58SMART COLLABORATION
candidates available means that there’s a battle among accounting
firms to get high-caliber people in at the ground level.
The same can be said about law firms. Fewer and fewer people
are applying to law schools. And although the elite law schools are
still getting roughly the same number of applicants, the quality of
those applicants appears to be dropping. Some data also suggest
that many of those scoring highest on the LSATs (US law school
entrance exams) don’t even apply to law school.
16
In short, for some of the most venerable professions, there is a
real shortage of excellent future talent. This has both near-term
and long-term implications. In many professional service firms,
leverage is key: firms make their money by charging out junior
associates at sufficiently high hourly rates so that profits can flow
up to the partners.
17
So you need worker bees for leverage today,
to be sure. But even more, you need them to be your partners in a
decade. If you’re not getting them, that’s hugely problematic.
Even if you recruit millennials successfully, however, retaining
them presents another kind of challenge—and it’s one that col-
laboration can help meet. On one panel discussion I led recently,
a panelist said something striking. “Working with millennials
is a really different experience,” she observed. “I recently had a
young associate chase me down the hall saying, ‘Hey—why did
you cut this paragraph out of the client document? I thought it
was a really good paragraph.’” The associate pushed hard, in the
hallway—asking for justification, and challenging the partner in
ways that had never happened before, in all her decades of practice.
In response to this anecdote, I noticed, many audience members
were nodding in recognition.
As this example shows, “collaboration” means something differ-
ent to millennials. They expect to be more involved in all aspects
of the work. They demand to be continually challenged, and to be
able to challenge their hierarchical superiors. They expect to get
exposure to both important assignments and to top decision mak-
ers early in their careers.
In particular, millennials want to work for leaders who empower
them, according to a massive research study involving 16,637
millennials in forty-three countries.
18
In fact, for millennials in
Chapter_02.indd 58 05/10/16 11:38 pm
The People Case for Collaboration59
North America, Western Europe, and Africa, “empowerment” was
the most important attribute they sought in their leaders. What
exactly does this mean? The definition of empowerment varies
from person to person, but the relevant research suggests that most
millennials want to be able to make independent decisions and
choose their own paths.
There’s yet another cultural factor at work here. The “cult of the
CEO” has declined dramatically in recent years, and people today—
especially young people—believe in entrepreneurship as a sort of
personal value. As they see it, teams are the way that people get to
be more creative, to tap into innovation and be entrepreneurial.
Millennials also value a good work-life balance. Again, the ideal
balance varies from person to person, but many millennials seek
flexible hours and enough leisure time in their personal lives. Well
over half of millennials prioritize being able to spend time with
their families, and nearly 50 percent said that they would be will-
ing to sacrifice a well-paid and prestigious job to improve their
work-life balance.
19
This does not mean, however, that millennials expect simple
nine-to-five workdays. In fact, many want fast-track careers with
constant promotions, and are open to working harder—for lon-
ger hours and under more stress—to increase their chances for
career success. This is important for firms to understand: millen-
nials often seek out flexibility as a way of achieving their desired
work-life balance, rather than simply working fewer hours. As one
associate noted in our interviews, it is more about decision than
balance—that is, being able to make the personal choice about
what to sacrifice in a given situation, such as pursuing a profes-
sional opportunity instead of taking a long-planned vacation.
Taken together, the implications of these findings are clear. If
your partners insist on operating in a siloed, anticollaborative way,
they’re probably going to lose some of their most valuable young
associates quickly.
So let me suggest two ways that a firm can proactively attract,
retain, and lead millennials.
20
Both of these approaches pre-
sent a double benefit. First, they address millennials’ preferences
for involvement, challenge, empowerment, and flexibility, as just
Chapter_02.indd 59 05/10/16 11:38 pm
60SMART COLLABORATION
described. Second, they enhance the collaboration skills of this
younger generation of professionals, so that they’re both techni-
cally prepared and psychologically inclined to engage in collabora-
tion when they make partner.
The first is what I describe as a coordinated work assignment
system with “free-market” backup. Why are both centralization
and decentralization important? First, having a coordinator who
assigns projects to associates addresses millennials’ fears of lack-
ing development opportunities, which is especially important early
in an associate’s career, when he or she may be nervous about
building a professional network within the firm. Meanwhile, the
free-market corollary provides continuity and choices along the
way. If a partner and associate find a mutually beneficial working
relationship, they can carry on. But juniors can also satisfy their
entrepreneurial bent by seeking new relationships.
The law firm of Ropes & Gray addresses this issue particularly
well. They have a system in which associates fill out weekly reports
about their work—what they are currently working on as well as
how much time they have for new work. Associates are able to
request specific types of work, which coordinators try to find for
them; they are also asked to assess how many new matters they
want to take on. Both aspects of this approach enhance millen-
nials’ feeling of autonomy and being able to maintain a work-life
balance. It also offers associates their desired development oppor-
tunities, by allowing them to request and pursue work in certain
practice areas of their choice.
A supplementary free-market backup system will further help to
address associates’ preferences for flexibility and influence. Giving
associates the opportunity to maintain relationships by working
repeatedly with certain partners helps to strengthen their networks
and reputation. As one associate noted: “When you get to choose
which partners you work with and what to work on to some extent,
you feel more engaged.” Engaged associates with strong internal
networks are more likely to stay longer and be more productive.
Over the longer term, these relationships become the foundation
for partners to develop a pipeline of strong contributors for their
clients, which is a core component of a highly collaborative firm.
Chapter_02.indd 60 05/10/16 11:38 pm
The People Case for Collaboration61
The second approach I advocate in this context is an effective
pro bono program, which can address several key concerns of
millennial associates. First, it can satisfy the desire on the part of
young people for challenging work. By carefully doling out pro
bono opportunities, a firm can ensure that associates work on
issues that give them increased responsibility and experience in
areas that excite and challenge them.
Second, because there is no pressure from a paying cli-
ent, pro bono cases are an opportunity to give associates more
independence—fostering their sense of autonomy and underscor-
ing the fact that they have the flexibility needed to maintain a
work-life balance. In addition, by allowing associates to explore
areas beyond their practice group, pro bono work can counteract a
common millennial fear of getting pigeonholed, while at the same
time building up a knowledge base that will enhance their abil-
ity to collaborate on cross-discipline projects. Finally, a firm can
use an associate’s performance on a pro bono case to assess and
improve his or her people and project management abilities—both
important underlying competencies for effective collaboration.
Are there less sweeping steps that a firm—particularly a smaller
one—can take to address the concerns of millennials? Yes. These
might include, for example:
•
Giving better feedback. Millennials crave a sense of
knowing how they’re doing. Train professionals at all lev-
els how to give effective feedback—specific, clear, and
understandable—as well as how to receive it and how to act
on it productively.
•
Developing a culture in which managers—partners, senior
associates, sta members—feel not just empowered but
obliged to give informal feedback.
Goldman Sachs is cred-
ited with the saying, “Feedback on the run is better than
none.” Even if the feedback feels rushed or incomplete, it’s
better than allowing someone to repeat errors unknowingly.
•
Focusing on flexibility. Firms hoping to appeal to millennials’
desires for a better work-life balance might consider ways
Chapter_02.indd 61 05/10/16 11:38 pm
62SMART COLLABORATION
in which they can offer increased scheduling flexibility—for
example, expanding telecommuting options. Again, millenni-
als don’t necessarily believe they should be allowed to work
fewer hours, but they want more control over the hours they
do (and don’t) work. Skills for this kind of virtual working
make cross-geography collaboration smoother as well.
Making today’s ranks more
productive and more loyal
In this section, let’s focus first on why fostering collaboration
among today’s players, at all levels, is good for the firm. Again,
“good for the firm” is less about feel-good outcomes—although
there’s nothing wrong with those—and more about positive finan-
cial and strategic impacts. I’ll highlight three such outcomes: com-
mitment and belonging, goal alignment, and what I call “meaning
and mastery.”
21
Commitment and belonging
Decades of psychology and sociology research show that the higher
the number of formal or informal connections between individuals
and their colleagues, the more those individuals are committed to
both their job and their employer.
22
The point is worth emphasiz-
ing: employees who work more in teams develop a stronger psy-
chological attachment to the organization, with the result that they
tend to see the firm as an important part of themselves.
Have you noticed how some of your colleagues say things like,
“We are looking to grow in the X market” or “We take it seri-
ously when a partner says Y”? In organizational behavior research,
those sorts of “we” statements are a strong predictor of not only
a person’s desire to stay employed in an organization, but also his
or her willingness to engage in critical firm-building activities like
mentoring, recruiting, and management tasks.
My own survey and archival research confirms that many knowl-
edge professionals’ motivation, sense of belonging, and ultimately
Chapter_02.indd 62 05/10/16 11:38 pm
..................Content has been hidden....................
You can't read the all page of ebook, please click here login for view all page.