Launching your dream without an instruction manual: A Business Fable

Chapter 5 - Values Before Volume

Welcome back to our series exploring the "Fable Framework," a journey through the hidden pitfalls of growing a professional services firm, told through the story of Bob, a seasoned lawyer, and his wife, Carol. Catch up on the earlier posts here:  Beyond "I Can't Take It Anymore", The Cost of a Shortcut, The Cost of Operating Without a Plan and The Payoff of a Plan.

When we last left Bob and Carol, Bob was finally making real money after his rocky start with Steve ("the jerk"), so much so that he saw little reason to slow down and build the plan he and Carol had agreed they needed. Five months later, that agreement has finally turned into real work: Carol has translated her research into a usable framework, and this chapter puts it to its first real test.

Your peace of mind is our priority. 

We are the law firm that rolls up its sleeves and handles every detail so you don't have to worry.

Bob reviewed the agenda for this meeting. They had decided that all internal documents would have the firm’s Strategic Intent (SI) on the first page to help remind them of what they should (and shouldn’t!) be doing and upon what their focus should be.

Today’s get together was going to be centered on something less tactical and more strategic.

Carol, as usual, led the meeting. 

They had gravitated to her leadership as Bob was usually in the weeds in the legal work and got distracted easily (with a Genius of Invention, he tended to take meetings down rabbit holes of topics that were interesting to him). Carol (with a Genius of Discernment) had the innate strength of being able to make the right call on “what” and “for how long” to cover during these meetings. Their personal conversations at home of late had lingered on some interesting things that had come up on Bob’s radar of late, and they decided to go back to their club as they had learned that getting out of their familiar environs was useful for buckling down and getting good thought work accomplished.

The firm had recently celebrated their second year anniversary. Bob reviewed some salient points with gratitude. Though originally resistant to the idea of taking away from billable time to go over topics like this, he had learned to look forward to them. These sessions now tended to fuel his dreams and his drive for the firm. This was crucial as just grinding through matter after matter had ceased being as interesting and compelling as it used to be. Over the past couple of years:

• He had actually decided to stop complaining and do something about his life by launching the firm;

• His income was steadily increasing and his quality of life was matching it;

• He and Carol had more time together and were enjoying the challenges that their work brought to them;

• He had been able to help his friend Neal out of a tough situation and had also benefited by virtue of the fact that he had a solid member of the team now in place;

• He loved being able to help solve his clients’ problems the way he wanted to solve them, and apparently they agreed with him as his client retention hovered near 100%.

Since Neal had joined the firm, Bob’s life was materially different. No longer having to grind as much as he used to, the time he spent was evenly divided between originating work (aka pouring booze down peoples’ throats, hosting at the club, and taking his referral partners out for meals) and doing the type of work that was the highest and best use of his time. Neal had gravitated to his favorite type of work, grinding, and spending time making sure that the clients were happy and felt heard.

Bob looked up and saw Carol approaching. He had reserved their usual table outside and the fall foliage was beautiful but not distracting. They had decided that they needed to push up the timing of their periodic offsites because of an interesting opportunity that had materialized.

She looked at him and smiled. “Ready?”

“Let’s do it - I can’t wait to get into this with you.”

“So, WORK is dissolving?” as she said it she was still shaking her head in disbelief at the fate of Williams | Oliphant | Roberts | Kincaid, Bob’s former firm.

“You know it - and, please remind me, we still have to keep this low-key as it hasn’t been publicly announced yet. HOWEVER, the rats are jumping ship and suddenly our little firm has become an interesting port of call for anyone who has heard and is terrified.”

Carol leaned back in her chair and stretched her arms over her head - wow. She was grateful that they had said a prayer and Bob had jumped out of firm life at WORK when he did. It  was going to truly be crazy in the local legal market for the coming year or two as all of the players started (and finished) playing musical chairs and everything settled back down. They both agreed that there was a lot of opportunity (as well as risk) that they needed to think through.

“Bob, what happened over there?”

“Well, you’ll remember the founding partners of WORK…”

“Right - Williams, Oliphant, Roberts, Kincaid.”

“And how Williams and Roberts have been gone for years.”

“Exactly - it was just Oliphant and Kincaid (who was kind of creepy and always looked at me weird).”

“Wait, you never told me that.”

“Don’t worry about it - continue.”

“Funnily enough, Kincaid was the Managing Partner (because Oliphant had to retire for medical reasons) but is being sued for - you guessed it - sexual harassment claims. Looks like it’ll be a class action suit.”

“Wow”

“Yeah”

“So what? Why don’t they just tap the next partner on the shoulder and have him or her take over?”

“Oh man, Carol - you don’t really remember WORK, do you? First of all, there is no “him or her” - it’s just him. AND, apparently, there is no mechanism for what to do in situations like this because they neither have the structure set up or, get this, A PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT! Apparently, according to my former legal assistant (who is in on all the juicy gossip), those four guys believed that what they had was “magic” and “special” and that they would never need to have a partnership agreement. With all four of them out of action, the firm has been effectively decapitated.”

They let that sink in.

Oliphant was going to be brought in (literally - as in a wheel chair and with a medical assistant) to sign over requisite legal documents so that the firm could be wound down, but there was utter chaos going on in WORK’s hallowed halls.

“Well, do we need a partnership agreement?” Bob asked.

“Not yet - but that may change if what we have been talking about happens.”

“My head is starting to hurt - I haven’t had anything to eat.”

“Let’s grab some food; I’m gonna need us both to think through what I’m about to present.”

______________________________________________________________________________

After lunch, they moved to a quiet conference room inside.

Carol had prepared some thoughts beforehand and had written their SI on the whiteboard (in addition to it being on the agenda):

Your peace of mind is our priority. 

We're the law firm that rolls up its sleeves and handles every detail so you don't have to worry.

“Bob, what do you want to do? Things are going pretty well right now and this could be a hassle and a distraction.”

“These are my friends and they’re in a mess - plus, this could be a real way to turbo-charge our growth.”

She looked at the board again and was grateful they had gone through the exercise to determine whether they wanted to stay small or grow. Something was missing, however.

“Remember when we met a while back to come up with our SI? I mentioned that typically organizations have their Mission (kinda what our SI is), Vision, and Values. You were ‘done’ after we agreed on the first one and it’s been enough for us for now. If we are going to be bringing more people on board - and these are going to, potentially, be at a partner level - I think we need to develop our values. THAT is going to save us some real headaches and wasted time.”

Bob nodded. “I get it - no need to go through what we went through before yet again.”

Looking down at her tablet, she read over points she had been making since that last meeting where they’d developed the mission. She had noted themes that seemed to repeat themselves in different environments over and over again (regardless of whether it was inside the firm or externally). Looking up, she pointed out to Bob the following:

“You know, part of what we say is that we ‘handle[s] every detail so you don't have to worry.’ That focus on execution and accountability seems to be super important - and not just with our clients.”

“Tell me about it - how many paralegal candidates have we blown through because they can’t be trusted to do something as basic as spellcheck their CVs or emails when they are applying to work with the firm? I mean, if they don’t care at that level (i.e., securing employment for themselves), how much are they going to care about the client work that comes across their desk being perfect?”

Carol saw that Bob was getting passionate and decided to let him vent his spleen - this was something that he just couldn’t wrap his brain around and she knew he’d have to wind down before she could continue.

“...and when I called her reference, they said she was ‘pretty good’ but make sure you look over her shoulder cuz she may or may not always send in court filings on time - WHAT????”

“Okay, Bob, ready to keep going?”

“Yes, let’s get to this. I see why it’s important.”

______________________________________________________________________________

The five attorneys and Carol came together in the conference room.

Carol looked around the room and said “Welcome - let’s get started.”

About Author

Alex Muñoz, Principal & Co-owner at CSR, is a seasoned entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in driving strategic growth. Known for challenging norms and fostering significant ROI, Alex's diverse background spans from manufacturing to non-profits.