What makes for a good client?

Consultants don’t get to choose their clients. But if they could, what would they look for?

Companies with lots of waste? Rapid gains are likely!  Key personnel will shine. In situations with lots of opportunities for improvement I’ve often said to the manager tasked with implementing lean, ‘You can make a hero of yourself.’ Furthermore, success motivates perseverance. Perseverance is essential to lean transformation – mindset change only comes with time, and the adoption of new habits, core to a lean management system, also takes time.

Companies acutely aware of pain points? When the gaps between current condition and target condition are clear so too is the path to closing the gap. Moreover, when the gap is linked to a strategic imperative, the motivation is stronger because the purpose is indisputable. 

Companies acutely aware of what their customers value – the contra of waste? Especially in highly competitive markets, organisations must constantly strive to improve customer value, delivering ahead of competitors.

Companies with middle managers committed to developing their direct reports? Awareness of the above three characteristics may well reside with the shopfloor and customer-facing personnel. It often does. Most personnel will strive to improve things. I’ve rarely, if ever, worked with frontline staff unwilling to improve things. But what if middle managers are threatened by these improvements, believing ‘fixing things’ is their job? Unfortunately, all too often, I have seen that. Middle management’s job: develop your people, especially with respect to continuous improvement. Otherwise they become anchor draggers to improvement, of people and processes.

Senior leadership with a clear strategy and passion to achieving that strategy (purpose) through their people and processes? What a gift to the consultant! First prize!

Years ago, a senior Toyota executive was quoted in The Economist as saying, ‘Brilliant process management is our strategy. We get brilliant results from average people managing brilliant processes. We observe that our competitors often get average (or worse) results from brilliant people managing broken processes.’ Senior leadership committed to developing people at all levels of the organisation will, over time, turn those ‘average’ people into people who, as a matter of routine, contribute to making brilliant processes.

Clients with these characteristics might not need a consultant! If they do, the client will take full responsibility for the outcomes of waste reduction, gap closure, value adding and people development. They will expect the consultant to help them accelerate those achievements.

Result? Great organisational development. And the consultant will learn a lot! Now that’s a good client, don’t you think? 

(Oh, and by the way, I have a client like this!)