The objective of Flawless Consulting 1: Contracting is to develop skills that increase the staff person’s ability to have a strong and positive impact on their client’s business results.
Target Outcomes:
- Develop commitment from your internal clients
- Work more in a partnership role with client managers
- Negotiate more effective and enduring working agreements with clients
- Identify consulting phases and skills
- Develop techniques for defining roles and responsibilities and clarifying expectations
- Gain better use of staff expertise in the organization
- Avoid no-win consulting situations
- Develop the ability to assertively express our needs for successful partnership with the client
- Develop the skills to name the actual type of resistance one experiences in a variety of consulting situations
The Concepts
Consulting Process: Goals and Phases
You will develop an understanding of the essential phases in the consulting process and that each phase has its own unique requirements. Following this model will make projects that succeed more successful and help you avoid those projects that never had a chance.
The Contracting Meeting
You will learn how this initial meeting can make or break the future relationship. You will discover how to design the meeting so that you and your client can connect quickly, pinpoint the real issue and get to the business of discovering what you want from each other.
Consultant Roles and Moving to Partnership
You can be; the expert called in to solve the problem for the client, the pair of hands called into service to do the work, or an equal collaborating with the client. You will learn which role you are most comfortable in, ways to distinguish which role the client is really requesting from you and the personal cost in fulfilling these roles.
Assertiveness and Authenticity
We all have a communication Bill of Rights including the right to be heard, the right to silence, etc. How do we protect these rights without being seen as aggressive and stubborn? You will learn to “push the envelope” of assertiveness in new and effective ways.
Listening and Affirmation
Trust is essential in any consulting relationship. You will learn how to listen to uncover client concerns, to put into words how you feel about working with the client, and encourage them to do the same. You will also discover the power of support by recognizing and articulating what is working well, rather than belaboring what is not.
Exchanging Expectations and Expressing Wants
We are usually very clear about what our clients want from us – the problem becomes what we want from our clients. How do you, as the consultant, put into words what you want and need to make this product successful. This sometimes complicated aspect of the contracting or entry phase is clearly analyzed and practiced in real life situations in the workshop.
Dealing with Resistance
At some point in each project, we hit a wall. The client does not return our calls, or talks about anything except the work at hand. In short, we are encountering resistance. This workshop will help you understand that resistance is most often the client’s defense against their underlying concern. Through powerful, unique simulations, you will discover the key to utilizing resistance and change as a chance for learning, and developing deeper more effective and meaningful relationships with your clients.
Workshop Agenda
Day 1
- Consulting goals & phases
- The consulting process walk-through exercise
- Consultant role orientations
- A simulation and case study on “ Negotiating Wants”
- Assertiveness
- Process the learning
Day 2
- Expressing wants-starting wants as consultants simulation
- Recognizing and dealing with resistance
- Practice dealing with resistance and role play
- Closing the meeting and giving support
- Contracting practice
- Practice planning, conducting and reviewing a complete contracting meeting with the client
- Future commitments
