A Value-Based Approach to Consulting Contracts

After more than 25 years in the consulting and contract space, I am no stranger to reality versus perception when it comes to consulting arrangements. There are many companies out there that are solely looking at their bottom line, and are willing to sell any service to make a buck. Unfortunately, those enterprises are far too many to count. 

Then, there are those who have an inflated sense of their capabilities, and take on contracts they are by no means prepared to handle. For me, in the Agile space, we have to take a very ethical approach to what we do, for us to do our jobs as they are intended. At the same time, we have to have a practical approach to how our services are structured.

Far too many times, I have witnessed consulting agreements that are written for a period of years at a time. Someone has been awed by The World’s Best Designed Flashy PowerPoint™ into signing one of these beasts; where a gaggle of consultants come in to “transform the organisation” with promises of delivering services or products. And then, at the end of the multi-year contract, these engagements have not achieved the intended outcomes.

So how do we do this, then? As consultants, we need to have clients in order to survive. Longer engagements certainly ensure that. However, in the Agile space, as coaches, we need to be prudent in how we handle these engagements - starting with whether or not we should take the engagement in the first place. In another of my blog posts, I talked about when to walk away. In this article, we will talk about a proposed idea of how to structure the agreement if you do decide to move forward with an engagement. 

PHASE 1: DISCOVERY

The first thing that needs to happen is a discovery period. This is not a long drawn-out period of time over several months. It should be scaled to the size of the organisation and the perceived purpose of the engagement.

This first period is about identifying the problems that you are going to help the organisation solve, and ensuring that there is a culture for change already built into the organisation, or that there is openness for it to be built. This engagement might be just a couple of weeks, but should certainly not be more than 90 days; and that would only for an extremely large organisation.

PHASE 2: STRATEGIC CHANGE

At the end of this first discovery period, a new agreement should be drawn up. This is IF and only IF both parties agree that the working arrangement is the best for success, based on the outcome of the discovery period. The second agreement should clearly identify the proposed strategy for change, but more importantly, the intended outcomes. I would suggest this next agreement be for a maximum period of 6 months. 

By that time, you as the consultant should have been able to help the clients put the first building blocks of change in place. Then, you need to take the training wheels off and let them succeed and fail on their own. And there will be failure. That’s OK. During this trial run, you may want an agreement for coaching hours should anyone need them; and agree upon a length of time for the trial period - three months for example.

PHASE 3: REFINING TRANSFORMATION

After this second period, get back with the organisation and hold a retrospective. What do they feel worked well, and what could have been done better? Use this as the strategy for the next consulting agreement. During this third phase you will be refining their transformation. Using the results of the retrospective, you will create a plan to help them to continue to evolve.

And then guess what? You will step away again. And again, you will offer them coaching hours in case they need them. And then after this third period, you will repeat the retrospective and do a final sweep to help them continue to grow toward higher performing teams. At the end of this arrangement, you will also offer them coaching hours should they need them. After that, they should contact you if they want you to come back for short engagements, to work on very specific focus areas of change.

This may seem like a lot of work for all those involved to keep it in order, but it allows you to truly serve the roles of trainer, mentor, facilitator, and coach as needed. It also allows the client to grow on their own and self-organize, without you constantly being there to catch them. Only by trial and error will they learn to solve problems, and to innovate on their own.

This is how we work at Agility For All. Our philosophy is that coaches don’t get into the field and play with the team. Coaches give teams the tools, strategies, and mindset to play to their strengths and win. That’s what we do with our clients as well, and they are happy with the actual value we bring.

Learn more about the work that we do and the programs that we offer. Set up a call to start planning how you want to change the culture of your organization.

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About the Author:

INDRA A. BOOKS

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