Orchestrating Change: Leading Consulting Teams through the Symphony of Transformation

Business leaders are always confronting 'change', either by design or by consequence. As consultants, we thrive on our clients' change because it is a fundamental ingredient in our pipeline materialising into work. Being very familiar with someone else’s change comes very easy to us, but how do we deal with our own change? All leaders must deal with change to remain competitive, and this is just as true for us as it is for our clients.

Consulting firms and teams are structured differently than your usual businesses, mostly because the product is the skilled workforce, and that product spends more time in the client's domain than it will within its own company environment. So how does a leader of a consulting firm or team manage change?

Innovation Change is Faster Than Ever

To keep up with the fast pace of innovation these days, transforming and change are critical to remain relevant, never mind competitive. Leaders must strategise change to grow their business, mostly as a defence but also as an attack into their market segments. A business needs to beat its competitors to the value changes in the market. Transforming the mission and outcomes is crucial, but this will fail if you don’t also work towards transforming the people. For a leader of a consulting practice, transforming the people is far more empirically important than ever.

Orchestra Conductor: A Consultant Leaders North Star Approach

While metaphorical, a conductor of an orchestra encapsulates the essence of the leader's strategy for driving large-scale change effectively for consulting teams. The larger the consulting practice, the more difficult instigating change will be. Teams are often spread over broad geographical regions, working in clients' businesses that operate very differently from their own. The leadership of those teams does not have the luxury to conduct the orchestra from their seat. Due to the core nature of the consulting business, leaders cannot host an All Hands call and expect all consulting teams to be present.

Collective Purpose is the Catalyst

This necessitates a collective sense of purpose and direction that transcends individual motivations. To achieve this, a leader must:

- Recognise the importance of cultivating a shared mission in the change. This must resonate with every member of the firm or team.

- Frame the goals, problems, and value innovation so that it is inherently significant to the consulting teams. Individuals want to be a part of something bigger than themselves, where they can provide their own value and grow. This creates natural collective motivation that does not die out.

- Assemble the right teams with individuals who have the skills, attitude, and commitment needed to execute the vision.

- Create efficient organisational design that really facilitates collaboration, communication, and decision-making. This is truer for a consulting firm because we need teams to be autonomous, for various reasons, but mostly to execute the vision without being managed.

- Equip their teams to be autonomous by developing a clear and compelling blueprint plan that outlines the framework required to achieve the desired outcomes.

Give Your Teams Autonomy to Execute

The success of any strategic direction or change initiative hinges on securing buy-in from every member of the consulting practice. A concerted effort is required to ensure that everyone feels invested in the transformation process and a part of something valuable that is larger than themselves.

Here, the symphony analogy comes into play. Much like a conductor directs a symphony, guiding each musician to create harmonious melodies, the leader orchestrates the strategic change process, directing the collective efforts of the consulting teams toward a common goal.

Like a conductor, the consulting firm’s leadership must entrust symphonies to the different quarts of the orchestra. The leader is not to pluck every string and beat every drum. Crucially, they should not be playing an instrument at all! Autonomy and trust given to the teams is key and you can freely give it to your teams, if they are impassioned to create the symphony with you.

Alignment, Moving Together and Killing the Dissent & Skepticism Weeds

The symphony metaphor serves to address three significant challenges encountered in large-scale change efforts. Firstly, it addresses the need for alignment—a crucial aspect of ensuring that everyone is working towards the same objectives. In a symphony, alignment is achieved through repetition. By consistently reinforcing the mission and vision, the leader ensured that the message resonated with every member of the practice.

Secondly, the symphony metaphor emphasises the importance of movement—getting everyone in the practice actively engaged in the change process. Rather than waiting for directives to trickle down through organisational layers, the leader employed direct communication channels to reach every individual simultaneously. This streamlined approach ensured that everyone received the same information at the same time, fostering a sense of unity and purpose.

Finally, the symphony analogy helps to drown out the noise—the inevitable distractions and resistance that accompany any significant change initiative. By focusing on progress, celebrating wins, and highlighting successes, the leaders create a positive momentum that overshadows any dissent or skepticism within the practice.

Consistently & Repeatedly Communicate the Strategy

Practical implementation of the symphony approach involves a structured communication plan designed to keep the teams engaged and informed throughout the change process or strategy. This plan includes regular memos detailing the design and plan, multiple all-hands meetings to address questions and concerns, case studies showcasing successful outcomes, and video recaps to summarise weekly progress.

This can also be segmented in chunks and repeated either by the top-level leadership or the regional or segment leaders trusted with the mission to evangelise on the same basis. Autonomy!

Repeat yourself until you are bored of your own voice. At this point the individuals in the teams will start hearing you. It is not about what you say, it is about what they hear. Be consistent.

The key to success lies in consistency and strategic communication. By maintaining a steady drumbeat of information and progress updates, you as the leader ensures that the practice remains engaged and motivated to drive change forward.

By strategically leveraging different voices and perspectives, you ensure that everyone feels heard and valued. Creating more organic buy-in and trust which in turn creates an autonomous consulting workforce that you trust to execute your strategic changes and transformations.

Imbed champions of your strategy throughout the consulting practice. Leaders who can echo and amplify your message over cultures and distance. This ensures greater reach and consistency and value of your goals for the business.

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