Login
Addressing the disconnect: How a change in mindset is key for better team morale and outcomes
There appears to be a disconnect between teams post-pandemic. With the hybrid working showing no signs of slowing down, leaders would do well to consider how they can address it within their teams.
Emma Musgrave
College of Law executive directors Deborah Battisson and Ann-Maree David (ACT and Queensland, respectively) and Balance Family Law co-founder and lawyer Jonathon Naef appeared on a recent episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show to discuss “the kindness movement” in law and how it has become increasingly relevant in the new world of work.
“Kindness, for me, brings to the forefront the need for supervisors to really create a safe space for their new lawyers to learn. Sometimes [we adopt the] scarcity mindset approach where we think short term, ‘I don’t have time to invest in sitting down with this lawyer for the half an hour today’. ‘I’ve got too many other things that I need to do’,” she said.
Ms David agreed, noting that the need for a shift in mindset has also been heightened by the pandemic, with communication sometimes lacking between teams.
“I think post-pandemic, and in a new hybrid working world, we may be suffering some level of disconnection in the sense that we know how easy it is to misread a phone and an email. If you can’t speak to someone, either in person or via a medium like we are today, if you’ve got that distance between you, all manner of things can be read into communication or lack of communication between parties,” she said.
“All interactions across the profession and with our clients are made more difficult when they are at a distance. And I think taking the time to be reflective about what we’re doing ahead of time, thinking about how am I going to engage with this person, how am I perceived in my communication with them at a distance – I think a lot of that goes to finding new and different ways to be better lawyers. And I think, again, that’s something the kindness movement is actually shining a light on. So I’m very excited to see where this might take us.”
There are practical applications of kindness that will help narrow the disconnect being felt among teams in the profession and drive better outcomes as a result, according to Mr Naef.
“That’s not necessarily just saying, ‘Be nice to one another’,” Mr Naef said.
“Sometimes, in order to progress things, in order to be kind, you need to call out the elephants, you need to address the issues that are going to impact other parties or are going to impact the progress of the matter.
“So, it’s thinking about what is the best way to communicate this, so that we can do so positively, so that we can acknowledge the impact that we are going to have by addressing it on whoever the subject is and having an open discussion about how we can resolve it.”
As an example, Mr Naef pointed to the work his team at Balance Family Law does, demonstrating that even in difficult matters, such as those involving litigation, kindness can be adopted as a strategy that ultimately pays off.
“One of the ways that we look at it in practice is in a litigation matter. Our firm doesn’t do very much litigation, but for the small matters that we do … the purpose is not to throw mud at them,” Mr Naef said, noting that his team instead focuses on ways to address such matters with grace, ensuring things can move along in a proactive matter, rather than being bogged down in aggressive tactics.
“I’ve seen it many times where we have lawyers or parties on the other side where they are just very aggressive, and we’ve just maintained the same approach, and eventually, they come back and say, ‘OK, we’ll do it your way,’ and then settlement tends to happen quite quickly. We’ve had mediations where barristers have come in and said, ‘We looked over the correspondence that your firm was sending out. If you didn’t write in this way, you guys were going to end up in court, but you didn’t, you were able to resolve it’.
“… If we move past [those aggressive tactics], then I think that it’s going to result in better outcomes for clients. It’s going to result in lawyers who are happier; they’re going to want to stay in the profession because they feel that they’re actually making a more meaningful impact. You’re going to have lawyers who are more collegiate with one another, who are willing to pick up the phone and discuss things and say, ‘OK, how can we resolve this?’ And I think from that as well, it’s going to have a more positive impact on the community’s perception of lawyers.”
NB: This transcript has been edited slightly for publishing purposes. You can listen to the full episode here:
