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Introducing a successful quality assurance system usually requires profound changes in how people think about their work, how they interact with each other and clients, and how they prioritize and deliver legal services. It can be challenging, but it is absolutely necessary for sustainable success in a competitve environment that has very little tolerance for poor service quality.

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Slogans and strategic plans do not build a quality culture in a law firm.

Actions do.

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The most productive investment a law firm can make is in the continuing professional education of its people.

W. Edwards Deming’s Thirteenth Point of quality management, "Encourage Education and Self-Improvement for Everyone," holds profound relevance for law firms. In a profession defined by its adherence to precedent and its response to evolving legal landscapes, the emphasis on continuous learning becomes not just an asset, but a necessity.

This is the fourteenth of a series of articles on the importance to law firms of W. Edwards Deming's Fourteen Points of quality management.

Thomas Eakins, Oarsmen on the Schuylkill (1874)(

Most law firms talk a lot about their "professional quality."

Most of them also unwittingly obstruct it.

W. Edwards Deming's Twelfth Point of quality management, "Remove Barriers to Pride of Workmanship," is essential for law firms that honestly want to excel in an increasingly competitive and demanding legal landscape. By identifying and dismantling the barriers that prevent legal professionals from taking pride in their work, law firms can unlock a higher level of employee satisfaction and commitment, leading to superior service, client satisfaction, and overall firm success.

This is the thirteenth in a series of sixteen articles that explore the relevance and, for some law firms the existential importance, of W. Edwards Deming's Fourteen Points, especially for small and midsize law firms.

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Old paradigms about how to measure performance might be preventing, rather than motivating, your law firm's success. 

This is the twelfth in a series of sixteen articles that explore the relevance and, for some law firms the existential importance, of W. Edwards Deming's Fourteen Points, especially for small and midsize law firms.

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Empty slogans, exhortations to work harder, and irrelevant "best practices" are not only ineffective; they often are counterproductive. 

They do not promote clarity. Instead, most people are left to wander in the fog, from data point to data point, without understanding where they are going or why.

This is the eleventh in a series of sixteen articles that explore the relevance and, for some law firms the existential importance, of W. Edwards Deming's Fourteen Points, especially for small and midsize law firms.

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Is your law firm an integrated professional business or a collection of fiefdoms?

This is the tenth in a series of sixteen articles that will explore the relevance and, for some law firms the existential importance, of W. Edwards Deming's Fourteen Points, especially for small and midsize law firms.

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Law firm leaders must foster environments in which everyone feels secure and valued. 

This is the ninth in a series of sixteen articles that will explore the relevance and, for some law firms the existential importance, of W. Edwards Deming's Fourteen Points, especially for small and midsize law firms.

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The legal services industry is awash in advice about leadership. How can Deming's Seventh Point build better leadership in law firms?

This is the eighth in a series of sixteen articles that will explore the relevance and, for some law firms the existential importance, of W. Edwards Deming's Fourteen Points, especially for small and midsize law firms.

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Training is not just a nice fringe benefit in law firms. It is an essential investment.

This is the seventh of a series of sixteen articles that will explore the relevance and, for some law firms the existential importance, of W. Edwards Deming's Fourteen Points, especially for small and midsize law firms.