More often than not, I find that I am the greatest impediment to implementing new technology in my practice.  Even where a new technology promises to speed up efficiency or reduce costs for clients, I realize that there's always a short term cost - the time required for me to come up to speed.  For example, personal resistance accounted for my reluctance to switch back to using a Mac even though I wasted at least an hour a day waiting for my balky Windows machine to reboot.  (in case you're curious, I did make the jump, which I described here.

In my case, I'm lucky in a way.  Since I run a true solo shop (outsourcing to temps where needed), I only need to convince myself to take a new approach.  But what about lawyers practicing in larger firms?  How do they overcome not just their own resistance but that of the other lawyers who - let's face it - can be a bit on the stodgy side. The Rosen Law Firm in North Carolina had one novel approach - as I wrote here, the firm bribed lawyers and staff to use its new wiki by offering a $1000 prize.  Each time staff added to the wiki, they'd gain another chance to win the cash. 

By coming to ABA TECHSHOW, we have an incredible opportunity to learn about technologies that can help improve our practice.  But attending the show and learning about new technology represents just part of the journey.  We need to keep in mind what comes after.  I'm going to give some thought to some ideas for post-TECHSHOW implementation which I hope to share in a follow up post.