Chapter 1 – A consultant by any other name
Consulting: Every time you give advice to someone who is faced with a choice.
Manager have direct control; consultants want to influence but lack authority to control.
Consultant: A person in a position to have some influence over an individual, a group or an
organization but has no direct power.
Manager: Someone who has direct responsibility over the action
Client: The recipient of the advice.
Line managers: Clients for the services provided by support people. They work under the
advice of support groups.
Any support function has no direct authority over anything but its own time, its own
internal staff, and the nature of the service it offers.
Your goal or end product in any consulting activity is some kind of change. Change come in 2
varieties:
1. We consult to create change in the line organization of a structural, policy, or
procedural nature.
2. The end result that one person or many people in the line organization have
learned something new.
Consultation: Describes any action you take with a system of which you are not a part.
3 skills needed to do a good consulting job:
Technical skills: you need expertise in order to give someone advice
Interpersonal skills: Ability to put ideas into words, listen, and maintain relationship.
Consulting skills: consists of 5 phases:
1. Entry and contracting: the initial contact, setting up meeting.
2. Discovery & Dialogue: Consultants need to come up with their own sense of both
the problem and the strengths of the client has.
3. Analysis and the decision to act: Incl. setting ultimate goal for the project and
selecting the best action steps or changes.
4. Engagement and implementation: Involves carrying out phase 3.
5. Extension, Recycle or Termination: Learning from the engagement.
Consulting skills are grouped into 4 phases: Contracting, Discovery, Feedback and Decision.
Consulting: Every time you give advice to someone who is faced with a choice.
Manager have direct control; consultants want to influence but lack authority to control.
Consultant: A person in a position to have some influence over an individual, a group or an
organization but has no direct power.
Manager: Someone who has direct responsibility over the action
Client: The recipient of the advice.
Line managers: Clients for the services provided by support people. They work under the
advice of support groups.
Any support function has no direct authority over anything but its own time, its own
internal staff, and the nature of the service it offers.
Your goal or end product in any consulting activity is some kind of change. Change come in 2
varieties:
1. We consult to create change in the line organization of a structural, policy, or
procedural nature.
2. The end result that one person or many people in the line organization have
learned something new.
Consultation: Describes any action you take with a system of which you are not a part.
3 skills needed to do a good consulting job:
Technical skills: you need expertise in order to give someone advice
Interpersonal skills: Ability to put ideas into words, listen, and maintain relationship.
Consulting skills: consists of 5 phases:
1. Entry and contracting: the initial contact, setting up meeting.
2. Discovery & Dialogue: Consultants need to come up with their own sense of both
the problem and the strengths of the client has.
3. Analysis and the decision to act: Incl. setting ultimate goal for the project and
selecting the best action steps or changes.
4. Engagement and implementation: Involves carrying out phase 3.
5. Extension, Recycle or Termination: Learning from the engagement.
Consulting skills are grouped into 4 phases: Contracting, Discovery, Feedback and Decision.
