Editors' Blog

When the facts change...

Posted 10/11/2008 by Alex Novarese

With Keynesian ideas back in fashion amid the current binge of state intervention, I was reminded of one of the great man’s quotes recently upon hearing of a law firm that was struggling to acknowledge the pedestrian fact that it has changed its position on a matter of strategy.

The quote in question came as Keynes, a firm believer that thinking should be continually tested and adjusted against the facts as they become available, was accused of changing his position too often. Unruffled, the economist replied: “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?”

Unfortunately such elegance of thought still eludes many law firms when it comes to conceding the reality that their playbook has changed with the facts. In this case, I’ll spare the firm’s blushes, but its position can be summed up as this: several years back it set its course on a particular strategy for structuring its business as the firm embarked on a major period of growth and change. Now, having had some time to put its strategy into play, it has changed its mind on how it needs to structure itself to achieve its goals. What was once thought as important is no longer so. Fair enough and perfectly easy to explain. But instead the firm’s responses on the matter have been consistently evasive, petty and downright sulky.

This is not uncommon; it is strange the lengths some senior law firm managers go to avoid the basic acknowledgment that they have changed their mind. Perhaps once you could have put this down to sensitivity at seeing your strategy debated in the harsh glare of the media – no-one likes to be accused of a ‘U-turn’ or a ‘climb-down’? But Legal Week has gone out of its way in recent years to avoid such sensationsalism – barring, of course, the handful of cases in which it is fully justified. Yet you still often come across firms that strongly object to outsiders noting that that their priorities has shifted.

I’ve always found this puzzling. There is no shame is moving your strategy with the times, either because conditions change or because something you were trying to do didn’t work as well as you hoped. Indeed, in the rare occasions when law firms manage such candour, they usually get credit for clear thinking and transparency.

In addition, the failure to acknowledge a strategy has changed makes any agenda hard to effectively articulate, even internally let alone to the outside world. That also tends to be a recipe for confusion rather than effective leadership. In conclusions, law firm leaders should remember that the ability to learn from what hasn’t worked tends to be a factor that marks out successful businesses. But, one again, Keynes put it best: “There is no harm in being sometimes wrong - especially if one is promptly found out.”