There always has been debate and jokes on getting consultants on board from various domains. Most of the times the organizations are in a dilemma on hiring a consultant. They are bewildered about the value a consultant will bring to their organization. Let us look at the top 5 reasons why should organizations hire consultants?
1. Building Momentum in the Thought Process: In most organizations, there are employees who assigned to work on a certain set of problems. Considering the routine tasks, the team may reach a point beyond which they are unable to drive it further, and that is where a good consultant comes into the picture. A good consultant questions you and challenges the status quo in such a way that it aligns your thought process, pushes you beyond your boundaries. Thus, a consultant helps you, in building the momentum in the thought process by asking you the right questions and providing the pointers of the solutions. He/ she ensures that the thought process never stops but rather helps in building a culture of continuous improvement in the organization.
2. Bringing common sense into actions: In any organization, the solution to most of the problems is the usage of one’s common sense. That’s where a third eye always helps and that’s what a consultant does. He applies the philosophy and gets solutions to most of the problems. So by implementing changes, which might appear insignificant, one can get larger results and achievements.
3. Find the most fitting solutions: Many times, there are solutions provided for the problems in the organization but the team members fail to justify or miss some aspect of the action and looking at the larger picture. A consultant connects the dots and acts
like a coach, he understands the problems from the team members, he analyses problems, verifies the problem from the management’s point of view, customer’s point of view, supplier’s point of view, employees’ point of view, thus taking into account aspects of all the stakeholders. He then tries to figure out what solutions can be deployed to resolve the problem. He analyses and finds the missing links in solution and thus designs a full proof solution which is accepted by everyone. In Japanese, it is called Poka-Yoke.
4. Safety first: It is often said, that good consultant prevents an organization from heading towards mishaps. It usually happens that the organization is aware of the problems, and it also knows about the severity of the problem, but at times they either tend to ignore it or avoid it from disturbing the routines of the employees as well as the organization. It eventually becomes a norm and way of living. What good consultants do is they alert organizations with the forthcoming problems, and helps them in taking preventive action. Thus helping the organization from accidents that may happen in future which can be dangerous to the organization.
5. Lastly, consultant acts as a catalyst: Catalyst is a chemical agent which does not take part in the reaction but speeds up the reaction. Many times, organizations are driving some improvement initiatives since years. However, time and again, the top management or the members of the organization, all of them have shared their apprehensions pertaining to the speed of the journey. They have opinionated that the pace of these improvement programs is not fast enough. That is where a consultant will add value. He/ she will act like a catalyst to ensure that the improvement process speeds up substantially. He/ she will thoroughly analyze the initiative and will figure out reasons for slow speed and, thus identifying the gaps between the implementation of the program and redesigning the program and re-implementing it.
So, what an organization can achieve in five years, a good consultant can help in achieving it in a year. In today’s competitive environment speed is the name of the game. To win the race you don’t have to be slow and steady, but fast and consistent. A good consultant not only motivates you in becoming fast and consistent but creates systems for you to become a reliable, proactive and progressive organization.
To sum it up I would share insights of an interview of a famous player, he was asked a question, “You are no. 1, I can see you have a coach who is not even no. 10, then why do you need a coach?” The player answered, “I need a coach not to tell me what I am doing right, but to point out my mistakes.” And that’s the role of the consultant for the organization – the value addition a Good Consultant can bring into any organization.
Have you engaged right set of consulting outfit for your organization?
Written By Faber Vishal Kulkarni – Director Faber Infinite
