Process improvement is not the same as project management

You need both, but there's a critical difference

  • Self-Paced Learning

    A plan—a roadmap you can follow—that gives you step-by-step strategies and guidance.

  • Practical Skills

    You'll get help applying the process improvement tools and strategies directly to your own work.

  • Live Coaching

    You get four 30-minute live online sessions with internationally-accredited experts committed to your success.

Become a Legal Process Improvement Practitioner (LPIP)

Work at your own pace

You'll cover lots of ground with 6 modules, including videos, guided activities, workbooks, worksheets, and other downloads, supported by live-online coaching. Give yourself at least 8 weeks to complete the course and apply what you're learning. Schedule your 1:1 or group coaching sessions as you need them.
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  • Practice Accelerator Module 1: See Your Practice Differently.

    If you keep doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result, you're wasting your valuable time and energy.

    You'll learn to see your practice differently, so you can start doing things differently and finally get the results you want. It starts right here in Module 1.

    We'll look at what's changing in the legal profession today and examine what's driving YOU to do things differently in your own practice.

    You'll start by defining your vision for the future. Your new insight will give you the power to build the practice you want, whatever that looks like to you.

    We'll introduce your toolkit and the 5-step Practice Accelerator Framework, and you'll...

    Learn to:
    >> Understand what law firms need for growth.

    >> Define what success looks like for you.

    >> Harness the power of incremental change.

  • Practice Accelerator Module 2: Identify Your ONE Big Thing

    Law is knowledge work. It's true that a lot of what your clients value comes from what goes on inside your head…but everything outside your head is a process. And every one of those processes can be improved.

    In this module, we’re going to look hard at the processes you have in place and identify the ones you need to accelerate your practice.

    You’re going to identify ONE IMPORTANT PROCESS you want to improve. Over the next few weeks, we’re going to teach you, step-by-step, exactly how you’re going to make that process better.

    Learn to:
    >> Define your work. It's the first step in our Practice Accelerator Framework.

    >> Look at what you do through the eyes of your clients: who are they and what do they need & want

    >> Understand the processes law firms need to succeed and take a hard look at own your processes.

    >> Select your TARGET, the one key process you're going to work on for the rest of Practice Accelerator. If you follow our framework and put in the work, you will see results within the next 90 days

  • Practice Accelerator Module 3: Set Your Baseline

    You can’t improve what you can’t see. In this module you’ll focus on how you work now to deliver what your clients need.

    In this second step in the Practice Accelerator Framework, you'll MEASURE the performance of your current state.

    We’ll introduce you to the concepts of value and waste, and teach you how to identify the wastes in the way you work.

    Your goal: to understand your baseline so you can accelerate from there.

    Learn to:
    >> Use the DOWNTIME method for spotting the eight wastes that are making your work take longer than it should, or seem harder than it should.

    >> Identify the wastes, frustrations, and friction points in your practice, and especially in your target process.

    >> Start thinking like an innovator: every problem you identify is an opportunity to make your practice better.

  • Implementation Week 1

    Spend time this week catching up, completing the activities and workbooks for Modules 1 through 3.

  • Practice Acceleration Module 4: You've Found the Problems...Now What?

    Change initiatives often fail because people fix the wrong things. They treat the symptoms of a problem, without looking at its root cause.

    The result: people get frustrated. Their effort feels wasted because the problem just keeps coming back.

    In this module, you’ll learn to avoid this trap. You'll ANALYZE the problems you've found and get laser-focused on the real sources of your inefficiency and waste. Fix those and your practice can take off.

    Learn to:
    >> Stop blaming yourself and other people for broken processes.

    >> Identify the six typical causes of waste in law practices and spot them in your own office.

    >> Master an easy-to-use tool to get to the bottom of the problems that are putting the brakes on your practice, costing you money, and wasting your time

  • Practice Acceleration Module 5: Redesign Your Process for Maximum Impact

    Now for the fun part! You know where the problems are and what's causing them. You've done the diagnosis...now it's time for the cure. Welcome to the IMPROVE phase of the Practice Accelerator Framework.

    In this module, you’ll design solutions to overcome the inefficiency and waste in your target process.

    When you’re done, you’ll have a plan: a list of improvement opportunities prioritized by benefit and effort.

    You’ll have the roadmap to create your new practice.

    Learn to:
    >> Adopt the innovator's mindset and completely change the way you respond to ideas and improvements.

    >> Run effective brainstorming sessions that generate long and strong lists of improvement opportunities.

    >> Apply two simple tools to prioritize those improvement opportunities based on the outcome they deliver and the effort you're going to have to put in.

    >> Create an improvement plan for your target process.

  • Implementation Week 2:

    Spend time this week catching up, completing the activities and workbooks for Modules 4 and 5.

  • Practice Acceleration Module 6: Make Your Changes Stick

    OK, you know reducing the waste, frustration, and friction in your law practice is the most effective way to grow your income and deliver great service in less time and with less effort.

    Now you’ve got the roadmap. You know what you need to do. But change is difficult and old habits die hard. Don’t let your efforts go to waste.

    In this module, you’ll learn to make your improvements sustainable and create CONTROLS, so you don’t slide back into your old ways when the going gets tough.

    Learn to:
    Create your control strategy Learn 4 strategies for building the habits you need to sustain change.

    >>Decide how you're going to document your new processes, so you have no unwritten rules in your practice.
    >>Use failure to your advantage. Improvements don't always work out the way you plan, but you'll learn how to use failure to build even better systems.

  • LPIP Supplement 1: Integrated Legal Matter Management

    Modules 1-6 of the LPIP Certificate Program set out the Practice Accelerator Framework where you learn the foundational skills you need to undertake process improvement in your practice. Those modules support your certification as a process improvement specialist under the International Institute of Legal Project Management.

    The additional modules making up the LPIP Supplement provide the next level of skills that will enable you to confidently lead process improvement projects for others, and integrate process improvement with legal project management and pricing initiatives in your organization.

    In LPIP Supplement 1, we look at what’s included in the LPIP Supplement, and how the additional tools, methodologies, and information you’ll learn in the LPIP Supplement fit in with the rest of the Practice Accelerator Framework.

    Specifically, we’ll introduce you to the IILPM frameworks that provide a foundation for overall legal matter management, including the IILPM’s legal project management and pricing frameworks.

  • LPIP Supplement 2: Mapping - A Powerful Way to Visualize Work

    You’ve already learned to use the DOWNTIME framework and work logically and sequentially through the five steps in the Practice Accelerator framework to identify, evaluate, and then eliminate waste in all aspects of your work. In this Module we look at another very important tool: mapping.

    You were introduced to the first of three important types of mapping in Practice Accelerator Module 2, where we talked about using a Process Grid to help DEFINE your target process.

    In this LPIP Supplement 2, we’ll take another look at Process Grids, and also take a deep dive into both Value Stream (aka Phase) Mapping and Process Mapping.

    Learn to create and use a:
    >> Process Grid to define and frame the nature and scope of the process you’re going to improve, by providing a high level picture of the flow of information, products, and services

    >> Phase Map to identify where the big issues are, to visualize the workflow and see where you can make strategic changes, and to assist you with pricing and project management

    >> Process Map to visually present the information you have gathered about the current state of the target process in ways that allow project participants to clearly see what is being done by whom, when, and using what resources, and to identify different opportunities for improvement. You’ll also learn how to use a Process Map to design the desired future state for the target process.

  • LPIP Supplement 3: Additional Tools for Process Improvement

    In this module, we add additional tools for analyzing how people work and finding root causes of the problems and wastes identified in your improvement project. We also introduce you to Design Thinking, an approach to developing and testing user-centred solutions, and the dot-voting tool for facilitating group decision-making.

    Learn to use:
    >> Y is a function of X.
    >> The Pareto principle.
    >> Design Thinking as a strategy for solving the problems you have previously identified through earlier steps in the Practice Accelerator Framework with a clear focus on the client’s perspective.
    >> Dot voting to help distinguish the priority between different competing ideas.

  • LPIP Supplement 4: Final Steps to Certification

    In this final module we recap what you’ve learned in the program, and revisit the LPIP-LPM Integration Guide presented in LPIP Supplement 2. That is where we present how to integrate and use all of the tools presented across the program.

    We also confirm the final (administrative) steps required to complete your certification as a Legal Process Improvement Professional under the auspices of the IILPM.

  • 1:1 Coaching

    Whether you're on your own or in a group, you'll get the chance to ask questions and get help implementing everything you've learned in regular live online group sessions with internationally accredited experts committed to your success. No other program offers this additional LIVE mentoring and support.

    You'll be invited to schedule your coaching sessions once you start the course. If you can't make it to a group session, send your questions in advance. All sessions are recorded, and you can search the recording for answers to your questions.