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ical in your relationship with the client. The institutions of consultancy, such as the MCA and the IBC, publish a code of ethics and, if the consultant is seen to be adhering to this, it associates them with a trustworthy profession (Weiss 2003).

Cultural cohesion can be important for clients who wish their consultants to fi t in with

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their company and set their employees at ease. In his book The Chameleon Consultant, Holmes (2002) argues that the consultant should be aware of the client’s values, atti-tudes, language, and symbols. This “cultural intelligence”, Holmes argues, allows the consultant to win the client’s trust.

Working on personal relationships is also crucial in building up personal credibility

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with the client. If a client can see you acting with integrity in different social settings, they will build up a trusting relationship that quickly becomes habitual.

Planning Delivery

The formal structure of any consultancy project should be familiar to those who have experience in project management. The basis of any project is to ensure that delivery of the project is adequately resourced, controlled, and communicated. Below, the three main components of any delivery are examined: planning and control, communication, and resources.

Planning and Control

The plan is the spine of any project. In most projects, it is likely that a plan will already have been agreed in the accepted proposal. The plan will outline a number of activities over a period of time that are linked to the deliverables of the project. This allows the Proj-ect Manager to update the plan with the progress of the projProj-ect and to identify activi-ties that are falling behind schedule. The plan will include the resources, deliverables, and timelines of the project and also include a number of project milestones such as formal reviews, invoice dates, or key meetings.

The project manager is responsible for ensuring that the three key factors of any project are balanced: project requirements, time, and resources. Where one of these is insuffi cient, the project manager will raise the issue to the management and request that requirements or deliverables are reduced, or time or resources are increased. It is for this reason that proj-ect managers often keep a risk register. The risk register (Table 5.4) scores the main risks according to the impact they might have on the project and the likelihood of them occur-ring. It also outlines what actions will be taken to minimise the risk and who is responsible for implementing the mitigation.

As the poet Robert Burns noted, however, it is a rare plan that is implemented as originally intended. For this reason, a key process in any project is that of change control (Figure 5.5).

To aid the control of the project, most contracts specify a change control process (CCP). The CCP not only ensures that all proposed changes to the project are assessed for their suitability before they are implemented, but also that the impact on the existing project and the associated increases in resources or time are accounted for.

The control process should specify the routes and responsibilities for different forms of change requests. It is important that the client plays a central part in signing these off as they will frequently result in increases to the time, and therefore the budget, of the project.

8 2 16 Greater resource

allocated

Communication to board

CPM

Table 5.4. A risk register for a consultancy project

Change

Figure 5.5. Abbreviated change control process

Well-run projects will have allocated suffi cient time and resources to each activity in the plan and ensured that, where possible, independent activities are run simultaneously to ensure that the project completes as quickly as possible. Where activities are dependent upon each other, the project manager should have mapped out a “critical path” which represents the most amount of time the project should take and the critical activities that enable this to be achieved.

For the new consultant, much of this activity will be the responsibility of others.

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ever, it is important that every consultant has a clear view of their deliverables, what work is required to achieve these, and what resources are required to support this work.

For most consultants, a good way to organise this is to have a project folder (real or vir-tual) which includes: A detailed diary which outlines the activities the consultant will be performing to produce their deliverables on time.

A table of dependencies so that the things which each activity relies upon can be

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identifi ed.

A personal risk register which outlines the risks that might affect the availability of

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resources, the activities of the consultant, or the deliverables. Important risks can then be raised to the project manager.

A communication plan outlining the key stakeholders of the project and how they

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should be communicated to by the consultant.

A refl exive diary outlining ones thoughts and comments on the project. Whilst this

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might not seem important at the time, many consultants fi nd it an essential tool for refl ecting on past projects and learning lessons for the future.

With these tools, a consultant should be able to avoid angry questions from project man-agers, business owners, or principal consultants such as:

Why wasn’t I told about this earlier?

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What exactly have you been doing with your time?

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Surely you knew this was going to happen?

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Communication

Any consultancy plan should build in formal communication processes. This often involves a variety of different types of communication and formats, as depicted in Table 5.5.

With all client meetings there are a few key pointers that consultants should bear in mind. First, wherever possible, have a client manager chair the meeting. This instils a sense of ownership and makes clear that it is the client not the consultant that is primarily responsible for delivery. Second, prepare for the meeting effectively: communicate with all attendees beforehand so there are no surprises for you or them, ensure you have all the information you need to conduct a successful meeting, and consider the room, the

seating, and the resources required. Finally, ensure the meeting is run effectively: an agenda, minutes, and actions with clear deliverables and named individuals should be obvious but are often absent.

In addition to the formal communication, there is of course, the informal communica-tion and socialising that happens with every project. A word of warning on this. Whilst it is important to build trust and develop relationships, never make the mistake of giving the client something that they may hold against you. I often saw consultants removed from projects every year because they said the wrong thing to the wrong person after a few pints or mistook friendly offi ce banter for real friendship.

Resourcing

Another responsibility of the project manager is to ensure that there are adequate resourc-es to complete each project activity on time. Managing consultancy projects is particularly complex because of the number of different reporting lines that make up a team. As proj-ects often cut across several departments and organisations, a typical fi fteen-person team may consist of:

Contractors: who report both to the project lead (who may be a consultant) and to a

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client manager.

Consultants: often from several different consultancies. These may frequently report to

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their lead consultant, the project lead, and the client department. Furthermore, some consultants may be working on more than one project, in more than one company, each with its own demands on his or her time.

Client employees: these will often work in a matrix structure and report to both their

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head of department and the project lead.

Type Format Purpose Frequency

To perform a detailed review of the project against the original plan.

To discuss options and make decisions on the project with client stakeholders.

To solve any issues that arise. Usually called by client concerned with individuals or activities.

Whenever required.

Table 5.5. Forms of formal client communication

In addition, the project will be structured by seniority with some client employees report-ing to consultants, and vice versa.

Insofar as is possible, the project manager needs to avoid upsetting the interests of other departments or organisations that his current team might report to. It is easy especially when different departments are working on the same project for “silo warfare” to emerge where different teams bond within those from their own department instead of focusing on the project. One of the best project managers I worked with, Mike Sturrock, managed to avoid this by working on two things. First, he built the team up so that their main loyalty was to the project. By treating them fairly, sticking up for them against senior manage-ment, and investing time and effort in social events, he developed considerable loyalty from the various people on the project. Second, he communicated well with the vari-ous departments and organisations that had a vested interest in the project. By regularly updating interested parties on the project’s progress and challenges he managed to avoid the split loyalties that plague so many similar projects.

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