Ron Baker writes an entry today entitled “Attorneys Aren’t Knowledge Workers” in which he says that “Professional firms are not necessarily filled with knowledge workers.”
His colleague Dan Morris believes they are more akin to factory workers and believes that true knowledge workers:
- Don’t have billable hour quotas.
- Spend at least 15% of their time innovating and creating better ways to add value to customers.
- Understand that judgments and discernment are far more important than measurements in assessing performance.
- Are focused on outputs, results and value, not inputs, efforts and costs.
- Don’t fill out timesheets accounting for every 6 minutes of their day.
- Are trusted by their leaders to the right thing for the firm and its customers.
- Are passionate and self-motivated, and don’t need constant supervision.
Ah … just in case you’re wondering, I don’t have an hourly rate … and you probably won’t even be able to hire me by the hour. It’s just not what I do.
And my decision was made well before I ever heard of Ron and Dave, who have also pointed out elsewhere that Price determines Costs, not the other way around. Time accounting misaligns the interests of the Professional and the Customer. I like these guys.