Client stories: Addleshaw Goddard

This article is filed under: organisation, organisation design, organisational performance

Creating a dynamic learning culture

A new managing partner and the launch of a new five-year strategy were the trigger for a root and branch review of the leading law firm’s approach to learning and development. Equipping its 150 partners with the capability to create future growth by ‘enabling clients and its people to succeed and flourish’ became the touchstone for a genuine firm-wide transformation.

“How can we engage our partners with change if they don’t know how to change themselves?” was the question that faced AG’s HR Director, Judith Hardy. Yet this was an even bigger challenge when trying to effect this change for the longer term, whilst the partners were very preoccupied with the short term needs of the business and the pressures of the economic climate.

Designing a bespoke approach

With the dual pressure to build the future firm and at the same time deliver in the current environment, Addleshaw Goddard worked with Stanton Marris to develop a bespoke approach to partner development. The first job of the project team was to engage the firm’s partners in designing the solution. The engagement started with a series of brainstorming meetings to identify the skills and knowledge required from partners in order to create the law firm of the future. A design panel then shaped the issues and concepts into a simple framework that would help challenge partners to pinpoint their personal aspirations in the context of future trends, future organisational performance, new role expectations, professional excellence and essential leadership skills.

A varied menu of development options, embracing formal off the job and informal on the job learning approaches, was assembled, tested and refined through involvement of the full partner group. Individual partners were then encouraged to articulate their own aspirations and identify their development needs in the context of both the firm’s and personal needs in a career development conversation with a senior partner.

Moving forward

Securing this link between personal transformation and business transformation has proved to be the foundation stone of a dynamic learning culture, which in turn has unlocked the personal energy and motivation in partners to drive the firm’s performance forward. As the HR Director says “the role of partners as custodians of the firm’s future has also been reinforced because of their involvement in the design and delivery, helping to build a culture of learning and development that is at the heart of our firm’s strategic transformation”. The roll-out of the Partner Development Programme to date has been a great success.