Insights

No quick win, no value

(Plus a template to copy and paste.)

A consulting project without a quick win is a commodity service. Why? Because having no quick wins is the norm.

Despite common belief, you don't get early results by powering through, nor by skipping strategy.

What you need is a choice. Per Roger L. Martin:

Strategy is deciding where you're going to play and how you're going to win.

Here's how to win the game.

Step one: the goal

The goal is to let your client experience success within the first month of the engagement.

Step two: the angle

Observe. Observe. Observe. Study the system for a week. Look for a first tension to alleviate. Hint: all problems are interpersonal problems. Double hint: meetings are treasure troves.

Step three: the setup

The setup is creating a game impossible to fail.

Use the following template to set the baseline, the desired future state, an easy way to get there, and the benefit of going from point A to point B.

If we [take this easy step]
We'll get [this benefit], and
We'll move from [baseline] to [desired state].
All of it before [this date].

An example from my own practice:

If we [do a quick check-in before diving into longer topics],
we'll [reduce boredom, wasted time, and anxiety], and…
We'll cut our regular team meetings from [60 minutes] to [30 minutes].
All of it achieved [in less than two weeks].

We ran that experiment and, lo and behold, it created the conditions to see further improvements, two months later: