Create a contract playbook in just 1 hour
The 80/20 principle packs a punch. Here's how to use it to your advantage to get a playbook in an hour.
Einstein knew that doing physics calculations is really time consuming. So he didn’t start there.
Instead, Einstein became known for his thought experiments, in which he would imagine a situation and then follow it through to its logical conclusion in his mind.
One of his most famous thought experiments involved imagining what it would be like to chase a beam of light. He figured that if he could keep up with the light, the wave would appear to be stationary relative to him.
However, Maxwell's equations, the prevailing theory of light at the time, stated that light always moves at the same speed, no matter the observer's velocity.
This contradiction led Einstein to develop the Special Theory of Relativity, introducing the world to the revolutionary concept that space and time are not absolute but are interwoven into a single entity: spacetime.
In a sense, Einstein's thought experiments constituted his "vital 20%" of any 80/20: the relatively small set of actions that lead to the vast majority of the results. It gave him an insight to test.
So what does this have to do with contract playbooks?
It’s similar in that there’s rarely time to go from 0 to a 100 in one go. That means that playbooks usually firmly stay on an in-house legal team’s to-do list. “Let’s really really do it next quarter!”. And so on.
It’s better to just get started. Cover the 3 most frequently negotiated clauses first. And document it somewhere.
How to best go about it? I’d recommend running a quick workshop with your team. At Lexoo, we wrote a guide setting out an easy format for the workshop, and how to capture the playbook in an 80/20 way. One hour later, and you can start using it.
You can find the playbook workshop guide here. Let me know what you think!
Thanks for being here,
Daniel
P.S. If you need help with any of these things, we’d love to help out :-)
Commercial contract review: fixed fees + fast turnarounds. Work done by our in-house lawyers.
Contract playbook: create detailed contract playbooks in LexPlay (a smart Microsoft Word add-in) and:
Train up new and junior lawyers to a high and consistent standard
Empower sales team to negotiate their own contracts
Multi-country and repapering projects: such as localising T&Cs, employment contracts, answering regulatory questionnaires as well as Data Protection remediation (SCCs etc).