Lions and Green Headed Ducks

10
Feb
2010

Jeffrey Brandt

A friend of mine related this story from her son’s school.  Apparently when he showed up to class there were Beanie Babies all over the place.  His teacher then explained:

“Her group of second graders had come in earlier in the day and needed ‘something’ to do basic matching. She asked the second graders, out of the animals represented by the beanie babies, to each pick two that were the same.

Everyone started to make their pick and one of the little girls picked a lion and a duck. All the other children picked zebras and zebras or bears and bears. After their selection, the kids had to say why they picked their pair.

During this, the teacher was thinking she needed to work more with the little girl. When she asked the little girl about her match, the girl told her that they were both daddies.

A lion and a green headed duck.”

Often with information technology and knowledge management people want to pair up the zebras and bears like the majority of those second graders.  Why? It’s easier for sure.  Everyone is doing it.  Many vendors and consultants promote it.  No one likes to take risks.  All in all, it doesn’t require much thought.  Lately I’ve had a greater opportunity to reflect on what I’ve seen in my 25 years of working legal, re-imagining how I’d do things differently.  I’ve also been fortunate to spend time with some legal folks who, IMHO, are turning the practice of law inside out.  Rethinking some of the basic fundamentals in such a way that forces me to go back to square one and question things I used to think of as “normal.”  It is both fascinating,  stimulating and a tad scary at times.

Because I’ve been around a while in legal, I have a fairly extensive legal network.  My association with ILTA (The International Legal Technology Association) has grown it even more. [A small plug here, ILTA is great - nowhere is there a larger, more caring or more sharing group of individuals dedicated to the application of technology in the legal field.. If you are part of a private law firm, a government legal agency or a corporate law department and aren’t a member, you are making a huge mistake.]  And while I think law firm experience is very important in working with top lawyers, there are times when I think the legal community can be too insular. 

I think people need to break out of their normal routines more, talk to KM or IT people outside of legal.  Taking some of my own advice, a while back I did an experiment in LinkedIn where I actively sought out CIO/CKO types outside of legal to make connections.  I did so with the idea that new people, new perspectives, different industries would be thought provoking, that I’d learn to see the world through a different set of lenses.  I have to say that experiment was only marginally successful.  I did the same thing in Twitter and have to say it was extremely successful! (More about that in another post perhaps) 

The world of legal IT and KM needs more lions and green headed ducks.  Problems, looked at the same way since the dawn of time, need fresh approaches.  Things that used to work under the old model need revamped to work in the new world in which we find ourselves.  The law firms that will make it through these turbulent times will be the ones who are able to pair the lions and the green headed ducks.