Getting it Right: Working Successfully with Consultants
1. Working with a consultant
Getting it right!
Organizational work plan for a successful
consultancy project for arts and non-profit
managers and boards
ArtsCubed: http://www.arts-cubed.com
2. Step One
Before you hire a consultant!
Developing the organizational plan for a
consultancy project.
ArtsCubed: http://www.arts-cubed.com
3. Your organization is positioned to make
good use of a consultant when:
Your project is responsive to your strategic plan
and will help achieve long-term goals
4. Your organization is positioned to
make good use of a consultant when:
You project addresses a real organizational need
and your organization has buy-in for the work
and is equipped to use the project results
Examine assumptions about organizational needs
Test the buy-in by organizational members whose
cooperation will be needed for success and address any
concerns before work is started
Next steps: what is the plan? e.g. No sense having a
marketing plan if you don’t have staff or budget to
implement!
ArtsCubed: http://www.arts-cubed.com
5. Your organization is positioned to
make good use of a consultant when
Your project is time-limited with clear beginning,
end and expected outcomes.
You cannot measure success without goals and
benchmarks
Your project’s budget could be exceeded without a firm
schedule
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6. Your organization is positioned to
make good use of a consultant when
You have a draft work plan for
the consultancy project
Whether you use a Gantt chart or
a simple calendar, managers and
staff know when meetings with
the consultant and joint work will
happen, minimizing disruption of
ongoing work
ArtsCubed: http://www.arts-cubed.com
7. Your organization is positioned to
make good use of a consultant when
You have a plan for project over-sight, project
communications and project support.
Consultants, managers and staff understand chain of
communications, authority and priorities
ArtsCubed: http://www.arts-cubed.com
8. Step Two:
Hiring a consultant
Find the consultant that’s right for
your organization and project
ArtsCubed: http://www.arts-cubed.com
9. Finding the consultant right for
your organization
Talk to colleagues, funders, professional
organizations
Add recommendations to your list of people/firms to
consider
Even if you are leaning toward someone known to you
consider and interview a range of recommendations
ArtsCubed: http://www.arts-cubed.com
10. Finding the consultant right
for your organization
Look at the past experience of the consultant for
indications that they know your sector and how to
work with organizations of your size, especially
when sectoral knowledge is very key to the project.
. Prepare questions needing specialized knowledge to
answer such as funding programs specific to sector
Ask specifics about implementation of past projects to
gauge ability to work independently or with a large team as
needed.
ArtsCubed: http://www.arts-cubed.com
11. Finding the consultant right
for your organization
Be sure the skills and expertise of your consultant
is a match for the specific focus of the project
"social media marketing" and not just "marketing" if they are
charged with a social media marketing plan
corporate fundraising, not just “fund-development” if you
are charging them with a corporate campaign
ArtsCubed: http://www.arts-cubed.com
12. Finding the consultant right
for your organization
Be sure that the consultant is able to be as
hands-on and present in the organization or as
independent as needed.
Be frank with the consultant about what you need and don't
need
Ask about their ability to attend meetings and their own
expectations about frequency and method of contact
ArtsCubed: http://www.arts-cubed.com
13. Finding the consultant right
for your organization
Discuss the draft plan with the consultant as well
as the opportunities, strengths and limitations of
your organization.
Be receptive to suggestions that enhance your plan but
wary of someone who wants to make huge changes to work
plan
Consider whether suggested changes are new ways of
looking at the problem or run upstream against your
organizational culture
ArtsCubed: http://www.arts-cubed.com
14. Define project communications
Assuring the success of your project by
defining authority, communication
channels and priorities
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15. Define project communications
In successful consulting projects there is
organizational oversight
Who directs the consultant's work?
Who intervenes if a consultant's work is not being done,
goes off-course or is being disruptive of operations?
ArtsCubed: http://www.arts-cubed.com
16. Define project communications
Is there a staff member(s) assigned to assist the
consultant?
Are those staff members aware of how they will be
expected to assist?
How well is the work defined?
Example: You will be required to occasionally assist X by
research and database entries. This is not to take
precedence over your regular work and should take
approximately 1-3 hours work per week."
Who intervenes if a consultant misdirects or abuses staff?
ArtsCubed: http://www.arts-cubed.com
17. Define project communications
Do staff understand the scope of
the project and how it integrates
with their own work?
Communicate the project goals with
staff who will be assisting
Buy-in is facilitated when staff
understand and do not have unrealistic
fears about the outcomes of consulting
projects
ArtsCubed: http://www.arts-cubed.com
18. Define project communications
Do staff know what information is permissible to
share?
Privacy considerations need to be addressed in advance
Sharing HR or client information and lists has legal as well
as organizational effectiveness implications
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19. Avoiding Common Pitfalls
What are the most common reasons for
consulting projects to fail?
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20. Common consulting pitfalls
Fail No. 1: Irrelevant projects
A marketing plan for an organization without the staff or
finances to support the plan.
A "think outside of the box" innovational strategy that is not
doable or sustainable due to known factors
ArtsCubed: http://www.arts-cubed.com
21. Common consulting pitfalls
Fail No. 2: Choosing a consultant with the
wrong skill set.
You picked someone with a knowledge of
foundations and government funders to plan and
pioneer an individuals and corporate donor
campaign
You picked someone with strengths in social
media marketing for an outreach to an audience
that doesn’t use social media very much
ArtsCubed: http://www.arts-cubed.com
22. Common consulting pitfalls
Fail No. 3: Choosing a consultant with
the wrong work style
You suffered with an absentee or “in your hair”
consultant
Lack of clarity about work plan or organizational
style led to a disconnect, disputes and
ultimately caused project to fail.
ArtsCubed: http://www.arts-cubed.com
23. Common consulting pitfalls
Fail No. 4: Lack of over-sight, some symptoms . . .
Consulting project takes on a life of its own due to lack of
oversight.
Results unlikely to reflect original goals and project either
becomes irrelevant or disruptive.
Results become hard to assess when it is unclear what the
consultant actually did.
Staff resent a consultant taking on roles/work that is in their
job description and have no referee to mediate
ArtsCubed: http://www.arts-cubed.com
24. Common consulting pitfalls
Fail No. 5: Lack of clarity about staff roles
Due to busyness and poor delegation, staff are uncooperative, stalling the
project
Frightened staff unduly priorize consulting project to the detriment of
higher priority work.
Consultant, unclear of how to get needed help, goes to anyone who
answers the phone for help causing duplication and confusion.
Consultant unclear of boundaries, contacts staff at home, via personal
email etc.
Staff who have no mechanism to refuse to put in extra hours for
consultancy project ask for huge overtime payments or time in lieu due to
work heaped on them by the consultant resulting in hidden costs.
ArtsCubed: http://www.arts-cubed.com
25. Common consulting pitfalls
Fail No. 6: Information Sharing Disasters!
Wary staff refuse to share information needed for the consultancy.
Staff fail to priorize information sharing because they don't know how it will
be used.
Staff who misunderstand Consultant's scope share privileged information
Consultant offers the organization contact information that is not supposed
to be shared. Individuals added to our contact list complain about spam,
damage our reputation.
Our contact list is shared against our wishes and our contacts complain.
We see a decline in funding results from known sources the following year
and discover our list of funding contacts is being used by a competitor who
has hired our former consultant
ArtsCubed: http://www.arts-cubed.com
26. SUMMARY: Key Points
Strategic needs and long-term goals should drive the project, not
short-term opportunities or needs
Select a consultant who matches the project, the organization and
the work style of the team
Provide clear oversight to the consultant and be clear about
responsibilities & communication lines for the staff
Get the necessary buy-in from staff by sharing the project's goals
and likely outcomes
Be thoughtful about information sharing making sure protections
and permissions are clear
Track the project regularly assuring reports are accurate
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Notes de l'éditeur
We’ve all heard of consultancy projects that have ramped organizations to the next level, and also those that wasted time and effort or worse caused huge organizational disruption. Here’s a methodical look at how to get it right!
Don’t hire a consultant before you have a project plan!
You know where you want to go but need expertise, tools in the short-term to facilitate long-term change. A consultant should not be hired because of a shortterm staffing need or a “friend of the Board”. You’ve done the work to develop your strategic plan, make sure that your consulting project will take you in the direction you want to go.
Examine the assumptions in your project. If you think you need to increase corporate revenue support, research how your org compares with other similar organizations. There is a tendency to want to improve areas of strength but often it is easier/more needed to address areas of weakness. Test the buy-in by querying needed managers and staff members about how they would priorize the tasks and how much time they would be able to bring to the project. If there’s resistence, address it before the project starts.
Projects without beginnings and ends tend to run over budget and are difficult to measure
One of the biggest areas of conflicts with consultant projects is lack of coordination with organizational schedules. Consultants plan sessions at peak busy periods, drop in unannounced or pile work on one or more staff member causing stress in the work team.
Many good consultants fail when hired by the wrong organization for the wrong project. Be sure of the “fit”.
Don’t just ask “Have you experience with developing corporate proposals?” Ask “Would you say that corporation X, Y or Z is the best fit for our organization?” . If they know the sector they should be able to say which corporation has a giving pattern that matches your organization. If a marketing research consultant details a plan that was heavily reliant on organizational staff to research, database and stuff envelopes, and you have a small staff, they might not be the consultant for you.
Understand the specialty you are looking for in advance and how the skillsets are very different. Grantwriters seldom make good event-planners and the reverse for example. One specialty is reliant on research, independent work and long hours of isolated writing. The other demands an extrovert party-going sociability.
We tend not to think about our preferred style of working until there’s a clash! If your organization prefers F2F meetings and the consultant’s style is to barrage staff with long emails daily, there could be a culture clash. If you need the consultant’s presence to assure buy-in and that’s rarely possible that could be an issue. If the consultant expects to be able to drop by and get cooperation by staff and your staff are highly mobile and busy, this could be an issue
Articulate your plan complete with opportunities, strengths and limitations that have impacted the plan. Listen carefully to consultants’ suggested modifications to your plans. How realistic are the new suggestions? Have they considered the strengths and limitations you have mentioned?
If no one takes ownership for the consulting project it will almost certainly go off course and be disruptive.
Staff required to support the consultant should know the scope, amount and priority of the work and also who to contact if there is a dispute.
Mysterious, frightening or seeming “make-work” projects may be sabotaged by staff.
Avoid staff grievances or the theft of organizational client lists with advance planning on information sharing.
No use spending consulting dollars/time on projects that your organization cannot do because of finances, facilities, union contracts, privacy laws, debt, etc.
How did this happen? You either didn’t have a clear plan or failed to ask the right questions.
How did this happen? lack of clarity about workplan and style leads to a consultant that no one can connect with, ("I'm sorry but I am in Abu Dhabi for 6 months and I need to get my cellphone unlocked before I can call you back") or a consultant who is disruptive of daily work with a barrage of phone calls, emails and drop ins.
How did this happen? No one at the wheel and the project goes off course and collides with ongoing work.
How did this happen? Both staff and consultant need to know the limits of staff support to avoid the organizational chaos that can result.
How did this happen? Information sharing has to be negotiated, understood, lawful and ethical.