31.2 Preparing for an assignment

Liaison officer

It is usual for the client to appoint one or more staff members to provide close and continuous liaison with the consultants. The term “counterpart” is sometimes used. These people can be of great assistance to operating consultants and save their time, especially during the early investigational stages. Theirs may be full-time work. In some assignments, consultants transfer their knowledge to the liaison officers, who maintain and develop the work after the end of the assignment.

Recruitment and training of client staff

The preliminary diagnostic survey may have shown that there is a shortage of competent people in the client company, with no prospect of finding suitable candidates internally. The client may personally recruit and select additional staff, or may use the consulting unit’s service. Either method will take some time. Client staff, possibly including the liaison officer, may need preliminary training in certain techniques. The consulting firm can assist in finding the most suitable courses for them to attend.

Office accommodation

A consulting team should not have to hunt for offices when it starts an assignment. Consultants need not have the best offices, but they will not be highly regarded by the client’s staff if they have only a small table in a corner of a general area. Without suitable office space consultants cannot avoid wasting some of their expensive time. Also, operating consultants on assignments need privacy for interviews, discussions and meetings, keeping and studying documents, and writing. As a rule, meeting-rooms that are also used by other groups are not suitable for use as consultants’ offices.

Consultant briefing

One person likely to know little about the assignment before the briefing is the operating consultant, who has probably been busy winding up his or her last assignment and has not had time to give thought to the new one. A supervisor who has been involved with the entry-phase activity is likely to know a great deal. Otherwise, the colleague who negotiated the assignment should brief them both. At the briefing meeting, the team takes over the accumulated documentation from the preliminary survey. All matters pertaining to the start of the assignment are then discussed. A checklist of points for the briefing (box 31.1) will help prevent significant omissions.