Barrister Laina Chan is a leading legal expert in Australia specializing in complex commercial disputes with a focus on property and construction law at Selborne Chambers. Laina attended Changing the Game: Negotiation and Decision-Making at Harvard Business School (HBS) Executive Education. That program had such a high impact on her negotiation skills and practice as a lawyer that she decided to pursue a Certificate of Management Excellence (CME). Laina completed her CME by attending Authentic Leader Development and Strategy: Building and Sustaining Competitive Advantage. "I figured that if the strategy and leadership programs had even half that much effect on my business, then the investment would be worth it," she says.
How would you describe the program's value to someone considering it?
As a result of Changing the Game: Negotiation and Decision-Making, I have been able to settle matters on behalf of my clients that I did not have the skill set to resolve prior to attending. In the six months following the program, I settled 13 cases, a few of which had been through failed mediations prior to my attendance at HBS.
Authentic Leader Development was a good complement to Changing the Game. The CME has reprogrammed how I negotiate deals and how I lead my teams. I now negotiate deals with buy-in from everyone in the room. The approach has become much more collaborative. This has arisen from the insights I gained on the first impressions that others have of me. With these insights, I'm able to control the messages and impressions that I present during settlement conferences.
Strategy: Building and Sustaining Competitive Advantage has led me to a new business idea that I am now bringing to market with two other lawyers. It's a Risk Management Advisory Program (RAMP) for contractors in the delivery phase of large infrastructure projects. The aim is to reduce large-scale disputes at the end of the project. It will be the first time that such a service has been offered in Australia. I identified the need for it after the strategy program, and the CME, along with my legal expertise, gave me the requisite skill set. This is a value add that I had not anticipated at all!
What other surprises did you encounter?
I had not expected the programs to have such a huge impact on my business–in fact, I had agonized over whether I should attend the first one because I was not sure about the ROI.
I was also surprised by how many like-minded people I met at the courses. I found that I learned the most from my classmates. The professors shared the basic principles with us but it was in conversations and workshops with my classmates that those principles came to life. I formed some firm friendships at HBS. My leadership group continues to keep in touch and we have video conferences once a month.
What were your objectives in attending the program? Were they met?
I chose to attend Changing the Game because I did not know how to negotiate with unreasonable people. I felt that I was lacking as a negotiator and I was right. I learned how to negotiate the settlement of very difficult cases. I realized that it is often feelings creating roadblocks that I have to overcome to get matters settled. My insurer clients tell me that they don't do feelings, but I did feelings, and seeing as it was producing results for them, they were happy to go along with it. The CME gave me the requisite principles and I have been able to apply them to my particular cases to identify a pathway to resolving disputes.
The CME has far exceeded my expectations. The three programs work very well together and have enhanced my skills as a negotiator, a team leader, and a board member. It has also assisted with my court advocacy skills, as advocacy is a subset of leadership.
One note of caution, though: You only get out of the CME what you put in. Because the programs do not involve any assessment, the impact that I experienced was only possible because I did the recommended readings and participated in the exercises.
Any other takeaways you'd like to share?
Before attending Authentic Leader Development, I would lead negotiations and get the parties where I wanted to take them. It was not always a collaborative process. We did, however, always confront the elephants in the room, and these were invariably feelings of distrust and betrayal, even in commercial cases. After I attended the program and gained those insights about myself, the whole negotiation process changed. I saw that my self-confidence was intimidating to some, and while this serves me well in court, I did not want to intimidate anyone during negotiations. I therefore made some small adjustments to my negotiation persona.
Recently, I was involved in three-party settlement negotiations that started off the same as all other negotiations, with everyone very defensive and aggressive. I represented the principal and we had a claim against the engineer and the builder over a defective facade. I had to work very hard to overcome everyone's defensiveness, as people were threatening to leave. I managed to convince everyone to stay and to allow the expert to inspect the facade. After the expert's report, the parties agreed that it was better to negotiate a deal than to let a judge decide the case. From that moment, everyone worked together to craft an agreement. It was the most collaborative negotiation I had ever done, and we got there in 5 hours after the parties had been in a standoff for almost a year. The builder’s lawyer told me that it had been a pleasure to watch me work!
The entire CME program has had a massive impact for me–it was well worth my investment in time and cost.