Operations at Miles: Q&A with Meredith Stockman
Fri, May 31st, 2024 | by Miles Mediation and Arbitration | Thoughts from the Top | Social Share
In this month’s Thoughts from the Top, we talk with Meredith Stockman, our vice president of operations, about building the most efficient, effective team at Miles to provide the highest caliber of service to our clients.
Q: Meredith, you joined Miles last year, as vice president of operations. What has been the most significant challenge you’ve faced during this transition, and how have you addressed it?
A: With any growing organization, the biggest challenge is finding the right balance between preserving the historic successes with the incorporation of operational change needed to meet the present and future of the organization.
I spent the first few months at Miles observing — learning the processes, the local markets, the neutrals and their practices, our systems, and of course, the brilliant team that holds it all together. My observations led me to an organizational restructure design that created space for internal growth and outward expansion.
Q: Can you share some of the key strategies you’ve implemented to build the most efficient team at Miles? What specific steps have you taken to ensure these strategies align with our company’s goals?
A: In redesigning the organizational structure, a key strategy involved the creation of expanded job scopes/titles and promoting from within to fill those jobs. Rather than “earning” the elevation, this team demonstrated such an aptitude for capacity it was a matter of guiding the team to embody the elevation – and they did just that, all with grace and expert capability.
Miles is a family-oriented firm and with that comes a palpable culture of collaboration and a service mindset; this team goes above and beyond to deliver the highest level of support and service to our internal (neutral) and external clients, and we do that as a collective, unified team.
Q: How has improving team efficiency directly impacted the quality of service we provide to our clients? Can you provide an example of a recent success story that highlights this improvement?
A: With this restructure, two key leadership roles were born. Both are client-facing, and each “owns” two key facets of the organization — administration (case management) and operations. These key roles work together, with their support teams, to provide seamless synergy from booking a case online to arriving at our offices/over Zoom, and everything in between.
Q: Looking ahead, what are your primary goals to further optimize our operations at Miles? How do you plan to continue evolving our processes to maintain and enhance client satisfaction?
A: As Miles continues to experience unprecedented growth, our team continues to refine systems and processes along the way to meet our growing needs. My philosophy on organizational growth, especially with Miles’ strategic investment in technology, is to build processes and systems that are so well-designed that greater volume doesn’t break the system but instead allows us to work at optimal capacity while maintaining the team and culture that makes us who we are.
This optimization lends beautifully to our ability to meet the high bar we set for client service – a bar we’ll continue to raise and meet. We strive to be, “Miles above the rest.”
ABOUT MILES MEDIATION & ARBITRATION
Miles Mediation & Arbitration is shaping the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) industry with our comprehensive professional services model that combines the expertise of our highly skilled, diverse panel of neutrals with an unparalleled level of client support to guide and empower parties to fair, timely, and cost-effective resolution regardless of case size, specialization, or complexity. For more information, please call 888-305-3553 or email support@milesadr.com.