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"...The legal knowledge required to interact in sufficient detail was huge, so we invested heavily in bringing actors up to speed..."
Jenny Lynch - Bi-Jingo
Jenny Lynch - Bi-Jingo
Legal Services Commission
The Legal Services Commission (LSC) runs the legal aid scheme in England and Wales. Its work is fundamental to social and legal justice and enables people to protect their rights and deal with their problems. Over two million people are helped by legal aid funding every year and the LSC accounts for £2bn of the legal services market.
The organisation performs a complex role, working in partnership with skilled and dedicated advice providers to ensure that people get the help they need. One of the most important roles within the LSC is the Account Manager, responsible for working with advice providers to ensure the LSC achieves value-for-money in buying their services.
Like many government agencies, the LSC is undergoing a major transformation. A central objective is to work more closely with law firms to ensure superior service for clients and genuine value for taxpayers' money. Gary Winter is responsible for the people aspect of this change programme.
Winter explains: "We identified a need to shift the emphasis of Account Managers' interactions with law firms. By developing a more collaborative and tailored approach to working with law firms and to buying legal services, we hoped that we could procure better results for our clients and secure better value for money. The idea was to throw off the shackles of bureaucracy and combine technical and interpersonal skills to manage providers much more effectively."
Assessment and development of Account Managers was the primary method of addressing this need and Bi-Jingo were tasked with transforming the role play element of this programme. "Traditionally, we had not been in favour of role playing and had struggled with internal attempts at running scenarios. But quickly we realised that if we were to be confident in an Account Manager's ability, we had to see it in the flesh" remarks Winter.
Jenny Lynch, Bi-Jingo client director for this project, explains how she fashioned teams of role players who could bring the LSC assessment centres to life: "Our objective was to raise the bar dramatically in terms of behavioural capability of LSC Account Managers. Past experience shows that people respond differently when they first take part in role play so to ensure that Account Managers were used to the experience and able to give their best under assessment conditions, we involved them in role play for development first. Bi-Jingo formed two teams of actors, one for development and the other for assessment so that a participant would never meet the same actor twice."
"The legal knowledge required to interact in sufficient detail was huge, so we invested heavily in bringing actors up to speed. But more than just spouting jargon, we wanted our role players to be steeped in the Account Managers' world. So we used industry magazines, real lawyers and barristers and many other tools to immerse the actors in the legal profession."
Bi-Jingo role players contributed to the programme on a number of levels. As actors they provided realistic and consistent responses to a variety of scenarios to enable LSC assessors to view each Account Manager's ability in real time. In addition to the technical data collected, the Bi-Jingo role players contributed rich, qualitative feedback on each particpant, observing Account Manager behaviour from inside the scenario.
Beyond contributing to accurate Account Manager assessment, the role plays additionally provide opportunities for focused support and development. Though for some the process is uncomfortable, there is no doubt that living out the simulation experience and receiving instant feedback in the form of actors' reactions and assessors' responses, is akin to looking in the mirror. As a result, the LSC Account Managers gained a depth of understanding which helped them structure their own development pathway.
As the LSC makes huge strides towards achieving its vision and objectives, to what extent has the training, assessment and development programme contributed to the success of the organisation?
"Since working with Bi-Jingo, we definitely manage suppliers far more effectively." confirms Gary Winter. "The feedback we are getting from law firms is that interactions are far more meaningful and valuable. We're no longer perceived as bureaucratic. Bi-Jingo has played a vital role in helping us achieve this. In real terms, this means that we have improved the quality of services received by legal aid clients, some of whom are very vulnerable. Making a real difference to those clients is what the LSC is all about."
If you are interested in how this approach might provide similar benefits to your own organisation, please contact Jenny Lynch
The Legal Services Commission (LSC) runs the legal aid scheme in England and Wales. Its work is fundamental to social and legal justice and enables people to protect their rights and deal with their problems. Over two million people are helped by legal aid funding every year and the LSC accounts for £2bn of the legal services market.
The organisation performs a complex role, working in partnership with skilled and dedicated advice providers to ensure that people get the help they need. One of the most important roles within the LSC is the Account Manager, responsible for working with advice providers to ensure the LSC achieves value-for-money in buying their services.
Like many government agencies, the LSC is undergoing a major transformation. A central objective is to work more closely with law firms to ensure superior service for clients and genuine value for taxpayers' money. Gary Winter is responsible for the people aspect of this change programme.
Winter explains: "We identified a need to shift the emphasis of Account Managers' interactions with law firms. By developing a more collaborative and tailored approach to working with law firms and to buying legal services, we hoped that we could procure better results for our clients and secure better value for money. The idea was to throw off the shackles of bureaucracy and combine technical and interpersonal skills to manage providers much more effectively."
Assessment and development of Account Managers was the primary method of addressing this need and Bi-Jingo were tasked with transforming the role play element of this programme. "Traditionally, we had not been in favour of role playing and had struggled with internal attempts at running scenarios. But quickly we realised that if we were to be confident in an Account Manager's ability, we had to see it in the flesh" remarks Winter.
Jenny Lynch, Bi-Jingo client director for this project, explains how she fashioned teams of role players who could bring the LSC assessment centres to life: "Our objective was to raise the bar dramatically in terms of behavioural capability of LSC Account Managers. Past experience shows that people respond differently when they first take part in role play so to ensure that Account Managers were used to the experience and able to give their best under assessment conditions, we involved them in role play for development first. Bi-Jingo formed two teams of actors, one for development and the other for assessment so that a participant would never meet the same actor twice."
"The legal knowledge required to interact in sufficient detail was huge, so we invested heavily in bringing actors up to speed. But more than just spouting jargon, we wanted our role players to be steeped in the Account Managers' world. So we used industry magazines, real lawyers and barristers and many other tools to immerse the actors in the legal profession."
Bi-Jingo role players contributed to the programme on a number of levels. As actors they provided realistic and consistent responses to a variety of scenarios to enable LSC assessors to view each Account Manager's ability in real time. In addition to the technical data collected, the Bi-Jingo role players contributed rich, qualitative feedback on each particpant, observing Account Manager behaviour from inside the scenario.
Beyond contributing to accurate Account Manager assessment, the role plays additionally provide opportunities for focused support and development. Though for some the process is uncomfortable, there is no doubt that living out the simulation experience and receiving instant feedback in the form of actors' reactions and assessors' responses, is akin to looking in the mirror. As a result, the LSC Account Managers gained a depth of understanding which helped them structure their own development pathway.
As the LSC makes huge strides towards achieving its vision and objectives, to what extent has the training, assessment and development programme contributed to the success of the organisation?
"Since working with Bi-Jingo, we definitely manage suppliers far more effectively." confirms Gary Winter. "The feedback we are getting from law firms is that interactions are far more meaningful and valuable. We're no longer perceived as bureaucratic. Bi-Jingo has played a vital role in helping us achieve this. In real terms, this means that we have improved the quality of services received by legal aid clients, some of whom are very vulnerable. Making a real difference to those clients is what the LSC is all about."
If you are interested in how this approach might provide similar benefits to your own organisation, please contact Jenny Lynch