The Consultant's Toolkit: High-Impact Questionnaires, Activities and How-to Guides for Diagnosing and Solving Client Problems

by Mel Silberman

Written and field-tested by practicing consultants, The Consultant’s Tool Kit will save consultants both time and money-as it makes their work with clients much more effective. Each tool or activity is designed to solve a common consulting problem. Reproducible worksheets, exercises, and questionnaires are easily downloaded from the web and customized by consultants to fit the exact needs of each client―and help them effectively implement the solutions. This collection of field-tested tools, customizable questionnaires, and techniques for working with clients provides crucial problem-solving help in areas such as:
• Managing and leading change
• Organizational initiatives
• Assessing team and organizational functioning
• Improving relationships between departments and business units
• Creative problem-solving techniques Mel Silberman, Ph.D., (Princeton, NJ) is a best-selling author and editor. A professor of adult and organization development at Temple University, he is the author of Active Training.

Genres: Business

354 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Dr. Melvin L. Silberman was president of Active Training, a provider of cutting-edge training seminars, including Surefire Ways to Make Your Meetings Active and The Consummate Team Facilitator. He was also a professor of adult and organizational development at Temple University, as well as a best-selling author. His books include 101 Way to Make Training Active (Pfeiffer, 1995), Active Learning (Allyn & Bacon, 1996), Active Training (2nd Ed.) (Pfeiffer, 1998). Silberman consulted for corporate, governmental, educational, and human service organizations worldwide. He was also a speaker at professional conferences.

Reviews

[Britt O'Duffy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Consultant’s Tool Kit: 45 High-Impact Questionnaires, Activities, and How-To Guides for Diagnosing and Solving Client Problems is a comprehensive compendium of frameworks, addressing an array of consultative issues and situations. The text provides insights and strategies for understanding and managing I/O issues. Instead of organizing the contents topically (though a topical index exists), the text is structured on the structure of each section’s contents: assessment questionnaires, how-to guides, and intervention activities. To read it linearly, even in three two-hour sittings, is about as productive as watching two consecutive hours of 30-second movie trailers to decide on the evening’s entertainment. Individual chapters will stand out, especially those aspects that have immediate personal relevance or employ rhetorical tactics (humor, surprise, data) to capture one’s attention, but I would strongly recommend against a chronological read. The only reason I did so was for my Management Consulting class.

The target audiences for this text are likely organizational consultants or MBA students, individuals seeking templates to orient themselves to a specific problem and customizable frameworks that will guide them towards particular solutions. Consumed in this manner, The Consultant’s Tool Kit is an incredible resource. Unlike some textbooks which I’ve returned to the campus bookstore, this one will live on my office bookshelf (when I have an office) as a future reference text. Chapters about workshop facilitation, as well as the downloadable questionnaires, would provide helpful guides for someone directly involved in diagnosing and setting client strategy.

[Don Massenzio · Rating 4 out of 5]

A number of years ago, I found myself without a job for the first time in my adult life. At 40, this was scary until I woke up one morning, created a subchapter-S corporation and became a consultant. This book, along with others by Peter Block, was a significant help in getting started and having the confidence to persevere for two years independently. Now I'm a consultant in a big four firm and the things I learned from this book still ring true.