How to be a good consultant-Principle 6 of 7

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1987

Abstract

h1 id="8aaf">Principle 6: Participate in the Collective Wisdom</h1><p id="df16"><b>Focus Area: Optimizing your value</b></p><p id="dc36">A firm’s collective wisdom is the most valuable asset that the customer is looking for along with the services your firm provides.</p><blockquote id="98c2"><p><b>People + Experience + Relevant Knowledge = Professional Services Value</b></p></blockquote><h2 id="4cd2">Benefits of using Collective Wisdom</h2><ul><li>Collective Wisdom <b>acts as a baseline</b> for the team to know the right processes to follow. This enables reliable and consistent delivery.</li><li><b>Saves time</b> by fast-forwarding repeatable or mundane tasks.</li><li>Collective Wisdom also <b>acts as a means to train</b> new members of the team, partners, and customers faster.</li></ul><h2 id="35f9">How you as a consultant should use Collective Wisdom</h2><ul><li>Before jumping to solve a problem, try to see if a solution is already available for a similar problem.</li><li>Apply your unique abilities to collective wisdom once you gain experience with it.</li><li>Don’t try to reinvent it. You will get a chance to add to it once you gain experience using it.</li><li>Once you have gained experience with your collective wisdom, feel free to question and challenge it.</li><li>Advance the collective wisdom with your expertise.</li></ul><h2 id="82fb">Intellectual Property</h2><p id="3a45">The Collective Wisdom of an organization is a large part of its Intellectual Property.</p><p id="965c">— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —</p><p id="374d"><i>To understand IP in simple terms, consider an analogy of a cake:</i></p><p id="edcc"><i>Cake 🍰 = Outcome of an engagement</i></p><p id="90d2"><i>Recipe = Know-how required to take raw ingredients and produce a cake.</i></p><p id="fcb7"><i>While the customer owns the Cake, they don't own the recipe.</i></p><p id="7f16">— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —</p><p id="ac33">It is important to prot

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ect the IP acquired from the engagement; otherwise, the service provider’s collective wisdom will not grow and its value may stagnate.</p><h2 id="4c8c">Protecting Intellectual Property</h2><p id="f503">As a consultant you should do the following to protect the IP:</p><ul><li>Read your company’s service agreements to understand their standard view of IP.</li><li>Escalate if you think customers, partners, your team members, or competitors are incorrectly reusing your firm’s IP.</li><li>Escalate if you think IP is not being protected correctly within your company.</li><li>Protect (both physically and electronically) any asset that may contain IP.</li></ul><p id="d872">Read about the next principle here:</p><div id="0bb8" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/how-to-be-a-good-consultant-principle-7-of-7-41605a8cc1fd"> <div> <div> <h2>How to be a good consultant-Principle 7 of 7</h2> <div><h3>7 principles of Professional Services</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*sbpN3SP3R8V-fH0WIWPNQg.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="ab99" class="link-block"> <a href="https://me-writes.medium.com/membership"> <div> <div> <h2>Join Medium with my referral link - Me Writes</h2> <div><h3>As a Medium member, a portion of your membership fee goes to writers you read, and you get full access to every story…</h3></div> <div><p>me-writes.medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*I5y-_4LuaDigGRrD)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div></article></body>

7 principles of Professional Services

Being a Consultant is not an easy job and there is a reason why Consultants are handsomely paid.

When a team hires an external Consultant, they expect that they provide more value than their own team members. A consultant carries this burden of high expectations on his shoulders throughout the time of their engagement.

Anyone who wants to become a Consultant must read “The Seven Principles of Professional Services” by Shane Anastasi. I was lucky that I got referred to this book by one of my colleagues.

These 7 principles now act as a constant reminder to help me become more valuable with my services.

I would highly recommend buying this book and reading it multiple times. (Please note that I am not affiliated with this book. These are my personal opinions)

In this story, I have noted down key takeaways for the 6th Principle from the book which says “Participate in the Collective Wisdom”. This in no way covers all the important points mentioned in the book. I have only noted down the ones that are most relevant from my point of view.

How you as a consultant should use Collective Wisdom

Before jumping to solve a problem, try to see if a solution is already available for a similar problem.

Apply your unique abilities to collective wisdom once you gain experience with it.

Don’t try to reinvent it. You will get a chance to add to it once you gain experience using it.

Once you have gained experience with your collective wisdom, feel free to question and challenge it.

Advance the collective wisdom with your expertise.

Intellectual Property

The Collective Wisdom of an organization is a large part of its Intellectual Property.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

To understand IP in simple terms, consider an analogy of a cake:

Cake 🍰 = Outcome of an engagement

Recipe = Know-how required to take raw ingredients and produce a cake.

While the customer owns the Cake, they don't own the recipe.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

It is important to protect the IP acquired from the engagement; otherwise, the service provider’s collective wisdom will not grow and its value may stagnate.