1.
Being A Great
Consultant
Retail L&D Management
Development Team

2.
Being A Great Consultant
Ian Turner – L&D BP
22 May 2017

3.
Session Objectives
To discuss and experience an overview of some key
consulting skills, a model of the consulting process,
and exposure to the following:
1. Consulting “Deliverables”
2. Key Consulting Skills
3. Consulting Process
4. The Feedback Process
5. A.P.I.E Change Model
6. Consulting Styles
7. Ethical Issues

4.
What is a Consultant?
A consultant is an
person who provides
professional or expert
advice in a particular
field of science or
business to either an
organisation or
individual.

5.
Internal Consultant
A professional who is employed full-time by
an organisation and who reports to a
general manager or other senior
management.
They works exclusively within the domain of
the employing organisation and at the
request of the manager to whom they report.

6.
External Consultant
A professional who does not work within a
parent or host company.
A professional who has an expertise in a
specific area and offers their services to the
public and / or private sector.

7.
Consultant’s Objectives
1. To establish a collaborative relationship
between themselves and their client.
2. To support the identification of and solve
problems so they stay solved.
3. To ensure attention is given to both the
technical / business problem and the
relationships within them.

8.
Cost of Solution
Quality of Solution Time of Delivery
‘What are the deliverables?’
C
TQ

9.
Key Consulting Skills
• Technical
– Time management
– Team work
– Software application
• Interpersonal
– Open minded
– Support
– Respect
• Consulting
– Listening
– Building Trust
– Balancing Directness

10.
Practical Applications
• Key Competencies of Consultancy:
–Big Picture Thinking
–Problem Solving Logic
–Focus on Value or Value Add
–Depth and breadth - Business intuition
–Results Orientation

11.
Big Picture Thinking

12.
Problem Solving Logic

13.
Focus on Value or Value Add
How do YOU
demonstrate
Value Add?

14.
Depth and breadth –
Business intuition
How DEEP is your
knowledge?
How WIDE is your
experience?
What can you BRING from
past learnings / experiences?

15.
Results Orientation
1. Define what you need to measure – “Delivery
of Objective”.
2. Identify the one KEY Performance Indicator
ONLY.
3. Have a tangible target, ideally numerical or
percentage driven.
4. Define steps to achieving the KPI
5. Carry out a “Reality Check” to make sure KPIs
will demonstrate achievement of the objective.
6. Be very specific with timescales
7. Review progress towards KPI regularly

16.
Stakeholder Analysis &
Management

17.
Stakeholder Analysis &
Management

18.
Stakeholder Management
Scenario One
Stakeholder Identification
Nelson leads a product development team at an educational publishing company. His objective is to develop a new product
for teaching mathematics to elementary school children.
The regional School Board has decided to purchase the product based on the descriptions and examples already provided.
The publisher’s CEO spearheaded the project because he was frustrated with the way maths was taught to his own children.
He’d tried out a variety of tutoring services and just couldn’t find a product that taught the right concepts and made learning
fun.
The project team did a stakeholder analysis and decided it was important that the CEO and his kids were involved in the
testing. Even though the purchase decision was already made, they made sure they kept the Board informed of
developments.
They set up field tests with groups of students to gauge their reaction to the product. They also consulted with key outside
suppliers to make sure they could manufacture the product cost effectively. The testing went very well. The children and the
CEO thought the product was great. The Board was very pleased with all the progress and the product looked like it would be
profitable.
Nelson and his team figured they had covered all their bases so they were very surprised to learn that, after six months in
schools, the product was not a success. Only 37 percent of classes were using it regularly and almost 25 percent had
stopped using it all together.
At first, the team thought the issue was training, so it went back and conducted follow-up sessions with teachers. Another
three months went by and the results were unchanged.
What do you think went wrong? How would you have managed the key stakeholders differently?

19.
Stakeholder Management
Scenario One: Suggested Solution
Stakeholder Identification
Nelson and his team missed a crucial stakeholder group: teachers. Even though
teachers aren’t the people purchasing the product, they are the people who
ultimately determine the product’s success.
Nelson needed their buy-in as users of the product. The kids’ reaction is important,
but teachers need to be motivated to use the product in the first place. Kids might
also love a new video game but that doesn’t mean the teachers are going to use it
in the classroom.
So in this instance, even without the monetary purchase decision, teachers are the
“buyers” of things they choose to include in their daily curriculum.
Nelson should have included the teachers in early product development stages and
done extensive testing with them. Allowing the teachers to provide feedback along
the way would have improved buy-in and probably improved the overall quality of
the product

20.
Stakeholder Management
Scenario 2
Stakeholder Analysis
Cindy recently started a video game development company. She is heading up its newest project to develop a fantasy
adventure game (her previous games were either puzzles or children’s games). The up-front research and development costs
of this kind of large-scale game are huge. However, she has found an investor willing to fund this side of the product, as he’s a
very keen gamer himself and sees the market for quality products in this genre.
Financing will be provided in stages over the next year and the investor will approve each further release of money. Cindy and
the team begin their research. They identify end users as key stakeholders in their success. They also look at what the retail
market needs and what online retailers and buyers are purchasing.
Through discussions with industry representatives, and focus groups with consumers, they learn that they all want highly
realistic games. The team begins to develop a realistic adventure game that it is confident will sell well.
The team sticks to its budget figures and there are no major setbacks. The money continues to be released on schedule. When
Cindy has the basic concept and shell of the game built, she invites key industry people and a targeted consumer group
to provide feedback. The response is very positive. She prepares a detailed report for the investor and includes some of the
feedback comments, thinking that he will be excited to learn more about the game and people’s reaction to it. Unexpectedly, the
investor pulls his support for the project and Cindy and her team are left scrambling. They don’t understand: the feedback from
industry and consumers was great. No one had seen a game quite like it before, and they were all pleasantly surprised that a
company with success in the children’s and puzzles market could produce such a realistic game about crime and drug culture.
What went wrong? How would you suggest moving the project forward now? What are the
repercussions of the ill-executed stakeholder analysis?

21.
Stakeholder Management
Scenario Two: Suggested Solution
Stakeholder Analysis
What went wrong? How would you suggest moving the project forward now? What
are the repercussions of the ill-executed stakeholder analysis?
The team failed to adequately assess all stakeholders’ interests. It focused on two
very important groups: the industry and users. Unfortunately, it didn’t communicate
enough with the investor. Although the industry desires realistic crime-based games,
not everyone will support this type of product. In fact there is a strong backlash
against these games, due to feared links to real-life violence and re-enactments of
the scenes.
This new game is also a significant departure from the company’s previous focus.
There was no indication it would move into producing violent video games, so this
significant change in direction should have been brought up much earlier in the
development process. Knowing that the investor was involved for both commercial
and personal interest, Cindy should have kept him informed along the way. He was
given financial information but not product information. His power and interest are
both high, yet he was treated as a high power but low interest stakeholder.

22.
The Five Fatal Flaws
of Consulting
1. The project is defined in terms of the consultant’s expertise or
products, not in terms of the specific client results to be
achieved.
2. The project’s scope is determined solely by the subject to be
studied or the problem to be solved, ignoring the client’s
readiness for change.
3. The project aims for one big solution rather than incremental
successes.
4. The project entails a sharp division of responsibility between
client and consultant; there is no partnership between them.
5. The project makes labour-intensive use of consultants
instead of leveraged use.

23.
Consultant Roles
Expert
Service
Collaborative

24.
Expert Role
Let’s describe what behaviours are exhibited
by the client and the consultant?
• Client:
– Inactive participation
• Consultant:
– Determines need, gathers data, make
decisions, plans and implements change

25.
Service Role
Let’s describe what behaviors are exhibited
by the client and the consultant?
• Client:
– Determines need, gathers data, make
decisions, plans and implements change
• Consultant:
– Inactive participation

26.
Collaborative Role
Let’s describe what behaviors are exhibited
by the client and the consultant?
• Client and Consultant:
– Actively participate to determine needs,
gather data, make decisions, plan and
implement change

27.
Consulting Styles
• Stabiliser
• Cheerleader
• Analyser
• Persuader
• Pathfinder

28.
Consulting Process
1. Entry & Contracting
2. Discover & Data Collection
3. Feedback & Decision to Act
4. Engagement & Implementation
5. Recycle, Extension, & Terminate

29.
Entry & Contracting
• Negotiating
• Coping with mixed
motivation / buy-in
• Exposure and Control
• Contracting
–Triangular
–Rectangular

30.
Discovery & Data Collection
• Layers of Analysis
• Problem Statements
• Political Climate
• Resistance to share
information
• Interview as a joint
learning event
• Data Interpretation

31.
Feedback & The Decision To
Act
• Funneling Data
• Presenting Data
• Discussing the
“Undiscussable”
• Managing the
Feedback Meeting
• Focus on “Here and
Now”
• Don’t take it personally

32.
Block’s 10 Step Feedback
1. Restate original
contract
2. Structure of meeting
3. Present findings
4. Present
recommendations
5. Ask for client’s
reaction
6. Ask client did they
get what they
wanted
7. Decision to proceed
8. Test for client
concerns-control /
commitment
9. Did the Consultant
get what they
wanted?
10.Give support

33.
Engagement & Implementation
• Bet on “engagement” over
mandate and persuasion.
• Design more “participation”
than presentation.
• Encourage difficult public
exchange. The
(“Undiscussables”).
• Change the conversation
from problem to
opportunity.

34.
A.P.I.E. Change Model
1. Assess the need for Change
2. Plan the Change
3. Implement the Change
4. Evaluate the Change process and results

35.
Recycle, Extension,
Termination
• Evaluate what happened in
“Engagement and
Implementation”
• Decide on next step
–Recycle
–Extension
–Termination

36.
Ethical Issues
• Boundaries of competence.
• Conflicts between ethics and
company demands.
• Explaining assessment results.

37.
References
• Bain & Company (www.bain.com)
• Block, Peter. (2000) Flawless Consulting: A guide to
getting your expertise used (2nd Ed.). San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass Pfeiffer.
• Harvey, D. & Brown, D.R. (2006) An experimental
approach to organisation development (7th ed.). Upper
Saddle River, NJ. Prentice-Hall, Inc.
• Nelson, B. & Economy, P. (1997) Consulting for
dummies. Foster City, CA: IDG Books.
• Schein, Edgar H. (1988) Process Consultation, vol.1: It’s
role in organisation development . Reading, Mass.:
Addison-Wesley.

38.
Q & A