Rocks, Pebbles and Sand – A Carew Counsel Philosophy

Rocks, Pebbles and Sand Painting by Rachel Carew

We believe in looking deep into our business and reflecting on new and innovative ways to deal with and confront issues. At a recent Law Australasia conference, Geoff O’Driscoll, managing partner of Rees R and Sydney Jones, a large legal practice in Rockhampton, came up with an innovative way of dealing with difficult files. He named the process “Rocks Pebbles and Sand”. It was such a good idea that we came back from the conference, adopted the philosophy and now enjoy its benefits on a day to day basis. The painting (pictured above) by Rachel Carew is featured in the foyer of our office as a daily reminder to every member of our team that this is how we process our work.

Rocks are obstacles, things that are hard to do and that we put off. At our weekly meetings we look at rocks and if someone has one then we discuss the rock, give some shared guidance from the group, and then shackle the person to the desk with no food, no water and no phone calls until the rock is broken down into pebbles and fixed.

The sand content is the procrastination, the waste of time and shuffling of paper that goes on. We use sand as a way of saying “don’t waste my time or your time with sand” and so we eliminate as best we can activities that are non-productive and cost ineffective.

The philosophy helps our clients and team because we don’t let problems build and we don’t waste our client’s money doing things that are not necessary or unproductive. We deal with pebbles and that is what solves our client’s problems and gives us job satisfaction. At Carew Counsel we are proud to adopt this philosophy and encourage you to adopt it too.