Serendipity and Learning

One of the laments I heard in a gathering of LnD folks is that consultants are no good. I disagree. I have worked with consultants and been a consultant myself. Think of it. A consultant comes into to work on your problem. (I stick to an LnD context here). Who defines it? Who validates what the consultant brings to the table? Who has the chance to modify that consultants approach? If after all this your work comes a cropper, who is to blame? It is you, because either you chose the wrong consultant or did not define the problem or validate the solution clearly or you messed it up in the execution. Or when you realised the consultant wasnt working out - you decided not to cut the cord. So, if you see here the only real issue is getting the right consultant (and the right price). Therefore my view is that it is a supply demand issue. If you define the problem better, you will get people who will solve the problem better. I will enunciate the supply demand problem better in a l...

The first few minutes when you meet someone as a consultant are vital. The person on the other side is evaluating you. Whether you are in a meeting or in a consulting discussion or in facilitation, those first few minutes are vital. How this happens is the people on the other side ask a question and watch how you respond. Depending on how you respond, the conversation goes uphill or downhill. It is important to handle this well. How does one do it? One, by listening fully, being curious, asking the right questions. But this alone wont work - neither will purely paraphrasing - at this stage, they are very likely looking for specific answers. If you dont give specific answers or vacillate - it will also put you in a slot - from where escaping may be difficult. Take a cricket analogy for this. When you are new to the crease, the bowler tries you out by bowling a few interesting balls and sees how you react. Depending on how you react/stand up/perform the next steps happen. Take any...

Sometimes, an interesting problem gets thrown at you. And such it was that I found myself face to face with a team that had an interesting problem thrown at them. And I was called to help out. I first spent time understanding their business and the nature of it, the market. That conversation was an eye opener for me - for I did not know the existence of this industry in this context at all. I spent time knowing how the industry runs, what is the driver and so on and worked on my design. As I discussed the design with the leader, the leader suggested a set of interviews with the team. These interviews made me re-think the design and go back with a much more simpler model than what was envisioned in the early stage of the requirement. (I suspect strongly the interviews were suggested as the leaders way of telling me that the design needed a change) One thing led to another and the final design turned out to be very different from what we started out with. And the program was rec...

A few days back, a so called colour consultant visited us. From a reputed painting company, this service allows customers to work with a consultant and choose colours for their walls. They take pictures of your walls and show it will look with the new colours. All in all, a neat marketing experience. However, the consultants job is not an easy one. He cannot upsell - as in, his objective cannot be to maximise selling paint. He cannot in any way 'underestimate' the colour sensibility of his customer - however low their sensibilities are. But he also has to respect his own sensibilities as an 'artist'. Turned out that this particular guy was an artist. He gave us a few options - some which we liked, some which we did not and some which resonated with our thoughts completely. Now, the third option - the ones which resonated with us - is the sweet spot for the consultant and the company. The trick is to know what are those - but that is dificult to get - because it is ...