The MSL Saga™

Anna learns what guidance actually sounds like when it's intentional. Anna arrived at Ellen Park's office exactly on time, though she'd been standing in the hallway for the past three minutes. Ellen was a partner in the corporate practice. Anna had worked with Ellen...

The ABA email arrived on a Thursday morning, 14 months after the firmwide rollout started. Margaret was at her desk when it arrived. She read it once, then read it again. Subject Line: ABA Innovation in Legal Talent Development Award—Recipient Notification. The email...

The email arrived on a Tuesday. Jason's name appears in the sender field. All partners, all associates, professional development, and recruiting. Subject line: Firmwide Associate Development Initiative. No promises or reassurance, just a time and a room number. The...

4 months later The Executive Committee meeting was scheduled for ninety minutes. Everyone knew it would take longer. Margaret arrived early, not to prepare the room but to watch how people entered it. Where they sat. Who spoke first. Who avoided eye contact. Decisions...

Margaret told herself she was listening for outcomes. What she was actually listening for was whether the pilot had changed how people made sense of themselves, because something in the firm already felt different. She met with the associates one by one, not to test...

Hal (Private) Hal stayed later than usual that evening. Not because he had more work. The briefs were finished, and the deposition outline sat neatly marked in pencil on the yellow legal pad he always used. Most of the floor had emptied an hour earlier. He was...

Hal didn't realize it at the time, but this was the beginning. By the third workshop, a Leadership Workshop, the group had stopped wondering whether it mattered. Each pilot member completed the Leadership Self-Assessment. They arrived less hesitant than before, though...

Hal didn't notice the change. He felt it, like grit in a machine that always ran smoothly. He attended meetings that dragged on and dealt with associates who talked too much. No one had the decency to ask him first. By the third time an associate used "options"...