SOM OUTREACH Consulting Training November 1, 2002

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SOM OUTREACHConsulting TrainingNovember 1,
2002
WELLSPRING CONSULTING
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GOALS FOR TODAY
Increase your awareness of consulting excellence,
and how it is achieved Suggest frameworks to
guide your work Raise some questions to
stimulate your thinking Respond to your
questions
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CHRISTOPHER KEEVILQuick Overview of My Background

• SOM graduate 1987
• Came with a varied background
• General manager of ballet company
• Solar energy carpentry, square dance caller
• Participated in a student consulting team during
  my second year
• 15 years of consulting experience
• 12 years at BCG, four years as a Partner
• Two leaves of absence, consulted to nonprofit
  organizations
• 3 years at Harbridge house doing strategic
  management development
• Founded Wellspring Consulting in January 2002
• Focused exclusively on nonprofit clients
• Using strategic consulting approach based on BCG
  experience
• Combining analytical problem-solving with
  collaborative work to generate insights
• Building a diverse set of clients and a
  top-quality consulting team serving the Northeast
  Corridor

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HOW MANY OF YOU HAVE BEEN CONSULTANTS?
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WHAT MAKES THIS HARD TO DO WELL?The Consulting
Process
Client Problem
Consulting
Positive result for client
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TEN GUIDELINES FOR SUCCESS

• Clearly define the problem you are seeking to
  solve
• Manage client expectations
• Use a workplan, and work to it
• Apply the so what test to anything you are
  bringing to the client
• Listen intensively
• Use well-constructed data gathering methods
• Do what it takes to keep your own team process
  working well
• Generate insights, go beyond information
• Put yourself in the clients shoes
• Prepare professional-quality presentations

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PLANNING FOR THE CONSULTING ENGAGEMENT

• Start with the central questions
• Focus on the key issues
• Develop your initial hypotheses
• Story-board your analysis
• Understand the burden of proof
• Create a closed loop (begin at the end)
• Clearly define your analyses/methodology,
  specifically
• What needs to be accomplished
• What information/data is required
• How the information is to be developed

Thinking Map

• Define resources and responsibilities
• Consulting team
• Client
• Describe the work structure and process
• Clearly state the deliverables
• Lay out the timing of work, and meeting schedules
  for the entire project
• Demonstrate some results quickly

Activity Schedule
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EXAMPLE WORKPLAN
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DATA-GATHERING METHODS

• Primary research
• Individual interviews
• Group interviews
• Surveys
• Secondary research
• Publicly available data
• Data held by the client organization

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INDIVIDUAL INTERVIEWS
½ to 1 ½ hours in length In person, or by
phone If by phone, can type while interviewing
(a headset helps) Work out with the client who
will schedule interviews Ask the client to make
an introduction Send an introductory letter to
interviewees by fax or email Call to follow up
and schedule
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GROUP INTERVIEWS
Logistics
Pointers

• 1 ½ to 2 hours in length
• Vary the approach depending on the number of
  people
• 8 people is about the max
• Two interviewers
• Provide some incentives to come
• It is part of their job
• Refreshments
• Small gift
• Attend to the physical setup
• Appropriate size room
• Flip chart and markers
• Note taker
• Again, work out with the client who will schedule
  the session
• Reserve the location

• Groups should consist of homogeneous members
• Do at least three of each type of group to
  confirm accuracy of findings
• Allow people to have conversations with each
  other
• Strong facilitation is important to get the most
  out of the group
• Plan the agenda carefully
• Have a set of questions to drive discussion
• Be ready to capture different findings

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PREPARE FOR INTERVIEWSIndividual or Group

• Prepare an interview guide with client input
• List of questions to cover
• Information to share with interviewees
• (Interviews may not follow the interview guide
  exactly)
• Identify which questions you need answered by
  every interviewee
• For comparison between interviews
• Probe to understand more deeply
• Ask why five times
• Pay attention to body language
• Be courteous

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FOR PRIMARY RESEARCH OF ALL TYPESSet the Context
Describe who you are State the purpose of the
research Give an overview of the whole
project Lay out the next steps in the
process Say if you will report back findings to
the participants or not Clarify if your findings
will be confidential, and if so, how
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INTERVIEWSTypes of Questions

• Introductory questions
• Tell me about your job, what you do, and how long
  youve been with the organization
• Tell me about where you live and the community
  around you
• Demographics (if necessary)
• Closed ended questions
• Numerical responses, e.g.,How many people use
  the service in a week?
• Ranked responses (scale of 1-5)
• Yes/No, and if yes, why?
• Include No, Dont Know options
• Open ended questions
• No set response
• Harder to compare answers

• Set the interviewee at ease
• Allow the interviewee to dictate the flow of the
  interview to some extent
• Listen for important insights
• Try to get answers in numerical terms where
  possible

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SURVEYS
The case for surveys
Guidelines for developing surveys
Low-cost way to get a larger number of
responses Often get noise in the data Less
reliable as the respondent cannot ask for an
interpretation of the question Methods of
distribution can effect response rate and sources
of responses Know that there is a self-selection
bias Closed ended questions are much better for
analysis
Establish the hypotheses you wish to test prior
to writing questions Work backwards from your
presentation of findings how will you use what
the survey tells you? Write the survey questions
with client input Have a team review the survey
to improve language, catch errors and logical
inconsistencies Avoid compound questions Make
the survey the appropriate length for the audience
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SECONDARY DATA
Types of secondary data Keep in mind
when using secondary data

• Public information
• Other studies, specific to the
• Client
• Field
• Geography
• Internal documents
• History and background
• Organization charts
• Bylaws
• Job descriptions
• Financials
• Marketing materials, grant applications
• Dont assume it is correct test validity
• Work with the data to answer your questions
• Sometimes simply organizing the clients data can
  be powerful
• Avoid getting lost in the information

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THE TEAM DEVELOPMENT PROCESSExpect it, Work with
It
Performing
Norming
Storming
Forming
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GENERATE INSIGHTS!
Data
Insights
The organization has had a staff of 15 for five
years 90 of the organizations events have been
small Our six communities have 30 of their tax
base coming from business There are over 40
organizations in the area that use your type of
service Support for at-risk youth is a growing
trend on campuses
Staff turnover rates have been 40 per year The
one big event in the past five years had a very
different fundraising strategy behind
it Business tax incentives in our communities
are not comparable to those offered by the
Hartford area Of those 40 organizations, 15 have
a rapidly growing need for your services The
five major colleges in your area could justify
spending xyz on support for at-risk youth
What are examples of other insights you might
expect to generate on your Outreach projects?
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WHO HAS BEEN A CLIENT TO A CONSULTING
ENGAGEMENT?
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WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO BE A CONSULTING CLIENT
Im feeling insecure Im feeling threatened Im
impatient Im worried Im skeptical Im
hopeful
Will these guys be helpful to me, or just muck
around in my organization? Should I really be
putting my area of expertise in the hands of
others? Cant we get to the answer now, so I can
move forward? Will these consultants imply that
Ive been incompetent? Will some student who
dont really know my organization be able to
offer something of value? Id very much like
something good to come from this work
Other experiences of being a client?
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SENSITIVITY TO THE NONPROFIT ENVIRONMENT
What is it like to work within a nonprofit
organization (generally)? What motivates
people within nonprofit organizations? What
constraints do nonprofits face when it comes time
to implement your recommendations?
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WHAT IS A PROFESSIONAL-QUALITY PRESENTATION?
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WHAT IS A PROFESSIONAL-QUALITY PRESENTATION?

• The preparation
• Discuss the key messages within your team
• Review the findings informally with your client
  prior to the meeting
• Determine the role each person on the consulting
  team will play in the meeting
• Prepare for the natural questions created by your
  presentation and findings
• The materials
• Clear, logical flow
• Articulate writing
• No typos
• Consistent format and fonts
• Neatly bound
• The delivery
• Well prepared
• Relaxed
• Speaking with the client (vs. to the client)
• Willing to work together to get the job done

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WHAT RISKS DO YOU NEED TO MANAGE?
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WHAT RISKS DO YOU NEED TO MANAGE?
Taking on more work than can be delivered in your
time frame Being unclear about the
responsibilities of the consultants and the
clients Your consulting team going through its
own dysfunctional periods The unwillingness of
team members to challenge each other on standards
of quality Delivering bad news to the
client Receiving requests to address additional
issues
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GOOD LUCK !