Running a corporate legal operation like a business can be a double-edged sword. While a dedicated legal team should operate in lockstep with the parent organization’s business practices, it can be a detriment when that team takes on some of the bad habits associated with them. This includes focusing on tactics rather than goals, or measuring inputs rather than the outputs that truly matter.

Let’s say a legal operations department wants its lawyers to be more aligned with departmental priorities. The legal operations director determines every attorney should attend a certain number of hours of departmental training every year and requires those hours be tracked.