Legal Operations professionals know that a significant key to their success is rooted in stakeholder buy-in. Conference after conference, seminar after seminar, we speak *around* what it means to be in-house legal connected to the broader enterprise. We avoid topical change management and stakeholder engagement but never truly get to the underlying subject that takes this from influencer jargon theory to actionable tactics. We cannot all rely solely on our dynamic personalities and winning smiles to woo our coworkers: How do we turn the abstract of interpersonal influence into a real, functional relationship that benefits all involved?
Let’s summarize this concept into five key tenants that will carry across all levels of relationship building:
- Listen, listen, and then listen more.
- Always ask, “What Problem Are We Trying to Solve?”
- Change apathy is real – What is the team’s true appetite for change?
- Cut down the ambiguity - clearly present any and all strategic processes, plans, and directions, each with a defined objective of why or how this benefits the individual.
- Don’t “Set it and forget it.” Continue to follow up and re-evaluate, solicit feedback, and build trust that you are continually working in their evolving best interests.
We would apply these tenants of change-oriented relationship building within various levels of relationships that must be fostered by a Legal Operations professional to get traction on truly, and ultimately user adoption of, their various initiatives and roadmaps.
First, we look inward to the legal team itself and the relationship to change the culture that the team is built around. Legal can be a high-stakes, high-stress profession. It is important to acknowledge that the team’s appetite for change may be less because the legal professional’s plate is already overflowing with immediate, pants-on-fire, reactionary activity. We should apply empathy and understanding of the specificities that come with Legal practice in an enterprise– do more with less, concede points per the company’s risk profile, and work smarter and harder, but definitely not longer. Our connection point begins at this point of view and develops through this lens, allowing us to truly connect to the pulse of what is truly a value-add, rather than a value-drag, for the legal function.
The other side of this relationship coin is that the legal team needs to see the legal operations leader as a vital strategic partner rather than a back-office administrative function. They are someone whose purpose isn’t necessarily to serve the legal team in a functional support role but rather as a partner who can put in place the right mechanisms that allow them to perform for the business in an effective and efficient way.
There is a myth that in-house attorneys aren’t, or don’t want to be, tech-savvy. While this may sometimes be the case, the issue generally lies more with being change-averse or change-apathetic. We combat this by coming to the team with a fully realized process with clear entrance and endpoints, whether tech-assisted or not, that clearly defines the problem you solve with the solution at hand and the steps they will take within the given process or solution. Taking the ambiguity out of the process as much as possible means less stress for the legal team in order to navigate, and in time, means an easier road to their adoption.
Following legal team buy-in, we look to the various business stakeholders that our processes touch and affect. Fundamentally, though the title is “legal” operations, we are an operational cog that, in many cases, serves the broader business as much as the legal team, often serving as a connection point and catalyst between business and legal stakeholders. It is in this relationship that we can be the most influential, demonstrating sound best practices on how to properly procure and implement technology solutions and how to lead process development and change. This relationship is built on listening, understanding, and trust that processes are meant as a catalyst to help them receive services from their legal team more effectively. Often, this means ensuring an understanding of the objectives of each business segment and aligning strategies. By doing so, the top-level buy-in is a key element of the accountability required for long-term user change and adoption.
Finally, we all answer to someone. Getting buy-in when needed from the highest level of decision-makers means demonstrating value, and we do this by providing the summarized narrative of “What problem does this solve?” that we then support with data and the feedback and support of other influential stakeholders.
Ultimately, if you want to build relationships that lead to adoption from any enterprise stakeholder, nothing can get you closer to that goal than trust. We build this trust by continually demonstrating a degree of care toward being a partner in problem-solving rather than an enforcer of red tape and bureaucracy. We strengthen this trust by caring for our processes post-implementation: Checking in, providing continued support and training, and ensuring evolution when needed. A demonstrated focus on continual improvement that is a result of engaging stakeholders in the evolution rather than just pivoting in a black box is the actionable step we take to gain full trust in the process.
It is not enough for us to say, “Build relationships with your stakeholders,” “Get stakeholder buy-in,” or “Manage change effectively.” These surface-level reiterated talking points require interpersonal strategy and consistency and are a process that coincides with implementing a process. Being a clear and trustworthy problem solver goes a long way within the organization and makes the time ROI legal operations staff spends implementing well worth the effort.