The Elder Law Coach

Mastering OKRs: Revolutionize Goal-Setting in Your Elder Law Practice

• Todd Whatley

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Unlock the secret to revolutionizing your elder law practice's goal-setting strategy with Todd Whatley as your guide. Traditional methods often leave us short of our targets, but what if your objectives were not only clear but quantifiable as well? Through the power of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), Todd shares insights on how you can set short-term, qualitative objectives and pair them with measurable key results. Discover how to elevate client satisfaction and improve response times, all within a framework that promises transparency and encourages collaboration without resorting to financial incentives.

Join the conversation as Todd walks you through practical steps to implement OKRs in your practice effectively. Learn how to set ambitious but achievable goals, align your team’s efforts seamlessly, and continuously track progress to ensure success. From expanding your client base to enhancing operational efficiency, this episode offers a roadmap for innovation and growth. Plus, Todd welcomes your questions and feedback, emphasizing community and ongoing professional development. With resources readily available and a focus on achieving specific goals, your journey towards mastering OKRs begins here.

Check out our new website www.TheElderLawCoach.com.

Speaker 1:

Thank you. Specialized experience, Whether you're an established attorney looking to refine your expertise or an emerging lawyer seeking a successful foray into elder law, this is your masterclass. Now let's get started with the luminary in the field. Here's Todd Whatley.

Speaker 2:

That's right. This is the Elder Law Coach Podcast. My name is Todd Whatley and I'm so glad that you are here with me and I'm super glad that the podcast seems to be taking off a little bit and I just need to be more consistent in doing it. And it's just, it's been a crazy last half of 2024. And today's podcast I want to talk about something that you know seems like the first first of the year.

Speaker 2:

We always talk about goals and I even did a seminar last year on goals and, to be honest, it's just never worked well. I mean to come up with the goal and then to set it. It's just. It just never works for me. And if you've been able to set goals and have your goals written and follow those, god bless you. You do better at it than I do, because I've tried and I thought surely if I do a seminar on goals, I'm going to follow this. To be honest, I didn't. So I've come across something that is, I think, substantially different. I was going to say slightly different, but I think it's so much different that I am thinking this is going to work and I have done this for my office and everyone, I think, jumped into it and was like, hey, this makes total sense and it's short term, okay. And so I think we all do better if we look at things in a short-term status. And so what I'm going to talk about is this it's not new, it's new to me, but this is how Google went from, you know, basically a small company to what they are today, and they still use these today. And so, if you think about how does a company as big as Google, as many different things as Google does, as huge as they are, how do you get a company-wide idea or focus, or to say, hey guys, for this next quarter, this is our focus. And how do you do that? And it is pretty interesting how we do that and I did this in my office to say, hey, here is our focus for the first quarter of 2025. And then how to carry that out, and also how each employee can actually set their own goals following that big overarching goal and how they can contribute. And I thought this is really interesting. And so if you've done any research on this, you probably know what I'm talking about, but if not, I encourage you to go do some research, and I will list two books that I've read in the show notes that I think do a pretty good job of explaining this and showing how companies use it.

Speaker 2:

What I am talking about is what's commonly known as OKRs, objectives and Key Results, and I think the concept is out there with a lot of companies. They may not call it exactly this OKRs, but sometimes I've seen some companies call it management by objective, mbo, management by objectives. And same concept is you come up with an overarching objective, and the best thing to do that, I think and that's what these books recommend and this is what I'm doing is I'm doing a one quarter objective. So for the first quarter of 2025, my objective for my office is to increase awareness throughout the community of our practice. Okay, that is the overarching objective.

Speaker 2:

The objective, the definition, basically, is these are specific qualitative goals that provide clear direction. For example, an objective might be to enhance client satisfaction in elder law services. Ok, well, that's kind of vague, but it's an idea. It's like this is our focus. Ok, that is the objective is here's what I want to see happen by the end of this quarter is enhanced or increased client satisfaction in our services. It's then the key results are things that you want to list results. If we got this result, I would know that the objective had been obtained. Okay, so key results are these are quantifiable outcomes that measure the achievement of the objective. Okay, objectives are qualitative. Here's a quality I want to see. The difference is, key results are quantifiable, and I think that's where general goals fall by the wayside is we don't make them quantifiable and we may say, hey, over a year or whatever, and I know that you can do short-term goes and long-term goes, but just stick with me here.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so for the objective to have a key result, for the objective that I just mentioned, just mentioned, the key result could include achieve a 95% client satisfaction rate. Okay, numbers, you want there to be numbers in your key results. So, specifically, a 95% client satisfaction rate. And you do that by measuring it. You call clients and say, hey, just curious, were you happy with your service? Yes or no? And our goal is to have a 95%. And at the end of the quarter, by the end of March, you can do that survey. And if it's 92%, it's like we didn't meet that result.

Speaker 2:

Okay, that key result if we hit 95 or 96 or 97, it's like congratulations, we did it. Okay, if we hit 95 or 96 or 97, congratulations, we did it, okay. And the other thing, you know, another key result to increase client satisfaction is reduce client complaint response time to 24 hours. We can know, hey, document, this person complained about this at this time on this day and the response to that was again, it's things you can measure. And the key thing with this I mean key is in the word.

Speaker 2:

Key result is, if we got this result, we would know that this objective was met and the overall company creates this objective and then each person takes that objective, or they could take. One of the key results is to achieve a 95% client satisfaction rate. That means, if you don't have a way to ask clients about that, which we don't, we've never done that in our office and I've always been kind of scared of it, to be honest, but in order to go and find that out. So one of the key results or your objective is to create a client satisfaction process. Okay, so that could be one employee's objective, and then their key results would be have the system in place two weeks, in two weeks, and then have a one-month goal of having contacted 75 people. Okay. So, numbers, numbers, numbers. You have to have numbers and that just trickles down throughout the company so that each person has a piece in this. They have their objective and they have their key results. And so in a quarter they can sit down because everything was measurable. They can sit down and say I either met this key result or I didn't. Okay, all right, does that make sense? Objectives, overarching thing, key results Now, what are the benefits of this?

Speaker 2:

Okay, what I found very interesting is it allows people to have enhanced focus and alignment. So I got all of my team together beginning of December and introduced them to this concept and said, hey, for the first quarter, our focus is not making money, it's not creating new trust, it's not education. For us, it is to increase our awareness in the community, and a good awareness to do things that increase our visibility so that people know what Generations Legal Group is. And so, by having enhanced focus, by saying from me, the top of this firm, to say here is the objective. And so if you're sitting down to say, should I do this webinar that will increase my knowledge on this, or should I call this client and explain how a trust works and why we recommended this, something different than another attorney did? This OKR tells them which of those two things to do.

Speaker 2:

Don't do the webinar, because that's not our objective for this quarter. Our objective is to increase client satisfaction and awareness, and so you automatically have my permission to not do the webinar and do the phone call with the client. Okay, does that make sense? So my list here says OKRs ensure that all team members are working towards common goals, aligning daily activities with the firm's strategic vision. So it's like for this month our focus is not on making money, it's on awareness, increasing satisfaction, making sure and one of our key results for the first quarter is to increase our Google reviews, our hopefully five stars. Our goal is to generate, I think, 45 or 50 five-star reviews. Okay, well, you don't do that by doing a webinar. You don't do that by focusing on the intricacies of trust. You do it by calling a client, making sure that they are happy and that we encourage them to do a Google review and give us five stars, okay. So it's enhanced focus.

Speaker 2:

Number two is improved accountability. So one of the things that this will do is by setting clear, measurable targets. Team members understand their responsibilities and can be held accountable for the outcomes. So we've scheduled almost weekly meetings to say, hey, how are we on this key result? Where are we, where are you on yours? And each team member did their own OKR for their portion of this practice the marketing, the Medicaid person, the attorney who drafts trust, the nursing home liaison, her number of visits with nursing homes. You know all of those numbers.

Speaker 2:

So at the end of this quarter, well, we meet every week to say, hey, are you getting there? Are you at 10% or 20% or whatever? You know? How's it looking to be at the end of this quarter? Are you going to meet your key result? How's it looking to be at the end of this quarter? Are you going to meet your key result? And toward the end of this quarter is a great opportunity. We're going to do this and sit down and say did we meet our key results?

Speaker 2:

Now, here's something that may surprise you. You should not meet all of your key results. Now, wait, todd, why? Why would you say that? Why would you say you should not meet the key results? Now, wait, todd, why? Why would you say that? Why would you say you should not meet the key results?

Speaker 2:

Okay, so, number one these OKRs are not associated with money to the employee. This is not tied to bonuses. This is not tied to job performance. This is something. It's just a personal challenge for them and for the practice to get better. You should set your key results to be a stretch.

Speaker 2:

Okay, that 95% client satisfaction, that's a big number. Okay, if we're currently at 75 or 80, 95 seems like whoa, that is way out there. But if you tie this to a person's bonus or to their salary increase, they're going to set their numbers. They're like, hey, we're at 75. I bet we might, could do 80. But I want to set it at 80 because I want to meet it. And ta-da, I'm at 80. So I get my bonus, I get my pay raise. No, that's not what. We don't want 80% satisfaction, we want 95%. And so I tell you know, when my nursing home liaison said okay, I think we can probably you know I'm kind of making this up, I don't remember exactly, but she said, okay, I'm pretty sure I can see 10 per month. I'm like okay, so your key result is 20. She said, wait a second, that's a bunch. Okay, the OKR books and research and different things have said ideally you should hit about 80% of your key result. If you increase it from one to two, that's 100% increase. And if you get 80% of that, that's way better than an easy goal and it's okay.

Speaker 2:

You sit down at the end of the quarter and say, okay, I did not meet my key result, that's okay. Why did you not? Did you set it way too high? Was that a very aggressive goal and there was just no way you could do that? Or what happened? Why did you not meet your goal? And it's not a reprimand, it's a problem-solving event. That's why you don't tie this to bonuses or pay raises. It's truly a personal business push to do better.

Speaker 2:

All right, and I think that is key that you said it at the beginning of the quarter, but don't forget to come back at the end and say, hey, if everyone hit their key results, it's like come on, people, this is not good. Okay, you did not stretch yourself enough. What could you have done had you been thinking that your goal was 50% higher or 30% higher? Could you have gotten a little bit more? Once you hit your key result, you may think, okay, I did it, yay, I'm done until the next quarter when we do this again. No, you want it to be a constant stretch. You want it to push you to do better, okay.

Speaker 2:

It also increases transparency, okay, meaning that you share everyone's OKRs with everyone else, and this is how Google does so well is they know the company objective for this quarter is this and everybody should be working to that, and a lot of times, departments may work together and, since this is not tied to bonuses or pay raises, it encourages people to work together and they're transparent, to say, hey, I'm having trouble with this. And just imagine in a company that if the salespeople are out there saying, hey, we're promising people this, the engineers are like you can't do that, we can't make that. Or the salespeople are like, hey, people are asking for this feature, can we do that? And engineering knows, hey, maybe that falls within the company's objective and so, yeah, we can do this. It's transparency. You can see what each other's doing and if someone's having trouble with it, maybe you can help them. Hey, let me adjust this. That will help you meet your key result. And it just opens up everyone to work together and be on the same team rather than competing, because you don't connect it to bonuses or pay raises.

Speaker 2:

And, as I've mentioned, it's encouragement for ambitious go settings. Ok, this is OK. Okrs promote, setting challenging objective, driving innovation and growth within the practice. Ok, that's the purpose of that, is the key results having a number, you set the number and you say we're going toward this number and that's a stretch. That's a huge stretch, but stretching is good. Okay, it pushes you to do better and go above and beyond. All right.

Speaker 2:

So how do you implement OKRs in your elder law practice? So, number one define clear objectives. You as the boss, or get your boss on board with this to say, hey, I want to know what is our focus for this quarter? Ok, and I want to say I don't know where this will fit elsewhere. But you know, like I said, for real, we set the first quarter of 2025 as increasing awareness. Awareness and I've had people already say, hey, I could have done this to help make more money, but this came up and it meets the objective. I'm like don't worry about the money, we're fine for this quarter. Do what increases that? And so, once we spend a whole quarter on increasing awareness, they don't just forget that. That's always going to be in there and they're going to continue to do it. And I will tell you the second quarter of 2025 is going to be we need to make some money okay, we kind of put that on the back shelf for the first quarter to increase awareness, increase client satisfaction, you know, to increase our visibility in the community, and we sacrifice some money to do that. The second quarter is going to be okay. We need to increase our goal for trust and powers of attorney and deeds and Medicaid, and so that's where we then take the previous quarter's knowledge, not forgetting that, but still use that, but still, hopefully that converts into more trust and more Medicaid cases, okay.

Speaker 2:

So define clear objectives, identify specific areas of improvement or growth, such as client satisfaction, operational efficiency or community outreach. Okay, think about it. Where are you lacking? What do you need to improve? Number two establish measurable key results. I've said this so many times, but this is the key to it Determine quantifiable indicators of success for each objective. So, for instance, to improve community outreach, key results might include host four elder law seminars annually or in that quarter, or increase social media engagement by 30%. Okay, so now you're going to spend time scheduling events to talk rather than seeing clients in the office.

Speaker 2:

Your focus is very set across the practice of doing what you came up with, okay. And number three align team efforts. You as the owner of this practice, you as the person, and I think this is just good for you If you're the only employee of your practice. Number one we need to talk because you should only be doing what you can do, but I understand this is good for you individually, as a practice and individually. It helps you make your to-do list for the day and prioritize things to do or not to do, and it's like my focus is this. So I'm going to do what increases that focus, not something else. Okay, you'll get to something else eventually, but it and particularly if you have a team, it's comforting to know everyone in this quarter. This is our focus. This is aligning our goals, all right. Number four regularly review and adjust. That's the key to this is you have to meet at the end of the quarter to see how the quarter went.

Speaker 2:

Look at your key results. They are measurable. How did you measure up? And, surprisingly, you don't want to get 100% of all the key results, okay. So let me just throw out a few potential OKRs If you're like I don't know what to do. You've mentioned a few.

Speaker 2:

So one objective expand client base, okay, increase the number of clients. So a key result is increase client inquiries by 25% over the next quarter. Percent over the next quarter. Keep track of how many phone calls come in over the past and then increase that by 25 percent. And if you've not measured that then that's kind of hard to see an increase. But take the first month and see what you got and then see how that hopefully increases the next two months. All right. Another key result for the objective of expanding client base is convert 50% of inquiries into retained clients. Okay, I think that's pretty low, but hey, it's a start. Okay, I would probably say 75%, because you should be. I mean, if someone's going to pick up the phone and call you, knowing that you're an elder law firm, they probably have a need that you can meet. Not everyone's going to hire you. They don't afford it, they don't need you. It's the wrong practice area, but I think 75% to 80% is a pretty good number. Sorry about that.

Speaker 2:

Another objective is enhance operational efficiency. Okay, wow, that's a big overarching thing, but a key result is implement a new case management system within two months or by the end of the quarter. Okay, so you know. Okay, should I spend time doing this webinar learning about some special trust or do I watch webinars on case management? You know, ok, my focus for this quarter is case management. That helps you know which of those two things you should do. Focus on case management, ok. Another key result of that is reduce average case processing time by 15%. Keep track of how long it takes you to go from initial meeting with a trust to finish trust in their hands, funded out the door, done. Okay, keep track of that and decrease that time by 15%. That's a very easy thing to measure. And no, I met that or I did not. Okay.

Speaker 2:

Another objective is to improve professional development. Okay, this quarter we're going to focus on training. So now, if it's call this client or do this case management stuff, no, that is not my focus. I'm going to watch this webinar on this new trust, how to implement this trust or how to incorporate elder law into my practice by calling Todd at the Elder Law Coach. So a key result is provide 10 hours of elder law training per attorney each quarter. Ok, so each attorney, that's that's a lot of hours. Ok, we only need typically 12 for the year. But if your goal, if your objective, is to improve professional development, we know this is the focus. So you know some other task versus development training. You know that you need to do training.

Speaker 2:

Another key result is achieve 100% participation rate in professional development programs. Everybody shows up. Okay, if you're going to miss for something that doesn't meet this objective, don't do that. Do this all right. Don't do that, do this All right. So integrating OKRs into your practice can systematically pursue excellence, ensuring that their services effectively meet the needs of the aging population while fostering a proactive and cohesive team environment.

Speaker 2:

That's just kind of a summary that was written out for me, but it's true. So I am implementing these and I'm excited about it, and my team seems excited because they know what I'm thinking. Rather than just being a scattered mess of, hey, let's keep the law office running for the next quarter, no, let's focus on something. Let's know that we're all coming together, that this is our focus for these three months. I think that's long enough to really get into it and really ingrain it, but short enough that, okay, we can stay on this topic for three months. Okay, if you're a little, you know ADHD and you tend to scatter everywhere, this keeps you focused. Okay, I hope this helps. I hope this will help you in the new year, or start anytime. You don't have to start at the new year. We just seem to start the new year with new goals and things, and so I advise you to look into OKRs.

Speaker 2:

I will list the two books that I read on that and I encourage you to do that and see if it helps and if so, please let me know. And, as always, if you are interested in elder law and want me to help you go from zero to a pretty good elder law attorney within a year, I would love to work with you. Give us a call. You can always email Tricia at the elderlawcoachcom. You can email me, but please add Tricia on there with me because she helps me catch those and make sure that I don't miss them because I am pretty busy. But I would love to hear from you on questions or comments or podcast topics. I would love to hear what you want to know. So please email me, todd, at the elderlawcoachcom, but also include Tricia and she will make sure that I see it All right. Thank y'all very much and I will see you next time.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for joining this episode of the Elder Law Coach Podcast. For those eager to take their elder law practice to new heights and are interested in Todd's acclaimed coaching program, visit wwwtheelderlawcoachcom. With Todd Watley by your side, the journey to becoming an elder law authority has never been more achievable. Until next time, keep learning, keep growing and stay passionate about elder law.