Webinar report: Articulating and communicating your legal function’s strategy

And yet, few lawyers ever receive formal training or guidance in this area.

So, we were delighted to welcome Helen Hannan Evans and Paul Clarke, Partners at brand consultancy, The Listening People, to present a webinar dedicated to this topic. 

Helen founded The Listening People in 2019 following an in-house career at major organisations such as Towers Perrin (now WTW), Bristows, Latham & Watkins and EY. 

Paul joined Helen at the consultancy in 2023, having previously held senior communications roles at Paul Hastings, EY, McKinsey, Prudential and Deloitte. 

Strategy matters. Here’s why

In many organisations, there’s a difference between how legal sees itself and how the rest of the organisation sees it. Where legal regards itself as a value creator, trusted adviser and strategic partner, others often see a cost centre, a brake on progress and a blocker to risk taking. This perception often arises from the language legal speaks (the vocabulary of risk rather than commerciality) and the ‘curse of knowledge,’ where people with specialisms forget that others don’t share their expertise.

By closing the perception gap, legal can transform from:

• A firefighter to a proactive partner;
• A misaligned function to a business enabler;
• The department of ‘no’ to one of real credibility;
• A talent drain to an energised team; and
• A cost centre to an investment that delivers on strategy.

Authoritative statistics back these assertions up. With a clear strategy, teams are:

• 3x more likely to outperform peers (Harvard Business Review);
• 2x more engaged (Gallup); and 
• 50% more efficient (Bain).

Good strategy starts with listening

Listening to stakeholders is a powerful first step. Not only for the value in what stakeholders tell you, but in the confidence you inspire in people when they feel heard.

According to McKinsey, 70% of change initiatives fail because poor communication discourages people from buying into them. However, Harvard Business Review found that that resistance drops to 40% when people feel listened to. And Google’s Project Aristotle research into the effectiveness of teams revealed that listening promotes psychological safety, which in turn boosts team performance.

Aim to conduct 10 - 15 interviews with key stakeholders such as your CEO, CFO, internal clients and team members and listen actively to develop four key insights:

• Strengths – determine what legal is perceived to be doing well and build on these successes;
• Opportunities – identify unmet needs across the organisation and how legal can evolve to meet them;
• Blind spots – what is legal not seeing or understanding? Are risk appetites misaligned? Are you absent from the conversations that matter? And
• Quick wins – where can you make small changes that will make a big impact?

As you analyse your findings, start to set out your plan by placing your insights into one of these three layers of strategy:

• Purpose – why the legal function exists. Align your purpose to the purpose of your organisation. Purpose matters because teams with a well-defined and shared purpose outperform the market (Deloitte), enjoy 30% higher talent retention (PwC) and report 40% higher productivity (Gallup);
• Strategic priorities – what you’ll focus on (and what you won’t). Narrow this down to a maximum of six areas where you’ll deploy most of your resources; and
• Values – the principles that guide how your team operates, shows up and interacts with internal clients. 

Dovetailing the business strategy

The more your legal function’s strategy is aligned to the wider organisational goals, the greater its credibility among the business units. Take time to understand:

• The business’s purpose – and structure legal in a way that supports the organisation’s reason to exist and enable growth;
• The business's priorities – and deliver your services in a way that’s specific to the organisation’s areas of focus. Examples could include business enablement, risk and governance, operational excellence, people development and culture; and
• The business’s values – and mirror these across the legal team.

Don’t create: co-create

Case studies and research findings shared by Helen and Paul demonstrated that strategies created with the involvement of teams fare better than those that are imposed on teams. 

With this in mind, follow this four-phase process to co-create your strategy.

Phase 1: Listen
Interview stakeholders, identify themes and share your insights with your team. This phase is indispensable and, ideally, should take between four and six weeks.
Phase 2: Internal workshop
Involve your whole team and talk through values, priorities and measurement metrics. Use RACI (responsible, accountable, consulted and informed) to assign individuals to key tasks. This is where the magic happens, so, if possible, set a full day aside for your strategy workshop.
Phase 3: Test and refine
Before launching your strategy take two or three weeks to bounce it off senior leaders in your organisation. Does it meet their needs? Is it clear how legal will enable growth and protect the organisation? Where necessary, refine the strategy based on feedback.
Phase 4: Launch 
This phase is about putting all the theory in your strategy into practice: living the values, addressing the priorities and ensuring every action supports the purpose. Build the pillars of your strategy into team meetings, employee reviews, goal setting and KPIs. Keep them visible in your workplace and onboarding materials and put processes in place to consistently monitor their success.

Make your messaging meaningful

“There is far too much moaning from lawyers about not being understood in their organisation. It’s part of our job to make sure we are understood.”
Samuel McGinty, General Counsel, Loughborough University

With your strategy now live, raise awareness of how legal is fully equipped and positioned to help drive the organisation forward. Maximise the effectiveness of your internal communications by developing specific messaging for:

• The board – focus on areas such as governance, risk and resource alignment to show how legal supports the business strategy and protects the organisation;
• The executive teams – talk business enablement, collaboration and efficiency to project a sense of partnership and build trust in legal as an adviser;
• Your team – show how legal is a big part of the organisation’s wider purpose, priorities and overall strategy; and
• The business units – promote your team’s services, expertise and experience and let the wider organisation know what they can expect from its legal function, as well as what actions and behaviours you need from them.

If you would like assistance with articulating and communicating your strategy, please email The Listening People at hello@thelisteningpeople.com.