Lessons Learnt (& To Add To)

Just as I was packing up work before Christmas, I went back through my historic timesheet data to 2003 and identified the Top 10 jobs that I clocked up most time against. They spanned the years and the range of service areas I have worked in.

I pulled out a Lesson Learnt from each of the jobs to share with colleagues. There is no great science here and the list almost certainly isn’t exhaustive – feel free to suggest others. But, I thought it might be of wider interest to others whether you are working as a consultant or as a client employing consultants.

1. You can do the work remotely, but it is much better to build and maintain client confidence when you get in the room together.
2. You can get a fair way into a study without knowing lots of detailed context about the place, but you will need to show clients that you understand their world.
3. You may disagree with the client, but they will have the final say. The consultant’s job is to serve their needs, while keeping reminding them that there is an alternative way forward.
4. Go the extra mile in developing new tools, analysis and approaches, but you have to be ready to invest more time implementing what you learnt in future studies and to share with colleagues and clients.
5. You can extend your skill set incrementally into new business areas, but be careful about reaching too far away from your knowledge zone and bring in subject-matter experts to help you.
6. Work hard with clients early in the process to understand what success might look like and how they are going to use your work after you have finished.
7. Economic development happens in a political context and consultants (and officers) need to use evidence, stay objective and offer advice, but recognise that big political decisions will ultimately determine what happens.
8. Every consultant should work across a range of services and places. Only by working around the project/service cycle can you stay fresh and develop the essential critical insights, balanced judgement, creative analysis and clear reporting your clients are looking for.
9. Consultants largely sell questions, not answers. If they get the questions right, and ask the right people, then the answers have a good chance of emerging.
10. I had only very sketchy memories of one of the jobs – it was back in 2004! There will be some jobs you just can’t remember because you are always moving onto the next project.  The lesson is that you should periodically take stock with colleagues to check what you have learnt and make sure you are putting it into practice.

And, finally strive to be proud of your work. Once a consultant stops springing forward into every study, eager to learn and please, then it’s perhaps time to step back, change-up or take a rest. Through 20121, I could see that point of complacency might be coming down the line to me. Part of my motivation is to take a break before it arrives. I am looking to take time to reflect and see what my future options are. If I come back into consultancy, then I will try to come back to these lessons and add to them.