

Welcome to the Future: Leadership, Accountability & Swimwear - skmurphy
http://amlawdaily.typepad.com/amlawdaily/2008/12/welcome-to-the-future-accountability-swim-wear.html

======
skmurphy
Paul Lippe is CEO of Legal OnRamp, a community of practice website for
lawyers. I thought his observations on accountability were worth bearing in
mind in 2009:

Legal OnRamp strives to simplify innovation and value delivery, primarily for
in=house lawyers but also for law firms, both by providing tools to innovate
and by sharing examples of success.

We have 7,000 members, probably 3,000 of whom have contributed content or
otherwise added value. Perhaps 1,000 have contributed ideas on how to make our
service better. Ninety nine percent of the good ideas and 99.9 percent of the
work have come from someone other than me. More than 400 law firms and more
than 700 companies are participating.

There are at least 100 things that need to go right; there are 200 things that
could go wrong. When we started, 80 percent of lawyers thought we were nuts;
14 months later, 80 percent of lawyers think we're the future. I "control," in
a formal sense, very little of this.

Still, if Legal OnRamp fails, it's my fault.

There are no words we love to hear more than "it's not your fault." Whether
from our mother, our friend, our cleric, or our consultant, when something
goes wrong, we cherish absolution.

So let's be clear: if you are running a law firm and it fails, it's your
fault.

