The Consulting Process

1 ENTRY

First contact with client Preliminary problem diagnosis Assignment planning Consulting contract

DIAGNOSIS

Fact finding Fact analysis and problem identification Detailed problem examination

ACTION PLANNING

Developing alternative solutions Evaluating alternatives Proposals to client Planning for implementation

IMPLEMENTATION

Communicating the implementation strategy Advising and assisting on progress Evaluating and adjusting strategy Training

TERMINATION

Own evaluation Client review Final Report Follow up plans Termination and settlement of fees

Consulting

Consulting should be a collaborative process between the consultant and client, so that the client is learning too, seeing problems from different angles. The assignment should end with implementation and not just the presentation of a report with action proposals in which the consultant has no part.

Training and consultancy

The consultant or practice who is involved with training has a duty to the client to ensure that training is given with a view to reinforcement and helping delegate change their behaviour. Too often training is conducted with no vision of the future and no concern for the learning process. Although these considerations almost inevitably lead to higher short term costs the additional costs are more than repaid by the skills and abilities which are developed as a result. The consultant too needs to ensure their own training and development so that they can ensure a good quality of service to clients. The consultant will seek to make maximum use of the variety of skills and experiences learned on different consultancy assignments. The consultant should strive to become aware of the variety of 'intervention' techniques that are available to help clients.

Consulting and Information

Consulting firms and practices are repositories of information of tremendous wealth. This wealth of information and knowledge is often the reason why clients choose to use a consultant. This expertise should be developed in order to provide clients with services. The expertise will also instil confidence for the consultant by the client.

Partnering
Combining Internal and External Consultants
a) The combined use of an internal and external consultant optimises the opportunities provided by the use of consultant expertise. The internal consultant is well placed to know the culture, methods, systems and attitudes of the client company, while the external consultant brings the objectivity and broad based expertise. In combination the external and internal consultants working together provide more likelihood of success for a project. The internal consultant is more able to oversee and carry through any implementation required in a project. This is often the area where external consultants fail their clients. b) The internal consultant is able to help the external consultant in much the same way by providing a guide to the organisation, technical information and an in depth view of the

culture. However the internal consultant may not be a 'consultant' they may be filling another role, but they act as a consultant for the specified project. c) This Partnering provides the necessary cooperation to carry out a project in the face of resistance or lack of cooperation (or indifference) in the client company. d) Often Senior management is unaware of the capabilities existing within the organisation. The partners in consultancy can help uncover and develop skills and expertise of the clients own personnel. e) Frequently client companies do not accept or act upon the recommendations in a consultants report. Why is this? The answer lies in the difficulty in helping clients take ownership of the findings or recommendations in a report. An internal consultant helps with this process by advising on timing of reports, the best way of wording a report and the best way of presenting the findings. They are also able to recommend who should be involved in the findings and the setting up of meetings with senior management. f) The internal consultant has more time and opportunity to develop the relationship with the external consultancy. This means better terms of reference, more control over the project, more commitment from the consultancy practice and a better end result. Partnering leads to better value from both the internal and external consultant.

Consultancy Roles

Consulting Approaches (Whats best for your Client?) Two Basic Styles
Too many consultants fail because they expect the client to start where the consultants is in terms of technique and approach. Many writers in the field of organization development advocate the utilization of the process-consultation model with clients as a more effective strategy than employing the doctor-patient model. As full time practicing managers, credentialed consultants, and pragmatists, we are not in total agreement with this either/or concept prevailing in literature. In our opinion, each consulting approach has its place depending on situational factors. As we view these two basic models of consulting the process consultation model is highly dependent on group involvement and participation by members of the client system in the diagnostic and problem-solving stages. With the doctor-patient model, the consultant usually diagnoses what the clients problem is and proposes a solution with minimal involvement of the client or work group. Each model contains its own set of assumption made of the client and consultant, such as:

Process-Consultation Model Assumptions:

The client and consultant jointly diagnose the problem. The consultants role is to train the client in using diagnostic and problem solving techniques. The client has the major responsibility to develop his/her own solution and action plan to the problem. Problem solving is more effective when the client identifies what processes need to be improved (e.g., reporting relationship, reward system, organizational structure). The client has more knowledge and insight about what will work in the organization than does the consultant. The client has more of a commitment for implementing the action plan if involved in the entire diagnostic problem solving phases.

Doctor PatientModel Assumptions:

The consultant is hired to identify the problem, diagnose it and recommend a solution. The consultant has more expertise regarding the specific problem than does the client. The consultant is not expected by management to train the client in diagnostic and problem solving skills. The client expects the consultant to solve the problem in a relatively short period of time with minimal disruption and involvement of the work force. The client can be just as committed to implement the recommend solution and to follow-up on its progress if the procedures and reward structure for doing so exists.

Whatever assumptions the client and consultant subscribe to, they must discuss them to develop the appropriate psychological contract and role expectations each has of the other. Although we subscribe to the process-consultation model in theory, we have discovered that the consultant should start where the client is in terms of readiness for certain consulting approaches. Our experiences have indicated that clients within a single organization can have various degrees of sophistication and readiness for either the process-consultation or the doctorpatient approach. To say on should use process-consultation rather than doctor-patient consultation with clients, in our opinion, is not based on organizational reality. The consultant should be extremely careful not to commit to a psychological contract or set of role expectations with the client which the organizational environment cannot support. Client readiness for specific consulting approaches is extremely important. The appropriate consulting style used with the client should be determined by analyzing situational conditions that exist. Using situational analysis as a basis for determining what contingencies should be considered allows, we believe, for both parties to be more genuine in laying their cards on the table. Often consultants are used to fixing the blame for that went wrong and consultants are sometimes seen as selling back to the client their own solutions.

The process-consultation model presupposes certain ideal conditions that must exist for the consultant to be effective. In a way, process-consultation is more limiting than the doctorpatient approach because of the number of preconditions that must be satisfied prior to consulting. The doctor-patient strategy does not make as many predemands of the clients. Qualities of a Consultant

Intellectual Ability

Ability to learn quickly and easily Ability to observe, gather, select and evaluate facts Good judgment Inductive and deductive reasoning Ability to synthesize and generalize Creative imagination; original thinking

Ability to understand people and work with them

Respect for other people; tolerance Ability to anticipate and evaluate human reactions Easy human contacts Ability to gain trust and respect Courtesy and good manners

Ability to communicate, persuade and motivate

Ability to listen Facility in oral and written communication Ability to share knowledge, teach and train people Ability to persuade and motivate

Intellectual and emotional maturity

Stability of behaviour and action Independence in drawing unbiased conclusions Ability to withstand pressures, and live with frustrations and uncertainties Ability to act with poise, in a calm and objective manner Self-control in all situations Flexibility and adaptability to changed conditions

Personal drive and initiative

Right degree of self-confidence Healthy ambition Entrepreneurial spirit Courage, initiative and perseverance in action

Ethics and integrity

Genuine desire to help others Extreme honesty Ability to recognize the limitations of one's competence Ability to admit mistakes and learn from failure

5 Phases of Consulting
Flawless Consulting by Peter Block suggests that following a prescribed 5 phases approach to consulting can help you succeed in your endeavors. Here's a summary of the different phases with my spin on how they relate to IT engagements. Of course if you end up agreeing with these, you should really consider buying the book. 1. Entry and Contracting This first phase deals with the initial contact with the client about the project. If you're independent, you're meeting directly with a potential client. If you're working through a recruiter, think of this stage as an interview. Tasks include:

Setting up the first meeting. Exploring what the problem is. Determining if you're the right consultant for the work. Listing the client's expectations. Specifying what expectations you have. Figuring out how to get started.

When consultants talk about their disasters, their conclusion is usually that the project was faulty in the initial contracting stage. 2. Data Collection and Diagnosis It's important that consultants come up with their own sense of the problem. Some consider this step to be where the consultant adds the most value. Out of this phase the consultant needs to know who is going to be involved in defining the problem; what methods will be used; what kind of data should be collected; and how long will it take. If you're consulting through an agency, you've likely already been hired by this point. If not, you run the risk of working for free so be careful. 3. Feedback and the Decision to Act As a consultant you'll need to report your findings from phase 2. The key here is to take the mountain of information that has been collected and reduce it so that it can be managed and understood.

A consultant must also decide how to involve the client in the process of analyzing the information. Be prepared to encounter resistance when giving feedback to the organization. The more high-profile the project, the more resistance you are likely to encounter. The consultant must handle this resistance before an appropriate decision can be made about how to proceed. This phases is pretty much what others call the planning phase and includes setting the goals for the project and selecting the best action steps. 4. Implementation As the name implies, this step involves taking everything that has been decided previously and implementing the solution decided upon. Often, the implementation falls to the organization, but sometimes the consultant will remain deeply involved in the efforts. Some projects start implementation with an educational event. This should be a series of meetings to introduce some change. It may require a single meeting to get different parts of the organization together to address a problem. It may be a training session. In these cases, the consultant is usually involved in rather complicated design work and in running the meeting or training session. 5. Extension, Recycle, or Termination This begins with an evaluation of the main event. Following this is the decision whether to extend the process to a larger segment of the organization. Sometimes it is not until after some implementation occurs that a clear picture of the real problem emerges. In this case the process recycles and a new contract needs to be discussed. If the implementation was either a huge success or a moderate-to-high failure, termination of further involvement on this project may be in the offing. There are many options for ending the relationship and termination should be considered a legitimate and important part of the consultation. If done well, it can provide an important learning experience for the client and the consultant, and also keep the door open for future work with the organization.