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Collaborative Consulting
This is the book that I would like to have read when I first became a consultant. Instead I had to learn through may years of fascinating experience. I know that I'd have done a better job if I'd been able to get some insight into these matters from the start and I hope my book will help others be better consultants.
Though this book is written from the perspective of Service Management, much of the advice is generally applicable to any consultant. Service Management itself, is a useful discipline to understand, even if you're not directly involved with it, as, so many business rely on services and their management for their major business processes. Service Management is, in many ways, becoming Business Management.
I enjoyed writing the two scenarios particularly. They're not based on any particular customers, but, rather, both exhibit many features that I've found in all sorts of customers. The scenarios are all about having the right approach, rather than simply solutions to the particular situations described. To bring out the largest range of topics and situations, the two scenarios are very different. The one, Orchid Bank, is a global organisation with a set of diverse markets and diverse acquisitions.
The other, Northern University, is not a commercial profit-driven organisation at all, but has a number of distinct sets of customers with particular needs, as well as a rich cultural background and structure.
I've tried to make the book an easy, I hope enjoyable, read, with not too much technical jargon or arcane theory. I've tried to get to what works and why. Who to work with, and how. When to take one or other approach and when not to.
I believe that one of the most important things to look for in a good consultant is integrity. Ethical questions can be difficult and not many consultants have the time, energy or inclination to study moral philosophy! I've tried, in the section on ethical consultancy, to draw attention to the main challenges a consultant is likely to meet (certainly not a comprehensive list!) and the right approach to resolving them. It's important to know when to turn down a request for consultancy, and be prepared to take that step, if you are being asked to do something that is not right.
I have enjoyed being a consultant, a manager and a teacher/trainer. It's interesting how much overlap there is in the three professions. In all three, your actual aim is to bring out the best in the people, and the company, you're engaging with. Many of the skills required are the same. So the book includes discussions about management and training.
If you're a senior business manager, a CEO or CIO, or and IT director or manager, I think that you might also find this book useful. A good consultant ought to be aware of all the matters the book discusses and should be able to demonstrate familiarity with the sort of approaches mentioned.
The book should also be valuable to anybody wishing to coach consultants. I was the manager of a team of technical consultants for Hewlett-Packard for five years and much of the material comes from advice that I found my consultants needed and that helped build their confidence to help them give of their best.
If you're just starting out in IT, or in Service Management, or, indeed, if you're at University, wondering what the world of work is like, I think that you'll find this book interesting. If you find the sort of challenges described appeal to you, then you may well make it your ambition to become a consultant.
Though this book is written from the perspective of Service Management, much of the advice is generally applicable to any consultant. Service Management itself, is a useful discipline to understand, even if you're not directly involved with it, as, so many business rely on services and their management for their major business processes. Service Management is, in many ways, becoming Business Management.
I enjoyed writing the two scenarios particularly. They're not based on any particular customers, but, rather, both exhibit many features that I've found in all sorts of customers. The scenarios are all about having the right approach, rather than simply solutions to the particular situations described. To bring out the largest range of topics and situations, the two scenarios are very different. The one, Orchid Bank, is a global organisation with a set of diverse markets and diverse acquisitions.
The other, Northern University, is not a commercial profit-driven organisation at all, but has a number of distinct sets of customers with particular needs, as well as a rich cultural background and structure.
I've tried to make the book an easy, I hope enjoyable, read, with not too much technical jargon or arcane theory. I've tried to get to what works and why. Who to work with, and how. When to take one or other approach and when not to.
I believe that one of the most important things to look for in a good consultant is integrity. Ethical questions can be difficult and not many consultants have the time, energy or inclination to study moral philosophy! I've tried, in the section on ethical consultancy, to draw attention to the main challenges a consultant is likely to meet (certainly not a comprehensive list!) and the right approach to resolving them. It's important to know when to turn down a request for consultancy, and be prepared to take that step, if you are being asked to do something that is not right.
I have enjoyed being a consultant, a manager and a teacher/trainer. It's interesting how much overlap there is in the three professions. In all three, your actual aim is to bring out the best in the people, and the company, you're engaging with. Many of the skills required are the same. So the book includes discussions about management and training.
If you're a senior business manager, a CEO or CIO, or and IT director or manager, I think that you might also find this book useful. A good consultant ought to be aware of all the matters the book discusses and should be able to demonstrate familiarity with the sort of approaches mentioned.
The book should also be valuable to anybody wishing to coach consultants. I was the manager of a team of technical consultants for Hewlett-Packard for five years and much of the material comes from advice that I found my consultants needed and that helped build their confidence to help them give of their best.
If you're just starting out in IT, or in Service Management, or, indeed, if you're at University, wondering what the world of work is like, I think that you'll find this book interesting. If you find the sort of challenges described appeal to you, then you may well make it your ambition to become a consultant.
156 pages, Paperback
First published April 30, 2014
4 people want to read
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January 18, 2025
Nothing you couldn't find in the ITIL books at the time
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