Julia Montgomery jmontgomery@zuckerman.com User Experience Manager Making It Work: Training People Who Won’t Come To Class* *a.k.a. Attorneys Julia Montgomery jmontgomery@zuckerman.com User Experience Manager Image: Time Magazine

Setting the Scene 150 attorneys in six offices Centralized User Support from our DC office Two User Support Analysts/Trainers One hardware support analyst User Support Manager Firm university with approximately eight classes per month

The Laundry List of Issues The firm made a significant investment in technology and our attorneys couldn’t effectively use the system. Attorneys didn’t have time for training because, apparently, they were busy practicing law. The perception was that the classes we offered were “for secretaries.” Attorneys, apparently, are not secretaries.

Q. How do we get them to class? A. Remind them of the current schedule – they’ll come to class because it’s the right thing to do and they want to learn. Or…they’ll come to class because we’ll give them free stuff. (We have no money for free stuff.)

Q. So they won’t come to classes. What are our other options? A. E-Learning (They hate E-Learning. A lot.) How about a reference library of materials on the intranet. (We have one. So either they can’t find it, or they hate it. A lot.)

How do you get people to do something they believe they have no time to do and doing it isn’t terribly fun? I mean, come on…name one thing people think they’re too busy to do, and they hate doing, but they do it all the time anyway.

The Personal Training Program A relationship built on one-on-one attention from a designated personal trainer Teach skills targeted to the client’s specific needs and goals Accountability and consistency on both sides of the relationship

The plan The Approach Assign a coach to each participant Develop a customized training plan tailored to the client’s individual needs Meet one hour, once a month in the client’s office Lunch provided (Hey, it couldn’t hurt)

The Pieces Documentation & Materials Clients Coaches Reviewed Help Desk tickets to identify likely topics Agreed on a “core” of skills that all participants would learn Audited existing documentation to identify gaps and began creating material to fill the holes Created practice files – because working out once a month doesn’t do anything Clients Coaches

Putting the "consult" in Consultant Ask questions that get information Listen to the answers Learn the client’s workflow Read between the lines & follow up Get concrete examples and samples “Imagining a color they’ve never seen before”

The Initial Interview Tell me about your revision process. Do you make your own revisions? Is it important to you that you keep the marked up copies of your documents, or are you happy to have the final document be the only document in the file? Can you think of a time you needed to locate a document in the DMS, but you couldn’t find it? Do you remember anything about the search(es) you ran or about the document you needed to find? Of all the computer-based tasks you perform in the course of your practice, what do you find the most frustrating? Tell me a little about how you manage and organize your email in Outlook. Is there anything you wish you could do with your handheld that your handheld can’t do?

Time to Make It Work We sent one email – no follow up messages and no additional marketing The message was sent to our DC attorneys and senior managers – 86 recipients We focused our message on the program being customized for the individual We expected a participation rate of 10%, or nine clients A total of 15 clients enrolled – four senior managers, four associates and seven partners

Developing the Learning Plan Meet with each coach to review notes from initial interviews Begin with core skills and expand the plan based on the information gathered during the interview Design the learning plans so the material progresses logically Confirm materials are available for each topic Meet with each client to review the draft of their learning plan and to discuss any questions Make revisions and get the client’s sign off

Both coach and client sign off on the plan Whenever possible, we blended our “core” skills into sessions that covered topics gleaned from the client interviews

Intranet Resources for Participants This is MIMI – she’s the friendly face of our User Support team and the mascot of our programs Clients only see their own materials The learning plan is accessible here so clients can track their progress

After four months, an additional six clients enrolled in the program, bringing the total number of clients to 21 – a participation rate of almost 25% The additional clients cited positive word of mouth as the reason they chose to enroll in the program

After 18 months, only five of our original 21 clients have moved on from the program The other clients have re-upped, working with their coaches to identify additional topics to continue their training We currently have a waiting list of five clients

What Worked The “anti-marketing” marketing Creating a partnership from the outset Supported the establishment of professional boundaries Created a new respect and rapport between attorneys and Help Desk team Our Help Desk team gained a new skill set and implemented a new approach to user support After one year, PTP clients had a 56% decrease in how-to calls to the Help Desk for those applications covered in their learning plans

What Didn’t Work The program is incredibly resource intensive and requires scrupulous scheduling and time management The personalized nature of the program makes it a face-to-face proposition The “right” clients didn’t enroll in the program

Want to Make It Work at Your Firm? Do the prep work to get your documentation in shape before the program starts Think through the logistics and all the moving parts and put tools in place to support communication and time management Make sure you have the right coaches with the right skills and knowledge Use the nature of attorneys to your advantage to build word of mouth and drive participation

Julia Montgomery User Experience Manager jmontgomery@zuckerman.com Making It Work: Training People Who Won’t Come To Class* *a.k.a. Attorneys Julia Montgomery User Experience Manager jmontgomery@zuckerman.com Image: Time Magazine