Reading outside the lines...for a Consultant!!

By Suren

Well, I’m sure this is the first time you’ve heard of this term “Reading outside the lines”!! .

This is what I’ll like to term doing something different in a different way, phrases such as “Thinking out of the box” have been used too often that it has actually distorted what people make of it, some think doing something new is thinking out of the box, but in fact in today’s world it’s a matter of how you do that new thing different to the way others might have done it, that could be the success factor!!

This article focuses on some of the important areas; I feel could help a consultant read outside the lines...!!

1. Be on the lookout to take on result oriented tasks, what I mean by this is, take on tasks that once completed will clearly reflect the positive results generated by the high quality of the completed task and in a tangible manner. At the end of the day, immediate results are what counts, and that’s what clients are after as well.

2. Non-routine work – Everything that can be automated will be done eventually, update and enhance your skill on those tasks which cannot be automated, in short, it’s your soft skills and your ability to identify process improvements, in order to do this, study and analyse the best in class practices deployed out there.

3. Begin to work together with teams more often – As time goes, individualistic work is going to be redundant, it’s all going to be teams. Sure you could think of yourself as someone who can perform on your own, but systems are going to be so much integrated at one point of time, where it’s just going to be impossible to do a process on your own. Just like anything else, it’s a cycle, initially systems are developed to be able to function on its own, then they are integrated for a complete process to be completed on its own, then it just keeps growing until it gets to that point, where you need some amount of manual intervention to make sure everything is working as it should be. If this doesn’t take place from time to time, it could be the case as with a large telecom where the system kept billing clients for data they didn’t use, and I’m sure the system there was too big,.

4. Think like a systems auditor, this is going to be a key factor in determining the validity of your solutions, have a record of the things you performed during the project and rationale behind those. You can’t be a good systems auditor if you don’t know how the whole process works, and the best way to get to that is to work as a team and learn all the connecting cogs.

5. Don’t always assume more information is good information: Loading the clients table with heaps of report makes up for nothing but confusion.  Facts and figures are only useful if you can do something about it; understand that facts and figures work differently at different levels of an organisation.

6. Do your job: As a consultant, you are often looked upon to provide your expert opinion, given your experience you should be selling ideas of best practises from your experience of dealing with clients from various different industries and domains. Sell ideas, but ask for opinions and implement the best mix for the company.

That’s it folks, hope this serves as food for thought. Have a nice day !!