Finding Your Way In The Consulting Jungle

Chart your path in the consulting jungle! Finding Your Way in the Consulting Jungle--a book in The Practicing Organization Development series--offers OD consultants the information and guidance they need to understand their place in the consulting network, differentiate themselves from other types of consultants, and work with both clients and colleagues to make sure everyone's needs and expectations are met. Finding Your Way in the Consulting Jungle offers practical advice on how to: * Differentiate and market yourself * Interview prospective clients * Write proposals "Transports the reader from the safety of the classroom into the complex, unpredictable and often hazardous world that they describe as 'the consultant jungle.' It is a great resource for graduate level OD programs, consultant training courses, AND corporate managers who hire consultants." --C. Patrick Fleenor, Ph.D., director, International Business Programs, Albers School of Business and Economics, Seattle University

Process consultation, invented by Edgar Schein, is both a skill and an organization development change effort. As a skill, process consultation means the ability to observe and provide feedback about small group dynamics to a work group about how well group members interact and how to improve that interaction. Just as facilitators devote their time to (in one word) asking, process consultants devote their time to (in one word) watching—at an expert level. As a change effort, process consultation is a concerted effort to help members of a group work together more effectively. For that reason, the word "process" in this context should be interpreted to mean "interpersonal interaction in small groups." Historically, process consultation has focused attention on face-to-face groups and their group dynamics. But times are changing. More work is done online or in blended (online and onsite) groups than face-to-face alone. A 2017 survey of over 25,000 workers in 12 countries revealed that 62% of global workers are now working flexibly—with some residential work and some virtual work. The same survey found that workers believe that flexible work arrangements make them more productive and that 48% of survey respondents reported that their virtual interactions include representatives of other cultures. It is true that, for workers who can discipline themselves and manage distractions at home, virtual work can be more productive when commuting time is eliminated and workplace distractions are minimized. Virtual work has the advantage of reducing the need for childcare, slashing work wardrobe costs, and cutting unproductive, stressful commuting time. Despite how modes of working together have changed over the years—ranging from face-to-face to some degree of virtual (video conference, audio conference, print-only collaboration, and many blended combinations)—and the growing need for finding ways to help people work together more effectively, there has been no practical guideline of process consultation in a virtual or mixed work setting since Schein’s process consultation initially focused on group dynamics in face-to-face settings. Therefore, this book aims to provide practical approaches to process consultation, helping group members discover more effective ways of working together in blended virtual/residential and cross-cultural settings. Essentially, this book provides a practical, how-to guide for virtual coaching, using step-by-step procedural approaches, cases, and helpful platforms/technologies and tools. It also provides information about how to use technology to support the process of improving virtual or mixed group relationship.

Discover a wealth of issues in the field of consulting psychologywith this landmark book. Explore key topics in assessment andevaluation, building teams, executive coaching, career counseling,interpersonal conflicts and relationships, benefit design,personality testing, and much more. Learn to delineate and betterunderstand the wide array of information you are faced with, andbecome more adept and knowledgeable in the field of consultingpsychology. This comprehensive volume has expert contributorsrecruited by the volume's editor--himself an eminent educator andpractitioner in the field. You will get: * Special issues in consulting to specific types of organizationsincluding industry, schools, government, non-profit, andinternational * Informative guidelines for professional practiceprocedures * Organized sections on individual, group and organizationalissues * And much more!

The field of management consultancy research has grown rapidly in recent years. Fuelled by the drivers of complexity and uncertainty, a growing number of organizations – both profit and third sector alike – are looking at management consultancy to assist in their aims for development and change. Consultants have become a common feature in organizational change initiatives, involved in both providing advice and in implementing ideas and solutions. However, despite this growing recognition and influence, management consultancy is still often misunderstood or criticized for its lack of theoretical underpinning. The book seeks to address these issues by offering applied theoretical insights from academics that both teach and practice management consultancy. Written by recognized experts in their field, the contributors combine original insights with authoritative analysis. Uniquely, this book identifies emerging themes with critical discourse and provides rich empirical case study evidence to show the reader how management consultancy projects are implemented. Real-world international consultancy projects are featured as written up cases featuring organizations from multi-national corporations to the public sector. Written for graduate level managers or those who have practical leadership experience, this book will enable readers to apply management consultancy models beyond a classroom context

Organization Development: The Process of Leading Organizational Change, Fourth Edition offers a comprehensive look at individual, team, and organizational change, covering classic and contemporary organization development techniques. Today's practitioners seek a solid foundation that is academically rigorous, but also relevant, timely, practical, and grounded in OD values and ethics. In this bestselling text, author Donald L. Anderson provides students with the organization development tools they need to succeed in today’s challenging environment of increased globalization, rapidly changing technologies, economic pressures, and evolving workforce expectations.

Organizations are increasingly investing in consulting capabilities to understand what changes they need to make to keep up the pace with the competition and future-proof their business. Consultancy, Organizational Development and Change is a guide for students and internal and external consultants needing to develop the necessary skills to consult in organizational settings where there is a great deal of complexity. It tackles the issues posing the greatest threat to the success of the change programme, including how to adapt to rapidly shifting needs, deal with the emotional and ethical issues that arise and ensure that the managers take full ownership for the change so that 'business as usual' is established. Complete with case studies from the 'Big Four' consultancy groups as well as boutique firms, Consultancy, Organizational Development and Change shows how to identify and execute interventions in a variety of organizational settings to deliver value. It provides guidance on how to develop a value proposition; define, write and present the business case for the proposed interventions; establish credibility and report on the results.

Organizational Development (OD) consultants often face dilemmas when they market their services because there is a gap between clients’ expectation and the actual role of OD consultants. This book is about how to overcome that dilemma by finding effective marketing strategies for a different approach to consulting. Marketing Organization Development: A How-To Guide for OD Consultants focuses on the challenges faced by internal and external consultants in marketing and selling their services. By distinguishing between performance consulting and Organization Development (OD) consulting, this book demonstrates why marketing and selling OD consulting services are unique. This book meets not only unique OD consultants’ needs by reflecting the philosophical background of OD and unique marketing challenges but the needs of Human Resource Development (HRD) managers’ need who are interested in promoting or selling their change interventions within their organizations. This comprehensive book: Reviews important terms and popular tools used in the marketing process and outlines the many roles a consultant must fill to obtain and keep the business (i.e., marketer, salesperson, brand manager, account management) .Describes the criteria for self-evaluation as an OD consultant. It examines how to identify your strengths and the competencies you need to develop based on OD competencies. Provides an introduction to actionable steps and resources for organization development, change management, and performance management consultants to evaluate unmet needs and opportunities through a niche market for consulting services. Covers how to communicate value to your target customers and how to brand your service. Describes various channels of OD marketing such as viral, word of mouth, and social media marketing. . Reviews selling tactics for l your consulting service and discusses the importance of having a defined sales process to which you adhere.

The pace of change is increasing and shows no signs of slowing down. This section brings you the best thinking from forty years of the OD Practitioner journal on:- The different kinds of change and what's needed to achieve each one.- What you must do to see change initiatives through to completion.- The enablers that must be in place for change to succeed.- Examining change from the change recipient’s point of view.- How to establish internal change agents who can help advocate for the change at ground-level.- Lessons on how to engage in change outside Western societies.- How to handle resistance to change.