Being an Effective Consultant

Spring 2013

Instructor: Arnie Aronoff 

Formerly the senior director for human resources at Princeton University and the University of Chicago, Arnie Aronoff has brought his professional expertise to educational, nonprofit, social service, and other organizations as a consultant, coach, and trainer for over fifteen years. He earned his doctorate from the University of Chicago and pursued advanced training in organizational development from the National Training Laboratories in Applied Behavioral Science (NTL) and the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland. 

We have reached capacity for this mini-course. However, if you'd like to be added to the waitlist you can RSVP, but there is no guarantee of a seat.
RSVP: http://harrisschool.uchicago.edu/content/being-effective-conulstant-rsvp.

Course Details
Dates: April 22, April 29, May 6, May 13
Time: 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Location: 224 

Course Overview
Public policy professionals can be asked to take on consulting roles within their organizations, working with task forces, committees, programs, or departments in ways that utilize their policy, analytical, and quantitative skills.   They can also play the roles of external consultants, assisting organizations as experts from “the outside.”

Whether operating internally or externally, it is critical that professionals in a consulting role have effective interpersonal skills.   The success of a consulting project hinges both on policy/analysis/quantitative sophistication and on the ability to relate to and communicate with others.

This four-session mini-course focuses on developing the interpersonal skills and communication habits that are key to effective consultation.  The goal of this course will be for participants to develop these skills through a hypothetical, classroom group consulting experience with other students.   The course will not focus on the policy or quantitative skills involved in being an independent policy analyst, namely a consultant hired exclusively to write a study or issue paper. 

The mini-course will be structured around the interpersonal and communications skills involved in eight stages or steps in a “full-cycle” consultant-client working relationship:

1. Managing the initial encounter with the client
2. Formulating a contract or memorandum of understanding with the client
3. Gathering data about the problem or issue
4. Diagnosing the problem or issue
5. Providing feedback to the client
6. Presenting an action plan for change
7. Implementing changes
8. Evaluating the effort

Class will meet once weekly for ninety minutes over four weeks.  The course will blend reading, lecture, group discussion, and experiential practice. 

In the experiential part of class, students will work in groups as consulting practices, helping a hypothetical client whose problem or issue is presented as a case in written form.    This class will focus on how well an individual and a group can function as consultants, rather than the content, quality, or legitimacy of a proposed solution.   This course emphasizes communication, interpersonal, and presentation skills.  Class size is limited to 16.

Students are expected to read a limited number of short essays and articles in advance of each class.  Each ninety-minute class will be divided into three parts: discussion of reading; experiential group work; and presentations. 

Class 1: Entry and Contracting
How to make initial contact, “enter a system,” and formulate a contract.   Each consulting practice is established, has its inaugural meeting, and reads the case.  Each consulting practice creates a brief client contract.  A representative from each consulting practice presents its contract to the class.

Class 2: Data and Diagnosis

How to gather information and make a diagnosis.  Each consulting practice meets to discuss the data and make a hypothetical diagnosis.  A representative from each consulting practice presents its diagnosis to the class.

Class 3:  Feedback and Action

How to organize and present feedback to a client that includes an action plan for change.  Each consulting practice plans a feedback session to the client based on its diagnosis and devises a plan for action.  A representative from each group presents its feedback and action plan to class.

Class 4:  Implementation and Evaluation

How consultants can work with a client to implement an action plan.   How to evaluate the effectiveness of the consultation.  Each consulting practice discusses how it might work with the client to implement its action plan and designs a brief evaluation tool.   A representative from each consulting practice presents its work to the class.