Management consulting

At the end of the initial training programme it is useful to draw conclusions on the further training needs of the new consultant and on the best ways of meeting them (by giving preference to certain types of assignment at the beginning, by further individual study, by attaching the consultant to team leaders chosen for their particular qualities, etc.).

The design and execution of the training programme also require evaluation. Trainees may be asked to comment on the course in the usual way. These can give general or specific comments on the content of individual exercises and the performance of each trainer. Care is necessary to preserve confidentiality – trainees may be reluctant to openly criticize their current or potential future superiors. However, feedback to individual trainers can spur them to improve their sessions.

Comments and criticism may be obtained from senior consultants responsible for the early assignments. They may find the new consultants lacking in specific skills; these deficiencies may be due to omissions, or poor coverage of certain subjects, either in the initial head-office training course or during the field training. New consultants should also be asked, both during and after field training, whether they found the practical preparation for the first assignments adequate.

37.3 Training methods

Training-course methods

New consultants are trained using a variety of methods, with emphasis on participative methods and on those where the trainee can adjust the pace of learning to individual capabilities.

Subjects that involve mainly the imparting of knowledge may require some lectures, but these should be supplemented by discussions, practical exercises, case studies and other techniques. In many cases, lectures can be replaced by individual reading (e.g. on the origin and history of consulting, on types and specialization of consulting firms), or by audiovisual learning packages (e.g. videotapes or Internet-based learning material). Subjects involving skill improvement require techniques that permit practice. This can be done to some extent in a training course by using properly chosen learning situations and exercises. Experience with methods suitable for training in process consulting skills is summarized in box 37.2.

Case studies can introduce the new consultant to various consulting situations and provide good material for discussion; the consulting firm may be in a position to prepare its own case studies, or histories, based on experience from previous assignments. Appendix 6 provides suggestions on using the case method in consultant development and suggests some sources of suitable case material.

Practical exercises can lead the new consultant through common consulting practices, such as:

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Training and development of consultants

Box 37.2 Training in process consulting

Internal development programmes need to draw on knowledge in such fields as industrial sociology, political science, organizational behaviour, psychology, social psychology and interpersonal communication. But such programmes need to emphasize skill more than knowledge, through discussion and roleplaying sessions in which the skills are acquired through practice, reflection, and experimentation. The discussion should not be about what the trainees should know, or even about what they should do, but about what they are doing, here and now, and about what they have done and will be doing, in specific interactions with members of a client organization. In other words, process-skill development sessions should primarily consist of open discussion among colleagues of specific client case situations, supplemented by role-plays of actual and desired consultant–client interactions. The sessions should be led by someone expert at facilitating this kind of experiential learning, who can bring to bear, when relevant, simple but powerful behavioural concepts to assist in understanding past events and to stimulate useful experimentation with new approaches.

The three most relevant skills to develop for an effective consulting process are, in my opinion: diagnosing behaviour, listening, and behaving authentically.

Diagnostic skill is developed by examining and discussing what is taking place within client organizations. These discussions develop hypotheses that can be tested in subsequent client contacts. In such discussions and experiments with different approaches, consultants may discover, perhaps to their discomfort, that effective diagnosis of behaviour is often in part an intuitive and not just a logical process.

Listening of a very special kind is an essential consulting process skill. Good consultants learn how to listen with understanding to what is meant as well as to what is said, to feelings as well as to facts, to what is hard to admit and not just easy to say. There is no way to develop this skill except by practising it, with the benefit of feedback from a friendly audience which has heard the same words and observed the same non-verbal signals. It is easy to tell consultants how they ought to listen and have them agree that this is desirable. But to help them to learn that they do not listen as well as they think, and then to produce a worthwhile improvement in this ability in practice, requires a series of carefully designed and effectively conducted workshop sessions. It does not happen all at once.

Behaving authentically needs to be seen as an equally necessary skill. Consultants need to be able to be themselves, to behave according to their own values, and sometimes to confront clients with unwelcome facts and opinions. Again, small group discussions and role-plays of actual experiences provide the best setting in which to develop the skill of understanding oneself as well as others, and of usefully and constructively expressing one’s own point of view even when the other person may not want to hear it.

Author: Arthur Turner.

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●effective speaking and persuasion;

●interviewing;

●analysing company accounts and preparing ratios;

●discussion leadership and control;

●written communication;

●methods charting and work measurement;

●designing systems and procedures.

Role-playing provides an excellent way of introducing consulting practice into learning situations. It takes place in a controlled situation, i.e. in a classroom, where mistakes are used to enhance learning and have no disastrous consequences. For example, as a large part of a consultant’s work on assignment consists of presenting proposals to clients and their staff, it is useful to organize role-playing exercises in:

–interviewing staff to obtain facts about an assignment problem and find out about their expectations;

–dealing with awkward situations or complaints from staff about proposed changes;

–persuading members of the client’s staff to accept a new method of operation;

–explaining to the client conclusions drawn from the financial reports;

–presenting an assignment report to the client;

–dealing with embarrassing questions from the client or members of his staff.

Role-playing exercises need to be realistic, and test the participants under conditions as near as possible to those found in everyday life. Feedback after the exercise is essential. This suggests four requirements:

●a trainee playing the part of a consultant;

●other trainees playing client or other roles;

●at least two trainees acting as observers, with a brief to watch for certain features of the players’ behaviour;

●the preparation of thorough briefs for all participants.

Time should be allowed for briefing the role-players and observers, and for the absorption of the material including the preparation of any figures. After the role-playing, observers can comment and a general discussion should be held to identify lessons to be learned. Aids such as tape recorders or closed-circuit television may be used.

Field-training methods

In field training, the consultant learns mainly by doing practical diagnostic, problem-solving and project work in direct collaboration and interaction with

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