08/31/2026
Version one was a clean document. Filing deadlines, discovery tasks, demand timelines, all there. But when something came up that wasn’t on the list, my team stopped and came to find me. The document told them what to do. It never told them why.
Turns out that’s the whole game. Following a process versus understanding one.
So I added a section to every SOP. Why do we do it this way. Not legal theory, just the reasoning. Once my team understood that, they stopped freezing. They could think through the problem because they knew what we were actually trying to accomplish.
Version two is what I’m building now. An AI built into our case management software, so my team can ask “why do we do it this way” in real time instead of flipping through a document.
I want my team to learn how I think, so the firm doesn’t stop moving when I’m not in the room.
How are you teaching your team to think, not just to follow steps?
