What is consulting about? And for what?
Greetings
Probably, many of you are faced with the phenomenon of life, as consulting. And someone never came across, but they all certainly heard. It so happens that I work in this area and would like to shed a little light on this activity and tell how it happens and what it is.
Let's define it right away. I will not fog your head with clever words and will say it as it is. Your business to believe or not, is another question, the comments are open for discussion. And yet - my words should not be taken as the ultimate truth. This is nothing more than my personal opinion and my personal view of things. You can have it different.
')
And one more small remark - yes, I know that habr is an IT resource. Yes, this is an article about IT. Management technologies are also related to IT. Moreover, the decisions made in the field of management always directly affect the IT structure of the company, so it is important to know and understand what consulting is. At least just to be able to keep the defense in front of the authorities :)
And now let's go.
Do not be fooled by definitions full of newfangled words, everything is completely described in clear terms. In Russian, this is counseling. Better yet, the systematic provision of advice. If Vasya asks Petr how he should do his homework, then Petr provides Vasya with consulting services.
Counseling can be on completely different issues. Vasya may need help in chemistry, math or drawing. Petit's services in this case can be called subject consulting. That is, the provision of examination services in a specific area with the issuance of a conclusion and recommendations. The problem can most often be solved in a limited set of ways, according to a certain method, therefore such expertise is quite measurable and verifiable. If the teacher gave Vasya a deuce for the problem solved by Petya, he would make a claim to Pete and win the case in court.
Subject consulting - expertise in subject areas (law, IT, accounting, etc.), where the answer to the question may well be considered in isolation from the overall structure of the organization's processes and quite often is unequivocal. I will not dwell on the subject consulting, especially since this is what many people face in everyday life. Trips to the doctor, a lawyer - this is it.
But it may be that he wants to solve the question of how to behave with the bully Vovochka who takes money from him for breakfast. In this case, consulting can hardly be called substantive (for there is no consensus among experts, and the subject is not defined), but Petya knows for sure that a set of liners from chewing gum can appease Vovochka. That is, his activity, although not described under strict laws, still leads to a definite positive result. The subject of consulting here is rather vague, because it is difficult to define the concept of “appeasing the little Vovochka”. Such consulting is often called general, strategic, managerial, often merging concepts and implying some subjective process, as a result of which certain positive changes should occur in the organization as a whole.
General consulting (managerial, strategic, etc.) - an expert assessment of the organization’s activities, when for making a decision it is necessary to analyze all its activities (a set of processes) as a whole.
But after all, Little Johnny Vovochka can continue to take away money even being good-kind;)
Most often, business owners understand this poorly, so the initial requirement most often goes is “make us beautiful”. Beautiful - this means that everyone has consulting, but I do not. Disorder! Or “I want to optimize business processes”. What is to optimize and which processes, he does not know.
And the first call : if the consultant promises to make you beautiful, without specifying exactly what will be achieved, then this is a clever swindler. You can use his services (why - more on that later), but you should not build unnecessary illusions.
Require specifics. If the result seems immeasurable, try to come up with objective measurement mechanisms. “Petya, after I follow your advice, Little Johnny must take my money no more than twice a week, agree?”
The most interesting thing is that at this stage 90% of consultants will fall off and stop wasting your time. This is great for you, you will not waste money.
As a rule, people expect to see a person with a suit, glasses and a smart look :) The more expensive the consulting, the more expensive the car on which he moves and the more substantial the folder in which he stores important documents. The watches are, of course, the latest model and correspond to the fashion trend. Of course, girls are all models.
In the picture: Typical consultants in the client's head. The attributes of success are visible to the naked eye.
Why do we need all these attributes? Their presence is necessary in order to penetrate your innate defense mechanisms of mistrust and skepticism. Still, a successful person will not vparivat noodles. But why not? If they buy?
Now, remember who best solved the problem at school or at the institute. Anyone who went with the most fashionable pencil case / traveled in his car? Or some vague nerds? :) That's right. The question of checkers and driving here is relevant as nowhere else. Learn not to be worn on a fashionable wrapper. Although it would be desirable.
Now a little about what is the result of the work of consultants. This is what made the word consultant practically become abusive. And rightly so.
In the mass, they are very fond of incomprehensible graphics, charts, and other nonsense , which gives the seriousness of their activities. For the client, this in turn is beautiful pictures that are not ashamed to show the authorities and investors. If you have never seen them - it doesn't matter, open any business analysis textbook or some popular book on strategic planning. They are represented there in mass.
Usually these pictures are so monstrously executed that in their sense without a bottle it is difficult to understand even other consultants. But it looks cool. Volumetric dies, texts on the entire slide, typed in fonts of the sixth size and other graphic “beautiful” impression reinforce. Seriously, even those who do not belong to Tebe Lebedev fans start beating their heads on the table.
All this has a definite purpose - to confuse the client . To make him believe that “he does not understand a lot of things”, that the consultant is a king and a god, and only he can decipher all these incomprehensible letters. Well, since the consultant is so smart, then he deserves a high payment, right? In addition, it allows you to justify the countless hours that are supposedly spent on the analysis of your organization. What is this analysis?
You, probably, saw many so-called kinds of "analysis". They have no number, just take a few examples. Let's say SWOT . It sounds cool, “Swot” - analysis, right?
What is it? And this is just a selection of strengths (Strengths), weaknesses (Weaknesses), opportunities (Opportunities) and threats (Threats). Just listing. A list of four lines. Available to third graders. In terms of content, the noodles, proudly appropriating the characteristic “analysis” from somewhere in the exact sciences for giving themselves significance.
Admire this beauty.
See also what a beauty - PEST analysis.
And here is one of my favorites: “Analysis of the five forces of Porter”
(pictures are not mine, borrowed them for quoting from the abyss of Google)
Looks solid, right?
Only here, in fact, all this strongly resembles the advice in women's magazines “Seven ways to win a man.” It is also very remarkable that the number of graphic decorations is inversely proportional to the amount of the meaning contained in them .
And this noodle is offered to you for very serious money .
And here we must remember, what does the consultant do?
For general consulting, the result of consulting is not beautiful pictures. The result is a change in organization . Changes in the processes of interaction, changes in structure. All this should be not for the sake of abstract beauty, but for the sake of improving work efficiency. If the consultations were held, and the changes did not come, then the work is done in vain, then it is money thrown to the wind.
After all, you really need to solve the problem, and not just spend your money beautifully. If necessary, of course.
Try not to pay attention to the outside .
Charisma, cost of a suit, brand of a company - all this arsenal is directed only to that and exclusively to extract money from you. To captivate people is the professional quality of any fraudster. Millions of MMM contributors demanded to justify Mavrodi because they could not believe in the bad deeds of this crystal honest man.
Yes, yes, everything is so - they can not be trusted, I can. I hope I managed to incite skepticism in you, including towards myself :)
Require a consultant specifics . Concrete is meters, tons, dollars. Concrete is the rules and regulations. “New strategic vision” is not concrete. Throw away those who cannot tell you how much introduction can bring (here it is important to know the measure, since without enough information it is impossible to say).
Throw those who say that they guarantee an economic effect without certain powers in the company only on the basis of counseling or only on the basis of one or two short events (he will not be able to control the implementation, and therefore does not answer his words).
If the consultant does not risk the fee, how can he be responsible for the result of his work? So ask him - do you answer or not? And if you answer, then what? Do you need authority to be responsible for the result? If the answer to these questions is negative, then why do you need him here?
You generally need a lot of effort. You must be prepared for them. After all, to put words into action, you need to attach it. The consultant himself has no right to order your employees, so you or someone in your organization will do this.
Never forget that a consultant is not a wizard, with the arrival of which everything will immediately become good. A change management project can be long, hard and hard.
By the way, with any consultant, even a rogue, you can perfectly talk as a psychoanalyst without requiring any specifics. It helps many managers. Not “for what”, but “in general”. In the Russian tradition, it is not customary to go to psychologists, and for many managers, counseling becomes an outlet where you can express your problems without fear of anything and even get some competent advice. Purely friendly, like Vasya and Petya, but at a separate rate. There is nothing shameful in this, but there is no point in expecting super-return from this.
To begin with, the research phase is conducted. The consultant conducts a series of interviews with key employees (usually no more than two dozen), building a model of organization processes based on the results.
At this stage, problem areas and contradictions are already being identified. Organization processes are the key interest of the consultant. This is a fairly measurable thing, the processes are practically
always not ephemeral, but can be quite strictly described.
The most important thing when describing processes is not the cutting of mechanisms to individual operations, but the determination of process boundaries. Who does what and within the divisions is a separate question, and in the context of interaction, what is the result and in what form is much more important.
It is equally important to identify pain points , that is, places of tension and conflict. This is exactly what the true problems usually lie in.
The interview technique is different for everyone, but is described quite accurately by the set of questions “What? Where? When? With whom? How exactly?". Returning to the example of Vasya, Petya must find out from him who offends him, where, how often, how, and how long has it been happening? After all, if Vovochka, relatively speaking, takes away money only in the park near the school, then it may be enough not to go to this park without buying him a bunch of expensive chewing gums. And then, why should he take money if he can carry sandwiches with him?
The interviews themselves are cyclical , since the participants may give conflicting information, it will be required to clarify it as the project progresses.
At this stage, problems that were not originally formulated by the customer are often identified. All of them are documented without fail. Why arise? It is just that a person is not very capable of operating with more than a dozen affairs / events / objects at the same time. This means that in any organization with more than 10 people, the management no longer knows what their subordinates are really doing and what problems they live in, especially two or three levels lower.
It consists of two parts: the formulation of areas of responsibility (including the mapping of processes) and problem areas. When specifying problem areas, it is sure to find out why they occur at all?
The mess, for example, may be due to problems with the IT infrastructure, or because of the lack of control over the return of primary documents. At the same time, the owner can formulate the initial problem as “shoplifting”.
The process map can be built in different notations. This is a topic for a separate article, I’ll just say that my choice is BPMN , it is most easily perceived by a wide audience and has everything you need to build processes of any level of complexity.
After analyzing and mapping the process, do not forget to offer your solutions to problems.
And here is the attention. If you are a consultant.
Do not step on the famous rake of consultants! Do not think that you are smarter than your client. It is necessary to carve in gold letters. He knows his specifics by 110%. You have studied its business structure well, you offer options, but you cannot insist on any solution, because by definition you know the situation worse than it. Control and motivate - these are your tasks at this stage. Do not let the project stall and move it forward.
This is a wonderful moment when the intimate stage of work of a consultant becomes incarnate and the company meets him. What is going on?
In most cases, this is what happens: terrible slides fall out on the mountain and within a few hours they begin to tediously and thoroughly understand all sorts of little things. The most important thing is not to fall asleep. Sometimes it even succeeds.
After such a presentation, managers are relieved to sigh, crawl away to their workplaces and try to forget it like a bad dream. The consultant receives the money, talks pleasantly with the general, and sets off to the beautiful far. Mission Complete! The director showed that he is holding his nose to the wind and not a sucker, he even hired consultants (and they also drew him a cool little book with the schemes, there will be something for the boys to show). The managers showed zeal and vigorously agreed with all the proposals of the leadership (if only they did not beat them and did not delay the salary). The consultant received his hard earned money.
So, that this was not, it is important not to relax at the last stage . All identified problem areas should be closed.
And so that they do not lay down on the shelf, decisions should be made at the managerial session. That is, who exactly, and at what time it does. With mandatory logging. The presentation should provide sufficient information to make such decisions, that is, be sufficiently clear to all those present, contain all the necessary information, and at the same time concise, so as not to divert the discussion participants to one side.
Do not fit in one day? Do two, three, as needed. Collect working groups of a smaller composition, and so on. That is, the painstaking and tedious work of making changes begins.
Then there is hope that something will move and the project of consulting itself will give you something.
Hence the paradoxical conclusion: consulting cannot be expensive if it is simple mapping and talking heart to heart. And at the same time, it can not be cheap, if it involves a real serious work on carrying out changes.
You will do everything for us as needed, and we will get the result?
-Right. But always and without fail, a person in your organization is required for carrying out a project - an ideological inspirer. This is not necessarily the one who brought us to your company, but often this is what he is. This employee must take control of the project. At the same time, he should occupy a fairly high position in the company. Only he, having heard from the consultant “your sales department is in conflict with the marketing division” can call representatives of these two divisions and force them to work out common game rules. That is what the consultant should control and motivate.
If this person is you, then get ready for serious work. In addition to heart-to-heart talks, you will need real orders and control as well as the involvement of many people in the organization. It is very likely that you will have to formally allocate to this some part of your working time for the entire project period. And how do you want?
We heard that business processes need to be described as they are, then how should they be and then carry out phased changes?
- It used to work. But recent decades have shown that this approach is very risky and often leads to the collapse of the project entirely. The modern environment is too dynamic, processes change faster than they can be described. That is why the description of processes and their reorganization should be practically parallel. In IT terms, this is the Agile process mechanism and this is what meets modern requirements. This paradigm is also answered by a host of proven organization development concepts — lean manufacturing, kaizen, and so on.
We can do all this on our own! Why do we need someone to hire?
-Because only the person from the side can evaluate the system unbiasedly, without starting to pull the blanket over himself. In addition, he already has experience in solving most of the problem situations that are usually found in the activities of the organization (or knows who can solve them).
On this and finish. I hope I gave you a small idea of ​​what this is - consulting, at least in the part that we usually call management consulting.
Probably, many of you are faced with the phenomenon of life, as consulting. And someone never came across, but they all certainly heard. It so happens that I work in this area and would like to shed a little light on this activity and tell how it happens and what it is.
Let's define it right away. I will not fog your head with clever words and will say it as it is. Your business to believe or not, is another question, the comments are open for discussion. And yet - my words should not be taken as the ultimate truth. This is nothing more than my personal opinion and my personal view of things. You can have it different.')
And one more small remark - yes, I know that habr is an IT resource. Yes, this is an article about IT. Management technologies are also related to IT. Moreover, the decisions made in the field of management always directly affect the IT structure of the company, so it is important to know and understand what consulting is. At least just to be able to keep the defense in front of the authorities :)
And now let's go.
What is consulting?
Do not be fooled by definitions full of newfangled words, everything is completely described in clear terms. In Russian, this is counseling. Better yet, the systematic provision of advice. If Vasya asks Petr how he should do his homework, then Petr provides Vasya with consulting services.
With it sorted out, now on.
Counseling can be on completely different issues. Vasya may need help in chemistry, math or drawing. Petit's services in this case can be called subject consulting. That is, the provision of examination services in a specific area with the issuance of a conclusion and recommendations. The problem can most often be solved in a limited set of ways, according to a certain method, therefore such expertise is quite measurable and verifiable. If the teacher gave Vasya a deuce for the problem solved by Petya, he would make a claim to Pete and win the case in court.
Subject consulting - expertise in subject areas (law, IT, accounting, etc.), where the answer to the question may well be considered in isolation from the overall structure of the organization's processes and quite often is unequivocal. I will not dwell on the subject consulting, especially since this is what many people face in everyday life. Trips to the doctor, a lawyer - this is it.
But it may be that he wants to solve the question of how to behave with the bully Vovochka who takes money from him for breakfast. In this case, consulting can hardly be called substantive (for there is no consensus among experts, and the subject is not defined), but Petya knows for sure that a set of liners from chewing gum can appease Vovochka. That is, his activity, although not described under strict laws, still leads to a definite positive result. The subject of consulting here is rather vague, because it is difficult to define the concept of “appeasing the little Vovochka”. Such consulting is often called general, strategic, managerial, often merging concepts and implying some subjective process, as a result of which certain positive changes should occur in the organization as a whole.
General consulting (managerial, strategic, etc.) - an expert assessment of the organization’s activities, when for making a decision it is necessary to analyze all its activities (a set of processes) as a whole.
The main thing is to formulate goals correctly.
But after all, Little Johnny Vovochka can continue to take away money even being good-kind;)
Most often, business owners understand this poorly, so the initial requirement most often goes is “make us beautiful”. Beautiful - this means that everyone has consulting, but I do not. Disorder! Or “I want to optimize business processes”. What is to optimize and which processes, he does not know.
And the first call : if the consultant promises to make you beautiful, without specifying exactly what will be achieved, then this is a clever swindler. You can use his services (why - more on that later), but you should not build unnecessary illusions.
Do not be fooled - you can not sell. The most important principle of consultants.
Require specifics. If the result seems immeasurable, try to come up with objective measurement mechanisms. “Petya, after I follow your advice, Little Johnny must take my money no more than twice a week, agree?”
The most interesting thing is that at this stage 90% of consultants will fall off and stop wasting your time. This is great for you, you will not waste money.
Now let's analyze the typical concept of consultants.
As a rule, people expect to see a person with a suit, glasses and a smart look :) The more expensive the consulting, the more expensive the car on which he moves and the more substantial the folder in which he stores important documents. The watches are, of course, the latest model and correspond to the fashion trend. Of course, girls are all models.
In the picture: Typical consultants in the client's head. The attributes of success are visible to the naked eye.
Why do we need all these attributes? Their presence is necessary in order to penetrate your innate defense mechanisms of mistrust and skepticism. Still, a successful person will not vparivat noodles. But why not? If they buy?
Now, remember who best solved the problem at school or at the institute. Anyone who went with the most fashionable pencil case / traveled in his car? Or some vague nerds? :) That's right. The question of checkers and driving here is relevant as nowhere else. Learn not to be worn on a fashionable wrapper. Although it would be desirable.
Now a little about what is the result of the work of consultants. This is what made the word consultant practically become abusive. And rightly so.
In the mass, they are very fond of incomprehensible graphics, charts, and other nonsense , which gives the seriousness of their activities. For the client, this in turn is beautiful pictures that are not ashamed to show the authorities and investors. If you have never seen them - it doesn't matter, open any business analysis textbook or some popular book on strategic planning. They are represented there in mass.
Usually these pictures are so monstrously executed that in their sense without a bottle it is difficult to understand even other consultants. But it looks cool. Volumetric dies, texts on the entire slide, typed in fonts of the sixth size and other graphic “beautiful” impression reinforce. Seriously, even those who do not belong to Tebe Lebedev fans start beating their heads on the table.
All this has a definite purpose - to confuse the client . To make him believe that “he does not understand a lot of things”, that the consultant is a king and a god, and only he can decipher all these incomprehensible letters. Well, since the consultant is so smart, then he deserves a high payment, right? In addition, it allows you to justify the countless hours that are supposedly spent on the analysis of your organization. What is this analysis?
The so-called research.
You, probably, saw many so-called kinds of "analysis". They have no number, just take a few examples. Let's say SWOT . It sounds cool, “Swot” - analysis, right?
What is it? And this is just a selection of strengths (Strengths), weaknesses (Weaknesses), opportunities (Opportunities) and threats (Threats). Just listing. A list of four lines. Available to third graders. In terms of content, the noodles, proudly appropriating the characteristic “analysis” from somewhere in the exact sciences for giving themselves significance.
Admire this beauty.
See also what a beauty - PEST analysis.
And here is one of my favorites: “Analysis of the five forces of Porter”
(pictures are not mine, borrowed them for quoting from the abyss of Google)
Looks solid, right?
Only here, in fact, all this strongly resembles the advice in women's magazines “Seven ways to win a man.” It is also very remarkable that the number of graphic decorations is inversely proportional to the amount of the meaning contained in them .
A typical consultancy project consists of issuing a little less than half of this and similar tests.
And this noodle is offered to you for very serious money .
And here we must remember, what does the consultant do?
For general consulting, the result of consulting is not beautiful pictures. The result is a change in organization . Changes in the processes of interaction, changes in structure. All this should be not for the sake of abstract beauty, but for the sake of improving work efficiency. If the consultations were held, and the changes did not come, then the work is done in vain, then it is money thrown to the wind.
What to do if you want to benefit from consulting and spend money wisely?
After all, you really need to solve the problem, and not just spend your money beautifully. If necessary, of course.
Try not to pay attention to the outside .
Charisma, cost of a suit, brand of a company - all this arsenal is directed only to that and exclusively to extract money from you. To captivate people is the professional quality of any fraudster. Millions of MMM contributors demanded to justify Mavrodi because they could not believe in the bad deeds of this crystal honest man.
Yes, yes, everything is so - they can not be trusted, I can. I hope I managed to incite skepticism in you, including towards myself :)
Require a consultant specifics . Concrete is meters, tons, dollars. Concrete is the rules and regulations. “New strategic vision” is not concrete. Throw away those who cannot tell you how much introduction can bring (here it is important to know the measure, since without enough information it is impossible to say).
Throw those who say that they guarantee an economic effect without certain powers in the company only on the basis of counseling or only on the basis of one or two short events (he will not be able to control the implementation, and therefore does not answer his words).
If the consultant does not risk the fee, how can he be responsible for the result of his work? So ask him - do you answer or not? And if you answer, then what? Do you need authority to be responsible for the result? If the answer to these questions is negative, then why do you need him here?
If the consultant is ready to be responsible for the result of his activity, then in turn, efforts will be required from you.
You generally need a lot of effort. You must be prepared for them. After all, to put words into action, you need to attach it. The consultant himself has no right to order your employees, so you or someone in your organization will do this.
Never forget that a consultant is not a wizard, with the arrival of which everything will immediately become good. A change management project can be long, hard and hard.
By the way, with any consultant, even a rogue, you can perfectly talk as a psychoanalyst without requiring any specifics. It helps many managers. Not “for what”, but “in general”. In the Russian tradition, it is not customary to go to psychologists, and for many managers, counseling becomes an outlet where you can express your problems without fear of anything and even get some competent advice. Purely friendly, like Vasya and Petya, but at a separate rate. There is nothing shameful in this, but there is no point in expecting super-return from this.
Serious counseling goes a little different way.
To begin with, the research phase is conducted. The consultant conducts a series of interviews with key employees (usually no more than two dozen), building a model of organization processes based on the results.
At this stage, problem areas and contradictions are already being identified. Organization processes are the key interest of the consultant. This is a fairly measurable thing, the processes are practically
always not ephemeral, but can be quite strictly described.
The most important thing when describing processes is not the cutting of mechanisms to individual operations, but the determination of process boundaries. Who does what and within the divisions is a separate question, and in the context of interaction, what is the result and in what form is much more important.
It is equally important to identify pain points , that is, places of tension and conflict. This is exactly what the true problems usually lie in.
The interview technique is different for everyone, but is described quite accurately by the set of questions “What? Where? When? With whom? How exactly?". Returning to the example of Vasya, Petya must find out from him who offends him, where, how often, how, and how long has it been happening? After all, if Vovochka, relatively speaking, takes away money only in the park near the school, then it may be enough not to go to this park without buying him a bunch of expensive chewing gums. And then, why should he take money if he can carry sandwiches with him?
The interviews themselves are cyclical , since the participants may give conflicting information, it will be required to clarify it as the project progresses.
At this stage, problems that were not originally formulated by the customer are often identified. All of them are documented without fail. Why arise? It is just that a person is not very capable of operating with more than a dozen affairs / events / objects at the same time. This means that in any organization with more than 10 people, the management no longer knows what their subordinates are really doing and what problems they live in, especially two or three levels lower.
After the interview stage, the situation is analyzed.
It consists of two parts: the formulation of areas of responsibility (including the mapping of processes) and problem areas. When specifying problem areas, it is sure to find out why they occur at all?
The mess, for example, may be due to problems with the IT infrastructure, or because of the lack of control over the return of primary documents. At the same time, the owner can formulate the initial problem as “shoplifting”.
The process map can be built in different notations. This is a topic for a separate article, I’ll just say that my choice is BPMN , it is most easily perceived by a wide audience and has everything you need to build processes of any level of complexity.
After analyzing and mapping the process, do not forget to offer your solutions to problems.
And here is the attention. If you are a consultant.
Do not step on the famous rake of consultants! Do not think that you are smarter than your client. It is necessary to carve in gold letters. He knows his specifics by 110%. You have studied its business structure well, you offer options, but you cannot insist on any solution, because by definition you know the situation worse than it. Control and motivate - these are your tasks at this stage. Do not let the project stall and move it forward.
Manager Session.
This is a wonderful moment when the intimate stage of work of a consultant becomes incarnate and the company meets him. What is going on?
In most cases, this is what happens: terrible slides fall out on the mountain and within a few hours they begin to tediously and thoroughly understand all sorts of little things. The most important thing is not to fall asleep. Sometimes it even succeeds.
After such a presentation, managers are relieved to sigh, crawl away to their workplaces and try to forget it like a bad dream. The consultant receives the money, talks pleasantly with the general, and sets off to the beautiful far. Mission Complete! The director showed that he is holding his nose to the wind and not a sucker, he even hired consultants (and they also drew him a cool little book with the schemes, there will be something for the boys to show). The managers showed zeal and vigorously agreed with all the proposals of the leadership (if only they did not beat them and did not delay the salary). The consultant received his hard earned money.
So, that this was not, it is important not to relax at the last stage . All identified problem areas should be closed.
Laid down results - discarded money.
And so that they do not lay down on the shelf, decisions should be made at the managerial session. That is, who exactly, and at what time it does. With mandatory logging. The presentation should provide sufficient information to make such decisions, that is, be sufficiently clear to all those present, contain all the necessary information, and at the same time concise, so as not to divert the discussion participants to one side.
Do not fit in one day? Do two, three, as needed. Collect working groups of a smaller composition, and so on. That is, the painstaking and tedious work of making changes begins.
Then there is hope that something will move and the project of consulting itself will give you something.
Hence the paradoxical conclusion: consulting cannot be expensive if it is simple mapping and talking heart to heart. And at the same time, it can not be cheap, if it involves a real serious work on carrying out changes.
Finally, the answers to several questions not covered in this article, but still important and arising very often.
You will do everything for us as needed, and we will get the result?
-Right. But always and without fail, a person in your organization is required for carrying out a project - an ideological inspirer. This is not necessarily the one who brought us to your company, but often this is what he is. This employee must take control of the project. At the same time, he should occupy a fairly high position in the company. Only he, having heard from the consultant “your sales department is in conflict with the marketing division” can call representatives of these two divisions and force them to work out common game rules. That is what the consultant should control and motivate.
If this person is you, then get ready for serious work. In addition to heart-to-heart talks, you will need real orders and control as well as the involvement of many people in the organization. It is very likely that you will have to formally allocate to this some part of your working time for the entire project period. And how do you want?
We heard that business processes need to be described as they are, then how should they be and then carry out phased changes?
- It used to work. But recent decades have shown that this approach is very risky and often leads to the collapse of the project entirely. The modern environment is too dynamic, processes change faster than they can be described. That is why the description of processes and their reorganization should be practically parallel. In IT terms, this is the Agile process mechanism and this is what meets modern requirements. This paradigm is also answered by a host of proven organization development concepts — lean manufacturing, kaizen, and so on.
We can do all this on our own! Why do we need someone to hire?
-Because only the person from the side can evaluate the system unbiasedly, without starting to pull the blanket over himself. In addition, he already has experience in solving most of the problem situations that are usually found in the activities of the organization (or knows who can solve them).
On this and finish. I hope I gave you a small idea of ​​what this is - consulting, at least in the part that we usually call management consulting.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/124965/
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