Creating a shared vision and purpose
As team leaders, creating a positive and productive culture within our teams can sometimes be challenging. For senior patent attorneys, this is no exception. Based on Daniel Coyle’s bestselling book, “The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups”, we will present you with five strategies that you can implement to foster a collaborative and innovative team culture that promotes high performance and engagement. These “secrets” for productive and effective paralegal teams will help you achieve all your goals.
So, what is the first secret? Create a Shared Vision and Purpose.
This step is very important, since establishing a clear and compelling sense of purpose for the team can help align and motivate team members towards a common goal. As leader of a paralegal team, you can create a shared vision and purpose by communicating the overarching mission of the Law Firm and how your team’s work contributes to that mission. For example, explaining how foreign patent prosecution contributes to your Law Firm’s broader mission of protecting clients’ intellectual property and driving business success can help your team understand the significance of their role. By mitigating patent litigation risk and maximizing revenue opportunities, your team’s contributions play a critical part in achieving the firm’s objectives. By connecting your team’s work to a greater purpose, you can help create a sense of meaning and motivation.
Strategic planning meetings are a common occurrence in most firms, resulting in a shared vision and purpose for the company. However, ensuring that every team member understands how they fit into this plan is crucial. A strategic planning workshop that includes all team members can help break down the plan and define each member’s role in delivering the team’s objectives, utilizing practical methodologies.
Start with the Law Firm’s mission statement.
You could start the workshop by presenting the Law Firm’s mission statement to the team. The mission statement should clearly articulate the Law Firm’s purpose and values, and how it intends to serve its clients. This will provide a foundation for the team to understand the overarching goals of the organization.
Engage the team in a brainstorming session.
Next, you could facilitate a brainstorming session with the team to generate ideas on how their work contributes to the Law Firm’s mission. Remember, most workers feel a sense of purpose in their work when their values align with a company’s. This could involve asking open-ended questions, such as:
- What impact does our work have on the Law Firm’s clients?
- How does our work align with the Law Firm’s values?
- What are some potential challenges that our clients face, and how does our work help them overcome these challenges?
- How does our work help the company stand out from our competitors?
You could use a template such as the “Brainstorming Template” provided by Lucidspark to guide the session and capture ideas in real-time.
Identify key priorities and goals.
After the brainstorming session, you could work with the team to identify key priorities and goals that align with the Law Firm’s mission. One way to do this is to use a priority matrix, which allows you to evaluate each objective and key result based on two factors: importance and urgency. Then you can use a framework such as the “OKR (Objectives and Key Results) Template” provided by Weekdone to set specific, measurable, and time-bound goals for the team.
Develop a shared vision statement.
Based on the brainstorming session and the identified priorities and goals, you could work with the team to develop a shared vision statement that encapsulates the team’s purpose and how it contributes to the Law Firm’s mission. First, to create your vision statement, you must first answer these two questions:
- What does success look like for us in the future?
- How will that differ from how it looks today?
This could involve using a template such as the “Vision Statement Template” provided by OnStrategy to guide the development of the statement.
Get feedback and refine the vision statement.
Finally, you could seek feedback from the team on the shared vision statement and work together to refine it until it accurately reflects the team’s purpose and aligns with the Law Firm’s mission. This could involve using a tool such as the “Mad, Sad, Glad Retrospective Template” provided by Miro to gather and incorporate feedback from team members.
By using these practical methodologies and templates, you can facilitate a collaborative and productive workshop that creates a shared vision and purpose for your team. This will provide some guidance and sense of belonging in your team. Remember, this is the first of five secrets to jumpstart your team’s productivity and effectiveness. In the next blog post, we will delve into the second secret: Building Phsycological Safety. Stay tuned!
