[Bundle] SAL-INSEAD Legal Leadership and Strategy Programme 2025

8.00am - 8.30am

Registration 

8.30am - 9.00am

Programme Introduction

9.00am - 1.00pm

Leadership Challenges and Transitions
We start the programme with an introduction session to make sure everyone is aligned on ‘Why are we here and what can we expect”? We will also discuss the different roles or ‘personas’ participants may have as they come into the programme. Through the discussion of key leadership challenges that participants experience, we can tailor the rest of the sessions based on participants’ needs. After the introduction, we will begin addressing the challenge of transitioning to leadership roles — individually and in one’s organization. Leading effectively requires the capacity to “grow” with one’s organization, adapt flexibly to the changing demands of the company and its task environment, and continue to develop and learn. Importantly, it requires one to master the psychology of power in leadership— the ability to navigate organizational landscapes and lead without formal authority. The ability to do so will help leaders generate value for the organization, their teams, and themselves. We will also discuss about positive workplace culture. How do legal leaders develop a culture that fosters personal and professional growth and psychological safety. Another prevalent issue leaders face today, which we will explore, is how to mentor and lead younger team members (e.g. Gen-Z). Understand their psychology and motivations will help leaders better manage and nurture such talent.

2.00pm - 6.00pm

Leading Organisational Change
In this session, we will discuss everything on change and navigating organizational politics. Using a real-world case and Power and Influence stimulation, Participants will delve into the dynamic world of organizational change. We address the constant nature of change in life and business, acknowledging its challenges for even the most seasoned leaders due to the psychology of change, which triggers fear, anxiety, and uncertainty among employees. Change disrupts organizational systems and team dynamics, making it crucial for leaders to understand and manage it effectively. The session's objectives are threefold: (i) grasp the psychology of change, (ii) analyze the necessary political and cultural systems for effective change leadership, and (iii) learn to initiate and drive change initiatives. By exploring psychological barriers and real-world case studies, participants will gain insights into navigating organizational politics and people dynamics. This multifaceted session employs lectures, case studies, and presentations to equip leaders with strategies for overcoming the complexities of driving change.

8.00am - 8.30am

Registration 

8.30am - 12.30pm

Influence Without Authority: Persuading Others Through Building Trust

This session focuses on strategies and concepts related to the social processes of influencing individuals and teams beyond reliance on authority. Influence is a key activity in most leadership and business contexts where decisions, change, and innovation happen. We will think of ways to develop and apply interpersonal persuasion skills and will highlight the importance of strategy formulation, communication, inspirational leadership, managerial improvisation, and emotional intelligence. The value of having and implementing an effective and ethical influence strategy will be emphasized. We will also consider how the role of observation and reflection can improve one’s understanding of social landscapes and how that can inform one’s strategy and approach in a given influence situation. During the session, you will be encouraged to apply these influence tactics to the challenge of diagnosing the agendas and requirements of key stakeholders internal and external to your organisation, and recommending specific actions to take in order to align their agenda more closely with yours.

Learning goals for this session:

1. Become more effective at influencing others without reliance on authority
2. Learn a variety of influence tactics at one’s disposal and understand how to strategically deploy them
3. Explore how to influence others in ethical ways by building long-term trusting relationships
4. Discuss the importance of follower engagement and team empowerment and how to best put this into practice
5. Understand the consequences of majorities, minorities, and authorities and how influence can be either positively or negatively affected in each of these contexts.

2.00pm - 6.00pm

Team Dynamics and Team Decision Making 
Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. - Helen Keller

The ability to lead teams and collaborate across business units is fundamental for leaders. Leaders need to be able to draw on the expertise, experience, and insights from diverse individuals to find cutting-edge solutions to overcome the complex challenges in today’s business world. It involves being able to find ways to make teams with diverse expertise work effectively by minimizing interpersonal conflict while simultaneously leveraging the abilities and opinions of the team and its members. Accomplishing both requires that we develop the ability to deal with both the content and the process of collaborative teamwork, and to navigate the difficulties that working in intense work groups inevitably entails.

In this session we will use a team decision-making exercise as a basis for allowing us to explore how groups that are made up of individuals from diverse functions, expertise and backgrounds typically function, and what are some of the common pitfalls of working in such collaborative group situations. This will lead to a discussion on strategies and techniques for optimizing group performance, how to empower others in your group, how to lead by example, and how to align individual and group objectives.

8.00am - 8.30am  

Registration 

8.30am - 9.00am

Programme Introduction

9.00am - 1.00pm

Strategic Thinking and Growth Strategy for Legal Professionals
This session works on the strategic thinking abilities of managers and reviews some of the key strategic challenges faced in the legal industry and legal profession. We will discuss several tools and frameworks to help us better understand a legal firm’s success, and how firms can develop a more effective competitive strategy to improve their performance and attain competitive advantage in their sector. Further, given the pivotal role of human capital in this sector, we will also discuss ways of attracting, retaining, and motivating talent. We will then explore the fundamental trade-offs and challenges faced when pursuing growth in legal firms and corporates. We will discuss different growth strategies and best practices that leaders in legal firms as well as corporates can implement to pursue growth in their organization, as well as means to overcome some of the key challenges to growth. 

2.00pm - 6.00pm

Strategy Execution for Legal Professionals
Firm success depends to a large degree on strategy execution. Legal professionals in law firms or companies are sometimes asked to contribute towards the execution of a growth initiatives, but often struggle to execute them effectively. In this session, we will explore the challenges to successful strategy execution in legal companies. Participants will be introduced to a systematic process of execution and implementing strategic initiatives. We will also discuss various tools to help participants successfully implement strategy and change in organisations.

8.00am - 8.30am

Registration 

8.30am - 12.30pm

Effective Corporate Governance
This session will focus on corporate governance and introduce key terms essential for effective boards. We will examine how leaders can establish and understand rules, processes, procedures, and structures to maintain the highest levels of ethical behavior, accountability, transparency, and fairness at the board-level. Furthermore, we will highlight exemplary corporate governance practices from some top-performing organizations. We will then apply our learnings to a boardroom scenario in Virtual Reality based on a recently produced INSEAD VR-case study where senior managers make decisions to engage in a major strategic initiative (an acquisition), navigating conflicts of interest and board room tensions, and where we better understand corporate governance flaws and best practices, as well as non-financial considerations of acquisitions. This session will also feature an interactive discussion with an experienced BOD practitioner.

2.00pm - 6.00pm

Strategic Partnerships in the Legal Industry
This session focus on strategic partnerships between firms. Participants will learn when law firms and corporates should enter partnerships with other companies to drive revenue, cross-sell services, enter new markets and gain access to new capabilities. Through a partnership simulation, participants will learn about the challenges and problems that emerge in strategic partnership and how to resolve such problems. Participants will also get exposed to best practices of successful partnerships and the learnings from failed partnerships. We will also learn how to make your firm more attractive as a partner-of-choice for others. 

9.00am – 10.30am

Networking Breakfast @TechLaw.Fest