Consultants eh? Who needs them? They come in, tell you what you already know then leave without ever endowing any of their experience or knowledge to your organisation, right?!
Well actually, yes - that's correct.
There is no doubt that when it comes to strategic diagnosis and the identification of remedial action via business cases, there is a really valuable role that consultants can play.
But at Ethical Consulting we ask: When it comes to the implementation of those plans, what is the value of bringing in a contractor to manage the change process? Or worse still – what is the cost of not addressing the requirement of the change process at all. Let's look at some real data from our research:
• 65% of projects fail to achieve all of the outcomes promised in their business cases
• Fewer than 3% of UK local authorities own their own change management process or method
• 100% of failed projects reviewed listed ‘failure to address change management' as one of the key reasons their projects fail
• 96% of bought-in resource exits the organisation without ever investing their knowledge in host organisation
• Deploying a change management process as part of any project increases benefits realisation in 97% of projects
• Deploying a change management process as an integral element of any project/programme increases benefits realisation by an average of 55%
What is the point in spending millions to implement the greatest technology the planet has ever created, if you can't get the processes it requires to be universally adopted? How can you create Smart Cities if you don't communicate with residents, customers and partners effectively? How can you get staff to drive the benefits from streamlined lean processes if you haven't trained them properly? Effective outcomes means money saved and more money in the bank.
What can be even more confusing is that consultants will bring their own different tools, templates, ways of working and these will all be deployed into your organisation simultaneously – so the organisation becomes confused, resistant and frustrated. But what if you had your own change method – your corporate standard that was familiar and comfortable? No frustration, No resistance. No confusion. Just optimised outcomes and benefits. More money saved, more money in the bank.
Councils have become brilliant at managing projects – Prince2 and MSP have ensured that project controls are strong and effective. However, neither of these amply address the key requirement of every single project – ensuring effective change management is undertaken. But what if there was something similar to Prince2 and MSP that guaranteed effective change management and also had every single document, template, example, accelerator, slide deck, and guidance document that you could ever need? Something that simply by following the process would guarantee that you achieved your business case outcomes and optimised your benefits? More money saved – more money in the bank.
Councils have achieved much success in developing their own talent and investing in their own people. But what message does it send if we continually buy in consultancy when we could develop our own peripatetic resource internally. Why waste valuable resources on consultancy when surely we should upskill and develop new and valuable skills which we can draw on when needed? What if we had a change management method that made this happen? More money saved, More money in the bank.
The Change Jigsaw™ is that method and is based on a combined 70 years' experience of delivering business change across nearly 120 projects and is the method behind £2.5bn of audited and evidenced benefits. It has saved money and put money in the bank. Tried, tested, proven.
We promise it will save you money. No ifs, no buts, no maybes, no caveats, no mealy words.
Join our community of subscribers and we'll even give you free consultancy support to help you use The Change Jigsaw™.
So, we promise to save you money, we're giving away free consultancy and with an RoI of 100% in six months – what do you have to lose by having a chat with us?
Mike Gibson is Managing Director of Ethical Consulting and has worked with more than 70 councils over a 35-year career delivering in excess of £2.5bn in audited benefits
Mike.Gibson@ethical-consult.co.uk
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