Organizations who are in the market to hire a consultant approach this process in a myriad of different ways. From organization to organization, this process may range from highly structured to ad hoc in nature. However, there seems to be a consistent missing component to the evaluation process no matter which approach an organization will follow. As a result, there is increased risk of projects not completing on time, in full with no errors. Your investment into hiring consultants is not trivial. However, not fully validating all aspects of the consultant or the consultant team could mean that the value gained is not greater than the expense incurred.
As is necessary, organizations focus on evaluating the consultant teams’ skills and experience, pricing/cost, and solution fit. Unfortunately, this only tells a portion of the story. A consulting firm may meet many of the above criteria, but will still have difficulty delivering a solution that will ultimately deliver value to the client.
What is the missing component? Complimentary Organizational Values!
More specifically, how do your organizational values match up with the values of the consulting firm, and how does that firm demonstrate their own values?
A scenario that I have heard from more than a few clients is that past consultants have come in, dominated the conversation regarding solution design, and failed to take client feedback and insight into account. In short, the client team feels that the solution was pushed upon them rather than developed with them. As a result, the client will take the findings of prior consultants (which often have great content) but will put the findings on the shelf and will not look at then unless prompted. This amounts to a waste of time and money for the organization.
The difference in values between a consultant team and their client throughout the project can cause a solution delivery and implementation value gap for the client.
To be able to identify whether a consulting firm will be compatible with your values, use values based interview questions within your RFP / RFI as well as during your finalist presentations. While there are many sources of interview questions to choose from, many focus on interviewing the individual for hire rather than a team. Below are a few questions (with the associated value) you can try out to evaluate a consulting team/firm.
- Tell me about a time when your firm intentionally improved the relationship between your firm and the client. What did you do? How did the client react? Why was that important? (Compassion)
- Give me an example of when you and your team really “clicked” with your client. Why did that relationship work? (Collaboration)
- Tell me about a time when your team encountered resistance from a client during your project. What did you do as a result? What was the outcome of the project? (Collaboration)
- What is the most innovative solution you and your team developed? How did you get there? What were the results of this innovation? Did the client implement your solution? Why/Why not? (Innovation)
- Tell me about a situation where your patience was tested with a client. How were you able to complete the assigned task? How did you resolve the situation? What was the result? (Responsibility)
- Tell me of a project that required you to pay attention to the smallest details to achieve the desired outcomes. When was this? How did it turn out? (Quality)
And last but not least, don’t be afraid of the obvious question…
- How do your values match up with ours? Please provide an example.
Values based interviewing has been around for a while now, but is still under-utilized. Try using this technique when interviewing potential consultants and watch for the interesting responses you will receive. I am confident that many consultants are not accustomed to answering such questions during a finalist presentation. This technique will absolutely be quite revealing as to whether they will be a good fit for your organization.
P.S. if you are not using values based interviewing for your internal hires, I recommend utilizing this immediately!!
TSI has an excellent whitepapers, one of which relates directly to this article. Read “What Are The Top 4 Reasons To Use a Consultant?” by Dan Feely – Founder and President of TSI.