Kendall Consulting Group - Consulting Skills Development Experience

The Consulting Skills Development Experience:
What Is a Typical KCG Program?

KCG has worked with about 20 companies in the past decade to help them develop consulting capabilities that could be applied to their own operations and/or used to better service their customer base. During this time, KCG has developed teaching materials and an in depth understanding of how to customize its coaching and education to meet each company's individual needs. For instance, several of our clients have been non-English speaking so our education and coaching have been tailored to their language and culture.

Our recent work fits one or more of the following models:

• Two-week education sessions
• One to three-day education sessions
• Side-by-side joint consulting across projects
• Executive coaching to leaders of consulting initiatives

Two-week (or more) education sessions

Several clients have wanted a deep emersion program for a select group of staff. We work with the client regarding the criteria for attendee selection. About 15 to 25 attendees come to a conference center and reside there during the ten-day program. An agenda of half-day modules is developed with the client, often building on materials KCG already has available and its experience with other education programs. Presentation materials are developed to go with the plan for each module. The materials are integrated across the modules; for instance, a single case study may span several modules and help develop continuity for how the individual skills and consulting concepts we discuss in class are applied within a single client setting.

Table 1 shows some of the modules from both basic and advanced consulting skills courses that we have taught. These skill areas are some of those beginning and intermediate consultants need to be effective. (We presume some functional or technical depth in other areas as well.)

Table 1 - Some Consulting Skills Course Modules (Basic and Intermediate)
Consulting Industry Overveiw	Consulting Roles and Engagements
Consulting Firm Operations/Financials	Gaining Access to Right Clients
Assessing Client Needs	Interviewing and Listening
Developing Winning Proposals	Staffing Consulting Engagements
Stakeholder Management	Change Management
Professionalism and Credibility	Packaging and Presentations
Expectations Management	Meeting Facilitation
Storytelling	Getting In and Out of Trouble
Negotiation Skills	Influence Without Authority
Marketing Consulting Services	Sales Process and Techniques
Client Education Process	Teams and Teaming
Best Practices: Basis of Consulting	Typical Consulting Engagements
Engagement Analysis Techniques	Partnership Principles
Problem Solving and Creativity Techniques	New Project Management Approaches
Working with Different Thinking Styles	Conflict Resolution
Custom Cases	Custom Modules

 

A module may consist of an hour's classroom teaching and discussion based on a Powerpoint presentation. Then breakout groups of five or six students each discuss the concepts in the context of a customized case study. Finally, the class reassembles to discuss the findings of the breakout groups on the case. Breakout groups may work the same set of questions or each be working on a different aspect of the case. Case work helps solidify the teaching concepts in the student's minds and links the material to their own experience. KCG has a number of case studies that it uses to help in education sessions, mostly drawn from their own consulting experience or from Harvard University case studies. (Note: for foreign students, class materials are translated into their native language, and a translator is used to facilitate learning in a student's natural language.)

In these longer education sessions KCG also brings in other consultants, specialists and even some of their clients to discuss their experiences with consulting and consultants. Several of our clients have brought current case studies for the class to consider.

Evening and weekend time during the longer sessions include case work, discussion groups, reading assignments, and team building and recreational activities. Many of the groups that return to their companies talk of the camaraderie developing during this time and how it has helped the new groups to develop and prosper.

KCG's distinction is that each faculty member has extensive consulting and professional experience. Each of us has personal experience to share with the students regarding an teaching module or case study. Thus, our teaching consists not only of the expected material, but also of anecdotes and stories from our own consulting situations. Students are also encouraged to raise questions and specific work situations for class discussion. This approach, coupled with our dynamic teaching, helps make the material come alive for the students.

KCG's aim is that students attending such a session will be able to either return to their existing jobs with new knowledge and excitement about how to apply the consultative approach discussed in class, or to launch into consulting work with clients. Many of the attendees at such sessions have provided feedback on the success of our approach.

One to three-day education sessions

Some clients do not want to devote the time to the emersion approach described above. Rather they want a series of one to three-day classes, perhaps spread over several months. Again, the material is customized to the needs of the client and their situation.

For one client, we conducted a series of three-day classes for their entire information systems staff that were given over a period of six months. Gradually, the entire group worked its way through the consulting skills modules that were customized for the client. In this case, there was less emphasis on case studies and stories, and more on classroom teaching. IS Managers also took the course and assumed the responsibility to continue discussion and motivation of the students (their staff) n the materials that were taught. KCG helped these managers add new performance appraisal criteria to their staff evaluations.

For another client, a five-day strategy setting and consulting skills workshop was developed. Key senior managers attended the workshop with a goal of deciding whether or not to launch a professional services group in their marketplace and to understand the basic concepts and skills that would be required. Over the course of the week, the attendees were exposed to the skills needed for consulting in their industry, did some scenario planning, and were led through several strategy-setting activities. The group did launch a consulting initiative in which over 200 company staff participated.

Side-by-side joint consulting across projects

One way to reinforce the concepts taught is to help our clients "learn by doing." In this work, KCG has been brought in to work with newly anointed in-house consultants to conduct client work and create the kind of results the company needs.

In one manufacturing client, KCG teamed with a small group of internal consultants and contributed to about four major projects the group's members were working on. KCG attended client meetings, helped the new consultants understand the engagements and their roles, worked through analysis techniques and solution development, and then helped the team members sell their solutions to their clients. KCG was often on call by telephone or by video conference to help in these situations, making suggestions or working behind the scenes to make the new internal consultants a success.

In this role, as well as the next one, KCG consultants and faculty act as role models for the individuals developing consulting skills. Staff can see and discuss with us, one on one, everything we do. KCG takes care to discuss with our client consultants, their approach, alternatives, the decision process and why they are taking the actions they do. This helps develop, in real time, the skills of the new consultants.

KCG has used this "side by side" approach as an adjunct to classroom education. Students attend an education session for a day or so, and then spend "one on one" time with a KCG consultant to discuss their work, clients, and scenarios and how to apply the learnings to real situations.

In one of our clients, we spent many classroom hours with the new internal consultants, and worked with one consultant team in particular that were helping to define the requirements for a new warehouse and inventory management system. As the requirements grew, so did expectations about the project. We helped our clients (in this case the new internal consultants) to manage expectations, enlist new senior management in more aggressive leadership roles, and helped them to manage the scope of their engagement. Ultimately, a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system was implemented with great success.

Executive coaching to leaders of consulting initiatives

An additional part of KCG's work has been to help managers and executives build and mold a new consulting organization. In this case, KCG ensures that these managers understand the complete scope of the needs for such an organization and the people in it. We help them establish solid business processes including the creation of marketing and sales mechanisms. We also help them create and implement management processes; a viable organization, including a range of job types; information systems to run such an organization; and finally help them frame a culture that will help a new consulting business grow and prosper.

For one company, KCG personally coached the leaders of a new consulting group on their own role in running and leading the group. We helped them to learn how to market and sell their groups' services, how to work with their team members, and how to measure and develop staff within the group. For another company, KCG worked closely with several senior leaders to develop their strategy for the consulting service and to develop a transition plan to achieve their strategy.

Summary

KCG takes a dynamic approach to its educating and teaching of consulting skills, unlike many courses that offer up course materials in a "take it as it comes" approach. Bringing our personal experience, case studies, and stories and anecdotes into the education process makes the material come alive and be readily useable by students seeking to advance skills in the consulting arena.

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Innovations

Links to other articles at KCG's website

Innovations Articles

• Measures of Success for Internal Consulting Orgs (NEW!)
• Consultative Selling (New)
• Trends in Consulting
• Commentary on Trends in Consulting
• Marketing of Consulting Services
• Skills and Competencies of Successful Consultants
• Consulting Skills Development Experience
• Effective Uses of I.T. Staff as Internal Consultants
• Strategy Implementation
• Visit to an Operational Excellent Company
• Organizational Due Diligence (Mergers and Acquisitions)
• Principle Driven Operations
• Change Management
• Education's Role in Change Management
• Communications and Change Management
• Value Disciplines
• Role of IS Strategy in Making Market Leaders
• Strategic Planning and Change Mobilization
• Project Management
• Grow Your Own Consultants

Archive Articles (below)

• Designing Executive Information Systems
• Executive Information Systems: An Overview of Development
• Implications of Transition From an Industrial Era to One of Information
• Critical Success Factors Techniques can Apply to Team Management, Too
• Decision Scenarios Ensure Information System Meets Business Needs
• Critical Success Factors : Helping IS Managers Pinpoint Information Needs
• Combining Quality and Reengineering for Operational Superiority
• Steering IS Committees Straight
• Internal Consultants and a Consultative Approach
• EIS Plays Critical Role in Reengineering
• Rapid Software Selection

Kendall Consulting Group is an international general management consulting firm specializing in strategy execution, change management, and executive education. We invite you to contact us for how we might help you and your company grow and prosper.

You may reference and use the material from any of the articles provided that full written credit is given to the company and authors in your work.

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