Defining Terms

Whether internal or external, the definitions are the same as are the functions. A consultant is the person who uses his or her professional expertise to influence, advise, and assist others in solving business-related problems. The client is the person who owns the business-related problem and who has the authority to implement the solution. While it is true that the participants in your session are also your clients, they are not the decision makers. Their reaction to you and your training, however, can have a profound influence and impact on the success or failure of the project and on the decision maker's reaction to your work.

Establishing the Relationship

The first step is to identify your client as defined above. Then determine what the client wants/expects from you. This is where your questioning skills come in to play.

It is important that you tell your clients what you can do and what you cannot do based on the desired performance outcomes they have clearly articulated. For example, if a client tells you his or her desired outcome is to provide customer service training to frontline employees and the client wants you to do this in two hours, you need to explain what you can and cannot do given those time constraints.

Use a Collaborative Approach

The most successful client-consultant relationships are collaborative and interdependent. The client and consultant need to view each other as partners, working together for the main purpose of improving performance and meeting a business need. What is the reason for a collaborative approach? First of all, this approach establishes mutual responsibility and joint accountability that increases the probability of a more accurate diagnosis of the problem, an assurance that training will be linked to a business need, and a greater likelihood that management will reinforce the training.

As the owner of the problem, the client drives the project; the consultant assumes several roles, including a coach, a change agent, and a learning leader.

At the outset, both parties must participate in establishing the goals for the training project. These goals, however, cannot be established until a needs assessment has been conducted at various levels. In addition to business needs, the consultant should address performance needs, training needs, and environment needs. Performance needs are on-the-job behaviors performed at defined levels of excellence. Training needs focus on what people must know and be able to do in order to succeed at business and performance goals. Environment needs deal with systems and processes within the environment that must be modified for the performance to be achieved. Although the training consultant cannot deal directly with these issues, he or she can make recommendations.

The needs assessment is critical to the success of the project. In some cases, training is not always the answer. There may be processes, policies, systems, or even the organization's culture that need to be “fixed,” not the people identified for training.

When designing a program, be sure the learning objectives are stated in terms of skills that ultimately will link to the organization's bottom line. Training needs to be positioned not as an activity or an event but rather as a vehicle for accomplishing business results. Successful training consultants will expand their thinking from traditional classroom to “any time, any place, and any way” learning. As discussed in Chapter 17, the consultant may need to embrace other ways of delivering training.

Once the needs assessment has been completed and agreed-on goals established, both the client and consultant need to be clear about their level of commitment in allocating the necessary time, money, and people to the project. In today's environment, collaboration may also involve others beyond the actual client such as outside contractors, internal subject-matter experts, and line managers.

Helping Others Understand What You Can and Cannot Do

Sometimes the greatest challenge in establishing a client-consultant relationship is the way in which the training function is viewed by the decision makers in the organization. If that is the case, then it is the consultant's job to enlighten them. This is particularly true for those who are internal consultants. One way to begin to change the way in which internal consultants function and to help others see the value that an internal consultant brings to the organization is to write a position paper that puts forth the role of training and how training can play a critical role in meeting business needs. Below is a sample outline for a position paper on the role of training and development. All you need to do is to fill in the details.

Positive Behaviors in a Client-Consultant Relationship

The success of a client-consultant relationship depends on the demonstration of positive behaviors by both parties. The following are the key behaviors consultants and clients need to practice to establish and maintain a productive and satisfying relationship.

Background/Purpose

This section reflects the consultant's understanding of the client's reason for requesting a proposal and may include references to organizational issues, trends in the industry, and specifically stated development needs.

Organizational Benefits

Stated somewhat broadly, this section addresses the benefits to the organization. In other words, what improvements will the organization experience as a result of the consultant's proposed intervention, training, and so on? Examples of benefits include improvements in communication, internal cooperation, employee performance; increased sales; decreased turnover, errors, accidents, and so forth.

Approach/Design

In this section, the consultant outlines how he or she will approach the project. A more detailed and involved training or consulting project might present project phases such as needs assessment, program design and development, delivery, evaluation, and follow-up. A fairly simple and straightforward training program might only require the consultant to present a program description that would include an outline of the training session, learning objectives, length of session, and number of participants, format, and materials.

Deliverables

The client needs to know what he or she will be getting for the money invested. These deliverables could include materials, reports, or training delivery. Often the client will want the consultant to offer several options. For example, the consultant might propose that a training program delivered multiple times could be delivered by the consultant (or consultant's associates), or the consultant could conduct a train-the-trainer licensing session to enable the client's internal staff to deliver the training. These various options, of course, need to be clearly reflected in the fee structure.

Client Investment

A section should be devoted to consultant fees and other costs including meetings, development or preparation, delivery, materials, travel expenses, and so forth. The consultant should also address his or her policy regarding payment. Does the consultant expect a portion of the fee at the beginning of the project or will the client be billed for everything at the end? Are participant materials included in the fee or is there a per participant fee?

Although the sample proposal applies to external consulting, it can be adapted for use by an internal consultant.

Trust

Trust is a nebulous term and difficult to define. It is, however, the core of a successful and effective client-consultant relationship. It is actually the result of the other elements already mentioned and is more closely related to professional ethics.

Trust doesn't happen overnight. It takes time to build a relationship that relies on the honesty, integrity, and ability of another person. Think about your client-consultant relationships. How strong is the trust factor? Use the following checklist (Exhibit 18.1) to evaluate the level of trust that exists in your own client-consultant relationship, with 1 being low and 4 being high.

An interdependent partnership approach to the client-consultant relationship will produce better results and will often yield benefits that far exceed expectations.

Sources

In many cases, the person assigned to select an external consultant may not know where to begin the search. The following sources may help save time and money in identifying potential outside resources:

• Internal sources (managers, other human resources professionals)
• Colleagues in other organizations
• Professional organizations
• Consultants organization has used before
• Industry publications

Selection Criteria

Once you have identified and narrowed the list of potential training consultants, the next challenge is to choose the one with the best “fit” for your particular organization and project. Use the following checklist (Exhibit 18.2) to help make the right choice.

Begin to evaluate consultant candidates by carefully reviewing the consultant's written material and/or website, keeping in mind, however, these materials have been designed and written as selling tools.

When you interview potential service providers, use behavioral interviewing skills and open-ended questions to identify whether the consultant meets a particular criterion. For example, if you want to know about the consultant's “track record,” you might ask: “Tell me about your most successful client experience.” Other probing questions might include:

• What do you think is the most important aspect of a client-consultant relationship?
• What do you know about our organization?
• What sets you apart from other consultants?
• How long have you been in business?
• What has been the most challenging consulting project you have ever had?
• How large is your organization?

Follow-Up Reports

At the end of a project, the consultant should prepare and submit a follow-up report to the client. Although the content of the report will vary depending on the type and scope of the project, every report should have certain common elements.

Executive Summary

• An abbreviated, concise, accurate representation of a report, document, or publication.
• Spells out the purpose of the report and the approach it will take.
• Also called an abstract, overview, or a précis.

Purpose

• Brief explanation of why the project or program was implemented in the first place.
• Statement of the problem.

Process

• Methods or approach used to solve problem.
• Scope, including length of time and number of people involved.

Measurable Results/Outcomes

• Present specific outcomes tied directly to the business need.
• Reflect any or all of the four levels of evaluation: reaction, learning, behavior, results.

Conclusions and Recommendations

• Outlines next steps.
• Suggests further training, interventions, methods or measurement, organizational changes, modifications to existing systems, new policies and procedures.

Developing an Ongoing Relationship

In addition to the follow-up report, a good consultant will continue to engage the client to determine the client's level of satisfaction and to identify other ways you can help solve business problems. You want to establish yourself as a trusted advisor, the go-to person for training solutions, and a true business partner.