Horst Schulze is the founder of Ritz-Carlton and recently wrote a book titled Excellence Wins. The book speaks primarily to service industries, but I found one of his statements both obvious and interesting for law school. While discussing workers, he stated no one wants to show up to work and do a bad job. No one strives for mediocrity. Everyone wants to do well. His theory is people do poorly because they aren't given the tools to succeed. Much of the book is how to do that with specific examples for hotels.
As I heard the statement, I immediately thought it applied to law students as well. Law students probably don't show up to law school their first year wanting to be at the bottom of the class or receiving Cs. They don't strive for middle of the class. The same students worked hard to excel in undergrad and some of them achieved success in the workplace. They may not have worked as hard to receive great undergrad grades, but they still did more work than most to receive the higher grades. Nearly every one of our law students is an overachiever.
The last paragraph seems obvious. Many of us say similar things in Orientation or bar prep events to both show students competition is fierce but also to illustrate that they can complete the hard task in front of them. However, how many of us have complained that we have students that won't read directions or do the extra work. Have we ever thought a student is lazy? Do we think a portion of the class becomes apathetic and won't work hard? Have we ever thought a student didn't care about what he/she should be doing? I hope I am not the only one who gets frustrated at students.
Horst would tell us the problem may not be with the students. Try to think of the fast food worker you interacted with recently that you think did a terrible job. The person did the least amount of work possible while still getting paid. Many think that person is a poor worker. Horst argues that person wants to be excellent like the rest of the team. That worker hasn't been equipped yet, and when equipped, they will succeed. Chik-Fil-A is a fast food establishment but still provides excellent customer service. They instill certain values in their workers that other chains may not. The difference is the training.
High achieving law students don't completely change after a couple sets of grades. I believe they develop coping mechanisms for results they didn't expect. We may perceive apathy or indifference, but Horst is probably correct. Those students probably do still want to excel.
Our internal dialogue and view should change because it has an impact on how we serve our students. I don't believe any of us would purposely slack off for a student who seeks help. However, if a student misses a meeting, we may not follow up if we think that is their personality. If the essay they send in for feedback appears to come from less than full effort, any preconceived view of the student could affect the feedback or effort we put in. This could easily happen during students last year or summer bar prep. Students who spent 2-3 years creating an image in our minds could be at a disadvantage when working with us.
Overcoming experiences is difficult. We can start with the assumption that students really want to succeed and get better. The reason for the missed meetings, poor essays, or lack of effort could be lack of tools to properly complete tasks, even poor time management tools. Our first response may be to give students the benefit of the doubt. They may prove us wrong or continue with poor habits, but assuming the best in them only has an opportunity to help. See the students as we want them to be by creating high expectations and helping them get there. Most of our students will want to meet those expectations.
Horst would also tell us to equip our students better. Most of us are trying to teach our students the necessary skills to improve performance. We may not be helping enough, which I know is hard to think about knowing how time constrained we are. Departments at the Ritz-Carlton meet every day before each shift for 10 minutes to discuss a value of the business. The hotel chain has 24 values. They cover all of them in a month. The constant repetition helps them provide remarkable service. Our students probably don't hear our values, feedback, or advice often enough to truly embrace it. Our workshops aren't individual enough, and most of our students don't meet with us enough. When they do, my guess is we start discussing our feedback or purpose of the meeting. We could spend 3-5 minutes at the beginning of each meeting discussing a value (ie – grit, spaced repetition, etc.) we find important. When we see students in the hall, we can briefly talk about an important study skill after seeing how they are doing. The key is repetition throughout the year.
Our students want to succeed, and as we know, some of them don't yet have the tools. Our infrequent meetings and workshops make it difficult to completely inculcate those values. I encourage all of us to see our students in the best light and start discussing small values when we see them. Find times to connect with them and give them a quick tool for success.
(Steven Foster)
