Consulting Skills
Getting Your Expertise Used To Make a Difference

Description and Overview:
We frequently find ourselves in a consultant role—situations without direct control but where we want to make a difference. Consulting is framed as delivering your expertise into a client—impacting the client in a way the client values AND your expertise is well used.

This participative workshop focuses on the "how to's" of successful consulting, tied to impacting business outcomes.

Audience:
Those in Information Systems, Information Technology, Communication, Marketing, Finance, Human Resources, Training, Organization Development, and other Staff or Support Functions.

Length:
The full workshop is five days. It can be planned for two 2½-day sessions or as five consecutive days. We can custom design solutions for your particular needs. An 1-day overview is available.

Objectives:

• Know what your expertise is, articulate it and make an offer to your client.
• Understand what your value added is for the client and how you can deliver on it.
• Form a collaborative relationship with the client, or be a partner in the business.
• Facilitate the Consulting Process and handle the conversations needed in each phase of it.
• Talk about what conditions need to be in place for your expertise to bring value added and why they make sense for the client.
• Gather information, make a diagnosis and formulate recommendations.
• Deal with "ownership" issues.
• Use positive and effective tools when encountering resistance, disagreement, or cynic victim and bystander behaviors.
• Choose accountability for yourself and your client's success.
• Apply your expertise within a business or unit.

Options:

• Works well for either intact or cross functional, mixed groups.
• Can be custom designed for your function and situation.
• Can be expanded to include rethinking your expertise and redefining the products and services you offer to improve impacts on clients' business outcomes.
• Can serve as a foundation for re-inventing staff groups and their functions.
• On going support to continue building your consulting and change facilitation capacity is available, including shadow consulting, consulting clinics and on-line discussion groups.