I’ve noticed something when observing management consultants. Those who leave consulting to start their own business often work very differently than they did as consultants.
The default consultant approach is:
- Analyze
- Strategize
- Plan
- Implement
I experienced its power firsthand early in my career at McKinsey, but I’ve since learned a lot from being a leader myself and advising leaders for the past 14 years.
Those four steps can work wonders, but they may become limiting in unpredictable contexts—when you’re faced not only with known unknowns but also with unknown unknowns of real consequence.
Clients may suddenly shift their behavior. New technology can revolutionize what you sell—or how you sell, deliver, or support it. A company could become so large and diverse that the interdependencies between departments are overwhelming.
Causes and effects often blend together. You can’t fully understand what drives what until after it happens.
Still, some insist you can just analyze your way through it all and build a powerful plan. Consultants typically show up in focused bursts—X standardized teams for Y months—and deliver polished, well-documented final products.
Former consultants who turn entrepreneurs still analyze and plan—but not to an obsessive degree. They typically take a very different approach to product development, business models, marketing, sales, and corporate culture—just to highlight a few vital activities.
They persist and uncover new paths—whether with less resistance or more attraction. Many of the most successful follow—intentionally or intuitively—four very different steps:
- Explore: Investigate opportunities and challenges to understand what’s predictable and what truly attracts customers and employees.
- Envision: Develop a vision that provides meaningful direction with practical boundaries. A direction is broader than a specific destination, and the boundaries help you focus.
- Experiment: Try out ideas across a range of variables and learn intensely from successes and setbacks. You don’t want to risk too much too often, but you must stay open to more attractive paths than the one you’re currently on.
- Evolve: Let the broad trends emerge, and assess what makes sense going forward.
It’s always easier to solve someone else’s problems than your own—but you can learn something invaluable from addressing your own challenges, both as a leader and as a human being.
Hi Nicolai, thanks for this article. How have you seen consultants shift to the 4Es vs their default approach? While the 4Es approach makes sense, it is not natural especially if one has spent a long time in consulting. And secondly, what barriers do consultants face when they try to shift from the default to the 4E approach?
Thanks,
Amit
Dear Amit,
Management consultants are not ignorant of the 4Es. The fascination for agile work methods points to a miniature version of that. Paradoxically, many consultants approach agile by helping their clients implement systems and processes to ensure agile work practices. They take a systematic approach to something that ultimately has a systemic nature.
In my view, there are two key barriers for consultants to utilize the 4Es: an inner and an outer barrier. The inner barrier is that notorious problem solvers continue to encounter problems that await their solutions. People tend to see the world as they want it to be. The outer barrier is the business model of consulting, which involves staffing people for a few weeks or months with a single client. That provides boots on the ground, creating transparency for clients about what they buy, and making life easier for project managers. This model is suited for resolving problems once and for all, rather than running multi-year learning journeys.
How does that sound?
Warmest regards,
Nicolai