Dedicate a person to push an initiative and have more confidence that something will happen

In 2006, the General Counsel of Accenture, Douglas Scrivner, created a part-time position within his Legal Group specifically designed to focus on its internal and external diversity initiatives (See my post of Jan. 14, 2007: Accenture’s expectations of outside counsel on diversity.). At the time Scrivner created the position, the legal group had approximately 370 members (See my post of April 4, 2006: leadership councils at Accenture.).

“The person in this position spends 30 percent of his time working specifically on legal group diversity matters. He is responsible for advancing the design, development, and implementation of Accenture’s legal group diversity initiatives,” in the words of 8-K, Vol. 4, Fall 2008 at 15. Other instances I have run across of a general counsel assigning a lawyer to promote and lead an initiative include technology, knowledge management, and outside counsel control.