55
Chapter 3
The Odyssey Arrow
Integration Phases: Delivering
Strategic Imperatives
◾ What is the picture in your client’s head?
◾ How well do you understand your client’s total business?
We now consider the integration stages of the Odyssey Arrow. To repeat, the
Odyssey Arrow is a visual representation of a discipline, a system, and a meth-
odology with the ultimate objective of engaging with your Ideal Clients on key
assignments to achieve masterful results. It gives the consulting process a series
of well-defined, disciplined stages and corresponding actions that allow you to
manage a consulting assignment in a controlled manner. The integration stages
of the Odyssey Arrow begin with the Recommendation (REC), followed by the
Organizational Development Intervention (ODI) and the Summary Evaluation
Report (SER). To help illustrate the practice, we will continue to review Century
Management’s consulting engagement with ACP Engineering.
Recommendation
Laying the Groundwork for REC
The early stages of the engagement process, M1, M1r, M2, and BMR, provide the
consultant with the in-depth knowledge of the business required to put them in
56 ◾ Odyssey—The Business of Consulting
a position to create a detailed REC tailored exactly to the needs and objectives of
the client (Figure 3.1). Those initial stages also lay the groundwork for the essen-
tial buy-in within the company and serve to build trust, without which any inter-
vention cannot succeed. An essential home truth here is this: The greater the
team’s involvement with the process, the greater the probability of its success.
Before issuing any REC, it is important that the core issues are clarified
with the client, and thereafter that the objectives—both macro and micro—
are documented and agreed upon. During that discussion, the issues and
objectives should be stated using “native language”—that is, phrased in the
client’s own words—and placed in the correct order of priority by the client.
It is imperative that you are absolutely certain that you have a clear
understanding of the client’s perspective and the picture in their head before
advancing to the next stage.
The Century Management Case Study
The REC document prepared by Century Management for ACP Engineering
began by grouping the company’s key strengths and the critical challenges
they faced, as identified and stated in their BMR:
◾ ACP is ready to move forward.
◾ There is sufficient drive to change the culture throughout the practice.
◾ There is a lack of the critical core competencies that will be necessary
to transform the practice.
◾ Not enough thinking time has been given to attitude management and
business purpose.
◾ There is a requirement for a leadership process.
Flowing directly from these realities, the recommended intervention was
broken down into macro and micro core objectives.
M1rM1
REC
M2
BMR
ODI
SER
EB
Figure 3.1 Recommendation.
The Odyssey Arrow Integration Phases ◾ 57
Macro Objectives
Creating Personal Leadership Awareness
The aim here is to provide every staff member with the skills required
to become a more effective team member.
Benchmarking the Competencies for Superior Performance
Each role in the company will be benchmarked to identify the job-
specific competencies required to carry out that role more effectively. In
a parallel process, the person-specific competencies of each individual
will be worked out, thus giving a clear indication of where the skills
gaps lie.
Developing an Attitude of Personal Responsibility
In addition, this element of the process will address the management
of change through people, with an emphasis on interpersonal commu-
nication. Change management skills will be aimed at developing team
building and improving overall performance.
Building a Shared Strategy for the Practice
The aim here is to develop a shared strategy within the senior team,
one which emphasises communication and business development. A vital
part of the process involves transforming the management approach to
one of strategic leadership. Developing a collective team identity and
dynamic to promote greater collaboration and communication is also
central to the overall improvement of the business.
Business Acumen
The senior team must be equipped with the necessary knowledge
and skills to build a leading-edge professional practice. To that end, we
will explore business areas such as branding, marketing, consultative
selling, and networking and financial areas, including fee setting and
cash flow management.
Sustaining and Enhancing the Business Ethos and Culture at ACP
A strong culture and team identity are essential to the growth and
development of the business. Elements of ACP values and mission will
be incorporated into business systems and processes, particularly in
relation to performance evaluation.
58 ◾ Odyssey—The Business of Consulting
Micro Objectives
Developing the Following Core Management Skills
◾ Interpersonal communications
◾ Effective communication techniques
◾ Emotional intelligence
◾ Coaching and facilitation styles
◾ Individual feedback
◾ Handling challenging work relationships
◾ Handling conflict
◾ Delegation skills
◾ Decision making
◾ Problem solving
The Recommendation
With key objectives defined, it was time to outline the intervention. Century
Management recommended a four-phase integrated process. Although the
phases themselves are distinct and self-contained, each one is also fully inte-
grated into the process as a whole.
The coming pages feature selected extracts from the REC issued to APC
Engineering. The overall aim was to achieve significant and sustainable
change within ACP in the areas of personal and professional development,
business management, and strategy formulation, and to ensure that the pro-
fessional culture evolved as the business grew.
Internally branding the implementation process can help ensure buy-inand
embed the intervention in the client company. Sometimesthe client chooses a
name of significance for the process. In other cases,they are happy to go along
with a title and theme of our choosing.
In one case, we put the name “Rubicon Process” on the entire inter-
vention. Senior management had a thorough immersion in the process,
mid-level experienced a slightly lesser immersion, and the lower level
participated in the lowest immersion. Everyone, however, participated in
the “Rubicon Process.” We liken it to serving larger slices of the pizza to
senior management and smaller slices of the pizza to the other levels in
the organization.
The Odyssey Arrow Integration Phases ◾ 59
In this case study, for simplicity, we went with “APC” as the title of the process:
Phase 1: APC competency—communications and team building
Phase 2: APC business—the business of the professional practice
Phase 3: APC strategy—strategic thinking and planning
Phase 4: APC integration—follow up and follow through
Phase 1: APC Competency—Communications and Teambuilding
There are three main steps in Phase 1: APC Competency—Communications
and Teambuilding. The TTI Success Insights portfolio of assessment solu-
tions forms a valuable part of the competency REC.
Step 1: Setting the Context and Defining the Job-Specific Competency
Requirements
The scene is set with the release of an announcement letter to every-
one participating in the program. This is followed by an orientation
briefing from the partners to help ensure buy-in. Key positions in ACP
are then defined in terms of their job-specific competency require-
ments. The Century Management web-based system is then used to
establish a benchmark for each of these positions.
Step 2: Measuring Each Individual and Highlighting the Key Competency Gaps
Each executive completes a personal talent exercise, which provides
them with a document highlighting their natural and work-related
behavioral styles, their motivational drivers, and their personal and
leadership skills. After this process, members of the ACP team will get
an individualized report indicating their capabilities and their specific
learning requirements compared with the benchmark for that position.
Step 3: Delivering ACP Competency—Communications and Teambuilding
The purpose of Step 3 is to deliver a comprehensive learning and
development process to all individuals, addressing professional compe-
tency and skills development, personal leadership development, team-
work, communications improvement, and change management. ACP
Competency will be applied under the following headings:
◾ Time management that gets results
◾ Coaching and staff development
..................Content has been hidden....................
You can't read the all page of ebook, please click here login for view all page.