4 Critical Mindset shifts for Better Knowledge Sharing in the Remote Environment
Estimated read time: 6 minutes
Knowledge sharing is an ongoing challenge for law firms. Encompassing everything from research materials to firm processes, custom internal content underpins a great deal of firm functionality. It provides structure, guidance, and uniformity to foundational business activities like timekeeping, vacation requests, legal requirements, billing, etc. Compiling this information, keeping it up to date, and making it easily accessible is a never –ending challenge in the best of times.
The last few years have not been the best of times.
The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed the legal industry to remote and hybrid work models, thereby creating a knowledge sharing dilemma: How can attorneys and staff access firm information and resources effectively from remote locations?
As we talk with our clients and help them align their firms to the new normal, knowledge sharing problems continue to bubble to the top. Its impact on onboarding processes and the overall continuity of firm operations is becoming more and more apparent.
We’re intrigued by these issues – and extremely concerned. Remote/hybrid work isn’t going away. It’s imperative that law firms find effective solutions to remote knowledge sharing. We want to shed some light on this topic and offer four key mindset shifts that are critical for improving knowledge sharing practices in remote work environments.
1. Elevate knowledge sharing to high-priority status
The first mindset shift firms need to make is in treating knowledge sharing issues as high-impact problems to be solved rather than annoying but unthreatening realities of doing business remotely.
Executives are still hammering out what the new work model will look like, but for the most part, firms are continuing to serve existing clients and pursue new opportunities. As we move out of crisis mode and into business-as-usual mode, bridging the knowledge sharing gap is the next big hurdle to keeping remote work effective and viable.
Knowledge sharing is much more than an administrative activity; it’s foundational to your firm’s operations. As such, the costs of doing it ineffectively can be extremely high.
Knowledge sharing is much more than an administrative activity; it’s foundational to your firm’s operations. As such, the costs of doing it ineffectively can be extremely high.
Lawyers struggling to locate expense reporting procedures, figure out how to edit their billing, or wade through the firm directory are wasting precious billable minutes. Over time, these minutes become hours, days, and weeks. Knowledge sharing roadblocks also impinge on workflows, depress productivity, lower customer satisfaction, and insidiously erode your bottom line.
Knowledge sharing issues are critical roadblocks to both short- and long-term firm success. Prioritizing them is the first step in enabling your company to begin fixing them strategically.
2. Treat knowledge sharing as an infrastructure problem, not a process problem
The second important mindset shift that your firm needs to make is to start thinking about how to improve knowledge sharing by improving IT infrastructure.
When it comes to knowledge sharing in a remote environment, we at Helm360 see the most significant frustrations arise around (1) new employee onboarding and (2) the sharing of general firm information (firm directory listings, company policies and procedures, etc.). These are the types of activities that relied heavily on organic conversations pre-COVID.
How do I enter my time? Ask the secretary.
How do I modify my billing statements? Ask the IT staff.
Who in the firm speaks Spanish, and how do I contact them for help with something? Ask your desk neighbor.
In a remote/hybrid world, we can no longer tap on shoulders or stop each other in hallways. Instead, everyone is having to rely on collaboration tools (Teams, Slack, email, etc.) or a variety of spreadsheets, documents, and databases scattered around the cloud (SharePoint, Google Docs, another DMS, etc.).
Technically, everyone and everything is remotely accessible—but it doesn’t feel that way. In addition to messy file organization, there are many other reasons your staff might be struggling to access important information. The data may be in legacy systems that aren’t accessible from laptops; it may be in applications that haven’t yet been migrated to the cloud; or it may simply be spread across an overly –confusing array of repositories and folders.
Whatever the case, this is not a culture or people problem, it’s an infrastructure problem. Thus, engaging in knowledge sharing conversations on a systems level will give your leadership team a better ability to conceptualize and address the problems your staff is having.
3. Reclassify firm knowledge as critical data
Traditionally, firm knowledge is considered non–critical, peripheral support data. The third mindset shift we recommend is to start viewing and treating this information as a truly critical resource for staff.
Once you think of internal knowledge as essential to staff success, it becomes obvious that the files documenting this knowledge shouldn’t be left to gather cobwebs in a DMS corner somewhere. It also becomes unacceptable to let them live in a scattered, haphazard fashion. As part of your firm’s working whole, this information needs to be put on the pedestal it deserves!
Treating firm knowledge as critical data will lead to better housekeeping, as everyone in the firm will pay more attention to how the information is collected and maintained. Growing the information library will become a more cohesive, centralized activity. It will also lead to greater accessibility. Clean, organized data benefits from technical innovations like artificial intelligence that is designed to facilitate remote access.
Many more benefits can be identified—but they all start with treating firm knowledge as critical data.
4. Start looking for ways to better leverage interconnectivity
The fourth and final mindset shift we recommend is to start becoming better attuned to ways you might integrate internal firm knowledge with other important business applications and systems.
Many of today’s technology advancements, from cloud computing to AI-enabled tools, promote interconnectivity for a reason. Firms that can better create connections between their many sources of data—both critical and noncritical—are better positioned to adapt quickly to rapidly changing environments.
Firms that can better create connections between their many sources of data—both critical and noncritical—are better positioned to adapt quickly to rapidly changing environments.
Knowledge sharing in remote work environments is an important issue that involves critical data and depends on good IT infrastructure. Naturally, the best incarnations of this infrastructure leverage interconnectivity to give remote employees rapid, seamless access to the information they need at any given moment.
A firm that creates this connected infrastructure is a firm that beats its competitors every time.
Conclusion
Finding a way to bridge the knowledge sharing gap is vital to the future of your firm. By doing so, you guard against the modern threat of death by a thousand cuts: endless small workflow disruptions that wear on your staff and stealthily nibble away at your bottom line. By making the four mindset shifts we recommend here, you can take the first step toward creating a remote-ready knowledge sharing experience that boosts productivity, efficiency, and satisfaction for every stakeholder in your firm.
Is your firm experiencing knowledge sharing issues? Need help determining a solution? Contact us! Our experts are happy to help.