What They Don’t Teach You in Graduate School: How to Start, Build and Maintain a Successful Internal or External Consulting Practice Part II
8:30 AM - 9 AM Registration and Networking
9:00 AM - 12:00 PM Program
Steve Treacy is often asked: “What are the important factors to consider when creating a successful consulting practice?” He has seen many consulting start-ups based on the concept that “If I am here they will come.” His experience says that it doesn’t work that way.
He believes that any consultant, and especially an OD consultant, must possess competence in three separate skill set areas.
Many projects and consulting practices fail due to inadequacies in the practice management and interpersonal consulting skill areas even though the consultant may possess a great deal of technical competence.
Last year Steve led us in a series of exercises to assess our levels of expertise in practice management (business models, band width, marketing etc.). We each created individual development plans for our own marketing and practice management activities.
In this session he will lead us in a process to create individual development plans for the second set of necessary key skills – base interpersonal consulting skills. Such skills include:
Attendees will create mini development plans for each skill with emphasis on style and trust development. All of these are methods Steve uses currently in his own consultant-to-consultant practice.
Stephen Treacy has practiced Organization Development since 1986 via his own firm, Steve Treacy and Associates. He has had long-term consulting engagements with large corporations as well as small companies. Some of those more recognizable include AppleCare, Navistar, Chevron, Tellabs, First Midwest Bank and Helene Curtis.
He also consults to individual and corporate consulting firms on topics of consulting skills, practice design and management, marketing and technical topics.
Stephen has taught graduate level courses in the Benedictine University Masters in Organization Behavior Program since 1989.
