Art and Science of Consulting - #3

Let’s continue by talking about the third attribute as part of our series- Art and Science of Consulting.

Facilitation - Is the stage set for the audience?

Facilitation is the act of assisting individuals to adapt a new process or make easier the progress or improvement of something. This also applies to internal and external meetings where one’s leadership skills come into play in keeping a meeting crisp, not letting it drag on or derailing from the agenda and getting a great input from all the members attending it.

Science of Facilitation

To allow customers visualise the benefit of your product one must be an effective presenter, an active listener and a trusted advisor. At this juncture, it is important to relate your product and its relevance to their business process.

For example, setting up a weekly call. Few things that can be followed to be a good facilitator would be:

1.????Have a clear agenda defined before the call so that thoughts of all attending the same are aligned.

2.????Keep in check that the meeting does not deviate from the agenda in the unwanted direction. You may use the Jellyfish method to cut off people that may be deviating or derailing.

3.????To know how to interject your thoughts be it ideas, disagreements or confusions - Here’s how.

4.????Create parking lots when you see a certain idea pops up that is valuable, but off-point and would need to pursue it at a later time. E.g.: that’s a good point, can we put that on the issues list?

Art of Facilitation

To improve your facilitation skills, it is critical to review, reflect and score your performance after the meeting to see what needs to be changed or adapted further. The art of Facilitation is recognising the level of understanding of audience and being able to tailor the conversation into one that is relatable to them. Here are a few steps you can take to ace the art of facilitation:

1.????Help the customer separate emotion from logic when they have a requirement that is difficult to implement. Show them the difference between a feature that’s ‘good to have’ vs ‘need to have’. Use data / numbers to illustrate the same.

2.????It is commonly noticed that a project may fail to commit to deadlines even if all the activities were on track. This may be because of uncontrollable such as delays at the customer side (eg: delays in blocking IT bandwidth or team being responsive etc). Once you know the customers organisational structure, you will be able to prepare them with deadlines for deliverables that are truly achievable. Some questions that may need answers in advance would be -

1.????Any major activities in the pipeline for the next couple of releases.

2.????Any important dates or timelines that may interfere with testing cycle of new platform.

3.????Any security access restrictions that may impact data transfers design.

4.????What are the various teams involved in the downstream processes who will likely get impacted by the change in process due to new tool adoption?

The Tough Conversations

Most difficult conversations begin when customers begin to see the impact your product creates in their current workflow. This may result in some difficult conversations with the client. One has to be ready and capable of showing value of the product in their current system landscape and help them adapt to the updated workflow. While these conversations may be rather tense, a little sense of humour may help diffuse the tension and help make sure that the customers concerns are addressed in the best possible way. Ultimately we have to recognise the impact the interaction has on the customers experience with us and alter the session accordingly.

Do share your experiences!

Randeep Jaidka?has spent 2 decades working as a consultant across multiple domains and industries and is passionate about SaaS, Customer Engagement and People.