Innovate not recreate

The first 2010 issue of KIM Legal has a distinctly continental feel and anyone who attended Ark’s recent Knowledge Management in the European Legal Profession conference in Amsterdam, will recognise the names and faces of some of the contributors. At this stage I would like to thank all those involved in producing this issue of the magazine, during a period of substantial change – but more on that later.

For now, I would like to focus on innovation, which seems to be the season’s buzzword. It features predominantly in our sister publication Inside Knowledge and was also a key theme in the conversations I have had with those who attended the event mentioned above.

Indeed, Reidar Gjersvik (see page 10) provides some useful insight into the many different roles that knowledge management (KM) has to play in pushing law firms out of their comfort zones and enabling them to deliver truly innovative services to their clients. He mentions facilitator, broker, ideologist and project leader, to name but a few.

It’s not just a matter of doing something new. In fact, the very definition of innovation is a subject that is open to much discussion. To be truly innovative, a firm must decide exactly what ‘innovation’ means to its business. Is it something novel or quirky, which has never been tried before? Is it a new way of performing a process that has been done a thousand times previously? Only when this has been determined can any real work be done.

And it is for that reason that KM is such a driving force – it is the business function that sits at the heart of any law firm worth its salt: its knowledge. It has a key role to play in ensuring that the firm utilises it collective knowledge to maximum capacity. And for this to be achieved, fee earners and partners need to be fully engaged too. Representatives from three very different law firms discuss the work that they are doing in this area in the cover feature (page 13).

Here at KIM Legal, we’re looking at a few innovations of our own. Following our recent office move (which has brought together core teams from several publishing divisions) the appetite for change and new ways of working has never been stronger. Admittedly, some of us have had to shake a few cobwebs off along the way – and there is a steep learning curve to negotiate – but everyone is looking forward to exciting times ahead.

Individuals who have never spoken to each other before, let alone worked in close proximity, have been bouncing ideas around and relishing the opportunity to learn from each other. It’s proof that a change really can do you good.