Ep09 How to make your contract process more productive
MINDSET: Get curious
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Time to make your contract process more productive
Mindset: Get curious
On this episode of the Checklist Legal Podcast, we look at:
- Why you have to get your contract process in sync with your contract document
- An example of an out of sync, slow process and how process mapping fixed it.
- Why a visual map of a contract process is so useful
- The common culprits of slow contract processes and how to fix them
And of course our ACTIONABLE CHALLENGE that we have in every episode for you to try
KEY TAKEAWAYS
A lawyer’s process expertise is almost as important as their legal expertise
For a contract to operate at optimum productivity, all the users of a contract must row together with complete trust in each other, the contract document and the contract process
Ask the three key Triple O Productivity questions….
Obliterate Key Question: Do we need this step in the process? Can we do something else so this step isn’t needed?
Optimise Key Question: Now we are left with only the necessary process steps, is there a way to make every step in the contract process smooth, simple and speedy?
Outsource Key Question: What parts of the contract process are best completed by…
- a Robot Minion?
- a Contract Owner Minion?
- a Customer Minion?
- a Minion Minion?
- Me?
This episode is the why overview of contract process mapping… it lays out the broad way to use Triple O Productivity to improve your contract process productivity… the next episode will delve deeper into the how of contract process mapping.
ACTIONABLE CHALLENGE
Our mindset for this episode is GET CURIOUS…
So your actionable challenge is to consider a contract process you find frustrating or slow or annoying and instead of getting frustrated, get curious and make three lists…
For example, if in your investigations, you find the finance team is concerned about the pricing salespeople have given to customers isn’t within correct thresholds, you could take a few approaches..
So… your actionable challenge is to make a list of all the approvals in your frustrating contract, note the threshold concerns each approver is looking for, and address those concerns where possible with advice or try create contract solutions. |
LINKS
Links to sources from this episode of the Checklist Legal Podcast and background information:
- Music: Silent Partner, ‘Sway this way’
- ‘Often a lawyer’s process expertise is more important than legal expertise’ – Sarah McCoubrey, ‘Can plain language change our approach to conflict’ (November 2016) Presented at Clarity2016, Wellington, New Zealand. Retrieved via clarity2016.org/can-plain-language-change-our-approach-to-conflict, accessed 7 June 2017.
- ‘Lawyers should be enterprise architects’ – George Dent, ‘Business Lawyers as Enterprise Architects’ (2009). 64 The Business Lawyer 279 (2009); Case Legal Studies Research Paper No. 08-25. Available at SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1264063
- ‘Contracts and Legal staff are good at fixing problems. However, this ignores the point that many of those problems could have been avoided.’ IACCM (International Association of Contract & Commercial Management), ‘Top Negotiated Terms 2015: No News Is Bad News’ (21 January 2016) iaccm.com/resources/?id=9105&login&welcome# , accessed 10 June 2017.
- DocuSign: DocuSign is easy to use and simple to get started. As your skills grow, you can increase the functionality and automate more. Get a 30 day free trial and 10% off if you purchase: https://refer.docusign.com/s/verity
- Australian Story, ‘She’s Not There’ (14 July 2008) Retrieved via https://www.abc.net.au/austory/content/2007/s2304453.htm.
Head to the Checklist Legal Resources page for access to the other templates and examples mentioned in the show.