Greg Baker, on February 15, 2022
Using science to move work forward and drive change is at the heart of the Consulgetics approach. It addresses two of the biggest challenges consultants face. How do we know what those are?
Whenever we deliver our consultant development workshops we ask the participants to list the biggest challenges in their daily work. Two things always make the list. First, they say they have trouble moving work forward. Progress stalls when clients don’t do what they’re supposed to do for the project, when needed resources aren’t available, or when obstacles get in the way. Second, they tell us that driving change in their client organizations, and their own, is difficult and, at times, seems impossible. For example, systems are implemented but people don’t fully adopt them, new processes are defined but people are more comfortable with the old way, or a faction of resisters has formed to undermine the whole effort.
If we could just solve these two problems, they say, life as a consultant would be so much better! And you know what? They’re right! Solving these problems is arguably a holy grail of consulting. But how do we do it?
First, we need to recognize that the way we’ve been approaching these problems simply isn’t working well. Then we need to find and adopt the new approaches that will give consultants the power and ability to meet these universal challenges. This article will give you a window into those approaches and a path to the details of using science to move work forward and drive change. Let’s take the challenges one at a time.
Greg Baker, on July 31, 2015
What’s that you say? Your organization has “communication problems”? I’ve heard that one before. It’s almost as common as “A guy walks into a bar…”, but not as funny. If there is a funny part it is that people often speak with apparent authority about “communication problems” without understanding what causes them at the root. Consequently, when we don’t understand problems at their root, we can never solve them. This article drills in on five top causes of business communication problems. It helps expose communication problems as mostly symptoms, not core problems.
Greg Baker, on March 19, 2014
There are seven critical elements you need to consider when planning your Consultant Development Program if you want to truly enhance the level and type of service your professional service employees provide to their clients. We refer to these elements as The Seven Pillars. Together they make up, and hold up, a complete approach to building effective consulting organizations.
No organizational structure is perfect, but many of them across business today could be a lot better. The challenge is that many structures out there breed unintentional conflict. Does yours? Perhaps it’s time to rethink your organizational structure.
In my recent blog article, A Solution for Managing Unintentional Conflict in Operations, I described how a client company resolved the “unintentional conflict” created by their contract processing operation. They resolved it by creating a “shared operational space” where work was accomplished with much greater harmony and efficiency. Their results were stunning – a near 300% improvement in contract cycle time. In this article I provide some “how-to’s” for you to align your business operations to manage conflict, and talk a little more about the importance of creating shared space in business operations to prevent conflict in the first place.