Posted by Kathleen on May 15, 2009 – 2:36 pm
We belive in the power of questions. Dialogue is the basis of every healthy client relationship, and every successful business partnership. And good questions are at the heart of effective dialogue. So what are some of the questions we are asking now?
As consultants we have to be mindful of the changing environment, and be prepared to share our expertise to help others through the uncertainty that is associated with every economic recession. Here is a list of six high-gain questions for consultants to consider as they review their work plans and other project plans with their customers.
- Do I have the right approach to help this business thrive in current circumstances?
- What assumptions are no longer valid for our decision-making efforts?
- How have our roles and responsibilities changed?
- How has the current volatility affected our data?
- Are we communicating a coherent future direction?
- How are we evaluating and adapting change strategies?
Anxiety and uncertainty drive decision-making in difficult situations like these. Decisions about how to achieve goals of reduced total costs, increased productivity/quality, and enhanced efficiency have to be tempered with thoughtful consideration of how to develop necessary flexibility, foster innovation and creativity, and continue to improve communications. Planning for the long-term requires a careful analysis of the implications of current conditions on plans and activities. Use these questions to begin that dialogue, and then let us know if you develop any additional valuable High Gain Questions for current conditions.
Posted by Kathleen on May 12, 2009 – 2:04 pm
The fundamental importance of effective communication cannot be overstated. We have all experienced moments of confusion, and even anxiety, as a result of poor communication. Inside a complex organization communication becomes even more powerful–It is the primary means to motivate and engage a diverse workforce to collaborate, innovate and succeed.
When we work as consultants, we have to be effective and efficient at developing and using communication plans to clarify and align efforts, recognize and reward achievement, build a sense of urgency, and empower others to maximize engagement. Since communication is the basis of all human understanding, consulting and collaboration require thoughtful attention to the audience, content, objectives, and mode of critical messages. We use a simple matrix, The Communications Planning Tool to organize our communication efforts and minimize confusion and ambiguity.
communication-planning-tool
There are many different versions of this tool. We use this simple format to clarify the critical audiences for information along with specific details about the objective of our messaging, the content of the message, what media is appropriate, and who will deliver the message. This kind of proactive planning takes time up front in any project, but in the end you save time by maximizing influence and minimizing confusion. Let us know how you use this tool or similar tools on your project work.
Posted by Kathleen on March 12, 2009 – 5:01 pm
Recently we received some constructive feedback from an important customer. She was pleased with the result of our collaborative efforts. In fact, projects were progressing in extremely positive ways. She was very satisfied. And, she acknowledged that there was room for improvement in our service. She suggested that we could be more diligent and supportive in our follow-up. Specifically, after a project is implemented, we need to set up discussion time to check progress, gather feedback, share insights and identify lessons learned.
This is a big challenge for many internal consultants. When we serve multiple customers, we have to focus our efforts and follow a consistent process in order to manage all the tasks/activities and to minimize risks on multiple projects. In our practice we just keep moving . But consistent, careful follow-up and evaluation can lead to improvements, rewards, recognition and success.
Follow-up and evaluation are the keys to continuous improvement. Sometimes a tool is helpful to add structure to these kinds of critical conversations. One we will definitely be using more often is the Lessons Learned Analysis tool. lessons-learned-analysis-tool
This is a simple project management technique that helps teams articulate, document and share specific Lessons Learned in order to build organizational knowledge and capability and improve results. We have reformatted this tool to make it simple and offered a step-by-step guide on using this with teams. We hope you find this tool valuable and would love to hear stories about how you use it.
Posted by Kathleen on January 23, 2009 – 6:05 pm
Some relationships in the professional world are all business. Others are more involved, including mutual interests, and shared experiences. Consultants have to practice reading the social style of their business partners in order to leverage their strengths, tailor interactions, and create a working relationship that reflects the style and needs of each individual customer.
Internal consultants need to have a systematic approach–We need to deliver consistent service, and excellent results, using tools and methods that build collaboration, buy-in and support. But to create trusting, working relationships with our customers, we need to deliver our products and services with a personal touch too. That’s where leveraging your strengths comes in.
In every consulting situation Howick Associates relies on our natural curiosity and willingness to ask questions to help us define the scope of work. But we use those skills to get to know our clients, and create relationships with them. By demonstrating our real interest with questions and dialogue, we can differentiate ourselves from others, and provide more personal service.
I’ve added a video link here to YouTube. This is a short, inspirational video on how one individual leveraged his strengths to create a more personal service, even though he was “just a bagger.”
The Simple Truth of Service
Consider your natural talents, and identify one or two strengths you can use to make a difference in your professional relationships. Share your ideas with others through comments on this site!
Posted by Kathleen on October 8, 2008 – 1:41 pm
In a consulting situations we have to resist the pressure to jump to quick solutions. Customers and clients are looking for help, and they ususally want to see results immediately. That is where the pressure for quick solutions comes from. Internal consultants are in the business of solving problems, and our partners count on us to help them.
Every customer situation has unique details. But there are several charactersitics that are nearly always present in consulting situations; there are particular goals to address, specific objectives to achieve, key stakeholders, individual roles and responsibilities, and appropriate measures for success. We make a practice of clarifying and aligning assumptions and expectations around all of these topics for more effective consulting.
Recently a customer requested support for a change initiative. While we worked hard to clarify and align assumptions and expectations about goals and objectives, critical stakeholders and roles/ responsibilties, we were unable to align our understanding around the measures for success. We had taken a long-range view of the situation and our client was focused on short-term strategies–our measures for success were entirely different.
To achieve alignment, we are advocating an approach focused on ideas that make the most sense for what the customer is trying to accomplish now, and move forward with both short-term and longer-term strategies. This enables us to define near-term measures for success and also identify what success should look like 12 months and 24 months in the future.
When our work as consultants is focused on bringing about changes in behavior, we need to consider how success might look different as individuals adapt to change over time.
What “lessons learned” have you identified in your consulting work on change initiatives?
How do you account for human behavior in defining success for change initiatives?
Posted by Kathleen on September 24, 2008 – 11:07 am
Managing multiple projects at once is perhaps the most challenging aspect of work as an internal consultant. Every customer situation is unique and each situation is a priority for at least one of our partners. How we manage, and “juggle” all those opportunities has a BIG impact on our relationships and our ability to influence and negotiate with others.
Juggling gets more difficult with each additional item you try to balance. There are techniques experts use to juggle many items at once. Consulting with multiple business partners on multiple projects requires expert techniques too.
Expert tip: No matter how many new opportunities arise, our consulting approach has to remain consistent. When we are disciplined in our efforts to clarify customer’s assumptions and expectations that helps us balance multiple priorities with a clear understanding of the different needs of customers.
We use different Partnership Agreements formats–it’s not the style that is important, it is the substance. I have inserted some Howick Associates examples as hyperlinks below. These templates describe many aspects of our work clearly, and the discussion that leads to that clarity builds trust and partnership. We have found that clarification of expectations is the most powerful tool in our consulting toolkit.
2-page-partnership-agreement-worksheet
sow-template
email-summary-template
What is your opinion: Is there anything more important than clear understanding of the scope of our work together?
We would love this blog to be a “go to” resource for sharing tools, that’s why we set it up! So let us know if you use another, alternative agreement template and link your template into your comments so other consultants can become more effective at multi-tasking.
Posted by Kathleen on August 25, 2008 – 2:53 pm
In response to our post last week, several consultants wrote to share their consulting lessons learned:
Nicole Milhaupt wrote “I could not agree more with the statement that trust and rapport develop over time and just how important it is in any relationship. While I was reading this post it brought me back to a conversation that I had earlier this morning with one of my service model partners. Our discussion was centered around an issue in one of our departments. As I sat listening to my service model partner describe the situation, I was repeatedly telling myself the story that the foundation of trust was never built. When the facts were all given I posed the very question to my service model partner, “What story are you telling yourself is the root of these issues?” My service model partner, without hesitation, responded that the trust was never built. And our action plan now will be centered around wokring to build the trust and rapport in their department to make them even more effective than they are already.”
Thanks Nicole! At Howick Associates, we know that when “trust has not been built” it is difficult to accomplish anything together. Our efforts as internal consultants to build trust and develop rapport with our customers and colleagues will help us achieve more sustainable results in the long run.
Cindy Salzwedel wrote: “Since taking this course I realized that while I did use many of these ideas in the past, I wasn’t always consistant. After a few weeks of making a conscious effort to put these skills to use, they are now becoming a habit. I am reducing calls, meeting time and emails by asking the right questions up front, setting boundaries and following thru. My customers get better service from me and I save time.”
Thanks Cindy! We always appreciate positive feedback on our workshop. Consistency is where the rubber meets the road in our experience. If your customers never know what kind of service you will be providing it is difficult for them to feel certain of your support.
Congratulations on reducing calls, meeting time and emails all while providing better service. Do you have any templates/job-aids you are using that you are willing to share with others?
Linda Steadman wrote: Never assume anything. No matter how many times I am reminded or remind myself of this, I still fall into the trap of assuming. Questions, detailed and direct, are the only way to assess a situation accurately. That is what enables us to be an effective consultant.This is particularly true in the ‘little’ situations, where the desired result seems so obvious. I’m finding that there is always more to a story than what you are first told. Getting beyond differences in word usage, discovering the true outcome desired, and probing for possible solutions sometimes takes hours instead of minutes and often ends in a place you never saw when you ‘assumed’ to know the answer.
Thanks Linda! We couldn’t agree more! We value High Gain Questions in all of our interactions with clients and use them to clarify and align expectations, manage scope and define projects. Let us know if you have some particularly valuble questions you use to minimize assumptions in consulting situations.
Posted by Kathleen on August 21, 2008 – 11:59 am
A few minutes into the conference call with clients, it suddenly became obvious that each of us had different objectives for this discussion. Of course, it was also painfully clear that the expectations of each participant were slightly different as well.
The client saw the disscussion as a “sales pitch” to help him understand the value of our “product”. While we viewed the dialogue as a part of the assessment of the situation we were discussing. As consultants we were focusing on getting results but our client was still building rapport and developing trust in our approach and experience.
Conveying our empathy, organizational attunement and expertise is critical to effective internal consulting. We have to communicate our professionalism, efficiency and knowledge through our consulting actions everyday. LESSONS LEARNED: We have to consistently define the objectives of our work and be careful to align everyone’s expectations for meetings and discussions. We cannot hurry along the process of building a true strategic partnership. Trust and rapport develop over time.
Clarifying and aligning expectations and identifying specific objectives for discussions is basic stuff. These are consulting practices that establish professionalism, build trust and help us develop rapport through on-going dialogue. These practices help give structure to any consulting discussion. Being disciplined and consistent in applying them in all consulting situations is a challenge in the multi-tasking reality of 2008.
WHAT IS YOUR LATEST LESSON LEARNED AS A CONSULTANT?
(share your story by clicking on the title of this post to add your comments!)
Posted by Kathleen on August 13, 2008 – 1:35 am
Groundrules
A blog is a new vehicle for dialogue for many of us. As anyone who has worked with Howick Associates knows, ground rules are always helpful for clarifying expectations and creating balanced participation in discussions. So here a few “ground rules” to help you make the most of this site:
- Check in every few days to read the blog. We will be publishing new posts every couple of days and each new post will include food for thought, new resources and high gain questions to promote discussion.
- Click on the title (bold yellow and underlined) of any post to add your comments
- Everyone participates, no bystanders, share your perspectives for a rich discussion
- Follow-up on new ideas and let us know your results
- Engage others whenever possible
- Let us know if you have questions or concerns
Click on the title of this post to add your comments and/or ideas for additional ground rules.
