This week: Taking your legal predictions from 2D to 3D

This week’s driver: Adding a second perspective to your legal predictions

3D films and TV haven't really become a thing. Probably because you had to wear those dopey glasses. 

But I still remember how much my flabber was ghasted the first time I saw a 3D movie. It was amazing, with those weird blue Avatar people really leaping out of the screen. And all of that achieved just by adding a second view of the scene from a slightly different perspective.

That approach also produces a step-change in outcomes when you're predicting legal stuff too. Because adding a second perspective to your relationship-based predictions gives you an even better 3D view of the legal things that might derail your long-term plan. 

Here's how to get that fresh perspective to take your legal predictions from 2D to 3D. 

First, summon your exec team together again (because, yes, this will need your best minds with the broadest views of your business). 

Then a few days before the session with your team, send them these questions to think about in advance. (These questions are at the heart of my one-day Black Swan threat workshop with clients.)

• What worries you most when you think about the long-term viability of our business? What are the biggest threats you see?

• If you were the CEO of our main competitor, with a big war chest to take us down, what would you do? How would you attack us?

• What “things that we know we should do” do we keep pushing off into the future as soon as we’re faced with other competing short-term priorities?

• What things do we currently do or tolerate that might cause us to end up on the front pages of the newspapers or by the subject of a social media storm? Where are we reputationally exposed?

• If you were given a blank cheque to spend on reinforcing the business to make it more robust and secure, what would you spend it on?

Encourage your team to think widely and boldly about their answers. Make it clear that there's no such thing as a daft answer. Because its fresh thinking and ideas you want, not just the same old stuff you're already thinking about.

In the session, debate each question and collate everyone's answers. Use a post-it or twelve. Because is a brainstorm really a brainstorm if there's no post-its involved?

Group all the answers under one of these four headings - strategic, reputational, operational and financial - depending on what the biggest impact from their answer is.

Then get everyone to highlight their top two or three priorities under each of those four headings. 

And once you have your priorities, work out between you what you can do to reduce or cope with the ones with the most votes under each heading 

Add those actions to the ones you've got from the Relationship Audit we talked about last week (you can find it here if you missed it), and your predictions of the legal stuff that could detail your business's long-term plan will suddenly be deeper, richer, and more vivid. So much so, they'll feel like they're in 3D. 

And you won't even have to wear dopey glasses to do it.

This Week’s Sleeper: The folly of a long contract term

If you think you're onto a good thing, it's only natural to want to keep that good thing going for as long as possible. That's why, when it comes to a contract for that good thing, it feels right to lock the other business in for as long a term as possible. 

Don't just assume that a long lock in will work. Just because a contract says that something will happen for so many months or years doesn't guarantee that that will be the case. After all, contracts get breached all the time, both deliberately and inadvertently. 

That's because the underlying dynamics of an agreement inevitably shift over time, especially in a turbulent market. That often leaves one party in a worse position than they were expecting. And if an arrangement suddenly isn't working for someone, then that will inevitably have consequences. 

They'll have to cut their costs, impacting the quality of service they can provide. They'll get stressed and fed-up: rather than being a source of excitement, the arrangement will feel like a millstone round their neck. They'll start looking for a way out. They'll maybe even just force their way out. None of those things will get you what you really want and need to make a long-term success of your arrangement: their best work, goods or services, again and again over time.

Instead of locking people in, only ask for a short contract term - in effect, just enough notice so that you can make alternative arrangements. And then focus on doing what you need to do to keep that other business wanting to work together with you on that good thing. Openly discuss whether the arrangement is working as expected. Adjust it quickly and fairly if circumstances have changed. Be there for them and support them, to help them deliver what you need. 

Do that and you will keep that good thing going for as long as possible. 

Till next time

Andrew