How can you ensure that your consulting recommendations have a long-lasting impact?

Even in leadership consulting, I always do a quick and dirty industry analysis. What space are they playing in, and what are the drivers of that space? What is the North Star of this company, and how well is it aligned with the KSFs of this industry? In addition, you must also look at this from the individual's point of view. Will your recommendations help get him or her promoted? If this goes wrong, might they lose their job? Are they bringing you in to confirm what they already know, or a decision that they've already decided? Or is it truly to have a neutral, professional understanding of what's going on?

Agreed 😊 … When I was in Private Equity, I would add a step … detail out and prioritise all your recommendations (impact vs ease of implementation) identify milestone outcomes and put in place a 100 Day plan with clear roles and reps, timeline and a governance process for review / stage gates. That is what makes PE such ruthless executors (and often value creators)

For consulting advice to be durable, you must thoroughly understand the company's internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as those of the competition. So that requires a thorough SWOT analysis. In addition you need to evaluate the changing operating environment and customer base over various time horizons. Then work with the CSuite team to thoroughly develop viable and agile strategies. Once agreed upon, start implementing the changes and evaluate them over various milestones, making changes as needed. Once the new process is working effectively and exceeding expectations, then you can withdraw. However, to ensure long-term success, keep checking back in with the client on a regular basis.

Frankly, the only recommendation I can make that may have a durable impact is: never stop learning, never abide to your personal duty as a human being to grow in knowledge. This may not turn the table if your business is in difficulty and may not prevent failures and other bias. But you will probably fare a lot better if you follow the advise that Dante Alighieri in his work "Divina Commedia" lets Ulysses tell "Fatti non foste per viver come bruti, ma per seguir virtute e conoscenza" (yes, you will need to look for translation. I will not translate for you. Dante is a giant in literature and I despise cancel culture)

En las reuniones iniciales con cliente a mi me viene bien para comprender el contexto responder al cliente con una pregunta: Por ejemplo si me pregunta, ¿qué resultados me ofreces? Mis re - preguntas podrían ser: 1️⃣ ¿Qué te gustaría que pasase después de mi consultoría? ¿Cómo lo quieres medir? 2️⃣ ¿Alguien te ha ofrecido algo anteriormente y no ha cumplido? ¿Me lo puedes especificar? Responder con otra pregunta me viene muy bien para conocer el contexto de la otra persona.

Equally important is the commitment of top management. It's no use if employees are involved in a project and enthusiastic about implementation without leadership support throughout the project.

The client must do some of the heavy lifting when it comes to deciding on the optimal solution for their corporate challenges. As a consultant you rarely have the time to develop as intricate an understanding of the client's business as they have. Some humility in acknowledging this and involving the client in deciding on the optimal solution will help achieve buy in and increase the chances of implementation success.

You want your consulting advice to stick, right? It's all about teamwork! From the get-go, involve the client—they're your partners in this journey. Be open about how you reach those 'aha!' solutions. That way, when the project wraps up, they're not just waving goodbye; they're ready to keep the momentum going and drive things forward. It's about setting them up for success well after you've left the scene!

In my own experience, when consulting as a consultant, or being consulted to as an executive, is that such involvement of the client indeed is extremely relevant. Once being part of a large merger situation, i was confronted with the so called outcome of a benchmarking exercise executed by the external consultant, to which none of the client involvement appeared to be taken into consideration. The consequence was that none of the recommendation stuck with management, nor anybody else of the client organization.

As far as I go with consultations, I ensure that the client is equally involved. You cannot build or grow someone who relies completely on you. I can guide, show the pathway, but acting upon them is the client's department. Without appropriate actions, no consultancy can go a long way.

I strongly believe in 'show, don't tell' The chain of argumentation and underlying analysis is only as strong as its weakest link. Message: So What -> Evidence -> Repeat

Having worked closely with CEO offices, I've observed a reliance on data trends by top management. In a pharmaceutical company's drug launch, the focus was on uptake and marketing spend trends. Similarly, in an efficiency improvement program, attention shifted to unit cost trends and spikes in utilization charts. This underscores the strategic importance of data-driven decision-making at the executive level, where trends serve as pivotal indicators guiding actions in diverse business scenarios.

Consulting through cases and evidence can provide clients with understanding and trust in the consulting proposals, enabling a deeper understanding and application. This, in turn, becomes a factor that ensures the proposals' long-lasting impact. Ultimately, for any consulting to have a long-lasting impact, it must demonstrate its effectiveness through application. This requires trust in the consulting's effectiveness even before its application. Therefore, for continuous impact through such implementation and application, it is necessary to have the motivation to apply it to one's organization based on cases and evidence.

Providing any evidence of past set up and results is always very much encouraging and helps for the decisions, but as each circumstance is different than others, past results might not be guaranteed, so, there should be some sort of solutions for slightly different stages for different situations.

Credibility in consulting is grounded in evidence. Support your recommendations with solid data, thorough research, and best practices. Use reliable sources and clear presentation to demonstrate value and feasibility, effectively addressing client concerns and objections. In a project to optimize supply chain processes for a manufacturing client, the consulting team didn't just propose a new strategy. They backed it up with data from similar successful implementations in other industries and a pilot study within the client's operations. This evidence-based approach not only enhanced the credibility of the recommendations but also gave the client confidence in the feasibility and potential success of the proposed changes.

We often help our clients by mapping out the recommendations on two axes on a 2x2 matrix - impact on the y axis, and ease on the x axis. Whether using a H/M/L or 1-5 or 1-10 scale, plotting the recommendations and then dividing them into 4 quadrants can help to prioritize. Top right: high impact/high ease: these are the low hanging fruit quick wins to immediately prioritize. Top left: high impact/low ease: these are major transformations, but will require appropriate resources, both human and financial, so need thoughtful planning and strategizing prior to commencing. Bottom right: low impact/high ease: not going to move the needle significantly, but can create momentum, so might as well proceed. Bottom left: low impact/low ease: no go!

Effective consulting is not just about what recommendations are made but how they are prioritised and sequenced by using methods like traffic light coding, for example. Ensuring long-lasting impact requires a strategic approach: identifying the importance, urgency, and interdependencies of each suggestion. Start by distinguishing which recommendations will drive the most significant change and address urgent needs. Then, consider their interplay—how one recommendation might lay the groundwork for another. This methodical approach allows for phased implementation, making it manageable for clients and ensuring each step builds on the last. It’s about creating a roadmap for sustainable change, not just a list of actions.

Priority is singular for a reason. At least that's what the greeks thought, whose language the term priority orginially came from. Of course, the Eisenhower Matrix comes into mind. Sometimes it is more effective to forget about priorities, but rather to think about which topics or projects to kill. This will free up brain power to really focus on actual priorities.

*not only prioritizing *awarding instead of prioritizing means that you know what to prefer if the timeline is tight *prioritizing creates the illusion that all things can be done

Hidden in the details. ✔️Peculiar✖️Mediocre ✔️Meticulous ✖️Inattentative ✔️Complexity ✖️ Obviousness ✔️Clearness ✖️ Indecipherable Years and Years.

I find that people who communicate from the heart always win during recommendations! An effective communicator must be able to provide both verbal and written solutions concerning their recommendations. A good example would be to arrange a session and walk the client through the recommendations with a short presentation that is only to be used as a tool but mostly speaking with confidence about why and how the recommendations in the report are important and should be embraced by the Client. A non-formal event could also be valuable for instance over a cup of tea where the key issues of the recommendations of the report can be communicated in a non-formal setting. It shows confidence, trust, engagement and a passion to drive excellence.

The impact and longevity of your recommendations hinges significantly on how effectively they are communicated. Clear, concise, and persuasive communication ensures that the client not only understands your suggestions but also appreciates their value. It’s about crafting a narrative that resonates with the client’s goals and challenges. This involves explaining the rationale behind each recommendation and illustrating how it aligns with their objectives. Equally important is listening to the client's feedback, allowing for a two-way dialogue that refines and solidifies the recommendations. Effective, credible communication transforms advice into actionable insights, paving the way for enduring impact and success.

In the consulting arena, the power of recommendations is significantly amplified by effective communication. A key example is Apple's collaboration with a consulting firm to refine its retail strategy. The consultants communicated their recommendations using visually engaging presentations and interactive demos, mirroring Apple's own emphasis on aesthetic and user experience. This approach not only resonated deeply with Apple's team but also facilitated a clearer understanding and enthusiastic adoption of the new retail strategies. Effective communication involves more than just clarity of language; it's about tailoring the message to the audience's preferences and using the most impactful formats and channels.

Many a times clients are hung up on their own idea of the solution they have preconceived, this is where as consultants, its quintessential to a) Clearly understand client's preconceived notion of the problem and possible solution b) define your understanding of each. c) articulate how your solution effectively addresses the problem at the root, with minimum chances of relapse.

Map out the decision makers, influencers, and vetoers in the organization to make sure you are operating at the correct level(s) of the organization to ensure recommendations can and will be implemented.

Every prospect/client/former client ‘Touch’ is an opportunity to add Value. If the market views you as adding value even post an engagement, the cache of your organization and yourself will be greatly enhanced.

To be truly effective, consulting engagements should be seen as part of a longer term-relationship with the client, rather than as purely "transactional" piece of one-off delivery. Checking in with previous clients post-project can help recommendations to be successfully implemented...through further advice, suggestions of course correction based on new environments or simply by being a reminder to the client of the potentially difficult change they originally committed to. Mostly this will not be (or lead to) further chargeable work...but by helping ensure the long-term success of the the initial project, it has a net positive effect for all concerned.

Create a mechanism where you send your clients feedback forms, questionnaires or review sheets to understand from them what could have been better. This will give your clients the comfort that their feedback matters to you and also some of the information collected through feedback may be useful for training your team. They key, however, is not to leave it at that and actually find out action points from the feedback collected to close the loop.

La única Constante es el cambio, la sostenibilidad de las recomendaciones en el tiempo dependerán de múltiples factores como lo son cambios en el entorno que permitan tomar oportunidades para actuar con el debido monitoreo y retroalimentación, contar con un equipo humano dispuesto a los retos y desafíos que se presenten en el sector donde pertenece el negocio/empresa

Delivery is not the end. One must follow through with the client and ensure they have all the support required to follow through, right documentation, context, etc. This rings in trust, follow up business and win win for all. People sell and People buy from people end of the day. How best they were treated through the process and afterwards makes all the difference.

At the end of the project, provide the client with a practical 30-60-90 day plan including the activities to be done to drive the recommendations given and accountable team members. That helps the project get real with lasting impact.

The truth is: the consultant can't make sure to have long-lasting impact. Not unless they become a board member. And they shouldn't worry about that, because it's not their responsibility. This doesn't mean they shoudn't do everything in their power to create long-lasting change and impact the organisation's future direction, by informing decision-making through expert recommendations. But there's only so much control a consultant can hold, and only so much influence they can exert: the decision is ultimately not theirs to make. And they should be making peace with that right from the start. I say that as a consultant, and as a control freak who's had to deal with such 'loss of control' before.

You must always ensure proper alignment with the mission and vision of the organisation. Engaging different stakeholders within the organisation enables this alignment.

Long lasting impact is governed by the correct vision. If a consultant is able to support the client reaching the right vision, I think he/she has laid the foundation for long lasting organization.

O impacto duradouro vem do entendimento do sonho/missão da organização, alinhada a uma identificação detalhada dos problemas enfrentados atualmente, envolvendo os stakeholders de forma colaborativa. Construindo direcionamentos conectados com essas duas frentes e focando em resultados de curto e médio prazo.