The Basic Principles of Effective Consulting 4 This page intentionally left blank The Basic Principles of Effective Consulting 4 Linda K. Johnson Loyola University Chicago LAWRENCE ERLBAUM ASSOCIATES, PUBLISHERS 2006 Mahwah, New Jersey London Copyright © 2006 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by photostat, microform, retrieval system, or any other means, without prior written permission of the publisher.
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers 10 Industrial Avenue Mahwah, New Jersey 07430 www.com Cover design by Kathryn Houghtaling Lacey Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Stroh, Linda K. The basic principles of effective consulting / Linda K. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8058-5419-3 (cloth : alk.
paper) ISBN 0-8058-5420-7 (pbk.4'6—dc22 2005050733 CIP Books published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates are printed on acid- free paper, and their bindings are chosen for strength and durability. Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is dedicated to our families. We thank them for their love and continual support of our careers. Thanks to: Greg, Angie, Joe, Brad, Brandy, and Brayden Barbara, Jan, Jim, Rich, Linda, JD, Jon, Joe Homer, Katelynn, Jill, and Nick This page intentionally left blank Contents Foreword ix Preface xi About the Authors xv 1 Consultants and Consulting 1 From the Experts … The Internal Consultant’s Role at Dow Jones & Company by Amy Glynn, Global Consultant, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
10 2 Establishing Expectations and Goals 15 From the Experts … Criteria for Selecting Consultants at Archer Daniels Midland by Maureen Ausura, Corporate Vice President, Human Resources, Archer Daniels Midland Company 19 3 Formalizing the Agreement: Proposals and Contracts 33 From the Experts … The Importance of Written Contracts by Kerry Weinger, Partner, Baker & McKenzie LLP 37 4 Developing a Project Strategy: Diagnosis and Data 60 Collection From the Experts … Data Collection Begins at the Beginning! by Linda Stroh and Homer Johnson, Professors, HRIR, Graduate School of Business, Loyola University Chicago 69 vii viii CONTENTS 5 Interviewing 84 From the Experts … Listen Up! by Denny L. Brown, President, Linden Associates 92 6 Preparing the Feedback/Assessment Report: Moving the 102 Client to Action From the Experts … Is There Such a Thing as Too Much Input to Report? by Malou Roth, President, People First 106 7 Presenting the Findings: Moving From Diagnosis to 124 Commitment to Action From the Experts … Presenting the Findings by Larry Anders, Anders & Associates, and Sherry Camden-Anders, Alliant International University 125 8 Initiating Action 139 From the Experts … A Few Simple Steps to Implement Change by Richard E. Bailey, Bailey Consulting 149 9 Ending the Project 152 From the Experts … Life With Consultants: First, Prepare for the End by Elaine Patterson, Senior Human Resources Consultant, Unocal Corporation 154 10 Some Final Thoughts: The Basic Principles of Effective 162 Consulting From the Experts … Building Strong Consultant–Client Relationships at PricewaterhouseCoopers by Raj Tatta, Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers 165 Some Further Reading 168 Index 171 Foreword Robert L. Lorber Internationally recognized consultant and author This is the book! If you check out the shelves of your local bookseller for books on con- sulting, you will find books on how to set up an independent consulting practice; how to market yourself as a consultant; and even how to make millions of dollars as a consultant.
You might even find these books to be interesting reads, but my guess is, unlike The Basic Principles of Effective Consulting, you may never look at those books again. If you only read one book on consulting this year, read this one! After almost 30 years as the CEO of the Lorber Kamai Consulting Group, I believe The Basic Principles of Effective Consulting is a book you will be drawn to repeatedly over your career in consulting. Just as Stroh and Johnson note throughout the book, when most consultants fail, it’s because they have never learned (or have forgotten) the basics of doing consulting. I had the unique the opportunity of writing Putting The One Minute Manager To Work with Ken Blanchard and One Page Management with Riaz Khadem; and “this is THE book!” It starts with Step #1 and describes the basics you need to become an effective consultant.
Stroh and Johnson pro- vide numerous hands-on examples of each step of the consulting process, from writing a proposal and securing a contract, to providing a feedback report, to initiating change in organizations. They have called on experts in the field to write real life case examples relevant to each chapter’s material. These expert cases exemplify the hu- manness of the consulting experience and provide advice from the pros in the consulting field (and those who are users of consultants). I had the great experience of working with one of these extraordinary contributors, Dick Bailey.
Dick was one of the top senior executives at Kraft when he ix x FOREWORD asked us to work with him and his team. As a leader, he knew how to work with, learn from, and manage large consulting projects. Read the chapter that includes the “From the Experts” section in which Bailey talks about “A Few Simple Steps to Implement Change.” This is the type of quality con- tent that can make a real difference for leaders, managers, and consultants. The end of each chapter provides summaries that can be referred to throughout your career—summaries that remind even the seasoned con- sultant of how to remain successful in the business by providing checklists to ensure an effective engagement.
Moreover, the basic principles can be applied regardless of your spe- cialty area. Whether it’s information technology, or marketing, Six Sigma, engineering, or golf course design, the consulting model outlined in this book is outstanding—and it works! Stroh and Johnson should be complimented on a job well done. In my 30 years as a consultant I only wish they would have written this book a long time ago. It could have simplified and made a huge difference to me and my organization.
I’m proud to introduce a book that will help each of the readers to im- prove the quality and effectiveness of the work that you do. Enjoy the journey! Preface: Who Should Read This Book and Why This book is written for novice consultants, project managers, staff advi- sors, and anyone who wants to learn (or be reminded of) the basic princi- ples of effective consulting. The book is an introduction to consulting and provides a step-by-step process that nearly anyone can learn. Even a sea- soned consultant would benefit from reviewing the material in this book.
As noted in chapter 10 of this book, when consultants run into trouble, it is most often because they have forgotten, or have ignored, the basic princi- ples of consulting. Although many people call themselves consultants, or operate in a consulting capacity, not all of them are able to successfully help organizations and their managers make their workplaces more effec- tive and efficient places to work. With the onset of downsizing, rightsizing, and outsourcing, organizations call on consultants more and more to fill the gaps in their workforces, implement needed change in their organiza- tions, and solve significant problems in their organizations. Regardless of the functional area in which you may consult, the key success factors and basic principles of effective consulting outlined in this book will help you become a better consultant.
The impetus for writing this book came from the many students and consultants whom we have trained over the years. They have told us that there are two important keys that are needed for training someone to be an effective consultant. The first is a general model of the consulting pro- cess—a step-by-step model that outlines the consulting process from start to finish. The second key is to have ample numbers of concrete cases and examples to explain what goes on in each step of the consulting process.
A frequent complaint with other books on consulting is that they tell you what to do but don’t show you how to do it. xi xii PREFACE We’ve used this feedback from consultants and our students to create what we think is a unique book on the basics of consulting. The book offers a step-by-step guide of the elements of successful consulting relevant to a variety of fields. We also provide numerous examples of real life cases.
We tell our readers exactly what to say in the entry interview, how to write a proposal and a contract, how to do a diagnosis, and so on, and we provide many examples of how consultants handled difficult situations encoun- tered each step of the way. We probably have more cases in this book than most other consulting books put together (probably a bit of an exaggera- tion!). Our students told us they want concrete examples of what to say and what to do, and that’s just what we’ve provided in this book. We have also added a set of key success factors at the end of each chap- ter.
These success factors can be used in multiple ways. They can be used as a checklist to validate that you have covered the important steps related to each chapter’s material (e., when writing a contract, you can refer to the success factors at the end of chapter 3 to be sure you have covered the im- portant material in your contract or agreement). The key success factors could also be used in the classroom or in your company as guidelines for important topic-relevant discussions/dialogue. If using the book in the classroom, the success factors could also be turned into student projects.
In addition, we have added to each chapter “From the Experts” sections written by successful consultants and users of consultants’ services. These experts share ideas and tips about their own consulting experiences that relate to some of the material discussed in the chapter. This feature of the book provides very valuable advice on how experts approach problems and challenges, as well as what worked for them and what didn’t work for them. Again, as the consultants we have trained have asked, our attempt here is to provide the reader with some very practical advice on how best to deal with issues raised at each step of the consulting process.
We are hopeful that the reader, like the many consultants that we have trained, will find this approach valuable and that the insights that we have provided in the book will enhance your career success. Johnson ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There are several people we need to thank who have made this book possi- ble. First, we thank our families for their continual support and under- standing. Next, we are thankful to Erica Fox for her excellent research and editing skills.
This book could not have been written without Erica’s inter- est and dedication to our work. WHO SHOULD READ THIS BOOK AND WHY xiii We are also grateful to the experts who were willing to share their ad- vice by writing cases for each chapter in this book: Amy Glynn, Dow Jones & Company Inc.; Maureen Ausura, Archer Daniels Midland; Kerry Weinger, Baker & McKenzie; Denny L. Brown, Linden Associates; Malou Roth, People First, Larry Anders, Anders & Associates and Sherry Cam- den-Anders, Alliant International University; Richard E. Bailey, Bailey Consulting; Elaine Patterson, Unocal Corporation; and Raj Tatta, PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Thanks also go to Loyola University Chicago, our colleagues who work there and the students from whom we learn so much. We would also like to especially thank the Organization Development graduate students who helped collect data and edited material for this book. Thanks, too, to Carmen Santiago for making our life easier in so many ways. We want to acknowledge John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
for permissions granted to reference material from the following articles below that were previously published in their consulting ANNUAL: Johnson, H. Collaborative contracting: A key to consulting success.