Consulting Skills in Action:
Trainers Become Full Partners
...continued
It’s clear that in almost
every organization those responsible for training are evolving from a
source of expertise and service into professionals who advise managers
about fundamental training issues. In every situation, trainers must
compete with outside organizations offering a range of training programs
and services.
While circumstances and
expectations are changing, internal managers often continue to see
training and trainers in terms of the old model. They expect trainers to
implement standard programs on demand, even when those programs address
symptoms rather than root problems.
How do
today’s training professionals help organizations move in new
directions? How can trainers themselves better understand their emerging
role as consultants? Today’s most effective trainers are acquiring
consulting skills.
INFLUENCE BUT NOT CONTROL
Simply put, consulting skills are the key to getting
expertise used. According to Peter Block, author of Flawless
Consulting, A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used, “A
consultant is a person in a position to have some influence over an
individual, a group, or an organization — but has no direct power to
make changes or implement programs. It takes leverage and impact to get
our expertise used and our recommendations accepted.”
By this definition, most
people in staff roles — including those in the training function — are
consultants. They can advise, recommend and plan. But they are not in a
position to implement. That choice belongs to the managers they advise,
and the decision hinges on the consultant’s ability to persuade and show
value.
For many who have filled an
in-house training role, this is a totally new model, shedding some light
on why managers don’t take — or even seek — recommendations from
trainers. Cecelia Horwitz, an education and organization consultant for
Eastman Kodak says, “Many trainers know the content, but they don’t know
how to use it with management. Management therefore doesn’t invite them
into discussions on the important issues.”
AN EXPERT OR A PAIR OF
HANDS?
Jeff McCollum, who formerly
directed education for AT&T Consumer Products, adds: “Often, clients
look at trainers in one of two ways. You’re either an expert called in
to take responsibility and fix the problem, or you’re a pair of hands
summoned to apply a solution the client has already decided on. Usually,
neither role works very well for the trainer or the client.” Only when
trainers move beyond these traditional, limited definitions will they
become effective consultants.
Rick Osborne is one of a
group of line managers from Kodak Canada Inc. selected a few years ago
to approach training as a consulting task. He and his follow managers
will eventually rotate back into the line, to be replaced by a new group
of consultant trainers. He recalls, “At Kodak, the traditional view of
training was the same as at many corporations: Managers would call in
training people and tell them what the answer was, and perhaps have them
gather data to justify the answer.”
“I thought that was the way
it had to be!” Osborne continues, “But over time I realized there could
be much more to the training role. Learning consulting skills lets
trainers move away from being ‘yes persons’ and toward being partners
with the client, looking together for real solutions to the real
problems.”
McCollum agrees: “One of the keys to functioning as a
consultant is to develop a partnership with the client. That way, the
client is more invested, more committed. If the partnership exists from
the beginning, the client is engaged from the top and more likely to own
— and act on — the outcomes.”
BECOMING CONSULTANTS
Designed Learning Flawless Consulting Workshops train
professionals to become consultants by emphasizing several essential
components. Consultants learn the importance of being authentic: They
must put themselves into the position of their clients. And they learn
to complete each of five steps in the consulting process.
Completing these steps is as important as being
authentic. Marilyn Kobus, a management education consultant for Digital
Equipment Corporation, calls the steps “a terrific framework, an
excellent way to organize the process.”
WELL BEGUN
The first step, contracting, is probably the most
important. It sets up the ground rules, the roles and responsibilities,
the expectations and the boundaries. A contract doesn’t have to be
written, but it does have to be explicit. If it’s not crystal-clear, the
entire project could be jeopardized. When projects fail, most
experienced consultants realize the problems stemmed from poor
contracting.
“I always remember the old adage, ‘Well begun is half
done,’” says McCollum. “The contracting stage can begin the process
well. When you’re functioning as a consultant, it’s where you make it
clear that you’re not just a captive supplier. It’s where you say what
your needs are — for instance, access to information and to the client’s
time — in order to ensure a good outcome.”
What happens when a client won’t agree to provide what
the consultant knows is necessary to get the job done? Or when a client
asks for a training program the consultant believes won’t get to the
root of the problem?
“You have to know when to hold and know when to fold,”
says Kodak’s Horwitz. “When you’re a consultant, it’s sometimes OK to
say, ‘I understand what you’re trying to achieve. But what you’re doing
here won’t get you there’”
Osborne adds, “As long as your own manager understands
and supports what you’re doing, the whole organization gains in the long
run.”
WORK UNDER WAY
The second step in the consulting process is the
discovery phase. Using data collection and analysis, the consultant
is able to arrive at his or her own sense of the problem. Access to
people and information is fundamental, so this needs to be negotiated
during the contracting phase.
The third step involves feedback to the client and
the decision to act. In simplest terms, this is the planning stage of
the process. The consultant reports findings and works with the client
to set ultimate goals for the project and to map out action steps.
At this point the issue of
resistance is most likely to arise, especially if a client feels
uncomfortable with the consultant’s conclusions. “Resistance is tough,”
says Osborne. “In a traditional training situation, a client resisting
your conclusions or recommendations can throw the whole project off the
track.
“But when you work as
partners,” he points out, “you’re far more likely to be able to name and
defuse the resistance. That keeps the project moving in the right
direction.”
The fourth phase in the
consulting process is implementation, carrying out the plan. This
phase is about building commitment among employees for the new program
. Rather than installing the new program, process, etc…upon employees,
it is important to engage them in the change.
THE FINAL PHASE
The fifth phase involves evaluation and
appropriate follow-through. Did the project work? Should it be
more widely applied in the organization? Should it be terminated? Did it
deal with the real problem, or should a new project — perhaps with a new
contract — be initiated? Implementation and evaluation are very
project-specific. That means the consultant’s guidelines are more
general. But it’s essential to be authentic and to carry out the terms
of the contract.
DOES IT WORK?
Theories are great, but they
don’t mean much unless they work in the real world. Those who practice
the consulting skills model have become true believers.
“At first, clients look at you like you’re from Mars,”
says Osborne. “But then they come around. My vice president for
manufacturing has gone from doing 80 percent of the talking while we’re
together to doing 50 percent. Now he gives me the annual operational
plan and the three-to-five-year business plan. We work together to build
an educational and development strategy to complement them. That’s a big
change”
At Digital, where the consulting skills program was
offered widely to employees, Kobus believes, “The result of using
consulting skills is better quality, more on-target results. When client
and consultant truly collaborate, what comes out of that is greater than
either: it’s synergy.”
Returning to the concept of
authentic understanding, Kodak’s Horwitz says, “The skills of the
consultant aren’t all you need. You’ve got to understand the client’s
business, and business in general. But the skills are very useful
because they focus on understanding where the other person is coming
from, clarifying the issues, holding off judgment, and being truthful.”
She adds, “The acquisition
of skills like these isn’t an event: It’s a journey. And it’s a journey
worth taking.”
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