Overview of Self-PacedBusiness and

Consulting Skills Trainingfor Small Groups

Consulting StanceThe Discipline of Consulting

For more information, visit www.ConsultingStance.com or call (512) 380-1801.

Over the past year, we’ve taught business, leadership and consulting skills to large groups of corporate clients with a focus on IT project teams and professional services organizations. In the process, we have begun to lose faith in the “sit and listen” style of learning. It works, but it doesn’t work as well as “do and discuss” when you are trying to change behavior.

As a result, we developed self-paced training kits that encourage students to learn together, teach one another, and remain fully engaged throughout the process.

Groups of 4-5 employees gather in a conference room and go through the training kits, following written instructions and solving case study problems together.

Participants apply their varied backgrounds and experience to the material as the training progresses. The result is a common understanding of the concepts and an instant accountability network to reinforce change after the training session.

Each kit is designed to take only 90 minutes to complete and contains:

• Instruction Booklet, with detailed step-by-step instructions, a case study or workgroup scenario to provide a context for the training, discussion questions and next steps

• Workmap

• Game Cards

• Handouts for eachparticipant

Authority

Credibility

ExecutionTechnical

SkillsDomain

Knowledge

Access Influence

Consulting Stance Pyramid

All Consulting Stance training materials are linked by the pyramid.

Consulting StanceThe Discipline of Consulting

Authority

Credibility

ExecutionTechnical

SkillsDomain

Knowledge

Access Influence

Consulting Stance Pyramid

What You Know

What You Can Do

We start with the bottom tier of the pyramid, where we Get Stuff Done.

This is where you establish

your credibility and prove your

value to your customer or

employer.

The Accomplish Objectives training kit is made up of six activities that provide a framework for effective Execution, which is the foundation of the pyramid.

The workmap contains three sections: project, task and collaboration processes.

The participants work together to agree on the ideal arrangement of the steps in each process and then to diagnose which steps may have been skipped to cause specific outcomes or project symptoms.

Authority

Credibility

ExecutionTechnical

SkillsDomain

Knowledge

Access Influence

Consulting Stance Pyramid

What You Know

What You Can Do

They Know You

They Listen to You

The middle tier of the pyramid is about Making People Happy

Establishing effective relationships requires more than technical or business expertise. In order for

them to trust you, first theyhave to like you.

The Establish Strategic Relationships kit encourages employees to look beyond the immediate task or transaction and build bridges to the Key Players in their circle.Activities include identifying ways to build relationships and ways to manage conflict with fictional people with common personality traits.

Participants read the 16 personality cards and determine whether each person is a Key Player in the case study and their One Thing that keeps them happy. This activity is more complex that it appears at first. Personal experiences and stories emerge as the workgroup tries to agree on a solution. Our answers often trigger further discussion and insight among the participants.

Establishing Strategic Relationships also presents the Conflict Roadmap to help participants navigate conflict in the workplace.

Situations involving the fictional characters are presented and participants work together to identify High Road and Low Road responses.

They then compare their ideas with ours and discuss.

Authority

Credibility

ExecutionTechnical

SkillsDomain

Knowledge

Access Influence

Consulting Stance Pyramid

What You Know

What You Can Do

They Know You

They Listen to You

They Seek Out Your Advice

You Can Affect Decisions

The top of the pyramid is the key to Success.

The other three training kits teach multi-directional leadership in a

variety of situations.

Project Launch – encourages project teams to come to agreement on communication protocols, problem-solving procedures and task execution strategies at the beginning of the project to reduce the risks inherent in any team-based activity.

Customer Experience – draws the participants’ attention to how their decisions and behaviors affect the customer’s experience, regardless of whether that customer is a consulting client or internal business customer, and provides simple tools and guidelines to make improving the customer experience easy.

Accelerating Authority – teaches four ways that every employee establishes authority, with specific examples, and a means to identify individual strengths and opportunities, resulting in a personal plan for each participant that will result in greater influence and increased opportunity.

Each kit can be used by a single group of employees or as part of a larger program or all-hands meeting.

“This is a hands-on tool that generates terrific conversation.”

- Brad S., Applied Materials

“Fun, interactive way of learning to build effective relationships.”

- Karen B., Emerson

“Draws a clear line between activities and desired results.”

- Mike A., Wells Fargo

“Brings multiple concepts and skills together for experiential learning.”

- Max S., Sitestuff

Testimonials from recent participants:

“A valuable method to increase successful projects and build horizontal leadership.”

- Andrew C., Clarum Group

In post-training surveys, 100% of participants responded to the question, “Will you change your behavior or priorities at work as a result of this training?” by checking YES.

“Really emphasized that just being an expert is not enough to keep my clients happy”

- Denise D., Consultant

“I gained valuable knowledge and strategies for dealing with clients”

- Doug P., Consultant

“This course explains and demonstrates the value of soft skills and teaches you ways to grow those skills.”

- Kim L., Dell

For more information, visit www.ConsultingStance.com or call (512) 380-1801.