Legal Ops Tools: 20 Reasons Why a Contract Playbook Is Essential

The Contracting Playbook is quite simply, an essential tool for any legal team that is committed to optimised contracting-function performance. 

For those who are unfamiliar with the Contract Playbook – it is a “how-to guide” that informs your commercial/legal teams as to what are acceptable, compliance and business-enabling contracting outcomes.

In this Blog, we set out 20 powerful reasons, any one of which, makes an overwhelming case for the implementation of a Contracting Playbook. 

The Benefits of a Contracting Playbook 

So, here are our Top 20 benefits to a legal team who sponsors the production and use a Contracting Playbook inside of their Business:

1.   Deal Momentum: better organised teams speaking to common positions that they justify with compelling arguments create vital deal momentum, which is key to getting deals done
2.   Enhanced Arguments: the Playbook enables your commercial teams to efficiently deliver more persuasive positional justifications that can be tailored to your industry, sector, market, country and organisation
3.   Best Negotiator: the Playbook is a repository of the combined and most potent experience and expertise of all of your team members – including that of your best negotiator. Your “best” becomes the “default standard”
4.   Compliance Consistency: Playbook positions should include “baked in” compliance positions – which in turn allow your contracting teams to achieve far greater compliance outcomes
5.   Perpetual Improvement: the Playbook should capture constant position improvements with each and every usage and adjust to external dynamics
6.   Enhanced Productivity: with everyone operating in a more aligned, potent, persuasive and compatible manner – your commercial negotiation teams’ productivity significantly increases
7.   Team Alignment: with team-based access to the Playbook, your team will naturally and easily align around established legal, commercial and compliance positions
8.   Improved Training: your training can be arranged by reference to the specific tool that will be used to support negotiations
9.   Empowerment: your commercial team can increasingly use the tool to take negotiations forward safely and efficiently 
10.  Junior Productivity: junior resources will be able to leverage the tool to do more themselves safely and efficiently, thereby improving their value contribution
11.  Lawyer Development: legal team members with access to high-quality tools like the Playbook make greater contributions and develop their skill set more efficiently
12.  Legal Team Focus: the Playbook helps the legal team to improve focus as routine contracting-related questions are safely and effectively answered by the Playbook itself
13.  Better Risk Management: the Playbook substantially reduces overall contracting risk profiles as required positions are more regularly secured
14.  Reduced Disputes: with ideal contracting and compliance positions more regularly secured, the instances of contract-related disputes are more consistently reduced
15.  Performance Evaluation: the Playbook provides clear and objective standards that are to be obtained by team members – helping to drive a data-driven performance culture
16.  Improved Internal Client Relations: Playbooks are produced in conjunction with the internal client who will increasingly use them, and aid greater quality relationships and alignment
17.  Enhanced Strategic Capacity: as commercial teams handle more routine contracts, the capacity of your in-house legal team can be directed to a higher value, strategic legal matters
18.  Improved Function Morale: morale drastically improves as providing clear positional expectations and the means to achieve them make team members feel empowered
19.  Better Deal Performance: compelling means to justify sensible positions sets your deal up for greater likelihood of improved contract performance outcomes.
20.  Reduced Legal Costs: simply put, Playbooks enable contract negotiations to be concluded faster and to a higher standard whilst reducing expenses 

Everything on the list above is a desirable outcome for your contracting function, and our list could easily become “40 Reasons why a Contracting Playbook is Essential.”

In our Blog – Legal Ops Tools: Contracting Playbooks we provide a short tour of what should be included in a Contract Playbook to help you get started with the production of this incredible tool.

Of course, if you just want to immediately start experiencing the benefits of the Contracting Playbook, we have plenty of solutions available in the GLS Legal Operations Centre. 

READY TO TRANSFORM YOUR LEGAL TEAM?

Please check out the GLS solutions and know-how resources listed on the right side of this page – they might assist your legal team with the issues explored in this Blog. 

Of course, if you would like discuss your transformation needs – please book a 30 minute FREE CONSULT WITH GLS 

In the interim, here are 7 resources and tools that may assist you as you transform the performance capabilities of your legal team:

1. GLS's Ultimate Guide to Legal Operations: download this HERE, and read it thoroughly and regularly. It is a wonderful transformation companion

2. GLS Transformation Boot Camp: for our free and hugely successful, 10 week long, email-based boot camp on how to effectively transform your legal team you can SIGN UP HERE

3. GLS Knowledge Centre: click HERE to access lots of informative and instructive white papers, blogs and training resources etc. - all focused on helping to improve your legal team's performance

4. GLS Legal Operations Community: join the GLS Legal Operations Community and collaborate with other in-house leaders as they seek to tackle many of the same performance issues that you face, click here to JOIN NOW

5. Visit GLS Connect: visit the GLS CONNECT PAGE and select the information you would like to receive from the GLS Legal Operations Community

6. GLS Legal Team Transformation Plans: mitigate the risks of transformation failure by taking a GLS TRANSFORMATION SUPPORT PLAN 

7. Register: GLS Legal Operations Centre: REGISTER HERE to access the GLS Legal Operations Centre for free and to receive more than US$20,000 worth of legal team performance resources

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