Why?

Why? That's is one of the most important question we can ever ask in business.

• Why do you want to grow the business?
• Why do you want to expand into continental Europe?
• Why do you want to take the litigation from solicitors?
• Why do you want to fire the Senior Clerk?
• Why do you want to merge with a competitor firm?

Only when you have answered that question can we start to go any further - and, for the avoidance of doubt, the answer "well - isn't that what we are supposed to be doing?" is nowhere near good enough.

Before starting to take any significant steps, you - the people running the business, whether that's a law firm or a set of chambers, or any business at all - need to sit and think about what you are actually trying to achieve. Why are you about to do what you are about to do?

Any decision can be a good one - so long as it is actually a decision. One that has been considered and discussed, and one that can be - and has been - explained to the rest of the organisation. Note that I don't say that consensus for the decision must be achieved throughout the business - that's far too difficult. A Board is there to make the difficult decisions - but also to fully explain those decisions and to have consulted properly in the course of making them.

Explain the 'why' to people.

Of course - that means you need to know 'why' in the first place.