Dear Advy,
I help run a Health and Wellness Committee at my law firm and lately, it is nearly impossible to get anyone to volunteer and join the group. We have a senior lawyer that is required to attend, but I’m concerned that the lack of uptake on the committee and the events we host (lunch & learns and yoga) will send that senior lawyer to report to the managing partners that maybe this committee isn’t needed. Truly, I think we need this committee now more than ever. My question is two-fold – first, how do I get people at the firm more involved and second, can you point me in the direction of some existing resources that I can use? Maybe what we are offering isn’t hitting the mark.
Sincerely,
Missing the Mark
Dear Missing the Mark,
These are two interesting questions that firms and legal departments are grappling with all over the country.
Question One:
How do I get people at the firm more involved?
I’m going to do what makes every lawyer crazy, i.e., answering your question by asking a question. What exactly are you trying to accomplish with this committee? Is it to improve the culture of your workplace generally so it is more supportive of good mental health? Is the purpose to provide a safe space for people in your firm to get support for healing and recovery? Is the purpose to advocate to firm management for specific changes to firm policies and practices? Is the purpose to reduce stigma associated with mental health and illness generally? Is it some combination of these things, or something else altogether?
There is a story about a traveler walking through the countryside past a barn with scores of painted bullseyes on the side of the barn. Bullet holes mar the centre of each bullseye, leading the traveler to believe that whoever owned this barn must be the best shot in history! Rounding the corner, he spotted the barn’s owner. The traveler called out and expressed admiration for this person’s skill and asked how the farmer became such a great shot. “Well, the secret is to paint the bullseye on after firing the shot.”
Your worry is that - unlike in the story - after you’ve taken your shots, someone in firm management will paint the bullseye somewhere far away from where you were aiming and thereby undo your hard work. That’s an understandable worry. To truly know if you’re hitting the mark, you first need to know what your mark is. That not only helps you measure your success, but it also helps you have a clear goal to communicate to others in your firm who may be lukewarm to your committee’s work.
Have a frank conversation with your firm management. They may not have given much thought to the idea of setting up/approving a well-being committee themselves. You may have some ideas of what you are trying to achieve, but do they line up with what they had in mind? You need a more focused picture of what it is they are asking you to achieve with this committee. Ask what they would consider success to be. What change do they see being urgent and/or important? What problem(s) are you supposed to be solving? What outcomes should you be aiming for? Where have they painted the target on the barn wall, and is it in the same place as you think it is?
Once you have a clear set of goals, and you are communicating them articulately to members of the firm, you will be better equipped to confront the two problems you have been up against:
- Complacency;
- Stigma
Some members of your firm just don’t see what all the fuss is about. They have billing targets to meet, briefs to file, contracts to write, deadlines to fulfill and lots of other immediate problems. By developing a goal (or goals) that is aligned with your firm’s priorities you have a good answer to “Why should I put time into this?” Give people a compelling reason to show up, and to show up now.
Other members of the firm may be staying away from your firm events because of the serious and still-present stigma associated with mental health. There is no quick and easy solution to combatting stigma. The only way to overcome it is to normalize talking about mental health. Just as everyone with teeth can have varying degrees of dental health at different times in their lives, anyone with a brain has mental health that fluctuates with time. Talk about your own mental health and what you do to support it. Your brain is, after all, the factory floor of your legal practice. Maintaining a healthy brain is fundamental to maintaining a successful practice. There’s nothing abnormal or weird about doing things to make sure that thing in your head that you depend on is in good working order. Tell people about it, and you’ll help make it seem less weird for them to talk about it too.
Most of the firm members who are reluctant to get involved are motivated by a combination of stigma and complacency. You can reach both audiences by articulating why the firm and why you are taking on this important issue. Remember that the people you are giving this message to have been taught for most of their lives that this is something not to touch. Be patient. There may be people you never reach with this, but with a bit of time and patience you should be able to reach more than you are now.
Question Two:
Can you point me in the direction of some existing resources that I can use?
There are many resources that you may be able to use. The best resource is the one that fits the problem(s) you are trying to address.
The Well-Being Hour, from the CBA, has programs on innovative ways of structuring legal work to support well-being. It has programs addressing women in the profession, lawyers from racialized groups, Indigenous lawyers (and those working with Indigenous lawyers), young lawyers and many others. You can learn about burn-out, combatting stigma in the workplace and, yes, you can learn about doing yoga. It even has a brand-new episode that is specifically about how to start making change in your own workplace! If you have a CBA membership, they’re free. If you don’t have a membership, you can still use them for a small charge, though you will probably find your membership pays for itself quickly.
Sticking with just CBA resources for a moment, there are other well-being resources for lawyers. You’ll find professional development materials, articles, links to other sources of help and many other things you may find helpful. I should add that sometimes just reading the letters to this column can help you feel less alone in this. You can see that other people ask questions and experience difficulties like your own.
You can also contact your local lawyer assistance program. Many have advice and support that they can tailor to your own firm’s needs. Have a look at what your law society has to offer as well, though that CBA page I gave you earlier does aggregate resources from many sources including regulators so you may have already found them before you visit your regulator’s home page.
Consider the Canadian Mental Health Association’s workplace training and the Mental Health First Aid program offered by the Mental Health Commission of Canada. These kinds of training programs are helpful in and of themselves, but when a firm takes on training firm-wide it can also be something of a catalyst for changing the norms in the workplace as they relate to mental health and well-being. If its broad culture change you are aiming for, taking training as a group can be very useful.
These are just a start, but they are a very good start.
Be well!
Advy