“Getting the Most Out of Your Work W ith Consultants” Mass Nonprofit Network Fall, 2016

1. “Getting the Most Out of Your Work With Consultants” Mass Nonprofit Network Fall, 2016

2. Session Structure and Goals Session Structure Goals Today I hope to help you answer these questions for your organization: Should I hire a consultant? If so, what kind? What should I look for when I hire a consultant? What can I do to make it likely that the engagement will accomplish my goals within my budget? • Intro and exercise • Content: 5 principles to guide you to a fruitful and affordable relationship with a consultant • Design your project • Closing

3. Introductions • Break into groups of 3. • Agree on one thing you hope to get out of this. • Reconvene and share with the group.

4. Guidelines For Hiring A Consultant • Clarifythe problem or opportunity • Identifyinternal resources available to respond • Set goals for change in you, your group/department, your organization, the community you serve • Build trust – technical competence + chemistry = someone you can trust. • Commit – worthwhile relationships take work

5. 1. Clarify The Problem/Opportunity • Step 1: State the problem in simple terms: “my organization is struggling with/hoping to ______.” • Step 2: Ask “why?” “my organization is struggling with/hoping to ______ because ______.” • Step 3: Ask “why?” again! “my organization is struggling with/hoping to ______ because ______ and ______.”

6. 1. Clarify The Problem Or Opportunity • Once you’ve gained this level of clarity about your problem, you will be able to: • Step 4 • Determine whether you need a consultant – perhaps you have someone on staff that can handle your problem • Determine what kind of consultant you need • Expert – capital campaign manager, biologist, etc. • Extra pair of hands – staff working at full capacity, but you have six important grants to write. • Facilitator/catalyst– your organization is not achieving peak performance, for any number of reasons.

7. 1. Clarify The Problem Or Opportunity: Quick Exercise • Think of a project in your organization suitable for each of the three types of consultant

8. 1. Clarify The Problem/Opportunity Facilitator/catalyst – strategy, organizational development and change.

9. 1. Clarify The Problem/Opportunity: Examples Situation: one of your funders wants your organization to have a strategic plan in place. • Problem? We will not have money if we don’t have a strategic plan in place. • Worrisome approach: hire a consultant to write a strategic plan so we are in compliance with funder requirements. • Why worrisome? Hard to align organization around a task only for the sake of compliance; hard to implement recommendations without genuine buy-in. • Opportunity: a good strategic plan can advance our (ED, board, staff) goals to increase organizational investment, sort through priorities, align with mission. • Promising: collaborate with a consultant to develop a strategic plan that will help your organization achieve peak performance (a nice side effect of this will be that you are in compliance with your funder’s requirements). “every problem is an opportunity in disguise.”

10. 2. Identify Internal Resources Available To Respond Identify a budget range and include it in your RFP. Determine how much time and energy your organization can contribute to the process. Bad • Submitted proposal to client, client loved it and wanted to engage us. • Client and consultant spent time and became personally invested in project and relationship. • Client finally informed us of budget – was 25% of what our cost would be. • Everyone walked away unhappy. Good • Client informed us of their budget early in the engagement phase. • Allowed us to assess whether we could deliver an excellent product at their price. • We were able to design a process plan that was within their budget and that we felt would deliver the results they were after.

11. 3. Set Goals For Change • What will be different if the project is successful? • Step 1: How will the community you serve be different? • Step 2: How will your organization be different? • Step 3: How will your group/department be different? • Step 4: How will you be different? “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up someplace else.”

12. 3. Set Goals For Change • Example: a small, independent boys school serving mainly boys of color. • Step 1: How will the community you serve be different? • The gap in high school graduation rates across ethnic and racial groups in the area will be smaller. • Step 2: How will your organization be different? • We will have better graduate support programs. • Step 3: How will your group/department be different? • We will be better aligned with other departments, and with our mission. • Step 4: How will you be different? • I will have gained clarity about my expectations of faculty and staff; I will have a sense of what counts as high performance; I will be better able to manage people and resources.

13. 4. Build Trust • Step 1: ask for a process plan.

15. 4. Build Trust • Step 1: ask for a process plan. • Step 2: assess for technical competence: • relevant experience, • recommendations/endorsements. • Step 3: look for chemistry: • You should feelgood about this person. • You should be able to talk openly with him/her. • You should see that they have valuable insight to offer. Technical competence + chemistry = someone you can trust

16. 4. Build Trust Be open to being surprised by consultant diagnosis! When you have found a consultant that satisfies these criteria, you can then negotiate price within the context of the process plan. Good Client: we need a strategic plan. Consultant: here is a timeline, a process plan, and a quote. Client: do it faster and cheaper. Consultant: only way to do that is to cut vital steps in the process. Client: ok, let’s take the time we need, but cut our investment in implementation. Result: amazing buy-in from company, near perfect survey response rate, careful and thoughtful collaboration on all major steps in the process. Outcome: happy, well positioned clients; happy, proud consultants. Bad • Client: we need a strategic plan. • Consultant: here is a timeline, a process plan, and a quote. • Client: do it much faster and much cheaper. • Consultant: only way to do that is to cut vital steps in the process. • Client: do it anyway. • Result: poor response rate on surveys, skipped interviews and focus groups. • Outcome: missed something big, caused major tension!

17. 5. Commit Do your part: a successful project takes time and energy from the consultant and the client Expect disagreements: a  good consultant is your partner in making change or getting something done. Sometimes that change will take more work/sacrifice/discomfort on your part than you want.  No pain; no gain. Good New program development. Heavy time investment from client: extensive and thoughtful comments on draft materials; conference calls; meetings. Result: interesting and compelling new programs. Bad • compliance SP -> real SP without a change in mindset. • Poor or no involvement in surveys, interviews, focus groups, SP committee meetings, etc. • Result: a final product that was of limited use.

18. Design Your Project • Fill out worksheets individually. • Get into groups of 5 and share, then generate two questions that would help to sharped the task. • Pick 1 project and its associated questions to share with whole group.

19. Close • Email sign up.