What is the difference between Implementation Consultants and just Consultants

The best way to advice an organization on important matters such as strategy, strategic and business planning, restructuring and culture empowerment, is to first gain trust from top to bottom.

And to do that , you need to prove to them quickly that you understand their concerns, their business model, their needs and their vision. To do that, you need to be able to quickly obtain the right data, ask the right questions, connect with people, get the relevant information and come up with a meaningful assessment of current status and a preposition for the way forward. That requires experience, cognitive ability and strong understanding of stakeholders’s behavior.

Remember that for every major change there are always 2 forces that contradict one another. The logical forces which include the facts and figures that create the need for change and the irrational, emotional forces which include the fear for change, the uncertainty for the outcome and the getting out of our comfort zone.

Both, need to be equally considered. In fact , the irrational forces against the change are most of the times bigger in magnitude and can prevent the process of change right at the beginning.

Usually, Consultants collect all the data and information regarding the logical justification for the need to change , analyze them and come up often with a beautiful report on what management and staff need to do to address the issues.

Neglecting to address the irrational needs , however, makes the report and the proposed actions , useless.

Remember always that what drives actual change is not what you do but how you do it. How, requires the presence and engagement of the consultant at all levels in the organization.

Yiannakis Mouzouris
B.Sc. Mech. Eng., M.Sc. Mgt
Business Consultant / Trainer
Performance Management Specialist