Complexity vs. Sophistication
The single most disruptive potential of technology on legal services is its ability to change behaviour for both the producers and the consumers.
Legal Services are being disrupted by technology, and I believe the fear of “robots taking over” is largely based on a level of ignorance or unwillingness to see impartially, what is happening and why it’s happening.
The client wants sophistication, but does not want complexity.
This fundamental disruption in changing behaviour is seen with personal carry items. We went from carrying keys, wallets, phone, music players down to a single phone/device.
Let’s breakdown what Apple has achieved by way of sophistication for the consumer in their most popular (and sold) mobile device.
The iPhone
The broad range of users of smart phones did not have the pre-requisite knowledge to unlock the potential of the hardware that was put together. They were more interested in the simple, the effective, the one click, one swipe affirmative actions.
They press play to hear their favourite song, they swipe to answer.
They toggle a switch as they get on the plane to switch off the radio transmitter.
They organise clearly branded apps they use in their home screen the way they prefer.
They double press the home button to bring up their digital payment options.
They swipe up to unlock.
Let’s take that as an example; unlocking the phone.
What does it mean to Apple and what does it mean to the Consumer?
For Apple: it means activating the phone’s screen by leveraging the built in accelerometer to recognize the phone has been lifted off a surface to an angle most used when people face their phones. Simultaneously the front facing camera and IR sensors flash into life to take a reading of the face data in front of it and check it against the securely encrypted data in a separate T2 chip. The facial recognition data has been built off two initial scans and every single unlock since then to adapt to your face using the neural engine housed in the SoC (System on a Chip, essentially the iPhone’s main “brain”). Once the face is authenticated, the lock symbol “unlocks” itself and encourages your input: swipe up to unlock. There are redundancies built in like a passcode on failure to authenticate demonstrating how much Apple has thought about this seemingly simple experience.
For the Consumer: It means when you pick your phone off the table or out of your pocket, you know access is a simple swipe up away, yet the device uses multiple security measures (your face and your passcode) to make sure it’s you; All within a second.
In a word, that’s magic.
The vast majority of existing clients do not care or want to know about what is “under the hood”. It is not a selling point if it does not generate value or benefit to the client.
If you ever want to wow a client, do incredible work and make it look simple; that’s what magic is.
Let’s dive a little deeper to explore this idea…
Magic
The most impact in magic is when it looks like nothing significant is happening, until the magician wants you to watch something that is happening. The whole purpose of sleight of hand is misdirection; The magician chooses where your attention is placed.
This is a mutual agreement when an audience chooses to watch. They sign up for misdirection in order to be wowed when the magician chooses to show something that is happening that cannot be explained from the previous actions. If it was complex, the trick would be lost as the audience cannot follow the steps to arrive at the big moment.
But it is sophisticated, because the audience was allowed to understand the logical steps toward the big moment but cannot explain the results and how it arrived at that point.
There’s a thin line between sophistication and complexity and this is the current challenge for Legal Services.
We are missing the mark if we point to complexity to prove quality of work.
I’m sure there are some of you thinking: “hold on, legal services isn’t about phone’s and magic - it’s much more serious, involves more risk and money and resources”.
I understand the point and we could explore why it is or is not the same! But even the highest paying client depends on you knowing your “stuff” and handling it so that they can stay at the top of their “stuff”.
In the end, you need to know your technical’s, but you also need to:
know how to best deliver it for the customer,
know that your supply chain is clean,
know there is some give back,
know how to delight the customer,
know how to grow sustainably,
know what’s happening in and around the industry,
know what’s coming next for the customer,
know of all forms of incoming disruption,
know how to anticipate,
know how to adapt.
There’s a lot to know beyond the technical prowess of legal knowledge. After all, it’s how it plays out in the world that makes this otherwise theoretical knowledge useful.
Knowledge by itself is static, Knowledge in action is powerful.
How are you multiplying the power of your Knowledge in action?
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As always, the future of law is in our hands 🔥
Q.
Photo by elnaz asadi on Unsplash