Forming a Consulting Group (that is World-Changing, Profitable, Enjoyable, Sustainable, Continuously-Improving, etc.)

The world is full today with people in business who are doing good things and making compelling change to our organizations.  These people are not generally organized as a collective.  It's likely the goal for many of these individuals to find other like-minded people and establish "guilds" around their particular part of the technology and change delivery puzzle, be it sales, product definition, development, delivery, or support.  In total, our system today requires many quality professionals to deliver the services that it has; and the quality of these services and their density is highly variable and in some cases poor, some cases excellent.  The goal is to make high-quality products that the world needs and for which the market will be willing to pay.  "It takes a village" but this village that we will need for this change is smart, involved, well-organized, and planned.  This is not a government, it is an uprising.

What are the attributes of this village we require to bring about the quality products and services of tomorrow?  From where does this village come?  The crowd, I say!  From our networks; current and future.  In my opinion, it is possible to find and support--with the appropriate tools, incentives, practices, and resources--people willing to capably contribute to our current firms and to the firms that we need to bring about.  The goal for the support organization and consulting group would be to offer the training, staffing, and project/program/product services necessary to allow the resources we have today to turn out the products we need tomorrow as fast and at as high of a quality and leading to the greatest economic value possible. The technologies we have today are mature enough to support and sustain such a group.

Today's organizations are either A) antiquated B) outdated C) unprepared or D) non-existing.  Let's fix this!


Critical Components of the Consulting Organization (EfficiTrends):

• Sales & Marketing -- responsibilities are to build the network, filter associates/partners/relationships, educate and train our stakeholders and members.
• Operations & Delivery -- responsible for getting the job done as it's defined and communicating to others when things aren't going according to plan.
• Product Definition and Contracting -- responsible for strategic planning, fine-grained management of relationships, project/program/product management, and contracting.
• Product Support and Operations, Sustainability -- responsible for the ongoing "care and feeding" of completed products and services as well as the definition of new, more streamlined ways of providing those products and services at a lower cost.

Critical Inputs to the Process:

• People in jobs
• Make the most out of the person's role and support them with a great staff and "back office"
• Provide personal marketing, coaching, and resume services about what they're doing, how to market their strengths, develop their weaknesses, and work toward demonstrable results and efficient engagement
• On-site staff augmentation and support services to fill gaps within client team.
• Project and program management definition and sales -- how to "stealthily" grow the scope of the consulting group's influence at the client.
• Replacement services when the individual isn't the best fit
• "Graceful exit" services when the client or engagement should not be the focus of the consulting organization
• Leads, hiring managers, entrepreneurs
• Assist in the definition of programs and offerings
• Put consultants and partners in place
• Seek to define measurable results and a consistent, visible practice, and knowledge base
• Partner via Master Service Agreement (MSA), Joint Venture (JV), etc.
  

Replacing Problems with Solutions -- More thoughts on Pragmatism

After I published my last article “15 ways to be more pragmatic at work” I started to wonder if I’d overdone it by citing fifteen points about being pragmatic. Maybe I personally wasn’t very pragmatic since it took me fifteen points to make my case!

When I wrote my 15 points, the problem that I was trying to solve for was that for me the idea of pragmatism seemed very complex and I felt that I had to create an equally complex solution (one that required a fifteen-point process) to solve for it. The basic point here is that pragmatism has a lot to do with efficiency and perception.

If the input requirement I'm given is “build a box” and I create something wildly complex like a computer, you may say that I wasn't being very pragmatic. Whereas if I instead drew a box with paper and pencil and you liked it, you may say that I'm rather pragmatic. It all depends on how we define the problem, who's the audience or judge, and what's really at stake.

When it comes to making new things and getting the most out of life, all of us probably want to know what to expect before we take something on so we are prepared to advocate or defend what we’ve done once we get to the end. We don’t want to do anything without a purpose or to have a story to tell! We know that we won’t be able to mitigate all of the risks involved in doing what we want to do decide to choose the most important risks to mitigate and go down the road to fixing them. Along the way we may have to defend our actions and tell others that what we’re doing is the right thing and the step we’re taking is the right one. In others eyes, we want to be seen as capable, confident, and intelligent; independent.

A pragmatic solution to me is one that includes only as much complexity as is required to be deemed by the people who defined and/or are defining the immediate problem at hand as acceptable. To provide for this we have to know what expectations others will have once we’re finished. This is why we have to inquire and wonder and include others on our journey. This is why planning matters and this is why it’s nearly impossible to create solutions in a vacuum.

Let’s set our sights on replacing problems we have with solutions we like.