Earlier this week I was part of a teleconference sponsored by the Purposeful Planning Institute about the problems with using the billable hour as a way to charge for your services. The recording is now available so you can listen in. A bit about the program from the PPI announcement:
Title: The Billable Hour: Damaging to Your Brain, Detrimental to Life Satisfaction, and Destructive to Client Trust?
Date: March 1, 2016
Guest Speakers: Ronald J. Baker, World-Renowned Value Pricing Expert and Founder of VeraSage Institute, and Stephanie West Allen, JD, PPI Dean of Neuroscience and Contemplative Practices
Host: Hartley Goldstone, Principal of Trustscape LLC, Research Fellow at Wise Counsel Research Associates, and PPI Dean of the Trustscape
Description: Hartley Goldstone, Dean of the Trustscape, interviews world-renowned value pricing expert Ron Baker and Dean of Neuroscience and Reflective Practices Stephanie West Allen about the effects the billable hour has on our minds and brains, professional and personal lives, and client satisfaction. Baker also talks about an effective alternative to the billable hour which he has perfected over many years working with lawyers, accountants, and other knowledge professionals.
Reading Recommendations & Resources:
The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science by Norman Doidge M.D.
You Are Not Your Brain: The 4-Step Solution for Changing Bad Habits, Ending Unhealthy Thinking, and Taking Control of Your Life by Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Rebecca Gladding MD
Two Blog Posts by Stephanie West Allen on the topic:
- Slate asks if law firm clients could finally kill off the billable hour: The lawyer brain may resist the killing
- Seen any "fidgety, erratic and rash" lawyers lately? Or been one?
Purposeful Quote: “At every crossway on the road that leads to the future each progressive spirit is opposed by a thousand men appointed to guard the past.” - Maurice Maeterlinck (1862—1949), Belgian Nobel Laureate in literature, 1911
Click here to listen to the program now.
Note (added March 4, 2106): Click to read an overview of Ron Baker's approach to value pricing process in "Pricing on Purpose: How to Implement Value Pricing in Your Firm" (Journal of Accountancy).
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