Today’s show is all about the 'Delegate like Beyoncé' checklist

**Key Takeaways**
> You can download a PDF copy of the 'Delegate like Beyoncé' list from https://www.checklistlegal.com/resources
> Nozbe checklist: https://nozbe.how/Hnm7x

**Actionable Challenge**
Download the 'Delegate like Beyoncé' checklist. Think of a task that you really dislike doing at work or at home. Using the checklist, run through each item thinking specifically about that task and see if you can find different minions to delegate tasks to.

**Links**
Head to https://www.checklistlegal.com/podcast for show notes, resources links, and templates.
Nozbe checklist: https://nozbe.how/Hnm7x
Music: 'Sway this way' by @SilentPartner

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of the Checklist Legal Podcast…
• Why minions is not a dirty word
• We look at the different types of minions available to you
• Examples of some basic Robot Minions to try
• Tactics for approaching minions
• What to do if you have no minions

KEY TAKEAWAYS
• It's great to delegate!
• Minions come in all shapes, sizes, and seniority levels
• Look out for Minion Minions, Robot Minions, Contract Owner Minions and Other Party Minions
• When you have no minions and you're in the 'Contractual Pit of Despair', make it fun with temptation bundling and track your metrics to get more efficient.

LINKS
• Send an email to [email protected] and you’ll see an example of an automated email responder.

• Learn about sneaky, hidden, pre-filled email code: https://www.checklistlegal.com/2018/03/sneaky-hidden-prefilled-email-html-code-for-absolute-beginners/

Automated Letter Builders
• A letter to employer asking them to confirm entitlements: https://www.checklistlegal.com/2018/02/automated-letter-builder-check-your-pay-with-employer/
• A letter to request a formal warning instead of an infringement: https://www.checklistlegal.com/2017/07/letter_automation_how_to_get_out_of_an_infringement/

Automated workflows
Create an ‘If X, then Y’ mindset as you approach your legal work. Start testing out automated workflows and reduce your admin time.
• IFTTT: https://ifttt.com/
• Zapier: https://zapier.com/
• Microsoft Flow: https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/

DocuSign
DocuSign is easy to use and simple to get started. As your skills grow, you can increase the functionality and automate more. Use this link and get a 30 day free trial and 10% off if you purchase: https://refer.docusign.com/s/verity

Omaha World Herald, ‘To Solve Hard Problem, Give It to ‘Lazy Man'‘ (1 February 1947) CTPS News Service, Omaha, Nebraska. See also quoteinvestigator.com/2014/02/26/lazy-job/#note-8269-3 for differing origins of this ‘get a lazy person to do a hard job’ quote.

M Tallarico, ‘The creative minds and confidants that make up Beyoncé's entourage’ (27 April 2016) Hello Magazine ca.hellomagazine.com/celebrities/02016042725914/inside-beyonce-s-entourage%20/ accessed 21 May 2017.

Henchmen from ‘Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery’ (1997). See also austinpowers.wikia.com/wiki/Steamroller_Henchman. Minions from ‘Despicable Me’ (2010).

See Merriam-Webster Dictionary, merriam-webster.com/dictionary/minion and N Whitman, ‘The meaning of minion’, Quick and Dirty Tips, published on Grammar Girl, 13 March 2015 quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/the-meaning-of-minion, both accessed 27 May 2017.

K Kelly, ‘Robots will take our jobs’, Gear (24 December 2012) wired.com/2012/12/ff-robots-will-take-our-jobs/, accessed 27 May 2017

Head to https://www.checklistlegal.com/podcast for show notes, resources links, and templates.

Music: 'Sway this way' by @SilentPartner

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode covers…
• What a contract is
• Who is a contract for? Who is the user of a contract?
• Why your ordinary lawyering skills are not enough anymore and why you need an extraordinary skill set
• What does it mean to think digitally?
• How does digital thinking apply to building a contract

KEY TAKEAWAYS
• We need to stop seeing a contract as a bit of paper. It’s not a bit of paper. A contract is ultimately a map to guide a relationship between people.
• Contracts involve people and processes (not just paper and clauses), SO it is critically important you must understand both.
• As you listen to the next few episodes and start considering re-working contracts, remember to keep thinking digitally. Think of your audience. Think of who uses your contracts.
• Think about ways your digital contract can best serve its users in a digital world and provide a guidepost for them in the contract relationship.
• Once you start thinking digitally, your productivity naturally increases as you notice unnecessary things, process, and tasks and start to get rid of them.
• Take the time to learn new digital skills and think about your work in the digital context – build an EXTRAordinary skillset.
• Remember that thinking digitally and digitasation is ‘…less as a thing [in itself] and more a way of doing things.’

A contract is a digital tool with the power to enhance your personal and professional productivity. Start exploring what it means for a contract to be a contract in our digital world.

ACTIONABLE CHALLENGE
Start keeping an Evernote or Nozbe or memo note in your phone of the unnecessary steps you start to think about or see in relation to the contracts you come across.

This list could later be refined into a list of ‘things to fix’ when you are reviewing contracts… or perhaps a list of questions to ask your colleagues or clients about why is it done that way.

LINKS
Here are links to sources from this episode of the Checklist Legal Podcast and background information:
• A4 vs Letter paper sizes: For an in-depth look (and I mean in-depth!) at the differences between the A4 paper size and the Letter paper size, read betweenborders.com/wordsmithing/a4-vs-us-letter/ by Brian Forte.
• Organisational digital skill building: For an excellent overview on building digital skills in an organisation, complete with great visuals on different approaches, see Delloite’s ‘Building your digital DNA: Lessons from digital leaders’, www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/Technology/gx-technology-building-your-digital-dna.pdf, accessed 27 May 2017.

Books and articles mentioned or researched:
• E Brynjolfsson and A McAfee, ‘The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies’ (January 2016)
• K Dorner and D Edelman, ‘What digital really means’ (27 February 2016) retrieved from digitaldonewrite.com/2016/02/27/what-digital-really-means/.
• H Haapio, and DA Plewe, and R deRooy, ‘Contract Continuum: From Text to Images, Comics, and Code’ (February 23, 2017) Retrieved via papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2928604, accessed 10 June 2017.
• Music: Silent Partner, ‘Sway this way'
• The eBook, Secrets of Productive Contracts: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07196L4L7

Head to https://www.checklistlegal.com/podcast for show notes, resources links, and templates.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is the intro podcast where I give you an overview of what this podcast is about and you decide whether you like my voice and whether you want to keep listening.

What’s coming up on the podcast?
Over the next few weeks we will cover lots of tips and tricks I've used to make contracts more productive and easier to understand and faster to action.
• Why a contract is not just a bit of paper
• How to make a Reverse Sandwich Contract
• How to think digitally about contract documents & processes
• How to be a lazy lawyer
• Why you need to delegate like Beyoncé
• How to apply Triple O Productivity to your contract document & your contract process

LINKS
• Verity on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/verityw/
• The eBook, Secrets of Productive Contracts: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07196L4L7
• Communication Research Institute: https://communication.org.au/
• STREAT Ltd: https://www.streat.com.au/

Head to https://www.checklistlegal.com/podcast for show notes, resources links, and templates.

Music: 'Sway this way' by @SilentPartner

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if lawyers wrote beautiful contracts that everyone could read, understand, and use? What if these contracts helped make negotiation easier and reduced commercial disputes?

There is a fun and easy way to structure a contract so you get all the legal power of a traditional contract with ridiculous amounts of productivity for everyone that touches the contract (including lawyers, clients and customers).

These are called Reverse Sandwich Contracts(TM). And that’s what we look at in Episode One.

KEY TAKEAWAYS
When you Reverse Sandwich a contract, you get a contract that is:
more ‘hands off’ from the legal team
- useful and usable for lawyers and non-lawyers
- easier to manage and control
- client-friendly
- optimised for automated workflows
- ready for paperless offices
- fast to navigate
- simple to vary later
- futuristic and sexy!

The ultimate structure aim of a productive Reverse Sandwich Contract is to get good stuff we often need to know or that often changes at the front (Key Details Table) and back (Schedule) and standardised stuff that doesn’t change in the middle (Standard Terms).

Golden rule: If it changes regularly, pull it from the middle and put it up the front into a Key Details table or at the back into a Schedule (see the Checklist Legal Resources for examples)

LINKS
Earl of Sandwich: PJ Grosley, ‘Tour to London’ (1772).
Big rocks vs Gravel: Steven Covey, ‘First Things First’, (1994).
Cannot recommend this book enough: Daniel and Richard Susskind, Future of the Professions,
How slow loading websites can affect sales: N Patel, ‘How Loading Time Affects Your Bottom Line’ blog.kissmetrics.com/loading-time/ and R Whittington, ‘Is A Slow Website Costing You Sales?’ rickwhittington.com/blog/is-a-slow-website-costing-you-sales/, both accessed 9 May 2017.

Head to https://www.checklistlegal.com/podcast for show notes, resources links, and templates.

Music: 'Sway this way' by @SilentPartner"

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.