The other came from Kim Tso (@KimberlyTso), who shared, “I need to celebrate the achievement of goals no one knew I had. I imagine that there are other consultants who have no place to do that, and celebrations are important.”

Creativity is one of the marks of a great consultant. Yet we rarely talk about what goes into being creative – unless we are talking about the narrowly defined creativity we may witness on the job, as in “Joe came up with a really creative way to address that issue at our last meeting…”

It is next to impossible to crank out creative idea after creative idea without feeding the creative spirit. If we’re sitting in that rut, doing the same thing day in and day out, the creative gods are not likely to shower us with insight!

Instead, inspiration and creativity when we’re on the clock often happens, as Kim noted, because we are fueling it with projects we’re doing when we’re off the clock.

So then, how can we avoid getting stuck in the rut Ephraim bemoaned? How can we crank up our creativity? And how can we support and nurture and celebrate those off-the-clock creative achievements in each other?

Looking forward to another energizing chat this coming Tuesday, May 15th at 1pm US-Pacific time. See you there!

Consultants are called in for one reason – to make things better. Whether the client has a problem to be fixed, or an aspiration to be achieved, we could sum up all the various results desired by consulting clients in one sentence: We want conditions to be better.

What about the times when things aren’t better? What about those times when – either by actions of the client, actions of the consultant, or by dint of the gods – things are no better (or heaven forbid, worse) by the time the engagement is done?

In a conversation in the NPCons Facebook group, one consultant asked:

• How do we help clients preservere when the going gets tough?
• How do we keep our own heads up, and still allow enough room to doubt and correct course?
• How do we fix our own mistakes?
• How do we learn from them?
• How do we help clients constructively attribute causation and take responsibility for what has happened and still move past it in a positive way?

We talk so much in these chats about how to reach for what is possible. What do we do when “what’s possible” doesn’t happen? How do we learn? How do we self-correct? How do we buoy the confidence of the organizations / people with whom we are working, so that they CAN achieve what’s possible (or if not, can change course)?

Looks like the makings of a great chat. Join us Tuesday, April 17th at 1pm US Pacific time. See you there!

Not a member of the NPCons Facebook group? Join this great group of consultants and coaches who work with groups and individuals working for a better world.  Ongoing conversation and support, all month long!

That video has put so much into perspective for us at Creating the Future, that we actually start every board meeting with each board member sharing something awesome that has happened to them since we last met. This allows us to get to know each other in ways we likely would not do if we just got down to business. It also provides a way of becoming present to each other and to the meeting – a way of leaving baggage at the door, without the command to do so.

That led to this Twitter conversation between two Creating the Future board members:

Hildy:  @alexandrapeters First image in the #CTFuture dashboard: Awesomeness. Photos of babies & hiking & @SidneyRHargro escaping Alcatraz!

Alexandra: @HildyGottlieb Does such a dashboard exist, in its awesomeness? Do we have metrics for awesomeness? (Wideness of smile? Depth of relief?)

Hildy: @alexandrapeters Perhaps count the # of laughs per board mtg? #MeasureWhatMatters

Which leads us to wonder…

• What if your consulting contract noted that in everything you do with your client, you are to find what is already awesome, and reach for what is even more awesome?
• What would it look like to always reach for what is possible, positive, amazing – awesome? What would it look like to find the awesome in every aspect of your clients’ existing work?
• What might the results be, if we stopped focusing on what sucks, and started focusing more on what is awesome?
• And how might we make that happen? If things do, in fact, suck – how can we find the awesome in all that? And what do we do with it when we find it?

Join us on Tuesday, March 20th at 1pm Pacific time (US) for a chat that promises to be AWESOME!

The following question arose in the Facebook group for community benefit consultants:

“Are any of you ever approached by a potential client who seems to be fishing for in-depth free advice? How do you use this as an opportunity to engage the client while protecting and valuing your own time? I would love to hear how others handle this.”

One could just about hear the commiserating sighs jump right off the screen. Which means this is definitely a topic for us to explore in this month’s #NPCons chat!

There is a vast difference between choosing to donate our expertise (doing pro bono work) and the delicate dance that happens at the beginning of a consulting relationship, as the client and consultant begin forging the bonds that will lay the groundwork for the rest of their work together.

As consultants, we get paid for what we know and the results we can help our clients achieve. And the only way we can prove we know stuff is to share that – to give a taste, a free sample.

Sometimes, though, we feel like we’re the free sample pizza in the supermarket aisle – and some guy is just standing there, trying to eat every slice on our tray!

Which leads to questions like these:

• How can we build that trust relationship while ensuring we are compensated for the value we bring?
• How can we show we know our stuff and engage a prospective client, while not feeling like we’re giving it all away?
• What factors might each of us want to consider, as we build our own personal policies re: sharing our knowledge?

This should be another lively chat!!!

See you Tuesday, February 21 at 1pm Pacific time / 4pm Eastern time (US)!

So many consultants are brilliant at what they do, but they don’t like being self-promotional. They don’t like negotiating. In fact, many consultants don’t like anything about the sales process.

In his ground-breaking book Million Dollar Consulting, even Alan Weiss confesses that his impetus for inventing a better way to bring in work was his disdain for sales as it is typically done.

Promoting and selling our services can be a necessary evil. Or it can be a joyful way of engaging people. So then, what does it take to move away from the “fear and loathing” and step towards a better relationship with the dreaded “s” word?

What would it take to actually fall in love with the sales process?

Let’s find out together at the next #NPCons Twitter chat – next Tuesday, January 17th at 1pm US Pacific time. See you there!

So let’s turn that silliness into something useful – a list of “bests” that can actually move us all forward. As our holiday gift to each other this year, let’s talk about the most effective questions you have either asked or been asked this year.

• What was the most effective question you asked of your clients this year? What made it effective? What was the result?
• What was the most effective question someone asked YOU this year?
• What was the most effective question you asked yourself?

Looking forward to a lively year-end chat on Tuesday, December 20 at 1pm US Pacific time. See you there!

“How can we bring more organizations together?” was the discussion this week amongst the ED’s gathered for a monthly meeting in Lake Havasu City. Conversation ranged from the frustrations of knowing some organizations will happily remain in their silos, to the successes achieved in the last year. W has helped these community leaders see the vision of what is possible as a result of collaboration?

The ED of a local youth organization called to tell me about the exciting developments in the relationships she’s building with the local school district, businesses, service clubs and other organizations. Her excitement wars with her fears that the sustainability being built in to the organization won’t happen fast enough for it to survive. What if the founders of this 30 year old organization had started building those collaborations from the organization’s beginnings?

Just as interesting are the supportive relationships developing in the Nonprofit Consultants group on Facebook. As we come together to share ideas and help each other, what collaborations might develop over the long term and how might we and our clients benefit?

One of my favorite tools for helping frame a discussion about requirements for collaboration vs. cooperation or coordination comes from a 2005 blog post by David Pollard http://bit.ly/bqtvI5. In comparing the elements and outcomes of each approach, the purpose of collaboration is to, “Achieve collective results that the participants would be incapable of accomplishing working alone.”

What have the organizations you work with been able to accomplish through collaboration that they would not have been able to do alone? What difference have those collaborations made in the communities they serve?
How has your involvement as a consultant enhanced those collaborative efforts? How do you collaborate with others to enhance your work?

Looking forward to hearing from you on Tuesday, November 15 1pm Pacific Time (US). See you there!

Here are some examples:
• How can we get orgs to adopt social media?
• How can we get orgs to collaborate more?
• How can we get orgs to see the value in X or Y?

Regardless of the content, the intent is the same. How can we overcome clients’ reluctance to move beyond what they already know and do?

So rather than focusing on those individual content questions, let’s get to the real issue. How do we get clients to do – whatever?

Looking forward to a great conversation!!!!

Tuesday, October 18th at 1pm Pacific time (US). See you there!

First, along with the +2 dozen other books I’ve been reading during a 6 week writing sabbatical, I’ve been intrigued with the concepts behind Keith Ferrazzi’s book, Who’s Got Your Back.  The book focuses on building a team of trusted advisors, to enhance one’s strength as a leader, regardless of the work we do.  And while I confess I skimmed most of the book (a bit too macho/aggressive in its approach for me), it is the concept of having a team of trusted advisors that grabbed hold and would not let go.

Then there was the email from a graduate of Creating the Future’s consultants immersion course – perhaps the most passionate pursuer of possibility I know. Here is part of his note:

When you get down to it, it’s the people we reach out to that keep us going.  Without the kids [our organization helps], I don’t know where I would be. They have been my greatest source of healing.

What are your sources of healing?

And then lastly, there was a Facebook post by Beth Kanter that just happened to be in my stream when I happened to look – about hubris as the enemy of creativity and innovation.

Who’s Got Your Back?
Consultants are expected to be the smart ones in the room – to be the one who can right all the wrongs, fix all problems, make everything ok. Our monthly NPCons chats often touch on the issue of whether or not it does our clients good when we consultants act as experts.

But let’s set aside for the moment what is good for the client (yes, that’s what I said). Let’s instead focus on what the assumption of “being the expert” means for us as consultants.

When our livelihood and our professional “being” is all bout being the smartest one in the room, where do we turn when WE need help? When WE need advice? When WE need – as my Creating the Future colleague said – healing?

Which is why my thinking about hubris suddenly came full circle. When we think we have all the answers, what happens when we realize that’s simply not true? Where do WE turn for guidance and support? Who DOES have our backs?

So this month, let’s explore…

• What could a circle of supportive professional advisors mean for your work and your life?
• What would it take for you to have such individuals in your corner?
• Where do you go for supportive guidance, to explore different answers AND to be asked different questions?
• What would need to be in place for you to move beyond your own comfort zone? What would need to be in place for you to feel ok about exploring beyond the practices you assume are “best practice?” What would need to be in place for you to ask yourself dispassionately, “What if I’m wrong?”
• When things go badly, where can you turn for understanding – or support – or just a beer and an evening of “can-you-top-this” stories?
• What are your sources of healing?

Looking forward to a great conversation.  See you on Tuesday, September 20th at 1pm US-Pacific time!

When my friend raises it to her family, they all insist, “Our business is different. You can’t plan for what we do…”

If there were ever an example of the old expression, “The cobbler’s kids go shoeless” – we consultants are often the worst.

• Consultants who urge their clients to collaborate, but who don’t partner with other consultants.
• Strategic planning consultants who have no business plan.
• Fundraising consultants who are always broke.
• Nonprofit resource centers – the teachers and consultants to whole communities – who teach evaluation but don’t measure their own outcomes.
• Seasoned consultants who advise “newbie” consultants to do all sorts of smart things that they themselves perhaps used to do, but haven’t done in years…

The list goes on and on.  It’s not that we don’t know we should, but in reality, how often do we consultants do everything we advise our clients to do?

So this month, let’s look at how we can support each other in being for ourselves what we provide to our clients.

• What percentage of what you advise to clients do you do for yourself? (And are you guessing or do you really know? Go back over your past few months recommendations to clients – what percentage of that do you REALLY do?)
• If you do most (if not all) of what you recommend to clients, what allows you to focus so clearly on your business, that the rest of us might learn from?
• And if you would like to do a whole lot more of what you recommend to your clients, how can this group help you to do more of what you know works?

Looking forward to a lively chat – Tuesday, July 19, 2011 at 1pm Pacific time / 4pm Eastern time (US time). See you there!

Photo credit: Medjai on Wikimedia Commons