Training

Training is a funny beast - everyone agrees in job interviews and performance reviews that it is important. Companies with great training programs are promoted as great employers, but when the rubber hits the road and it's time to do the training, the attitude can change very quickly. Particularly in law firms where the billable hour is king, it can be very difficult to convince team members that training is necessary.

A few things we have tried are:

• Make sure that the benefit of the training and the scope of training are clearly understood. If you can give team members a sense of their ROI they will understand the importance of the training.
• Offer training in a variety of formats at a variety of times. People learn in different ways, so it's important to cater for all styles of learning - not just auditory.
• Make training as interactive as possible through the use of workshops
• Try to get other lawyers in the team to promote the training, rather than just the management groups.

With regards to training on technology, we try to build applications that are easy to use and intuitive as possible - if an application needs loads of training to be useful then I think there is something wrong with the design of the application.

Another exciting development in training is the concept of "nano-training" - breaking up training into small bite sized chunks that can be easily fitted into a quiet time at work, using online tools to do so.

Anything that diverts time away from the billable hour is a difficult sell, but by being flexible about training you get the best results.