Legalpreneurs Spotlight - Nyk Loates thrives amidst digital disruption
Published on 23 May 2019
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The need for speed
The most notable change innovation has brought is a shift in mindset.
“Businesses have realised they need to create a culture of innovation across their own organisation, to evolve how they work with others,” said Nyk. “There is a new awareness that you never know where great ideas are going to come from.
“This is further complicated by the need for speed. Everything is required faster. The challenge is how do you move quickly while still bringing your stakeholders along with you? These challenges have created a demand for new ways of working that enable collaboration to unlock creativity in solving complex problems.”
Be prepared to disrupt yourselves
Innovation can provide the impetus for organisations to grow above trend.
“Perhaps more so than ever, you have to be prepared to disrupt yourselves, which is an interesting concept. If you are not looking at the future of your industry and what new technologies are enabling you to do, you can be certain that someone, somewhere is thinking about how they can disrupt.”
KPMG has just launched the second iteration of its Marketplace platform. Started as part of a crowdsourced innovation challenge, Marketplace is an online service which offers KPMG professionals on short term engagements.
“It is essentially a whole new channel to market for us and one that challenges some of our traditional routes to market,” said Nyk.
Technology should not be for technology’s sake
Traditionally, Nyk’s work has been quite low-tech – think whiteboards, pens, and post-it notes.
“My specific area is face-to-face collaboration. Our focus is on unlocking the magnificent potential of humans to do great things. In a digital world, we are actively looking at how you can use technologies that augment the face-to-face, real time collaboration experience,” said Nyk.
Digital collaboration tools are crucial.
“How do we use technology to enable people to co-create and document the work they are doing? How do you avoid the re-creation loops from an analogue world to a digital world?”
Artificial Intelligence may also play a part in processing the vast data created during a collaboration experience.
“What new things could be seen if we processed this data in different ways?” asked Nyk. “There is of course the importance of relevance, and this is one of the tensions in our world. A low tech environment can at times feel refreshing. Ultimately technology should not be there for technology’s sake. It should not be a barrier to use and should enable a different experience, insight or outcome.”
Understanding the ‘art of the possible’
Nyk, quoting Peter Drucker, noted that the best way to predict the future is to create it.
KPMG strives to create a culture of innovation, running hackathons to test prototype ideas in the real world, with real clients. Successful projects are then developed into new products or services.
“Creating a culture of innovation within our organisations allows us all to participate with new ideas, and become the ones that are disrupting and not the disrupted,” said Nyk. “To do this we have to create space for people to understand the art of the possible created by new technologies, and explore new ways of working in and beyond our industry. With an understanding of what is possible we should support people with an environment where they can experiment and prototype to test and learn.”
It’s an approach which applies equally to new lawyers entering the legal profession.
“Be prepared to be the innovator,” urged Nyk. “Find your role in creating the new.”
Citing author Laurence Gonzales’s book, Deep Survival, Nyk noted that survivors exhibit a shift in mindset.
“Laurence found that those who do well are able to create new mental models of the world around them. They have a sense of the situation they are in, and based on that situation work what they need to do next,” said Nyk. “Their mindset is that of a rescuer, not a victim. This enables them to see the wonder of the situation they find themselves in.
“This may require different skills, including complex problem solving, critical thinking and creativity to help find new solutions or new ways to co-create with others.”
CLI helps detect opportunities
“In innovation, what is most often overlooked is the ability to sense and track weak signals,” said Nyk. “These are the tiny pulses of an idea that bounce around a system for some time before they mature in to an idea or concept.
“Successful entrepreneurs will pick up on these signals ahead of others and quickly work out how to amplify them in to something which becomes a disruptor. Having an organisation like the Centre for Legal Innovation helps the profession to detect those weak signals, create opportunities for diverse groups of people to connect (for example the Chief Innovation Officers Forum) around the signals and work out how we ultimately make the profession better for those who will follow in our footsteps.”