The Practice of Professional Consulting



CHAPTER FOUR

STAGE ONE: THE DEVELOPING AND DESIGNING PROCESS

Consulting and consultants have become ubiquitous over the last twenty-five years. With the growth has come a wide range of opinions about their efficacy, value, definition, professionalism, and status. We stated earlier that a working definition of a consultant is:

A professional who can be trusted to use standard consulting methods and procedures, who gives advice and produces solutions to problems on behalf of clients.

The rest of this book shows how we can alleviate some of the concerns that clients have about consultants, if we follow certain procedures and use tested tools and techniques, with processes governed by strong professional values. ...