Business Consulting Skills – Become a Successful Internal Consultant
Availability: In-Company
Why attend?
The role of internal consultant in business is fast becoming a must for many businesses. All too often projects or change programmes falter because of a lack of understanding of the broader context, poor contracting, insufficient communication, poorly defined roles/processes or relationships which lack a strong foundation or commitment. At an organisational level there’s a need to resolve complex problems, break down the common practice of departments working in silos and develop skills in dealing with ambiguity. Working as a consultant requires a different skill set, as well as knowledge and a strategy to put the tools and processes to best use.
This practical course works best as a three-day workshop with follow-up group or one-to-one coaching, and/or action learning. Participants gain a greater strategic understanding of business issues, an awareness of the personal changes required to develop into a consulting role, and the skills to diagnose and facilitate the most appropriate solutions.
Who is it for?
This training course would benefit line managers or Human Resource staff, when they’re required to take on an internal consulting role either full-time or on specific projects.
What you will learn
The course focuses on developing individuals’ skills and knowledge by taking them through the consulting cycle and expanding their ‘toolkit’. We provide consulting and facilitation on how to manage the role transition to deliver a strategic consultancy service to the organisation. The team develop protocols, link these to existing processes, create a communication and transition plan, benchmark best practice and evaluate progress and effectiveness.
Consulting Framework
- An overview of the stages of the consultancy process together with the tools to operate at each stage
- The core skills of listening, summarising, questioning and managing process to establish credibility and build rapport
Developing a systemic approach
- Considering all aspects of the broader ‘system’ which may impact on, or be affected by, the project
- Get clients to buy into considering the broader context of the presenting issue or project which may shape the solution
Contracting
- Assessing the client’s capability, and clarifying expectations
- Agree ways of working, outcomes and boundaries
- Build and maintain a client-centred relationship
- Establishing and communicating the ethics of working within a consulting process
Diagnosis and data collection
- Techniques to identify the problems and needs of the client
- Problem solving tools and other methods of data collection
- Ways to analyse the data you have collected
Designing and implementing the solution
- Identify options, agree decision criteria and design the best solution
- Generating client ownership and commitment to what the problem is, the best solution and their responsibilities in implementing it
- Key roles in managing change
- Project management - balancing tasks and relationships to keep projects on track
Evaluation and Disengagement
- Defining what to measure and how to capture the information
- Disengaging from the project yet maintaining a relationship
Gaining business acceptance to internal consulting services
- Assessing the business context and the changes required for a smooth transition to developing internal consulting
- Defining next steps as an individual or function
- Establishing the protocols and measures to keep a project on track and carry across best practice and learning to other projects
Benefits to you and your organisation
- Gain a thorough understanding of the consulting cycle
- Acquire practical tools to use at each stage of the cycle
- Demonstrate credibility as an internal consultant
- Add value by helping clients identify real problems and their true impact, together with the steps they need to take to resolve them
- Develop solutions which have systemic and sustainable impact, rather than just being quick fixes
- Create strategies for handling client resistance to news ways of working
- Make a smooth transition into the role
- Know what standards and processes are required to support the transition
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