal if we are not fully aware of the direction the business is taking and collaborating. We need to participate in the process, attend Scrum meetings, read up on agile project management meeting tools and techniques, learn how to lead the sessions ourselves and be fully engaged in the process. There is no room for standing on the sidelines and watching from a distance, we need to be continually collaborating with our clients. For a corporate culture to change, it needs to be embedded into the DNA of the entire organization which includes the legal department.
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