What Is Consultation?

If you change nothing, nothing changes. — Unknown

One Thanksgiving when my daughter was about 10 years old, my sister and I (now in charge of the feast) forgot to make the gravy (give us a break — it was our first year). My daughter was aghast, because the gravy was one of her favorite parts of the meal. Grandma overheard her complaint and joined the conversation.

"What's wrong?" Grandma asked.

"We don't have gravy, and it's my favorite part!" Julia responded.

"Well, why don't you make the gravy?"

"Because I don't know how!"

Grandma did a quick critical evaluation of the situation before her. She knew that Julia was a quick learner and, even though she was young, loved to cook. "I know how," Grandma said, "and I'd be happy to show you."

Immediately buoyant at the thought of having gravy, Julia agreed. Grandma proceeded to calmly provide her with step-by-step instructions (it helped that Grandma was a school teacher), and Julia took diligent notes and wrote down the recipe. Grandma evaluated Julia's progress and provided gentle guidance in the way only grandmothers can. Now, years later, Julia is in charge of making the gravy (when she's not overly distracted by her social media accounts).

Grandma acted as a consultant. How? She identified a problem, provided guidance to solve it, and facilitated a sustainable change in the family Thanksgiving dinner-making ritual. Moreover, she was available to provide ongoing support should Julia require assistance or additional guidance.

If grandmas can be consultants, so can HR.

How do these behaviors translate to the world of a small business HR professional? Here are just a few examples:

* Identifying a risk in the company's safety compliance, negotiating training with a vendor, and implementing new safety procedures for all employees.

* Comparing the labor and candidate pool to the demographics of the office staff and implementing a diversity initiative within the organization.

* Collecting major job functions of a department and working with the manager to reorganize workloads to ensure that processes run more efficiently.

Although we may typically think of a consultant as being someone external to our organization, we likely agree that these duties of a consultant — to guide, facilitate, and problem-solve with the goal of sustainable change — are also completed inside the company, and often by HR. My guess is that you can think of several other ways that you have identified a problem and implemented a solution or plan to solve it — just within the past week!

As I was thinking about the different tasks to describe consulting, I wanted to know what others thought. So I posed the question to my LinkedIn connections: When you think of the word "consulting," what immediately comes to mind? Here are some of the responses I received:

* Influencer (of organization's thoughts and direction) * Guidance, ideas, brainstorming, and benchmarking

* Thought partner/coach

* Additional resource

* Anxiety/change is coming

* Expensive

* Specialist/expert/experienced/credible

* Ability to analyze and define needs

* Develop implementation plans that drive success

The individual who listed "expensive" as a thought also added an interesting comment. She said, "That means that the value and reputation of the consultant must be extraordinary for it to make sense in an already tight budget." When we apply this concept to an internal employee, I see strong consultation skills as another way for an already strong HR professional (like yourself) to add even more value to his or her organization.

Consulting and HR

They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself. — Andy Warhol

Let's dig a little deeper into how consulting aligns with HR. Peter Block, in his tome Flawless Consulting, wrote that "most people in staff or support roles in organizations are really consultants, even if they don't officially call themselves consultants. Support people function in any organization by planning, recommending, assisting, or advising." And guess what tops his list of functional consultants? Yep. Human resources. A little farther down the list is long-range planning, organizational effectiveness, safety, and training and development. All are direct or potential HR functions.

Over the years, HR has morphed from an administrative duty to a more strategic role that is key to the effective management of a company. For example, a short 50 years ago, the extent of training in most companies was how to operate a machine or how to complete the basic tasks of a job. Now, most companies offer career development opportunities, and approximately one-half support employees' professional development efforts through educational assistance (that is, tuition reimbursement). The business environment is ripe for HR to take on more of a consulting and advisory role.

Today, the HR function is perfectly poised to provide internal consultations to organizational leaders. A savvy executive will often ask a trusted HR professional about a change that is being considered: How will acquiring this new customer affect the workforce and workflow we have now? What will happen if we move our office to a different location? Which of our existing employees can handle the new responsibilities that are emerging in our growing company? Notice that these examples involve change. Change management is an important component of a successful consultant. This makes sense: If we're happy with the status quo, why would we need to ask questions about a better way to do things? But as they say, the only thing constant is change. If you're staying the same, you're falling behind. So step one in being an effective consultant is to embrace change. (Note: This doesn't mean you always have to agree to the change in question.)

In fact, let's revisit the definition of consultation from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM): it is "the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) needed to work with organizational stakeholders in evaluating business challenges and identifying opportunities for the design, implementation and evaluation of change initiatives, and to build ongoing support for HR solutions that meet the changing needs of customers and the business" (italics mine). The entire competency of consultation revolves around helping the organization manage change.

The Personality of Change

Change can be a scary word for some. If the word "change" makes you want to use this book as a fire-starter, take a moment to consider your own level of change acceptance. Ultimately, the way we feel about change is dependent on our personality. One...