This week: Different courses need different horses

This week's driver: understanding the landscape

So you've dealt with the legal stuff in the path of your plan right now, through a combination of predicting and resolving those relationships where there's a mismatch or shortfall. That deals with the now.

What about tomorrow? Or the day after that? Or the day after that? How do you protect your plan against new legal issues that may come up as you head down that path towards your plan?

That's a key question I look at with all the clients I work directly with, to bolster their business so they stay nimble while also getting more robust. And here's how I answer that question. 

We start with 'where' to focus, so we make sure we cover everything, and we cover everything in the right way. 

And I focus on four different locations or areas, when looking to bolster a business:

• it's agreements and contracts

• it's disagreements and disputes

• it's brand and reputation

• it's governance and processes - to ensure it complies with it's requirements

The vast majority of your future legal issues will come from those four areas.

But each area needs to be considered separately. Because the fundamentals of those four areas require different approaches, strategies, plans and actions in order to successfully bulletproof your plan from any future legal stuff. 

In other words, each of these courses need different horses. And we'll go through each of them over the next few editions of Clear Course.   

Helpfully, though, there is a common thread running right through the approach to each area, though: relationships. 

Whether its your agreements, disagreements, branding or governance, the most effective approach to the legal stuff in each area centres on collaboration, not combat. Trust, rather than distrust. Respect, not rancour. 

Actively understanding the other players in that area - their circumstances, motivations, goals and likely reactions - and then using that understanding to work with the other players rather than against them, empowers you to land your plan without legal stuff derailing it. 

I can't quite bring myself to call this common thread "collawboration", as that word just feels... bleugh. So let's call this headline theme 'collaborative, not combative'. 

And, thanks to the reactive, fightey approach of traditional law firms, being 'collaborative, not combative' offers a huge opportunity for those that are willing to bet there's a better way to 'do legal' than the current norm. 

Starting with contracts, we'll get into the detail of that better way, in the next edition of Clear Course.

This week's sleeper: don't sleep on the incoming Employment Rights Act 2025

Generally, I believe that any business that is being proactive & considerate about how it treats its staff can more or less ignore employment law, as they'll already be well ahead of their base legal obligations. But the extent of the upcoming changes to employee rights from the Employment Rights Act 2025, combined with the prevalence of AI-empowered employee grievances, is making me depart from that belief. 

The new rights arriving shortly with this Act are some of the most substantial we've seen in a while from an employment law perspective. So, to make sure you stay on track to landing your plan, its important not to sleep on them.

To help you understand what the changes mean for growing businesses, and where the opportunities are if you move fast, this short straight talking webinar featuring my colleague Kate Palka will help make sure you're alert to everything you need to know:

Webinar: Leadership Briefing: The Employment Rights Act 2025 by OrbitalX Webinars - Channel 2

In turn, that will help you stay confident that employment law issues can't derail your plan. So don't sleep on the Employment Rights Act 2025.

Right. I'm now off to lie down (on a sunbed) to get over the shock of me actually quoting a piece of legislation...

Till next time

Andrew