Hone your message
Levin needed to create a message that would provide answers to the biggest questions that people had about the firm’s possible expansion to Western Michigan.
He called on his management subcommittee to help him hone his message. If you don’t have such a group already in place, you should create one.
“Try to just think of who are the perceived leaders of your institution and try to get a diverse group of them,” Levin says. “The importance is to try to get people whose minds work in a different way, whether it’s a different group because of where they are located or where they are as far as seniority or some of their own diverse backgrounds. I try to call on people who will view things a little differently. Not always do I adopt what they suggest, but at least it alerts me to an issue.”
The number of people on this board comes down to your ability to use good judgment.
“We have had that discussion over various things where we’ll set up a special committee and say, ‘We need to get this group represented,’” Levin says. “Sometimes we do rotate who is going to be reflected, but you can’t trade off of having a very efficient process versus having too many people at the table. By doing that, sometimes it’s a barrier to getting through the process.”
One barometer for someone’s participation — and a good way to ensure pertinent feedback — is to bring in people who may be directly involved in the new project or expansion in the case of the firm.
“If we’re looking at expansion, we’re talking to somebody about making a move,” Levin says. “So in those cases, we had several meetings with the prospective lawyers who were going to be starting those offices.”
In gathering these people, you’re trying to prepare yourself for the questions that will be coming from the rest of the company as the idea is communicated.
“You always have to be prepared for angles or what might be a hot-button issue,” Levin says. “I try to spend a fair amount of time before a presentation brainstorming and trying to anticipate what questions might be coming. The easiest way for me to do that is to pretend, when I’m looking at the information, that I’m reading it for the first time. I want to try to disengage from the idea that I have all this background. If I was reading it for the first time, what kinds of questions would I have?”
When you hear about people in your organization who have concerns, see to it that they are represented on your board.
“The folks that expressed some concern, in many cases, I enlisted their help in helping us get off the ground in that office,” Levin says. “It’s in all of our best interests to make it succeed by getting people of all different views to help support it.”