This article is one of a four-part series based on a webinar delivered by Helen Hannan Evans and Paul Clarke of The Listening People for The Centre for Legal Leadership.

Most organisations can point to a corporate strategy document, a set of pillars or priorities approved by the board and discussed at investor days or town halls.

But ask many in-house lawyers, “What does that strategy mean for our function?” and the answer is often vague. The link between the corporate slide and the legal team’s day-to-day work is assumed, not articulated.

That’s where engaging your team in translation is so powerful. Done well, it turns strategy from an abstract concept into a living framework that shapes decisions, workload and behaviour.

Don’t write it alone

One of the biggest pitfalls we see is the “strategy written in isolation”:

• A small group (or a single GC) drafts a strategy behind closed doors
• It is unveiled at an away-day or town hall
• People nod, the deck is circulated… and then it quietly disappears

It’s not that the strategy is “wrong”, it may be perfectly sensible. It’s that the people expected to deliver it don’t have fingerprints on it. They didn’t wrestle with the trade-offs, so they don’t feel true ownership.

The antidote is co-creation.

A simple, robust framework: Purpose, Priorities, Behaviours

In the webinar, Helen and Paul referenced a three-layer model they use frequently with in-house teams:

1. Purpose – why we exist
2. Strategic priorities – where we focus
3. Values and behaviours – how we work

It’s deceptively simple, and that’s exactly the point. It helps teams to make choices and speak in human language rather than legal jargon.

Here’s how you can work through it with your team.

1. Start with the corporate strategy in the room

Bring the relevant corporate documents into the workshop:

• The company’s purpose and values
• The current strategic plan and its main pillars
• Any board or executive priorities for the next 12–36 months

Then ask, together:

• If these are the organisation’s priorities, what does that mean for legal?
• Where do we need to dial-up our focus?
• What might we need to stop or de-prioritise?
• What new capabilities or ways of working will we need?

This anchors the legal function strategy firmly in the real direction of the business.

2. Use “Stop / Continue / Start” to get practical

As part of our work with a stretched function in a major UK infrastructure organisation, we introduced the Stop / Continue / Start framework to help the team align to a new corporate strategy. The exercise quickly revealed where time and energy were being invested, what needed to change and how the team could better support the organisation’s goals.

You can apply the same approach in your own team.

STOP
What are you doing out of habit that no longer serves the strategy. Which reports, processes, meetings or long-standing projects could be reduced or stopped in order to free up capacity for work that matters more.

CONTINUE
What core work clearly adds value and must be protected, even if it is not always the most visible or recognised activity. These are the essential responsibilities that support the business and underpin your reputation.

START
What do you need to begin doing that would directly support the organisation’s priorities. This might include new focus areas, data insights, systems improvements, stronger governance or earlier and more collaborative stakeholder engagement.

These conversations can be challenging. People are often personally invested in the work they have always done, and identifying what should stop can feel uncomfortable. However, this is where real strategic choices are made. A clear and honest discussion using this framework helps the team understand the link between their work and the organisation’s strategy and creates the foundation for a more focused and aligned legal function strategy.

3. Draft your purpose together

When you begin shaping the purpose of the legal function, always start with the organisation’s purpose. The legal team’s purpose should reflect and support the overall reason the organisation exists. It should strengthen the connection between the legal team and the wider mission, not sit separately from it.

Bring the organisation’s purpose into the room and ask the team to explore how legal contributes to it. Then use questions such as:

• If the legal function disappeared tomorrow, what would the organisation lose?
• In one sentence, what are we here to enable for the business and our stakeholders?

Work towards a purpose statement that is:

• Short and memorable
• Anchored in the organisation’s purpose and strategic goals
• Focused on business outcomes such as growth, resilience, trust or innovation
• Broader than describing legal activity, such as giving legal advice or managing risk

You may not land the exact wording in one session. What matters most is the discussion, the connection back to the organisation’s purpose and the shared understanding that develops as the team works through the options together.

4. Define 3–5 strategic priorities

Using the corporate pillars, your listening insights (Article 2) and the Stop / Continue / Start outputs, identify the few areas that matter most.

For each potential priority, ask:

• Does this directly support one or more corporate priorities?
• Can we explain it to a non-lawyer in one sentence?
• Would we be comfortable saying no to some work because it doesn’t support this?

If the answer to the last question is “no”, it may not be a true priority yet.

5. Translate into behaviours

Values such as “commercial”, “collaborative” or “proactive” are only useful if everyone knows what they look like on a Tuesday afternoon with a contract on their desk and a sales director on the phone.

With your team, explore:

• What does “commercial” look like when we’re advising on a deal?
• What does “proactive” look like in how we engage with product or ops?
• What does “collaborative” look like when we disagree with a business stakeholder?

Capture real behaviours (“we get involved early”, “we explain options in plain language”, “we ask about outcomes, not just documents”) rather than vague aspirations.

The power of co-creation

There’s solid evidence behind this. When people help design something, they:

• Remember it better
• Care about it more
• Stick with it longer

Behavioural scientists sometimes call this the “IKEA effect”: we value things we’ve helped to build.

In the context of legal function strategy, co-creation means:

• Your team sees the stakeholder feedback you’ve heard
• They help interpret what the corporate strategy means in legal terms
• They debate and refine priorities together
• They see themselves – and their work – in the final strategy

That’s the difference between a strategy that lives on a shelf and one that lives in conversations, choices and diaries.

Make ownership explicit

Co-creation doesn’t end with a good workshop. To really embed ownership:

• Assign clear owners for each strategic priority
• Map initiatives under each priority and use a simple RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) so everyone knows their role
• Encourage sub-teams to create their own “local” versions – how their specific area contributes to the wider strategy

When someone can answer, “This is my piece of the strategy, and here’s how I’m delivering it,” you know you’re moving beyond slogans.

When the business says, “We want what they’ve done”

In both examples Helen and Paul shared – the quality and risk management function and the UK infrastructure company – something interesting happened after the strategy work:

Other leaders looked at the legal / risk function and said, “We want what they’ve done.”

Why? Because those teams had:

• A clear, simple articulation of purpose and priorities
• Visible ownership within the team
• A line of sight between corporate goals and daily work
• A story about their function that was easy to understand and repeat

That is the prize when you engage your team in translating corporate strategy into functional strategy: you don’t just have a better plan; you become a model for how strategy should be done.

A strategy only works when people understand it, believe in it and feel responsible for delivering it. Co-creation is how you achieve that. When the team is involved in shaping the strategy, they take ownership of the priorities and commit to the actions that bring it to life.

If you want your legal function to move with greater confidence, alignment and consistency, start by engaging your team in the creation of the strategy. It will strengthen collaboration, improve decision making and make the strategy far more durable.

This article is the third in our four-part series on articulating and communicating legal strategy. The final article explores how to communicate your strategy clearly so that it is understood across the organisation and becomes part of everyday work.

Other articles in this series include:

• Why a well-articulated strategy for your legal function is no longer a “nice to have”
• Listening: The strategic superpower legal teams often overlook
• Making it stick: How to communicate your legal function strategy so people actually use it

If you would like support in designing or facilitating a workshop to build your legal function’s strategy, please email us at hello@thelisteningpeople.com.

FAQs

1. Should the whole legal team be involved, or just the leadership?
Where possible, involve the full team- at least in reviewing insights and shaping initial priorities. Co-creation dramatically increases buy-in and understanding.

2. How long should the strategy workshop be?
Ideally a full day. Shorter sessions work, but the richness of discussion, and the clarity that follows, comes from uninterrupted time together.

3. What if team members disagree on priorities?
That’s normal, and healthy. Strategy is about making choices. Disagreement leads to clarity, provided it’s structured and linked back to business needs.

4. How do we ensure “co-creation” doesn’t become chaos?
Use frameworks:

• Purpose → Priorities → Behaviours
• Stop / Continue / Start
• Alignment of initiatives to strategic priorities
• RACI allocation
  Structure creates focus and prevents the process from becoming a brainstorming free-for-all.

5. How do we maintain momentum after the workshop?
Assign owners for each strategic priority, define success measures, and revisit progress monthly or quarterly. Ownership turns ideas into action.