The role of the consultant
YOU MUST KNOW THE BASIC STEPS OF BALLROOM DANCING...
This applies to internal and external consultants who drive a change project in close cooperation with a project team and an organisation in which the change is to be implemented. In addition to being a project manager, the consultant must be able to act as an advisor, a facilitator and a trainer at different stages of the project.
As an advisor, you must be able to give advice, typically specialist advice, which helps the customer understand and make decisions. In the role as a trainer, focus is on teaching others something by changing their knowledge, opinions, competences and behaviour, whereas the role as a facilitator consists in ensuring that human processes reach the goal. These roles are like ballroom dancing – you must know the basic steps and, not least, make it clear which dance you are dancing in order not to clash with the customer.
And how to navigate on the dance floor – every day
Regardless of which role you are to undertake as a consultant a given day, you must always have four different areas in mind. As a consultant, you must know how the individual day is related to the entire process which the day is part of, also if you have only been engaged for this single day! In addition, you must be able to keep focus on both the business and the people at the same time. The two dimensions “the day – the entire process” and “the business – the people” form the model of the four areas (”the dance floor”) which the competent consultant focuses on every day. The challenge is to remind yourself of all of the four areas because you tend to have a preference for one of them.
We have always been absorbed in creating effective change, but during the last four years, we have especially focused on developing our own consultants through an ambitious internal consultant training. The cornerstones of the training are our implementation principles and our own 15-year experience, and the training covers what we believe is needed for being able to deliver exceptional quality. We have now chosen to offer the modules to our customers because we believe that we have something unique to offer – both in the form of open courses and tailored programmes.
