The GLS Legal Operations Centre
The ultimate in-house legal department resource stack
GLS Legal Transformation Tube Map
All
Stations
Formative
Stations
Repeater
Stations
What Is The GLS Legal Transformation Tube Map?
Legal transformation is, for most in-house legal teams (IHL), a journey into the unknown - one where decisions are typically made without sufficient knowledge. This is exactly what the GLS Legal Transformation Tube Map aims to prevent.
By working on thousands of transformation projects, GLS has been able to identify 15 Critical In-House Legal Functions (each an “IHL Line”) that make up an optimally performing legal team.
The GLS Legal Transformation Tube Map presents a highly visual and interactive representation of each IHL Line and their associated Critical Resource Elements (each an “IHL Station”).
In this one diagram you can see an overview of a world-class legal department. You can see the essential components that make up each function and how each component and function relate to every other component and function.
In so doing, the GLS Legal Transformation Tube Map provides a powerful reference point that can be used to assess your legal team's performance and to blueprint your legal transformation agenda.
How Can The GLS Legal Transformation Tube Map Help You?
The GLS Legal Transformation Tube Map allows you to harness the power of “comparison” to efficiently make sense of what is needed for you to successfully implement an effective IHL Transformation agenda.
Comparison or contrasting is the act of evaluating two or more things by determining the relevant characteristics of each thing, and then assessing i) whether a difference exists between those characteristics, and ii) if difference is present, to what degree.
Where characteristics are different, the differences may be evaluated to determine which thing is best suited for a particular purpose (i.e. formulate an action plan that works best for your organisation). Specifically, the GLS Legal Transformation Tube Map provides a user-friendly reference framework that helps you to visualise:
1. Essential IHL processes: visualise on a “whole of department” basis, the essential infrastructure / processes that invariably exist inside an optimally performing IHL;
2. Comparative performance: quickly glean deep performance insights by simply comparing your IHL’s existing infrastructure, processes and performance against the referenced “world-class IHL”;
3. Critical process gaps: quickly and objectively assess the existence of any essential infrastructure gaps within your IHL, or indeed within a particular IHL process, that are preventing optimised performance levels;
4. Performance enhancement points: quickly identify what are the points in a particular process improvements that can be prioritised in order to achieve the greatest performance enhancement and provide reasoned justification for resourcing the same;
5. IHL process interdependencies: understand the critical elements that make up each IHL process and the key interdependencies between the various IHL processes present in your IHL environment. Thereby allowing you to start adjusting specific IHL elements to achieve and enhance “end to end” IHL performance;
6. Vital process shapers: identify which elements inside each IHL process tend to dictate the overall performance of that process, and which can therefore be focussed on and leveraged to deliver the greatest “productivity ripple effect” across that process, and indeed across the entire department;
7. Logical starting points: effectively assess where are the best points in your IHL ecosystem to commence your transformation work on, by reference to efficiency, existing workloads and your organisation’s ability to process change;
8. Common performance elements: identify the IHL elements that appear most frequently across multiple IHL processes, and which therefore represent valuable intervention points as they can deliver “productivity ripple effects” throughout your entire IHL;
9. Legal technology pathways: build up an improved vision of how legal technology works across essential IHL pathways and to factor such insights into your overall legal technology strategy; and
10. Your transformation journey: identify, break down, prioritise and plan your IHL Transformation journey in the most efficient manner.
How To Use The GLS Legal Transformation Tube Map?
View Your Matrix
The GLS Legal Transformation Tube Map allows you to visualise all that is important to a legal team by reference to the IHL Lines and IHL Stations that enable them.
Obviously, the importance of certain IHL Lines might vary from IHL to IHL, but all IHL Lines are likely present to some extent, and collectively will cover all aspects of performance in a world class IHL.
As you travel down each “IHL Line” we encourage you to perform a mental self-audit of your own IHL team and simply ask yourself just how much of your IHL do you recognise inside of the GLS Legal Transformation Tube Map.
Critical Functions Only
One of the keys to effective legal operations is to not spend time on anything that is not critical or that cannot be reported. This is a fundamental tenet of the GLS “Finite Resource Theory” – you must make all your available resources count demonstrably.
As such, the GLS Legal Transformation Tube Map only focuses on the 15 IHL Lines that we believe cover the “essential activities” inherent to the “domain of responsibility” of most IHLs.
When viewing the GLS Legal Transformation Tube Map, if you see a function that your team performs but which is not expressly noted then it may be that:
• it may be captured by the activities that we have associated with an existing IHL Station;
• the activity itself falls outside of those core activities that the “typical IHL” is typically responsible for; or
• it is not an activity that is truly critical to adding direct value to the business.
However, if you feel strongly that we have missed a “core activity” please do send your feedback to [email protected] – we are always looking to build our knowledge base of the IHL industry, and so would very much welcome any and all constructive feedback.
Again, if an initiative is not truly meaningful (i.e. it does not directly contribute to the realisation of a mission critical requirement of the business), then it is not important enough for you to be focusing on.
Types Of Stations In The GLS Legal Transformation Tube Map
Formative Stations
On most IHL Lines, there is typically an IHL Station in whose light most other IHL Stations on that line will bask – we call them “Formative Stations”.
The Formative Stations are without doubt the most important transformation points on each IHL Line. Their qualitative status will directly impact the quality of all other IHL Stations on that line and the performance of the IHL Line itself.
Put another way – an IHL Line can only ever perform to the standards and quality set by its Formative Station.
From a transformation planning perspective, Formative Stations are the first and most essential areas to be addressed if you want to optimise all other IHL Stations along the relevant IHL Lines.
If you do not focus on your Formative Stations first, with maximum attention, you will unnecessarily and unavoidably throttle the performance potential of the entire IHL Line.
For example, if you do not first develop a definitive “Contracting Policy” (i.e. the parameters in which you will contract) you deprive countless other IHL Stations on the Contracting Line of the critical data that they need to perform optimally (see our White Paper – "Contracting Policies: Eliminate Weakness in your contracting function").
In the GLS Legal Transformation Tube Map, click on the “Formative Stations Button" to instantly highlight the Formative Stations on each IHL Line.
Related Resource: See our White Paper on the Contracting Policy's impact on overall contracting efficiency.
Repeater Stations
Certain IHL Stations are present across multiple IHL Lines and for the purposes of our Legal Transformation Tube Map, we call these common elements “Repeater Stations”.
Sometimes a Repeater Station may also be a Formative Station, and where this is the case they are marked as both Repeater and Formative Stations.
From a transformation point of view, Repeater Stations, if optimised, offer the potential to improve multiple IHL Lines at the same time, thereby, delivering a “multiplier” effect to your IHL Transformation work.
A great example of a “Repeater Station” is the Group Legal Policy. Apart from being “Formative”, it is an important recurring IHL element on many IHL Lines. It is somewhat similar to “carbon” in biology – whilst there are countless lifeforms on this planet, carbon is an inherent element to all of them.
Repeater Stations can be instantly identified on the GLS Transformation Tube Map at the click of the “Repeater Station Button".
