Three incremental changes to improve the well-being of lawyers and the quality of their work in your firm or organization
Elliot and I have been working on lawyer wellbeing for a few years and we are working to further that wellness not by looking outside our practice, but looking at what we do every day at work. Our work improving lawyer wellness recognizes that the nature of our work should shift away from the adversarial, winner take all, take no prisoners form of litigation to a problem-solving collaborative endeavor to meet client needs. The foundation also assumes that the responsibility for individual lawyer wellness cannot be assessed only to the lawyer, but needs to be shared by the firm, bar organizations, colleagues, family members and community.
We explore and examine the potential for lawyer satisfaction by creating incremental changes within our work. We employ conscious curiosity to work with our colleagues to locate the resources within our communities and our work to increase wellness and satisfaction. We have found five specific ways to work that may increase the potential for wellness. Today’s blog post will address three of those approaches: eliminating the fight-flight-freeze response at work, allow for natural, empathic responses, and integrate our work selves and home selves into a balanced and whole person.
Fight or flight is an animal instinct that also serves humans well when under attack. However, spending to much time in this state is detrimental to our well being.
We work to eliminate fight-flight-freeze at work. The fight-flight-freeze impulse is triggered within the area of the brain called the amygdala. When the impulse is triggered, it also shuts down the pre-frontal cortex (PFC). This state is great if we are running from a bear or escaping a fire. But when we spend too much time in this state, the stress diminishes our ability to control impulses and regulate behavior. Overeating, drinking, anger outbursts and other negative responses are triggered when we are unable to control impulses. The impulse has been linked to physical health problems such as heart disease and high blood pressure.
During a typical day at the office, it is not unusual for a lawyer to face multiple situations that trigger the flight, fight or freeze response. We wind up spending our time in this anxious, fearful state, ready to defend our position. As a consequence, we become less able to think clearly and to react with the full cognitive abilities of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), creating a cycle that may be difficult to escape.
We allow for our natural, empathic responses. Contrary to some economic theories, contemporary evidence suggests that people are hard-wired to be compassionate. Lawyers, like some mental health professionals, are impacted by spending our days empathically engaging with clients experiencing pain and trauma. But sometimes, we are also feel empathy to other parties or their witnesses. The adversarial approach may require us to act contrary to our natural empathic responses. This tension creates additional stress, complete with the adverse biological reactions that impact our emotional and physical health. The restorative lawyer recognizes that natural empathy, and respects it.
We try to be the same person: at work and at home. Similar to remaining loyal to our natural empathetic responses, the restorative lawyer is loyal to his or selves and their values, at work and at home. Compartmentalizing our home and work lives runs contrary to a restorative practice that requires integration. In a restorative practice, as we collaborate, we value inclusivity. We all benefit from being part of a larger whole. Our task, as restorative lawyers becomes how do we keep from dividing our identities, from isolating ourselves from ourselves?
Who I am as a lawyer is who I am as a parent is who I am as a daughter is who I am as a runner is who I am as a volunteer. The restorative lawyer understands that we have the same heart and head and backbone, whatever we do. We can’t check ourselves out like a library book and exchange it for another at the end of the week. The first task for a restorative, happy lawyer is finding the way to synthesize yourself. How can the zealous advocate part of the personality collaborate with the empathetic kind part of ourselves to create a a passionate and compassionate advocacy?
In our next blog post, we’ll take on the remaining two steps we have found to improve not only how we feel about our work, but improve the work product: considering our practice to be a way to improve the welfare of our community and recognizing the importance of relationship.
If you would like to learn more about these factors and how they can improve the life of the lawyers at your firm or organization, please contact us.