Tags
app, article, association, best, bill kinnard, chat room, club, comfort zone, concept, group, lesson, office, pointers, post, presentation, social forum, step out, the paralegal society, tips, top, website, work
By: Bill Kinnard
Reprinted with permission from Grandy & Associates: www.grandyassociates.com
We had you at the title – didn’t we? Today we’re welcoming the Founder’s cousin, Bill, back to the TPS stage. While he does not work in the land of legal, Bill is here to share a candid story regarding a recent moment of desperation and personal panic he experienced. Not like we can all relate to an immediate onset of desperation or personal panic in our neck of the legal woods. Nope. Not us. Not today.
But maybe tomorrow, so let’s read this post!
I do a lot of presentations. In fact, it’s not uncommon for me to do several in a week. I enjoy it. I thrive on it. I actually get energized by doing these presentations. I pride myself in delivering quality content that will challenge my audiences. For many presentations, I have a PowerPoint presentation I use to help make my point or tell a story. Last week however, was different.
I travelled midweek to my destination only to find that I left my power supply for my computer in my office – a half a country away. It was already too late to run out to find a store to buy a replacement. In less than 10 hours, I would have to be standing in front of another group of contractors kicking off a three day series of full day presentations that were designed around a PowerPoint presentation and I now had only a few hours of battery power.
Think Bill, think! How do I land on my feet with this one?
Then it hit me. Part of the content I was teaching was how to use a new iPad app. To accomplish this, I had all the hardware to enable me to show my iPad screen on the computer image projector. I had also been playing around with an app that would allow me to properly display my PowerPoint presentations on my iPad. This was the time to put it to the real test. I spent the next two hours learning the new app and got my presentation ready to go for the next day.
As I presented the next three days with nothing but my iPad, I found that I loved the freedom that it gave me. I could move around even more than I typically do, which allowed me to engage the class even more than I usually do. The process worked so well, I have since converted even more of my presentations over to the new format.
Now, anyone who has ever worked with me knows that one of the things I hate most is the thought process of “we’ve always done it that way.” Yet, even as I created my new content, I found I had fallen into this same trap. There was nothing wrong with the way I presented before. The equipment was reliable and worked well. The quality was good and I could get into a groove with it. But there was a better way. The presentations I can do with the new equipment will be even better.
Sometimes, it takes a moment of desperation to force us out of our comfort zone to find a better way. Don’t get caught in the trap of “it’s good enough”. Force yourself to look for ways to do things better. You, your attorneys and your clients will be better for it.
I am confident that I am not the only one who has put themselves in a predicament only to find a better mousetrap. Tell us about a time when you were in this same position and how you came out of it better. I can’t wait to hear about it.
_____
So the next time you find yourself in a moment of desperation, see if you can find an innovative way to shake things up a bit. You never know if it might lead you to the next best thing.
Now go charge through those gates of glory and into those piles of papers, TPS readers! Perhaps you’ll find a new way to do the “caffeinated paralegal shuffle” over the next 5 days! We’ll see you later this week.
p.s. Book Club members – time’s a ticking. We’re at t-minus 2 days until our first discussion! Read, read, read.
The Paralegal Society™ 
Okay, okay, I’ll share!
This reminds me of a time when I was once hired at a law firm to come in, as an experienced paralegal, to get their personal injury files up to par and on the road to recovery. Each client’s file consisted of piles of papers, often 3-8 inches of papers(quite literally) shoved into ONE single manila folder – yep, correspondence, medical records, pleadings, research, notes – it was all willy nilly in one folder. Good luck finding ANYTHING. I wanted to go face down on the desk. I immediately decide that gouging my eyes out with the scissors that were within an arm’s reach was probably not the best option, although it sounded like a moderately appealing solution at the time.
Wanting to fix things, but not wanting to stage a total overthrow of the firm, I decided I should approach the person who used to set up the files prior to my glorious arrival to see why they were set up that way in the first place. It turns out she had “always done it that way.” She didn’t see the point of “wasting” (her word, not mine) multiple manila folders for cases that may never go into litigation. She had also been around the legal block a really long time and may have failed to realize that a lot of files go into litigation these days. I did a quick math calculation in my head (for those of you who know I don’t like to do math, this tells you I meant major business).
Let’s see…10 manila folders = $2.00, plus my sanity and the ability to actually find things. Done deal.
I quickly began to realize part of the reason I was hired is because “business as usual” wasn’t really working out. I did approach the esquire to make sure he was onboard for an entire file audit/overhaul — he was. A few short weeks later, we had ourselves some organized files with subfolders.
Sometimes, the way things have always been done makes sense, but other times, it makes no sense at all. It’s good to take a step back to evaluate “business as usual” to see if any improvements can be made. You do have to make sure you don’t step on any toes or charge through the law firm doors like Napoleon, but a majority of the time, positive changes are welcomed by a boss/firm, so long as things are handled appropriately.
What about you? Do you have any “that’s the way we’ve always done it” stories to share? If so, hit that comment button and tell us about it!
I’ve never seen “willy nilly” typed before even though I say it verbally. Ha!
I’m curious what the iPad app was….
Amy, the iPad app was SlideShark (www.slideshark.com).
It allowed me to upload my PowerPoint presentation to an online SlideShark Account. Then when I logged into my account on the iPad, I could control the presentation on the iPad. I also had the ability to jump to other slides, annotate slides and access tools without the audience being able to see what i was doing on the iPad. They only see what I want them to see. It’s a great program.
I since converted several other presentations I use to this same format.
Ahh, non-working equipment… the mother of innovation!
Nice article, Bill. We could always use a good reminder to stay on our toes.