Consulting skills for Information Professionals

I attended 2 CAVAL training sessions last week. The first was on consulting skills for information professionals. The presenter was Ian Benjamin who did a great job making us feel welcome and ready to participate. Just a few notes about what was covered:

  • The difference between consulting and contracting
  • Consultant skills categorised into 4 areas: business, professional, interpersonal and consulting
  • The process was outlined with 4 preliminary stages including researching the client, entry&partnership, diagnosis of the problem/solution, contracting and negotiating what is to be implemented. The main event is the implementation of the solution and after the curtain closer is measurement and evaluation of how it went.
  • People, politics, people, politics, people, politics -- you get it?
  • Pitfalls to avoid and how to avoid them -- chief problem is getting the brief wrong, or confusion over the brief.

Some useful insights that can be taken into project management. It was great that we were such a small group (only 6).

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