Getting it Right: Working Successfully with Consultants

Working with a consultant
Getting it right!
Organizational work plan for a successful
consultancy project for arts and non-profit
managers and boards
ArtsCubed: http://www.arts-cubed.com

Step One
Before you hire a consultant!
Developing the organizational plan for a
consultancy project.

Your organization is positioned to make
good use of a consultant when:
Your project is responsive to your strategic plan
and will help achieve long-term goals

Your organization is positioned to
make good use of a consultant when:
You project addresses a real organizational need
and your organization has buy-in for the work
and is equipped to use the project results
Examine assumptions about organizational needs
Test the buy-in by organizational members whose
cooperation will be needed for success and address any
concerns before work is started
Next steps: what is the plan? e.g. No sense having a
marketing plan if you don’t have staff or budget to
implement!

make good use of a consultant when
Your project is time-limited with clear beginning,
end and expected outcomes.
You cannot measure success without goals and
benchmarks
 Your project’s budget could be exceeded without a firm
schedule

You have a draft work plan for
the consultancy project
 Whether you use a Gantt chart or
a simple calendar, managers and
staff know when meetings with
the consultant and joint work will
happen, minimizing disruption of
ongoing work

You have a plan for project over-sight, project
communications and project support.
 Consultants, managers and staff understand chain of
communications, authority and priorities

Step Two:
Hiring a consultant
Find the consultant that’s right for
your organization and project

Finding the consultant right for
your organization
Talk to colleagues, funders, professional
organizations
Add recommendations to your list of people/firms to
consider
Even if you are leaning toward someone known to you
consider and interview a range of recommendations

Finding the consultant right
for your organization
Look at the past experience of the consultant for
indications that they know your sector and how to
work with organizations of your size, especially
when sectoral knowledge is very key to the project.
. Prepare questions needing specialized knowledge to
answer such as funding programs specific to sector
Ask specifics about implementation of past projects to
gauge ability to work independently or with a large team as
needed.

Be sure the skills and expertise of your consultant
is a match for the specific focus of the project
"social media marketing" and not just "marketing" if they are
charged with a social media marketing plan
 corporate fundraising, not just “fund-development” if you
are charging them with a corporate campaign

Be sure that the consultant is able to be as
hands-on and present in the organization or as
independent as needed.
Be frank with the consultant about what you need and don't
need
 Ask about their ability to attend meetings and their own
expectations about frequency and method of contact

Discuss the draft plan with the consultant as well
as the opportunities, strengths and limitations of
your organization.
Be receptive to suggestions that enhance your plan but
wary of someone who wants to make huge changes to work
plan
Consider whether suggested changes are new ways of
looking at the problem or run upstream against your
organizational culture

Define project communications
Assuring the success of your project by
defining authority, communication
channels and priorities

In successful consulting projects there is
organizational oversight
Who directs the consultant's work?
Who intervenes if a consultant's work is not being done,
goes off-course or is being disruptive of operations?

Is there a staff member(s) assigned to assist the
consultant?
Are those staff members aware of how they will be
expected to assist?
How well is the work defined?
Example: You will be required to occasionally assist X by
research and database entries. This is not to take
precedence over your regular work and should take
approximately 1-3 hours work per week."
Who intervenes if a consultant misdirects or abuses staff?

Do staff understand the scope of
the project and how it integrates
with their own work?
 Communicate the project goals with
staff who will be assisting
Buy-in is facilitated when staff
understand and do not have unrealistic
fears about the outcomes of consulting
projects

Do staff know what information is permissible to
share?
Privacy considerations need to be addressed in advance
Sharing HR or client information and lists has legal as well
as organizational effectiveness implications

Avoiding Common Pitfalls
What are the most common reasons for
consulting projects to fail?

Common consulting pitfalls
Fail No. 1: Irrelevant projects
A marketing plan for an organization without the staff or
finances to support the plan.
 A "think outside of the box" innovational strategy that is not
doable or sustainable due to known factors

Fail No. 2: Choosing a consultant with the
wrong skill set.
You picked someone with a knowledge of
foundations and government funders to plan and
pioneer an individuals and corporate donor
campaign
You picked someone with strengths in social
media marketing for an outreach to an audience
that doesn’t use social media very much

Fail No. 3: Choosing a consultant with
the wrong work style
You suffered with an absentee or “in your hair”
consultant
Lack of clarity about work plan or organizational
style led to a disconnect, disputes and
ultimately caused project to fail.

Fail No. 4: Lack of over-sight, some symptoms . . .
Consulting project takes on a life of its own due to lack of
oversight.
Results unlikely to reflect original goals and project either
becomes irrelevant or disruptive.
Results become hard to assess when it is unclear what the
consultant actually did.
Staff resent a consultant taking on roles/work that is in their
job description and have no referee to mediate

Fail No. 5: Lack of clarity about staff roles
Due to busyness and poor delegation, staff are uncooperative, stalling the
project
Frightened staff unduly priorize consulting project to the detriment of
higher priority work.
Consultant, unclear of how to get needed help, goes to anyone who
answers the phone for help causing duplication and confusion.
Consultant unclear of boundaries, contacts staff at home, via personal
email etc.
Staff who have no mechanism to refuse to put in extra hours for
consultancy project ask for huge overtime payments or time in lieu due to
work heaped on them by the consultant resulting in hidden costs.

Fail No. 6: Information Sharing Disasters!
Wary staff refuse to share information needed for the consultancy.
Staff fail to priorize information sharing because they don't know how it will
be used.
Staff who misunderstand Consultant's scope share privileged information
Consultant offers the organization contact information that is not supposed
to be shared. Individuals added to our contact list complain about spam,
damage our reputation.
Our contact list is shared against our wishes and our contacts complain.
We see a decline in funding results from known sources the following year
and discover our list of funding contacts is being used by a competitor who
has hired our former consultant

SUMMARY: Key Points
Strategic needs and long-term goals should drive the project, not
short-term opportunities or needs
Select a consultant who matches the project, the organization and
the work style of the team
Provide clear oversight to the consultant and be clear about
responsibilities & communication lines for the staff
Get the necessary buy-in from staff by sharing the project's goals
and likely outcomes
Be thoughtful about information sharing making sure protections
and permissions are clear
Track the project regularly assuring reports are accurate

Getting it Right: Working Successfully with Consultants

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