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"Some displacement activity is insidious because it distorts our relationship with reality. It appears so legitimate that we genuinely believe it's a valid use of our time."
Katherine Thomas, Free Range Lawyers

Remote? Office? Sort this out and I don't care where you work.

When I worked at Wragge & Co, my boss talked about ‘displacement activities’.

A ‘displacement activity' is what we choose to do when avoiding what we need to do.

Some displacement activities are easy to spot because they look trivial: tidying desks instead of placing a phone call, making lists instead of writing a report, and scrolling social media instead of reviewing financials.

Some displacement activity is difficult to spot because it looks important. We kid ourselves into thinking it’s essential but deep down know it’s not. Pick your poison here – from perfecting a memo to avoid working on your marketing plan, to crafting the perfect social media post to avoid analyzing your financials, these are the activities that look useful but displace energy from where it should be.

Some displacement activity is insidious because it distorts our relationship with reality. It appears so legitimate that we genuinely believe it's a valid use of our time.

The current focus on where we work (remote / hybrid / office) is an insidious displacement activity that removes attention from the important, transformational questions of what we do and how we do it.

Questions such as how we:
🟢move from being artisanal to organized, so each project doesn’t require an entirely new approach
🟢communicate clearly and effectively with colleagues and clients
🟢exploit the data we own to create processes and pricing for similar types of work
🟢express what we do so clients know what to expect, when
🟢deliver for clients in a humane way that recognizes the individual needs of our people
🟢train the next generation of lawyers thoroughly, consistently, and relevantly to modern practice.

Sort this out and I don’t care where you work.

#lawfirms #lawyers #lawyerlife #workstyle