I was sitting in the dermatologist’s office this morning and among the magazines in the waiting room were several stacks of one page fliers.  The one that caught my “legal” eye was labeled “Notice to our patients regarding pathologies”.  Hmmm.

A closer look revealed that it was a one page explanation about the billing practices associated with laboratory services.  Apparently these services are broken down into two components: a technical component that consists of preparing a tissue biopsy for analysis as well as a professional component that consists of actually reading, analyzing and interpreting the specimen plus issuing a report.

Different service providers provide each of the different components and different skill levels are required for both steps.  While this type of delegation makes business sense and can result in a cost and time savings for everyone, you can imagine how to patients like us seeing the same “lab test” on two different bills creates the impression of double billing and thereby sows the seeds of conflict.

By issuing a simple one page explanation up front this doctor’s office provides useful information that helps explain the value of its services and how such services enhance the quality of their diagnoses and treatment of patients.  It helps manage patient expectations in a mutually beneficial way and probably saves them a lot of time having to explain the same thing over and over again.

Are there common misunderstandings that crop up in your business? Is there something that you have to keep repeating to a customer, client, patient, or even an employee?  If there is, finding ways to inform and educate them can save you time and avoid conflicts that can spiral into lawsuits.  It can also improve your business relationship by underscoring the value of your goods and services.

You want to challenge people to get them to raise their game, as opposed to criticizing them, which makes them raise their defenses.

William D. Green, chairman and C.E.O. of Accenture, as interviewed by the New York Times, November 22, 2009.

Mr. Green makes a good point, one that also has valuable implications for managing legal risk and legal costs. 

According to Green, caring is one of the most important traits a business leader can possess.  ”Nothing today is about one individual,” he says. “[It's] all about the team, and in the end, this is about giving a damn about your customers, your company, the people around you, and recognizing that the people around you are the ones who make you look good.”

It therefore helps to remember that when employees raise an issue or identify a concern, they are trying to help you and the company.  They do it because they care and want to do a good job for you.

On the other hand, employees whose defenses are raised typically don’t voice issues or concerns.  Their top priority is making sure they don’t get blamed for problems, not helping to avoid them.  As a result the flow of meaningful information is choked and problems, including legal issues, surface only when they’re too big to hide. 

Listening and caring lets you make small course corrections that sidestep liability in the fraction of the time and cost it takes to make a macro course correction later.  Best of all, by raising your employees’ game you’ll also raise your company’s performance.

Copyright © 2009 Corporate M.O., LLC

If your business is engaged in international transactions you may be interested to know that law enforcement officials are increasingly collaborating across borders on investigations of a host of illegal activities ranging from the antitrust violations, to tax evasion, to bribery of foreign officials, financial fraud, and more.  No longer can you safely escape the clutches of Inspector Clouseau by crossing a border.

Due to this heightened scrutiny, companies with significant international operations are conducting more of their own multi-jurisdictional and cross-border investigations.  Of course every time you leave your home country you are bound to encounter some surprises and challenges. 

An interesting article, titled “Pitfalls of Cross-Border Investigations” identifies four important rules of the road that are worth noting: 

1. Secure relevant documents.  This may be easier said than done due to diverse document retention policies abroad, language barriers, and other technological challenges.
2. Beware of local rules when interviewing employees abroad.  Some countries have privacy laws that entitle employees to bring their own attorney or to decline your invitation to sit down and talk altogether.  Then there are additional hurdles created by language and other cultural barriers.
3. Recognize that the U.S. concept of attorney-client privilege is not universally accepted abroad.  European law in particular is at odds with U.S. law on this front.
4. Give consideration to a coordinated investigation if multiple governments are zeroing in on the same issue.

Conducting business internationally is a trap for the unwary, regardless of whether you have a substantial footprint overseas or are just starting out.  That’s why I’m delighted to be interviewing international legal expert, Carol Emory on December 3, 2009 at 8 pm Eastern ( 5 pm Pacific) about the potential legal pitfall of international business transactions. 

Click here for more information about how you can submit a question that I’ll ask Carol on December 3^rd and mark your calendar to join us for this valuable and complimentary program.

Copyright © 2009 Corporate M.O., LLC

There was an interesting article in the New York Times recently titled “How Mindfulness Can Make for Better Doctors.”  The piece describes how time pressures and multi-tasking is causing burnout.

Burnout is problematical because it not only leads to dissatisfaction but also causes doctors to “depersonalize patients and treat them as objects rather than as individuals suffering from disease.”  Each task becomes an obstacle and one more step to endure in an endless stream of obstacles. 

Sadly, this mindset can cause doctors, or anyone for that matter, to exhibit less professionalism, less empathy, and a propensity to make mistakes because they just want to get the task over and be done with it, with little thought given to how the pieces all fit together.   Perhaps you know someone at your office who is suffering such symptoms. 

Anyhow, some doctors are discovering that being mindful can help turn the tide, improving both performance and job satisfaction.  They are even offering training on the subject.  Mindfulness allows us to focus on the forest instead of the little task-based trees. 

 ”Mindfulness allows us to be in a whole host of situations with a sense of equanimity,” according to one of the doctors interviewed for the Times article.  It allows you to work in your “zone,” working with purpose, in the present, and without judgment. Ironically, it is these purpose-based actions that make the task-based actions easier to execute.  You can take them more in stride.  

The article on mindfulness reminded me of Karl E. Weick’s work Managing the Unexpected a book I had found while researching my book, The Business Guide to Legal Literacy.  

Weick and co-author Kathleen M. Sutcliffe defined mindfulness as a combination of aptitude and attitude, a state of alertness that continuously assimilates information, recognizes the significance of small changes early, and mitigates potentially negative consequence. 

What does this have to do with legal literacy?

Well, some businesses are content to shrug their corporate shoulders and believe legal risk is an inevitable side effect of uncertainty that it simply can’t be controlled.  Yet some organizations, like hospitals and nuclear power plants realize that operational excellence is not optional.  It’s a continuous process.  They can’t afford to make mistakes, yet they operate in the same uncertain world that we do.  How do they cope? 

That’s exactly what Weick and Sutcliffe wanted to find out.   Among their research findings, they discovered that mindful organizations took pride in looking for interdependencies and noticing new things.  They were open to change and new information and generally speaking, they were all: 

• More preoccupied with failures than with successes.  They realized that achieving strategic goals was as much about knowing what not to do as it was about knowing what to do.  They took responsibility for their actions and did not play the blame game. 
• Reluctant to oversimplify.  They preferred to reconcile interdisciplinary perspectives without sacrificing important nuances.  They listened to all of the stakeholders. 
• Sensitive to operations and relationships within the value chain.  Management did not isolate itself. 
• Committed to resilience.  They bounced back from past errors by learning from past mistakes and developing knowledge. 
• Deferential to expertise.   

The research on mindfulness puts a dent into the “no risk, no gain” mentality that encourages the aggressive risk taking, such as the behaviors we’ve seen on Wall Street.  It also puts a dent into highly autocratic and political bureaucratic business cultures such as the bailed out U.S. car industry (see further my AllBusiness.com blog posting on how to create a change resistant business culture).  

Quite the contrary, the research on mindfulness shows that the only sustainable and reliable gain is based on sound decision making processes and a commitment to preserving the integrity of those processes.  Incorporating mindfulness in your governance, risk management, and compliance decisions is therefore a sure fire way to keep your business legal liabilities in check.

Copyright © 2009 Corporate M.O., LLC