If It's Not About Behavior Change, What Are We Doing Here?

We mean to instill and reward specific behaviors, right? That's not a one-and-done effort.

Dear Law Firm, 

I'll take your money for that business development lunch-and-learn*, but I think you'll be disappointed. 

Not because of my workshop—my trainings are excellent, ask anyone. 

You'll be disappointed because lawyers will leave and keep doing what they've always done. (Hint: Not BD.)

Awareness vs. Outcomes

A single presentation, training, workshop, etc. rarely changes behavior.

Behavior change requires incentives and alignment. Comp is a major factor, but I've seen behavior change even when comp doesn't explicitly reward it. 

Culture, community, creativity, and autonomy all support and reward behavior change. 

While a one-time lunch-and-learn creates awareness, it almost never creates behavior change. 

Culture-Building

We know what changes behavior: cohort-based training. 

Cohort-based training takes longer and requires more of participants. Sometimes it's selective, even competitive. And yes, it's also more expensive. 

Yet I've seen cohort-based trainings return year-one investments in years two and three, even after firms have stopped spending.

The benefits of cohort-based training ripple deeply through law firms: 

• Collaboration. 

• Accountability.

• Culture-building.

Show me the lunch-and-learn that can achieve all three of those. 

Predatory? No. Mutually beneficial? Yes.

If after reading this you think, "He just wants to sell more services for higher fees," well, sure. Yet this is not predatory, as you fear. It's mutually beneficial. 

What's predatory is taking thousands of dollars for a lunch-and-learn that we know won't change how lawyers in your firm approach BD.

I understand your sales skepticism. I've been in your exact shoes as a purchaser of trainings. (Did I mention I spent nearly 14 years inside law firms? Seems relevant!)

If faced with a choice to spend $5,000 or more on a lunch-and-learn or five to six figures on a cohort-based training series, I know which one I'll put my credibility and capital behind. 

*Come to think of it, let's not do the lunch-and-learn, unless it opens a cohort-based series. As a stand-alone, it's not really effective for either of us.