Being a Consultant

As a second-year graduate EE student at SIPA, I am privileged to join the consulting project focusing on CSRD/ESRS mandate analysis. As the global leader in impact reporting, our client continuously demonstrates its influence in promoting corporate transparency. In the past month, a team of four was formed and we managed to proceed with the project by adopting key consulting techniques learned from the class and putting them to good use in solving the everyday practical issues in our project. We had to merge with another team, and with a mixed team vibe, can we make it work? After a short internal discussion with my current teammates and with other team members, we came up with three possible executable solutions (narrowing down the scope of another group, switching one member to another group, and merging two teams together). In the end, surprisingly, the merge plan has the highest support rate after a cross-team discussion. We then discussed with the professor and sent out the consolidated merge proposal along with the updated scope, workload, and deliverables to the client and this proposal got passed. Luckily, we didn’t panic about the situation that occurred unexpectedly, and instead, we were able to think outside of the box and use the consulting mindset to solve the problem even before we got the chance to practice the skills in the project. Such a breakthrough, and I am excited about this joint-team advantage!

Figure out a solid scope with a manageable workload: Before the merge proposal, the project had successfully kicked off with clients through a well-structured E-meeting and aligned with the client team on their expectations in terms of the project scope, team structure, project timeline, and key deliverables. However, with new members joining in, we had to redefine the scope and more importantly, the team structure. Two separate projects have different purposes; how can we maximize team efficiency while delivering the desirable work constrained by limited time and resources? Also, the difficulties in managing a team of six are obvious, and how should we organize the team with a manageable workload? Having a big team working together, we understand “work efficiency” could be a solid point to kick off the incoming proposal with our client. After crosschecking the two scopes, we found the commonality between projects and resources that can be leveraged which have been explored by our original four-people team. Then, jointly decided we should go sequential proceeding with two projects together in a team of six while considering the client as the primary project and the other as perhaps the sub-project following the same standard but with deep dives into the differentiation parts serving the project purposes. We didn’t think too much when proposing the merge team plan, and obviously, there were more practical issues that came with the plan made us feel a bit overwhelmed. However, the good team is we managed to find the first starting point to crack the problem, and this is the key to successfully breaking down most of the difficult problems.

My teammates and I met for the first time shortly after the professor’s matching. However, back in that time we barely knew each other and had no idea what to do to proceed with the incoming project. Given my previous consulting experience, I volunteered to be the PM role in our project. It’s understandable that people might react differently to various management styles, while for me mostly, are target-oriented, fast react, and strong execution working personality (MBTI: ESTJ). Some of them might feel this style could be a bit overwhelming, especially when people don’t have time to know you or your working personality. Working and communicating with people from very diverse backgrounds was the first challenge I tried to tackle in this class.

Most of us came to the two-day consulting workshop where Anja and the Professor took co-teaching outside of the class. I found it extremely helpful as I learned how to communicate effectively with team members by actively listening to their needs and receiving and giving constructive feedback. Then I adopted this technique in our team communication, and we solved the “team culture” issue after adopting the feedback techniques. Learning yourself and the people who work around you is a long process, we must stay patient until we gain something from this journey. Sometimes, suggestions for improvements could come to you in a harsh way, but you must stay strong and stay objective. Only in this way, that you can truly benefit from the process and get to know yourself better.

Consulting is a journey, a lifetime learning experience. As a consultant, you should always be ready to be accepted, challenged, or appreciated by your co-workers, clients, or your boss (in the future). No matter what opinions/feedback you receive, always stay professional, and try to maximize your return on the learning journey. - Things always with two sides, but you will never know when the coin will flip. With many uncertainties in life, the only thing you can do is always be prepared and learn to survive using any resources that are reachable. - Building trust and your professional reputation by taking a deep dive into whatever the things you are working on, proving your value by taking actions and active participation.