CHAPTER 1: A CONSULTANT BY ANY OTHER NAME
1. INTRODUCTION
The traditional consultant has tended to act solely as an agent of management: assuming the manager’s
role in either performing highly technical activities that a manager cannot do or performing distasteful and
boring activities that a manager does not want to do.
Every time you give advice to someone who is faced with a choice, you are consulting.
When you don’t have direct control over people and yet want them to listen to you and heed your advice,
you are face-to-face with the consultant’s dilemma.
2. SOME DEFINITIONS AND DISTINCTIONS
A consultant is a person in a position to have some influence over an individual, a group, or an organization
but has no direct power to make changes or implement programs.
A manager is someone who has direct responsibility over the action. The moment you take direct
responsibility, you are acting as a manager.
Support people can be consultants too, even if they don’t call themselves consultants. Support people
function in any organization by planning, recommending, assisting, or advising in such matters as HR,
market research, auditing, product design, …
The client is the person or persons whom the consultant wants to influence. In organizations, clients for
the services provided by support people are called line managers. Line managers have to labor under the
advice of support groups, whether they like it or not.
There is a tension between the line manager (or client) who has direct control and the support person (or
consultant) who does not have direct control is one of the central themes of this book.
When you act on behalf of or in the place of the manager, you are acting as a surrogate manager. When
the client says, “Complete this report for me,” “Hire this person for me,” “Design this system for me,”
“Counsel this employee,” or “Figure out which jobs stay and which jobs go,” the manager is asking for a
surrogate. The attraction of the surrogate manager role is that at least for that one moment, you assume
the manager’s power—but in fact you are doing the manager’s job, not yours.
Your goal or end product in any consulting activity is some kind of change. Change comes in two varieties:
1. We consult to create change in the line organization of a structural, policy, or procedural nature
for example, a new compensation package, a new reporting process, or a new safety program
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. An interview with
someone asking for help is a consulting act. A survey of problems, a training program, an evaluation, a
study—all are consultations for the sake of change. The consultant’s objective is to engage in successful
actions that result in people or organizations managing themselves differently.
The author thinks of the terms staff or support work and consulting work as being interchangeable,
reflecting his belief that people in a support role need consulting skills to be effective—regardless of their
field of technical expertise (finance, planning, engineering, personnel, systems, law). Every time you give
advice to someone who is in the position to make the choice, you are consulting. For each of these
moments of consultation, there are three kinds of skills you need to do a good job:
1. Technical skills. You need to have expertise. You need to have a basic training in a certain topic.
It’s only later, after acquiring some technical expertise that you start consulting. You need to have
some area of expertise
2. Interpersonal skills. You need to have the ability to put ideas into words, to listen, give support,
…
3. Consulting skills. Every consulting project goes through 5 phases. The steps in each phase are
sequential; if you skip one or assume it has been taken care of, you are headed for trouble. Skillful
consulting is being competent in the execution of each of these steps. Successfully completing the
business of each phase is the primary focus of this book.
3. CONSULTING SKILLS PREVIEW
PHASE 1: ENTRY AND CONTRACTING
It includes setting up the first meeting as well as exploring the problem, whether the consultant
is the right person to work on this issue, what the client’s expectations are, what the consultant’s
expectations are, and how to get started. When consultants talk about their disasters, their
conclusion is usually that the project was faulty in the initial contracting stage.
PHASE 2: DISCOVERY AND DIALOGUE
Consultants need to come up with their own sense of both the problem and the strengths the
client has. This may be the most useful thing they do. They also need skill in helping the client do
the same. The inquiry and dialogue must be organized and reported in some fashion.
Who is going to be involved in defining the problem or situation? What methods will be used?
What kind of data should be collected? How long will it take? Should the inquiry be done by the
consultant, or should it be done by the client?
PHASE 3: ANALYSIS AN D THE DECISION TO START
1. INTRODUCTION
The traditional consultant has tended to act solely as an agent of management: assuming the manager’s
role in either performing highly technical activities that a manager cannot do or performing distasteful and
boring activities that a manager does not want to do.
Every time you give advice to someone who is faced with a choice, you are consulting.
When you don’t have direct control over people and yet want them to listen to you and heed your advice,
you are face-to-face with the consultant’s dilemma.
2. SOME DEFINITIONS AND DISTINCTIONS
A consultant is a person in a position to have some influence over an individual, a group, or an organization
but has no direct power to make changes or implement programs.
A manager is someone who has direct responsibility over the action. The moment you take direct
responsibility, you are acting as a manager.
Support people can be consultants too, even if they don’t call themselves consultants. Support people
function in any organization by planning, recommending, assisting, or advising in such matters as HR,
market research, auditing, product design, …
The client is the person or persons whom the consultant wants to influence. In organizations, clients for
the services provided by support people are called line managers. Line managers have to labor under the
advice of support groups, whether they like it or not.
There is a tension between the line manager (or client) who has direct control and the support person (or
consultant) who does not have direct control is one of the central themes of this book.
When you act on behalf of or in the place of the manager, you are acting as a surrogate manager. When
the client says, “Complete this report for me,” “Hire this person for me,” “Design this system for me,”
“Counsel this employee,” or “Figure out which jobs stay and which jobs go,” the manager is asking for a
surrogate. The attraction of the surrogate manager role is that at least for that one moment, you assume
the manager’s power—but in fact you are doing the manager’s job, not yours.
Your goal or end product in any consulting activity is some kind of change. Change comes in two varieties:
1. We consult to create change in the line organization of a structural, policy, or procedural nature
for example, a new compensation package, a new reporting process, or a new safety program
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. An interview with
someone asking for help is a consulting act. A survey of problems, a training program, an evaluation, a
study—all are consultations for the sake of change. The consultant’s objective is to engage in successful
actions that result in people or organizations managing themselves differently.
The author thinks of the terms staff or support work and consulting work as being interchangeable,
reflecting his belief that people in a support role need consulting skills to be effective—regardless of their
field of technical expertise (finance, planning, engineering, personnel, systems, law). Every time you give
advice to someone who is in the position to make the choice, you are consulting. For each of these
moments of consultation, there are three kinds of skills you need to do a good job:
1. Technical skills. You need to have expertise. You need to have a basic training in a certain topic.
It’s only later, after acquiring some technical expertise that you start consulting. You need to have
some area of expertise
2. Interpersonal skills. You need to have the ability to put ideas into words, to listen, give support,
…
3. Consulting skills. Every consulting project goes through 5 phases. The steps in each phase are
sequential; if you skip one or assume it has been taken care of, you are headed for trouble. Skillful
consulting is being competent in the execution of each of these steps. Successfully completing the
business of each phase is the primary focus of this book.
3. CONSULTING SKILLS PREVIEW
PHASE 1: ENTRY AND CONTRACTING
It includes setting up the first meeting as well as exploring the problem, whether the consultant
is the right person to work on this issue, what the client’s expectations are, what the consultant’s
expectations are, and how to get started. When consultants talk about their disasters, their
conclusion is usually that the project was faulty in the initial contracting stage.
PHASE 2: DISCOVERY AND DIALOGUE
Consultants need to come up with their own sense of both the problem and the strengths the
client has. This may be the most useful thing they do. They also need skill in helping the client do
the same. The inquiry and dialogue must be organized and reported in some fashion.
Who is going to be involved in defining the problem or situation? What methods will be used?
What kind of data should be collected? How long will it take? Should the inquiry be done by the
consultant, or should it be done by the client?
PHASE 3: ANALYSIS AN D THE DECISION TO START
