Building a growth mindset culture
The key takeaway for GCs is that we are leaders in our organisations. And, as leaders, it falls to us to create the space and culture where new ideas can flourish, improvements can be made, and failures can be reframed as learning opportunities.
Learning from failure: This is the big one. For too long all lawyers have falsely believed that failure is not an option. Not true! From failure comes growth. Talk about failure openly and reframe it as an opportunity to learn and to find ways to do things differently. Foster a ‘no blame’ environment and keep things in perspective.
Rules of the game: Set clear rules around contributing ideas so that everyone feels safe to do so. Support first, constructively challenge second, as the priority is to generate all ideas and to get these into discussion. There are no bad ideas. Ensure everyone has a voice; take the lead on facilitating this.
Continuous improvement: Innovation does not have to be radical. Rather, it can consist of small improvements to existing ways of working. Many of these add up to bigger change. The things we think of as big leaps forward are often really built up of many small changes. The way to be great is to be good often.
Accelerating through diversity: Legal teams are often relatively small and lack diversity (whether demographic, experiential or cognitive). Avoid becoming an echo chamber by involving others from around the business – and outside the business – to input fresh thinking. Bring in this diversity through new demographic, experiential and cognitive standpoints.