It’s 9am, Monday, start of a new engagement with a client, first meeting, first two minutes…. make or break time. We’re in the sweet-spot of the experienced business consultant … Discovery.
It’s time to get up to speed, quickly, really quickly – to understand the business, the people, the dynamics that work, those that don’t, what they see the “problem” as and what information can be gleaned.
For an executive consultant this is not a checklist exercise – your client will tell you their business is different to others, their challenges are different to others and their people are special (apart from those that aren’t!). And they might be a bit right or a lot right – however, they all want the same outcome, they want to be the same or better than the “gold standard”.
Discovery is the the start of a journey that will launch the Transformation Catapult to launch the business into new territory – as client-side executive advisors our minds are ticking-off the pre-requisites, determining the launch site, calculating the trajectory and the landing point in real-time.
Each step of the Discovery process leads to others, a lattice-work of information, tricky questions being answered, challenged and refined to clarify the objective, target and the path to achieve that. This Discovery exercise is an Art, it is executed by experts who can apply experience, intellect and common sense to simplify and articulate the challenges and can design the structure which will provide the foundations upon which the outcome will be built.
If you’ve got consultants pitching up on Monday morning with a Discovery checklist for you to fill in – cut and run – this is not Art – it’s Paint by Numbers at best.
Strategic IT are experienced business technology consultants, board technology advisors and … ummm … Discovery Artists!
Paul Krisman is the founder of Strategic IT, an advisory business focused at helping business leaders grow their business through effective technology and operations.