Course Outcomes
The course for internal consultants will:
- Suggest a framework for identifying issues, crafting data-supported solutions, and evaluating those ideas.
- Provide suggestions and tools for managing stakeholders and facilitating change.
- Offer guidance for creating and delivering succinct presentations.
Program Overview
A strong internal consulting group can help every aspect of a business improve. From finding efficiencies and eliminating waste to creating new products and methodologies, people on the inside intimately know their organizations and are in a unique position to drive improvement. This three-part program addresses the core areas every internal consultant should know how to navigate: the project finding and problem-solving process, stakeholder management and communication, and presentation skills.
Segment One Objectives
At this segment’s conclusion, participants should be able to:
- Explain the role of an internal consultant, the skillset needed, and the challenges often encountered.
- Determine their level of involvement: describe, prescribe, or implement.
- Describe the current source of their work and future workstreams.
- Articulate goals and objectives.
- Identify assumptions, knowns, and unknowns.
- Differentiate symptoms and root causes.
- Determine if the results from a solution would be significant and worth pursuing.
- Craft a focused problem statement.
- Build and issue tree.
- Explain the MECE principle.
- Identify solutions and the data to support the validity and feasibility of those answers.
- Craft a data-backed hypothesis: “If we do X, we should achieve Y because.”
- Evaluate, select, prioritize, or eliminate solutions.
- Define success and any measurements associated with it.
Segment One Modules
- Starting with a Solid Foundation: Defining the Role, the Responsibilities, and Workstreams
- Plotting the Course: Articulating Goals, Objectives, and Assumptions
- Separating Symptoms and Root Causes: Confirming Problems
- A Flexible Set of Tools: Trees and More
- Moving from Statement to Solutions: Finding Options
- Assessing and Selecting: Choosing a Path
Segment Two Objectives
At this segment’s conclusion, participants should be able to:
- Identify a project’s stakeholders.
- Determine roles and assemble a team.
- Identify and mitigate any influence or talent gaps.
- Communicate purpose, expectations, boundaries, and other essential information.
- Assess a stakeholder’s influence and buy-in and plan accordingly.
- Use questions to guide thinking.
- Explain unbiased questioning and neutrality’s role in assessment.
- Choose a communication strategy.
- Select an appropriate level and frequency of communication.
- Socialize ideas and solutions.
- Troubleshoot common problems and challenges.
Segment Two Modules
- Determining the Cast: Identifying Stakeholders and Team Roles
- Starting Out on the Right Foot: Communicating Purpose and More
- Managing People: Understanding Influence and Attitude
- Using Questions: Guiding Thinking to Staying Neutral
- Following a Plan: Getting Communication Strategy Right
Segment Three Objectives
At this segment’s conclusion, participants should be able to:
- Identify a presentation’s purpose and goal.
- Segment an audience and decide what is important to each group.
- Determine an appropriate level of information.
- Decide on a framework and identify content pillars.
- Make design decisions based on how an audience consumes a deck: standalone versus support to speaker.
- Use headings to help an audience skim.
- Write a headline that communicates the main message of a slide or chart.
- Work through a checklist to eliminate common distractions.
- Anticipate questions and prepare appendix materials.
- Use a “this slide is about…, and it’s important because….” framework.
- Clear complicated slides and charts.
- Increase efficiency with templates and story frameworks.
Segment Three Modules
- Articulating the Goal and Purpose: Finding Why
- Forming the Narrative: Crafting the Story
- Communicating Quickly: Using Headlines and Other Time Savers
- Eliminating Distractions: Cleaning Up Charts, Graphics, and Text
- Delivering Succinctly: Maintaining Focus
- Refining and Repeating: Creating Templates and Frameworks
By the conclusion of this three-part course, participants should be able to explain what internal consultants do, navigate an engagement framework, manage relationships, and succinctly present information.