Consulting: Tools for Success

1
Consulting Tools for Success

• February 5, 2001
• Boston College Carroll Graduate School of
  Management

2
Deborah Bernstein
Rod Blacklock
Suzie Sergi
Vin OReilly Diane Weiss / Consulting
Boston College Carroll Graduate School of
Management
3
Agenda

• Consulting Tools for Success
• Objectives
• Top 10 Lists
• Skills
• Lessons Learned
• Feedback on Your Questions
• Conflict Resolution Exercise
• QA

Vin OReilly Diane Weiss / Consulting
Boston College Carroll Graduate School of
Management
4
Objectives

• Provide honest feedback about a career in
  consulting
• Tie current learning to skills needed in
  consulting
• Helpful hints for Dianne Weiss Consulting Project

Vin OReilly Diane Weiss / Consulting
Boston College Carroll Graduate School of
Management
5
Reasons TO go into consulting

• Exposure to different companies, industries, and
  people
• Flexibility of schedule - Autonomy
• Non-repetitive projects
• Training / Learning - formal and informal
• Well-defined career path
• Multiple responsibilities

Vin OReilly Diane Weiss / Consulting
Boston College Carroll Graduate School of
Management
6
Top Reasons NOT TO go into consulting

• Work / life balance
• Travel
• Fix and run
• Always at the bottom of the learning curve
• Metrics
• Multiple stakeholders
• Perception of consultants
• Inability to affect change

Vin OReilly Diane Weiss / Consulting
Boston College Carroll Graduate School of
Management
7
Sills Most Often Used

• Communication skills
• Feedback
• Reflective practice
• Listening skills
• Interview skills
• Thinking on your feet
• Managing upward
• Presentation skills

• Time management skills
• Multi-tasking
• Multiple projects
• Prioritization
• Conflict resolution
• Writing skills
• Project management skills
• Facilitation skills

Vin OReilly Diane Weiss / Consulting
Boston College Carroll Graduate School of
Management
8
Lessons Learned for Diane Weiss

• You will rarely implement the optimal solution
  but you can always implement an effective
  solution
• Expect to be treated like an outsider sometimes
  it will work to your advantage sometimes it will
  be a barrier
• Your interests, the firms interests, your
  staffs interests and the clients interests are
  not always aligned
• Rule of thumb Give the client what they want,
  but tell them what they need to hear
• Linkage Tie the solution to the root cause
• Learn to practice conflict resolution versus
  conflict avoidance

Vin OReilly Diane Weiss / Consulting
Boston College Carroll Graduate School of
Management
9
Question What are specific consulting tools
that could help with Diane Weiss?

• Project management
• Mobilization
• document roles and responsibilities
• discuss team expectations
• Statement of Work / Job Arrangement Letter
• scope maintenance
• Workplan
• timeline
• milestones / interim deliverables
• accountability
• Establish and document deliverables

Vin OReilly Diane Weiss / Consulting
Boston College Carroll Graduate School of
Management
10
Question What are specific consulting tools
that could help with Diane Weiss?

• Project management (continued)
• Status meetings (client and team)
• Establish desired outcomes for every meeting
• Create an agenda
• End with action items / next steps
• Process Analysis
• Flowcharting
• Data Gathering
• Interviews
• Focus Groups
• Survey

Vin OReilly Diane Weiss / Consulting
Boston College Carroll Graduate School of
Management
11
Question How do you define the scope?

• DONT START WITH THE SOLUTION
• List assumptions
• Assess the situation before identifying the
  problem and creating a statement of work and
  deliverables
• Push back on the client
• Write up a problem statement
• Use root cause analysis

Vin OReilly Diane Weiss / Consulting
Boston College Carroll Graduate School of
Management
12
Question How do you set expectations and manage
them?

• Establish team roles and responsibilities and
  stick to them!
• Open discuss work styles with your team
• Appoint a client point of contact / relationship
  manager
• Hold team-mates accountable and have
  repercussions
• Set up regular meetings with the client to avoid
  surprises and get feedback
• Give real-time feedback
• Establish and document what you expect from the
  client

Vin OReilly Diane Weiss / Consulting
Boston College Carroll Graduate School of
Management
13
Question How can we best prepare ourselves for
the profession or an interview?
Answer Be focused
Vin OReilly Diane Weiss / Consulting
Boston College Carroll Graduate School of
Management
14
Question How can we best prepare ourselves for
the profession or an interview (cont.)?

• Be focused about what kind of consulting you want
  to pursue
• Talk to people network
• Follow up with interviews that did not go well
• Get your resume referred from someone within
• Check your resume
• dont underestimate past work experience
• dont forget charity work
• Research the company

Vin OReilly Diane Weiss / Consulting
Boston College Carroll Graduate School of
Management
15
Conflict Resolution Exercise

• Break into your new second semester teams
• 1 person from each team should volunteer to be a
  facilitator / scribe
• Please answer the following question WHAT IS AN
  EXISTING OR POTENTIAL CONFLICT THAT YOUR TEAM MAY
  FACE AS A CLIENT SERVICE PROVIDER?
• Each team member must produce 3 responses
• Report your responses to the scribe
• As a team, group common responses together
• Identify the most frequently occurring response
• As a team, identify 3 action items to resolve or
  minimize the conflict discussed

Vin OReilly Diane Weiss / Consulting
Boston College Carroll Graduate School of
Management
16
Thank You
Deborah Bernsteindeborah.s.bernstein_at_us.pwcblobal
.com Rod Blacklockmissross_at_rcn.com Suzie
Sergisuzanne.m.sergi_at_us.arthurandersen.com
Vin OReilly Diane Weiss / Consulting
Boston College Carroll Graduate School of
Management
17
Recommended Reading

• Managing the Professional Services Firm
• by David Maister
• First Break All the Rules
• by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman
• Emotional Intelligence
• by Daniel Goleman

Vin OReilly Diane Weiss / Consulting
Boston College Carroll Graduate School of
Management
18
Things to Inquire about when talking to
Consulting Firms

• Expected Travel
• Staffing model
• National practice
• Regional (e.g. Northeast)
• Training opportunities
• Simultaneous projects and obligations
• Focus on Industry vs Service Lines
• Average duration of projects
• Salary, bonus, and benefits structure
• Independence rules
• Ethics
• Calibre of clients

Vin OReilly Diane Weiss / Consulting
Boston College Carroll Graduate School of
Management