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MASTER SERIESMasters SeriesMasters Series

The practice of performance con-sulting has demonstrated theability to obtain significant andsustainable improvement in

business results. Well-documented casestudies have clearly shown positive returnon investment (ROI) results ranging ashigh as 50 to 1. Despite its record of signif-icant business and performance impact,performance consulting, or the applicationof human performance technology (HPT)within organizations, is still a tough sell.Why would business leaders and organiza-tion managers resist the implementation ofa practice that is so inherently good for theorganization that they oversee?

One of the primary barriers to the adop-tion of performance consulting is the per-formance consultant. Most performanceconsultants assume that the client,whether internal to our organization or anexternal paying client, will immediatelysee the value of the HPT approach. Thereality is that intervening in an organiza-tion is a very serious matter with thepotential for damage or disaster. Themanager of an organization will typicallybe skeptical of new approaches, espe-cially given all the failed managementfads in the recent past.

The bottom line is that performance con-sulting has to be sold. “If you build it, theywill come” simply does not work when itcomes to adopting an HPT approach. Aclient’s decision to proceed with a perfor-mance consultant appears to be primarilydriven from the following factors:• The perceived credibility of the indi-

vidual performance consultant• The client’s ability to understand and

gain confidence in the approach• The extent of the organization’s per-

formance pain

Consultant Readiness andCredibility

When a performance consult seeks per-mission to engage with an organization,he or she is requesting a lot. If donepoorly, the very process and activity of aperformance analysis can create chaosand panic within the organization. Theimplementation of performance improve-ment interventions can have even greaterimpact. The client will ultimately be heldresponsible for the results of the perfor-mance consultant’s work. The decision touse a specific performance consultant is adecision that is not made lightly.

Getting toBusinessby Jim Fuller

Think back to when you had to select a new physician. Formost people, it’s not a simple process. You probably did notlook through the phone book for the best ad; nor did youselect a physician based on a glossy brochure. If you are likemost people, you asked your acquaintances for recommen-dations. After meeting the doctor for the first time, youprobably determined quickly whether this was a personwhom you could trust and work with. For the businessclient, the decision to use a performance consultant is notvery different. It’s not based on a great brochure, but on rep-utation, recommendation, rapport, and general credibility.

While there are many aspects to credibility, one of the moreimportant for performance consultants is that of businesscredibility. Clients want to engage a performance consultantwho knows something about the business they will beattempting to improve. External consultants are typicallygranted some leeway in this regard, but knowledge andexperience with the client’s business is a significant com-petitive advantage. For those attempting to implement HPTfrom within an organization, the expectation for under-standing the business is not very forgiving.

In his book HR Champions (1997), Ulrich presented theneed for human resource development (HRD) professionalsto possess a detailed understanding of the business in orderto be accepted and effective in their roles. Even if the per-formance consulting function does not report to the HRDfunction, we ignore the core message at our own peril.Clients want partners who understand their business.

I once witnessed an HRD manager attempting to gain aninvitation to the yearly strategy meeting. Her argument wasthat by being involved in the planning process, she couldprovide input in the labor-worker aspect of the organiza-tion’s strategy. The manager considered her position andreplied that it seemed reasonable. However, he wanted toensure that she was prepared to engage in the conversationthat would occur around the table. To that end, he posed aseries of questions to her: • What are our top three selling products?• What are our top three profit-producing products?• Who are our top three competitors?• Who are our top three customers?• What are the three largest business challenges we face today?

The HRD manager went zero for five on the questions. Shereally had no idea. The manager politely suggested that shewas not ready to engage in a business discussion andrefused her request to join in on the planning process. If, asperformance consultants, we want to help an organizationimprove business results, we need to understand the business.

Language impacts credibility. Frequently, performance con-sultants fall into the trap of using terminology that is notpart of the management vocabulary. Like HRD or research

and development, we speak in what appears to the client ormanagement team to be a foreign language. This lowersoverall confidence in the performance consultant. If clientscan’t understand what they’re buying, it is far safer to notbuy than to risk agreeing to something that they might laterregret. A lack of confidence will stall progress.

In addition to avoiding HPT-speak, the performance consul-tant needs to be able to engage in business-speak to establishcredibility. I have seen a performance consultant artfullyback up a client’s request for a dialogue on the driving busi-ness need. The discussion crashed when the business needwas a desired improvement in the performance of the orga-nization’s supply chain, and the performance consultantdidn’t know what a supply chain was.

Viewing Performance Consulting as a Small Business

Before giving permission for a performance consultant tobegin mucking about in their business, many clients assesswhether the performance consult or the consultant organi-zation can run its own performance consulting business ororganization effectively. It makes sense: If performance con-sultants can’t fix their own organization, why would a clientallow them to try to fix theirs?

Unfortunately, many performance consultants have nomi-nal understanding of business. As a result, their own orga-nizations are in a bit of turmoil or producing suboptimalresults. The proposed methods are incomprehensible toclients. Their projects are usually late or over budget, or donot look as promised. Simply stated, that is not a recipe forcredibility.

Performance consultants and performance consulting man-agers need to begin viewing their company or department asa small business, and manage it as such. While a simplestatement, this is a bit of a daunting task. However, perfor-mance consultants are not the first to face the challenge ofsuccessfully managing a small business. There are manyresources available to help. The one that I recommend mostoften is The E-Myth by Michael Gerber (1995).

Gerber proposes that there are three major roles that need tobe fulfilled in any small business if it is to succeed. One per-son can fill all the roles, but it usually doesn’t happen nat-urally. The three roles are of equal importance and all threemust be in place if the business is to survive. Like a three-legged stool, having only one or two of the legs in placemeans that you will be spending much of your time crash-ing to the floor.

The three roles are the technician, the entrepreneur, and themanager.

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The technician role is focused on the technical aspects ofthe work delivered to the customer. For instance, if you runa small plumbing business, you’d better be able to plumb.Getting the hot and cold controls backwards in a showerinstallation does not result in referrals or repeat business.You must be able to deliver a high-quality product or servicethat meets or exceeds the customer’s expectations.

The entrepreneur role focuses on building the business. Theentrepreneur is focused on understanding client needs anddeveloping products or services that are both understand-able and compelling. Entrepreneurs market and sell. Theyunderstand that relationships with customers and clientsmust be grown and nurtured.

The manager role tends to the administrative aspects of thebusiness: scheduling work, obtaining raw materials, anddelivering services or products on time and within theagreed-upon costs. Nothing frustrates customers and clientsmore than a business that cannot deliver on its promises.This is the most boring aspect of managing the business. Ifthe role is done well, nobody notices. But if it’s done poorly,everybody notices. Unfortunately for most small businesses,the manager role is overlooked.

Looking at the roles, it is easy to see why all three must bein place and done with excellence. Would you buy anincomprehensible, unreliable product from an organizationwith a reputation for delivering it late at a higher price thanquoted? Neither will your potential clients. Let’s look at thetypical pitfalls that performance consultants face in thesethree roles and how to stay and get out of trouble.

The Technician: Zen and the Art of PerformanceConsulting

The technician role is focused on the technical aspects of thework that is delivered to the customer. We need to be able todo what we say we can do, improve the performance of indi-viduals and organizations. While this may seem straightfor-ward, it can be an area where many are overconfident.

I once met a person who called herself a performance con-sultant, although she rejected the concept of a systematicapproach to identifying the root cause of the performanceproblem. Her claim was that, due to her extensive experi-ence in working with organizations, she could simply intuitor sense all barriers to performance within the organization.While her experience may have led her to recognize somecommon organization problems, it is doubtful that beingone with the organization is a reliable basis for performanceconsulting.

Just because performance consultants understand the HPTprocess and tools does not mean that they can successfullyuse them. Armed with tools, processes, and inexperience,

they march into organizations and find that they are not ableto navigate the organizational dynamics that mask the infor-mation they need. They can underestimate the organizationresistance to change and unwillingness to cooperate in theperformance analysis process. Some become lost in the oceanof data and cannot navigate their way to the true root cause.

All performance consultants should regularly get a checkupto assess their performance consulting skills.

The Entrepreneur: Consulting—More Like High SchoolThan College

Gerber proposes that the primary reason small businessefforts fail is that they lack one or more of the three roles.The E-Myth is the belief that small businesses are started byentrepreneurs. Overwhelmingly, they are not. Most smallbusiness efforts are started by individuals who are strongestin the technician role. Skilled plumbers start plumbing busi-nesses, great healers start medical practices, and skilled per-formance consultants start performance consulting firms.This tends to be true within organizations as well. The newdepartment manager is far more likely to possess technicalskills than entrepreneurial or even management skills.

The danger with technicians starting performance consult-ing firms or departments is that most technicians are notvery good at the entrepreneurial role. The entrepreneur roleworks to build the business, while most individuals in thetechnical role mistakenly believe that their technical exper-tise is the business. It’s not. Their technical expertise in per-formance consulting is merely the product the businesssells; and a business is more than its product.

The role of the entrepreneur is to close sales of the product.This includes identifying new products and services thatclients will want. Then the entrepreneur actively engages ina sales effort that results in clients purchasing services.Missing this element in the small business effort is cata-strophic, and unfortunately many performance consultingdepartments are missing the entrepreneurial role. They waitfor the client to come to them, or engage in a sales effort thatis unappealing to their target clients.

So how does a performance consultant who needs to fulfill allthree roles, or a performance consulting department firm, beginto fill the entrepreneur role? There are several major strategies:Focus on relationships, employ a style that attracts clients, usea consistent, understandable communications approach, andmake it easy for a client to say yes and purchase services.

As stated previously, performance consulting work is per-ceived as risky by many clients. Allowing somebody intothe business to analyze its faults and propose interventionsrequires a certain level of trust. Trust flows from credibilityand more importantly, from the relationship. While most

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performance consultants have a clear understanding of howto analyze root cause barriers, many have little knowledgeof strategies for building and maintaining relationships withclients. Relationship management is a well-established dis-cipline within the sales profession. If this is a weak area foryou as a performance consultant, get help.

Personal style can defeat the strongest of technical capabil-ities. We all know people who are very capable, but nobodywants to work with them due to their personal style. Theyare arrogant, or abrasive, or any other number of non-com-plimentary descriptors. Clients want to work with a perfor-mance consultant they personally like. If given the choicebetween an arrogant expert and a capable consultant theylike, they will frequently trade expertise for style. Thisseems neither fair nor right.

Bellman made an observation about consulting thatdeserves some consideration (2001). He stated that consult-ing is more like high school than college. In high school,personal success was derived less from what you knew andmore from various social aspects resulting in acceptanceand likeability from the general population. In college,knowledge and capability tend to be the factors for success.In college, the social aspects were far less important.Unfortunately, Bellman tends to be right. Consulting is farmore like high school, and likeability and style are vitallyimportant, as is maintaining the relationship over time.

As an example gone wrong, take the case of a group of inter-nal consultants. They were continually looking for opportu-nities to gain credibility and acceptance with theorganization’s senior management team. The managementteam was reading a popular business book as a group andholding regular discussions on the potential application ofthe book’s recommended strategies. The internal consultinggroup refused to read the book, insisting that it was pop lit-erature, without basis, and that only the simplemindedwould base a business strategy on the ramblings of a popbusiness icon. Unfortunately for the consultant group, theirarrogant opinions and comments made their way back to themanagement team. Whether the consulting team was rightor wrong wasn’t important. The team’s style ensured thatthey would never play a strategic role in the organization.

An effective style will allow you to actively engage with poten-tial clients. It gets your foot in the door. But to be effective in thesales process, the performance consultant needs a communica-tion strategy that is consistent and understandable by the client.Complex descriptions and models may be technically accurate,but the entrepreneur role is less concerned with detailed accu-racy and more concerned with a client’s understanding.

Finally, we need to make the decision to use our perfor-mance consulting services an easy one. We tend to make ithard. As an example, if you go to the hardware store to pur-chase materials for a drip irrigation system, you are met

with an entire isle of pieces and part to assemble a system.This does not make the purchase decision an easy one.However, at the end of the isle is a box containing all the partsnecessary for the typical patio drip system. In this case, thestore has made the decision/purchase process an easy one. Inmarketing parlance, this is referred to as productizing. Theapplication for performance consulting is compelling. Weneed to market compelling, easy-to-buy solutions for ourclients rather than asking them buy bits and pieces of services.

The Manager: Getting Results on Time, on Budget, as Promised

If an online business continually sent us a product in a dif-ferent size or color than we asked for, we would be dis-pleased. If it arrived later than promised (and needed), thedispleasure would be even greater. If the cost of the productwas higher than quoted, we would be enraged. In all likeli-hood, we would never choose that business as a supplieragain, and might even begin to share our tale of woe withothers. So it is with our clients.

To maintain client trust and confidence, the performanceconsultant must deliver what was promised in the salespitch. Not only the desired outcomes ensue, but they mustbe delivered on time and within budget as well. This iswhere the manager role makes its important contribution.The business will soon collapse without it.

When engaged in a performance improvement project, theperformance consultant seeks to agree with the client aboutdesired outcomes. What will be the measurable results?When will it be done? What resources will be necessary?How much will it cost? The number one cause of projectdelays or failure is changes to the project definition.Inadequate time and effort is placed into ensuring a meetingof the minds. It may not be recorded in writing, assumingthat both the consultant and the client heard things thesame way and have a similar understanding of the agree-ment. Battles ensue as the project is implemented and theclient insists that it’s not what they asked for. The manage-ment role ensures that this does not happen by insisting ondiscipline in the contracting process.

Not only does the contracting process need to be managed,so does the client’s role in the project implementation. To beeffective, the performance consultant needs the client’ssponsorship to make things happen within the organization.Otherwise, the performance consultant is operating fromonly his or her own authority, which is typically insufficientto achieve results in most organizations. Managing clientsponsorship is a management role that the performance con-sultant must master to be effective.

Late and over-budget are not descriptors that performanceconsultants want attributed to their efforts or their prac-tice. Unfortunately, solid project management is not well

Performance Improvement • Volume 42 • Number 3 35

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developed in many performance consultants. Typically, aninformal and unstructured approach is used, endangeringlong-term credibility and trust in the relationship with theclient. Project management is a well-established field withmany resources and tools available to the performance con-sultant. If this is a weak area, get help.

When asked why a project went over schedule or over bud-get, consultants typically respond that unforeseen circum-stances or events occurred that prevented the project frombeing implemented as originally planned. Were they trulyunpredictable or just unanticipated due to a lack of riskmanagement? The management role is always consideringwhat could get in the way of the project plan and eitherputting efforts in place to avoid them or putting plans inplace to recover quickly if they do occur. The managementrole is not interested in excuses; it is focused on getting theresults that were promised to the client. As performanceconsultants, this should be our hallmark as well.

In Conclusion

To get to business, we must pay attention to the factors thatbuild and sustain credibility and trust. We must have anddisplay understanding of the business that the client is in ifwe are to gain trust that our analysis and recommendationsare accurate. Our language must reflect that understanding.Finally, we must demonstrate that we can run our own per-formance consulting business with excellence if clients areto view our recommendations and services with any credi-bility at all. We must master the three roles essential for asmall business to operate effectively. We must be the mastertechnician who can produce accurate results that have mea-surable impact on business—in other words, deliveringwhat we promise. We must develop the entrepreneur roleand effectively develop and maintain strong relationshipswith our existing and potential clients. We should be able to

communicate and sell easy-to-buy services and solutions.Finally, the manager role must be well tended, ensuring thatwe deliver results, on time, within budget, as promised.When we have done these things, we can get to business.

References

Bellman. G.M. (2001). The consultant’s calling. SanFrancisco: Jossey-Bass.

Gerber, M. (1995). The e-myth. New York: Harper-Collins.

Sugrue, B., & Fuller, J.L (1999). Performance interventions:Selecting, implementing, and evaluating the results.Alexandria, VA: American Society for Training andDevelopment.

Ullrich, D. (1997). Human resource champions. Harvard,MA: HBR Press.

Related Readings

Fuller, J.L. (1997). Managing performance improvementprojects. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Fuller, J.L., & Farrington, J.R. (1999). From training to per-formance improvement: Navigating the transition. SanFrancisco: Jossey-Bass.

Jim Fuller is the Principal Consultant for RedwoodMountain Consulting (RMC), responsible for assist-ing client organizations create performance con-sulting strategies and conducting projects toimprove human performance.

Before joining RMC, Jim was the Director ofLearning and Performance Technology at the Hewlett-Packard Company (HP),where he worked for 18 years. His organization represented HP’s research anddevelopment efforts in the area of learning and performance, with specificresponsibility for performance improvement processes, instructional designmethods, education evaluation systems, and the application of technology toaccelerate learning. Jim created HP’s performance consulting group, led thedevelopment of performance technology practices, and developed HP’s per-formance improvement consultants.

Jim’s broad business background gives him a thorough grounding incontributing to business results. He has held management positions inresearch and development, manufacturing, distribution, marketing, sales,technical support, and education. Jim’s undergraduate work was in electricalengineering. He also holds an MS in Instructional and Performance Technologyand is currently completing an EdD in Performance Technology from theUniversity of Southern California. Jim authored and edited three books on per-formance improvement, which have become top sellers, distributed across theglobe in multiple languages. He has made more than 100 conference presen-tations and is a frequent guest speaker at several universities. Jim may bereached at jim@redwoodmtn.com.

MASTER SERIESMasters StatementMasters StatementWhat advice would you give someone on the path to becom-ing a master in his or her field?

Simply stated—get out of your box. It is too easy tobecome overly focused on the details and intricacies ofa specific field. There are legions of experts who havemastered their field, but find their expertise unusedbecause it is too focused. Without broad knowledgeand understanding, it is difficult to apply expertise tothe goal of solving real world problems. In other words,putting the expertise into context. Research has shownthat a key element in the acquisition and application ofexpertise is knowledge base and problem solvingskills. Make your expertise broad.