Process Consulting

Follow the expert advice in this book--the fifth in The Ultimate Consultant series--and you will learn what it takes to work effectively with clients to launch and conduct projects and bring them to a successful conclusion. Alan Weiss, internationally recognized consultant and author of the best-selling Million Dollar Consulting, shows you how to form partnerships with clients who will enthusiastically assist and support the implementation of all your consulting projects.

Introduction

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1. Conditions for a Successful Intervention 1

Chapter 2. Gathering Intelligence: Strategy 19

Chapter 3. Gathering Intelligence: Tactics 35

Chapter 4. Coaching Key People 53

Chapter 5. Culture Change and Change Management 71

Chapter 6. An Interlude: Managing Misfortune 89

Chapter 7. Learning Lessons 105

Chapter 8. Developing Client Strategy 123

Chapter 9. Creating Change 141

Chapter 10. Improving Leadership 159

Appendix A: Sample Process Visuals 177

Appendix B: Annotated Bibliography 183

Index 187

Alan Weiss—author, international consultant, highly sought keynote speaker-is the founder and president of Summit Consulting Group. His clients have included Hewlett-Packard, State Street Corp., Fleet Bank, Coldwell Banker, Merrill Lynch, American Press Institute, Chase, Mercedes-Benz, GE, and American Institute of Architects. He is the author of twenty books, including The Ultimate Consultant (Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer, 2001) and Getting Started in Consulting (John Wiley & Sons, 2000). Weiss resides with his wife Maria in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. Alan Weiss, expert consultant and author of the best-selling book Million Dollar Consulting, presents Process Consulting--the fifth book in The Ultimate Consultant series--focusing exclusively on the implementation of consulting methodology. Here, at last, is a targeted book about how consultants can work most effectively with clients to launch, implement, and conclude successful consulting projects.

At the very heart of the consulting process, Weiss explains, is the reality that consultants need more than refined skills in order to succeed. They primarily need to work together with clients to create true professional partnerships. He emphasizes that consultants must prepare the environment for, and effectively educate the buyer about, the focus required and resources needed to support the project's implementation. Using the guidelines outlined in this book, consultants will learn how to prepare themselves, the buyer, and the client implementers to support and champion the intervention. This is a book that both internal and external consultants should be using as their daily guide to project success.

Process Consulting shows how to

• Create the conditions for a successful intervention
• Put in place the strategy and tactics needed to gather intelligence
• Coach key people and establish the rules of engagement
• Reinforce change and overcome resistance
• Create dynamic instruction that will yield outright results for the client's business
• Focus on the transition from strategy formulation to strategy implementation
• Improve leadership that is driven by values and measured by results

Throughout the book, Weiss outlines a commonsense approach that is simple, accessible, fast, and applicable to every consulting intervention.