Jennie Vickers - The Zeopard Thinker

2010-08-19T15:26:00.001+12:00

Can your new and existing clients see your expertise?- Removing the angst from value conversations by demonstrating your brilliance.
This morning at 9am I was a â€œmodelâ€ at my client, Rodney Wayne Takapuna for their Lâ€™Oreal Inoa color training session with Lâ€™Orealâ€™s specialist trainer. I have had my hair colored one shade or another for as long as I can remember, but this morning was the first time I fully appreciated, and fully understood, the level of professional chemistry expertise that goes into hair color and getting it right.

How come this was the first time I got it? I think its because I was, for the first time, privy to the conversations that usually go on in the head of the stylists and color technicians but never get voiced. In a training session everything is explicit and voiced to demonstrate the processes. Normally, when I say â€œmake me blonderâ€ I hear â€œyesâ€ what I don't hear are the mental acrobatics going on in the head of the stylist, analyzing my current color, my hair condition, my natural color, my skin tones, my allergies and a whole bunch of other things too many to mention.

Now earlier on this morning at 5am, I sat in on a virtual classroom session run by ninetyfive5 in San Francisco. Ninetyfive5 provides sales training with its sales success system and simply say â€œless nonsense more salesâ€. This morning we were learning about the â€œDemand Creation Processâ€. Sean Frontz described Demand Creation as â€œan artful balance between inquiry and advocacyâ€ .

As I sat in the chair looking like Medusa with 8 different dye colors on my head, assimilating everything I had heard, learnt and seen this morning, I concluded:

that just because hairdressers don't traditionally demonstrate their expertise by writing or blogging they need to find a way to demonstrate that expertise in other ways;
thought leadership in hairdressing requires demonstration of specialist brilliance to the extent that it earns the trusted advisor mantle;
expertise can be demonstrated to new clients or potential new clients by making a more conscious effort at inquiry balanced with advocacy;
the value and associated price discussion would be eliminated in more cases, if only clients got to see and hear more of the decision making process. Which process is entirely predicated by the clientâ€™s own particular and unique combination of factors combined with a high level of technical and product knowledge; and
the demand creation process needs to happen, whether we are service or product suppliers and, provided we are driven by that genuine desire to â€œtry to determine if there is a good fitâ€. In hairdressing as everywhere else, as Sean said this morning â€œthe first few minutes will be the most crucialâ€.

I am back in my office, (not bald!), with natural healthy looking hair, after my morning in the chemistry lab and pondering on when the first opportunity will arise for me to practice demand creation in my legal practice.

Jennie Vickers
18 August 2010

2010-07-13T05:21:00.001+12:00

wpc10 elearning using installs are going six feet under with the arrival of the cloud, Guidetools Aegility has been in the cloud since the time it was just a raindrop, are you ready to trash the instal and get into cloud learning with 90% pass and completion rates instead of the old 10% failure?

2010-06-14T15:53:00.001+12:00

â€œThere is no rule 6â€ and there is just one rule-the reality of the Chatham House Rule-Post 1 in the your legal s**** series

A crazy skit by the classic English comedy troupe, Monty Python was a weird and wonderful starting point to my lifelong interest in the common confusions around legal rules.

The skit depicted the Australian â€˜Brucesâ€™ working out faculty rules at the University of Woolamaloo (there were 7 very politically incorrect rules but no rule 6) Alarmingly, this was also my first introduction to Australians!

I attended a seminar last week where the presenter announced that the Chatham House Rules would apply. What they were meaning was, that to allow free discussion, which might involve known or identifiable individuals, the discussions should be kept confidential. Whenever anyone talks about the CH Rules, I wryly think first of the Bruces and then the lawyer in me gets bothered because there is only one rule and it is not about confidentiality of subject matter, as many believe.
The rule originated in 1927 in the building now known as Chatham House in London, at the Royal Institute of International Affairs. They needed a protocol to allow free and open dialogue so speakers could express their personal opinions outside of party lines, without concern of attribution to them. It did not mean confidential discussions with information not to be expressed outside the room; it just meant no attribution to an individual speaker, ever. The refined rule published in 2002 says "When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed".
The nub of the matter is if you want total confidentiality for any discussions in a meeting say so, or go with the more relaxed "what goes on tour stays on tour" principle, but if you only want or need anonymity of personal contribution with no attribution, go with the CH Rule.
The Rule is clearly unnecessary and inappropriate if you are jamming with a group of Thought Leaders throwing ideas around, but could be absolutely essential with clients and colleagues if you are trying to have an open conversation without the limitations caused by butt covering.
It might take time to get to grips with this distinction, but using this rule when what you need is confidentiality can, as the Bruces would say "going to cause a little confusion".

Jennie Vickers

2010-05-11T17:33:00.001+12:00

To what extent are parents needing to take more control of their children's behaviour and decisions? and why is no one discussing this? The government cannot be responsible for everything. Sadly in the paper this morning yet another story of a teenager's death due to alcohol and last week another due to drink driving. In last week's case the mother was asking why the courts had not taken her daughter's keys away. Why had the parents and friends not done so? If we do not want to be over governed we need to sort these issues out for ourselves so we do not see any more grieving parents and regretful friends.

2010-05-10T13:27:00.001+12:00

Come to the first Thought Leaders Summit in New Zealand, http://ping.fm/uES9d Be there 18 May 2010 a radical rethink of conferencing, seminaring, and workshopping for people interested in cutting edge ideas.

2010-04-20T14:05:00.001+12:00

Hi
I am great at promoting other people's work and programmes and have been forgetting about my own! So here goes..

As I am sure you are aware, apart from being a LNZ graduate I am also Tony Buzan's principal instructor in New Zealand. Tony being the creator and inventor of mind mapping. Many people have expressed an interest in hearing and experiencing more about these programmes either for their own advancement or for consideration for having courses run in house. Hopefully many people still remember the crazy names we developed in early sessions at LNZ.

Here is the perfect opportunity to learn some more. Next week I am running 4 half day courses:
Range and Rapid Reading-Morning of Tuesday 27 April
Memory and Memorability- Afternoon of Tuesday 27 April
Mind Mapping-Morning of Wednesday 28th April
Computer Enhanced Thinking-Afternoon of Wednesday 28th April The details are on our Buzan site at http://buzan.com.au/. We have a special running, if you sign up for a morning course you can stay for the afternoon for only an extra A$99. Please note all pricing is in Australian dollars.

Would love to see you there, any questions feel free to email or call. If the dates don't work I will be running the course again on 21 and 22 July. Sign up now and the special will apply to the July programmes as well.

If you think a friend or colleague or even your entire database would be interested please feel free to forward this and they can enjoy the discount as well.

2010-03-02T12:47:00.001+13:00

Small claims and Disputes Tribunals-I am looking for stories of people's experiences. Share with me jennievickers@xtra.co.nz

2010-02-27T09:09:00.001+13:00

Mental Fitness is a must for all of us. Brain week is coming up so take the opportunity to limber up that brain. Become a fan of Brainweek New Zealand on facebook

2010-02-18T09:01:00.001+13:00

Meetings should matter-try today to change the way you meet-deal with the most important matter first forget the admin and the blah blah, see www.zeopard.com for my paper on creative meetings.

2010-02-17T10:14:00.001+13:00

Looking back at the predictions and suggestions of things we needed to do going into the new millennium and they reveal that little has changed. Taking the time to go back and read books published pre 2000 to look for wisdom and gems we have chosen to ignore is an illuminating process!

2010-02-14T15:43:00.001+13:00

Rowdy Mclean delivered an awesome keynote here in NZ on Friday night. He is getting hot and bothered about the cottonwool society. I am absolutely with him on that. One of the ramifications is that we have more laws and more opportunities for our young people to screw up. Time for more personal awareness and accountability-those guys have to run the World in 30 years time, no use if they are locked up or useless.

2010-02-10T12:35:00.001+13:00

Finally the elder statesmen of our business community are starting to understand the reasons why they must understand social media and marketing, thanks to the patient and persuasive words of Rod Drury at the IOD this morning. Having run my entire ADLSi presidential campaign using social media and had virtually no interest from the legal profession it was good to hear that accountants are ahead of the game! Possibly though these are signs of further threats to the legal profession as it gets left behind in the dinosaur dump!

2009-12-21T14:51:00.001+13:00

Hi all,

I've just set up a new fan page for my herd of businesses. Search for Zeopard on Facebook & become a fan!

2009-12-16T09:06:00.001+13:00

I am pondering on recession and if NZ is coming out or is it just parts of the economy only. Tim Colebatch writing in the SMH this morning says "Australia is at risk of becoming a hot and cold economy in 2010 - with some areas overheating, while others remain frozen in recession." This seems like a more accurate description of what is happening here, as clients all report on the challenge of getting cash in and keeping the doors open.

2009-12-15T17:33:00.001+13:00

I have proof now that lawyers are terrible hoarders of info... I have 43, 371 emails in my system that I am moving over to Google apps. Clearly time I got organised...

2009-12-15T10:18:00.001+13:00

"Social media has overtaken porn as the number one activity on the web and 96% of gen y's have joined a social networking site" reported Anders Sorman-Nilsson at the Thought Leaders conference in Sydney last week. If the legal profession needs any reason to get to grips with social networking this is it. Eventually all the old boys from the old boys network will retire and the market will belong to those who communicated and built communities in the new way!

2009-12-08T18:57:00.001+13:00

I have arrived in Sydney to speak at a conference on the subject of Intellectual Property for Thought Leaders particularly speakers, authors, trainers, mentors, coaches and facilitators. I love having easy access to the print version of the Sydney Morning Herald. Have been reflecting on the differences between business sentiment here and at home as reflected in the papers versus anecdotally in conversation with SME owners. Maybe reality is not as different as portrayed! Whatever the answer we need some better ideas in NZ for kick starting the economy. I think we need to start with better cash flow management and respect across the board.

2009-12-07T17:32:00.001+13:00

Soft bait or smelly bait? I have taken up kayak fishing and have not caught a fish yet, it is getting embarrassing. So which way should I be voting soft bait or smelly bait?

2009-12-05T18:23:00.001+13:00

How about someone sets up a fund for donations to pay for a bunch of rugby world cup tickets and then we have a raffle only for seniors who cannot afford to buy a ticket and who want to go? I am in if an existing charity can get organised. The last thing NZ needs is another charity or not for profit.

2009-12-04T08:02:00.001+13:00

My bio for my bid for the ASDLSi Presidency has gone out. Here it is for those who do not see lawnews. Would love votes or followers/fans to help me show this is part of the way forward even for the legal profession.
Jennie Vickers, Vice President , Auckland District Law Society Inc.
2009 Presidential Election
I am standing because I believe there are 3 key priorities for the 2010 President:
• Being a clear, strong and loud voice in the media speaking up for and representing all the good members of our society;
• Establishing a support and advocacy service for members dealing with the NZLS professional standards system; and
• Providing leadership to the ADLSi team so they can do their job providing the services members want and I in liaising with NZLS to achieve a sensible and cost effective division of responsibility.
1. I am ready, willing and trained to speak up and speak out for all the good practitioners across the country. The media focus on a tiny minority (for whom our oaths of high professional standards mean nothing) must end and we must support the work of NZLS drumming the bad apples out. I will work to shift public dialogue back to recognising the important contribution our members make to society.
2. We have as a profession at our own expense, established a robust complaints process to protect consumers. Now it is our turn for protection. We need a member advocacy and support system to help those good hard-working members deal with these processes which are daunting and stressful, the more so for those who have not sinned. ADLSi is the natural provider of this national advocacy and support scheme. This scheme is well overdue and the ADLSi council will not be serving members, until this is in place.
3. I believe there are 3 roles for a leader:
• to turn fear into confidence;
• to create clarity from confusion; and
• to mobilise people in pursuit of a better future.
The ADLSi team is ready to serve all NZ practitioners and it is the President’s role to lead them. We also need some sensible and robust dialogue with NZLS to ensure that the hard earned money of all NZ practitioners is not wasted paying for unnecessary duplicated services. I can do this!
I am now a sole practitioner and a part time in-house counsel. I bring to the role of President, broad experience with a unique understanding and perspective on how to deliver on the needs of a broad cross section of the profession. My experience includes 12 years in-house and 10 years in large firms-Chapman Tripp, Simpson Grierson and Slaughter and May.
I have the ability to engage with that wide cross-section to gather momentum and develop profile for ADLSi through listening to members and then leading the team to deliver excellence and cost efficiency.
I have been an active, contributing member of the ADLS Council since 2003 and have always been and remain, passionate and committed to ensuring ADLSi success.
Finally, I believe it is time we did a better job of communicating with the younger members of the profession, using their preferred methods of networking, so if you are curious about what this means come and join me:
http://ping.fm/lEWXO
www.facebook.com search for JennieVickers
http://ping.fm/2KUwU
www.zeopardlaw.com.
http://ping.fm/zhiyt

2009-12-04T07:57:00.001+13:00

I am pondering today on the challenge of delivering on clients' expectations, in a wired world where we have fewer face to face meetings and more email instructions and corresponding relationship building. I have to admit to never having learnt to touch type and being a 4 finger typist. As a result I know that I frequently say less in emails while building rapport than maybe needed in retrospect, because the speed of my typing! So maybe my resolution for 2010 is to learn to touch type. Anyone with me?

2009-12-03T13:38:00.001+13:00

Knowing your message and how to deliver it in a consistent manner, is absolutely essential in a wired world. Reading the press this week, it is evident that the legal profession needs to get better at message management. Timing is everything and a 24/7 world does not allow for the careful consideration and deliberation we are used to having. I am a Mentor of the Australasian Thought Leaders Community. One of our processes we call pink sheeting. This is all about identifying the essence of a message and then communicating it in a way that is elegant and concise and that hits all the buttons around painting a picture, delivering data and stuff and making a clear point. Maybe it is time we included such a skill in our degree programmes, we would all benefit.

2009-12-01T14:41:00.001+13:00

Was fascinated by the 60 minutes story last night on the facereader making determinations about the guilt or otherwise of New Zealanders. Amazing how receptive we have become to alternative ideas...

2009-12-01T13:12:00.001+13:00

Just been reading the article in NZLawyer 27 November 2009 entitled "Tuning down the Tweets" about twittering in court and pondering on a few things: could twitter help lawyers become less wordy and more concise?, how the privacy act review might deal with all this new technology and the challenges to brain function with so many distractions and technology toys around. More thoughts to follow....

2009-11-30T20:28:00.001+13:00

All opinions I express on my blog, twitter etc are my personal opinions and views and I am not representing anyone else's views or the views' of any organisation I belong to.

2009-11-30T16:55:00.001+13:00

What do young people 18-25 in NZ and Australia need to know about the law of the land to keep them out of trouble and give them the protection they need? I am working on a presentation to such a group and i am interested in views on what i should cover.

2009-11-30T15:58:00.001+13:00

This is the transcript of a speech I delivered to College of Law Graduates in September 2009.

The Trusted Advisor
Jennie Vickers

Jennie Vickers, Vice President of ADLS presented awards to the top students of the College of Law’s 2009 classes.

In addressing the group after the award ceremony Jennie Vickers reflected on the journey they were embarking on to become “trusted advisors”. Here is a précis of her address.

Congratulations on surviving your course of study and congratulations particularly to the award winners.

You are joining the profession at a time of great change. The Lawyers and Conveyancers Act has forced a greater client focus. This will entail change for some. It does however mean that starting out as you are in 2009, you have the opportunity to make this the profession you want it to be. I wanted to be a lawyer from the age of 3, back in the days when lawyers were the most trusted profession, along with doctors. Sadly our standing has gone awry since then. Public perception has been coloured by too many American TV shows demonstrating dreadful behaviour and doubtful ethics. It is time we took back our rightful place, as the trusted advisors.

In thinking about today I mused back to the days when I started out; to the advice I was given that I ignored; the advice I didn’t ignore; and the advice I wish I had been given. I dispelled it down to six things:

1. Listening – particularly in these early years, cultivate the skill of listening to both collegues and clients. We start out knowing everything and nothing, and learning to really listen is a valuable skill that will serve you well;

2. Remain curious – intently listening does not absolve us from responsibility to keep curious and challenge where needed. You are selected for your intellect not your servility;

3. Silence is golden – forget six, or even two degrees of separation. Here in New Zealand it’s one. The police don’t have “the best work stories”, we do, but we can’t talk about them. Start out with the habit of never discussing work outside your firm’s private environment, resist that temptation to show off – you never know who is listening and repeating information back;

4. Responsibility – take responsibility for your own career and time. There is more to life than work. If you don’t get the balance right now, you’ll end up like the droves of 30 somethings around the World who are leaving the profession disillusioned having squandered their 20’s working. I worked 14 hours on my first day in London in Slaughter & May, and it never really changed. I have few memories of my 20’s, apart from the deals we did, which is sad. Striking a balance between work and home takes effort and focus. However tempting it is to update Facebook during the day there’s no point if it means working late to make up time. Your employer deserves and pays for your focus.

5. Vertical leadership – Lawyers are not universally known for their management and leadership skills. If you want to experience good leadership and management you may need to take the initiative and learn vertical (or upward) management. Be prescriptive about what you want and need, so its easier for them to deliver.

Baby Boomers and Gen Y’s communications frequently cause frustration – its like trying to stick an LP into a CD player. Instead of expecting those old boomers to change, step into their shoes and learn to speak in their language; and finally

6. Become a trusted advisor. David Maister in his book “The Trusted Advisor” observes that “professionals who earn trust most successfully are those at ease with concepts like:

• What goes around comes around;
• Do well by doing good;
• You get back what you put in; and
• Use it or lose it.”

• What goes around comes around – ADLS Inc is a voluntary membership society. Get involved, join RAMs (which is not just about drinking), and contribute to the profession. Even if your firm doesn’t pay it’s well worth spending your own money on the small membership fee. The collegiality and interactions with other members of the profession from diverse law practices will stand you in good stead.

• Do well by doing good – our community law centres do a valuable job but they need help, learn your craft by volunteering here or at the prisons. And of course get involved and join ADLS!

• You get back what you put in – join ADLS and contribute!

• Use it or lose it – join ADLS and come to the pub quizzes and Mental Fitness for Lawyers!

In conclusion, congratulations to everyone for surviving the ordeal. ADLS is delighted to be hosting this award ceremony and we look forward to many more in the future.

J. Vickers
02/09/2009

2009-11-30T12:28:00.001+13:00

Today I am frustrated about the poor quality of the discussion in the media this weekend about legal aid. It is time a clear distinction is made between lawyers gaming a system that is crumbling and those who are cheating. It has been clear for many years that the legal aid system is serving neither people searching for access to justice nor those working in the system. I have great admiration for those who diligently work in the system providing that access to justice, earning an inadequate living and being the subject of constant uninformed discussion. As a profession I think it is time for us to stand up for the good guys, propose a system that will work and distance ourselves from those who are cheating.

2009-10-27T18:04:00.001+13:00

Jennie Vickers is running for President of ADLS become a fan.

Jennie Vickers of Zeopard Law is standing as ADLSi President

2009-10-08T17:13:00.000+13:00

After much procrastination I have decided to stand for President of the Auckland District Law Society, New Zealand. Nominations close early November at which stage I need to produce a short blurb about why vote for me. Welcome suggestions for lines or concepts to help capture the imagination of a bunch of lawyers ranging in age from 23 to 103. Time for big bold leaps forward to become the representative voice of lawyers in NZ.