John Carroll's
Confessions of an organizational development consultant
Hello, I'm John Carroll:
It’s called OD for short, the term that encompasses a host of consulting specialties designed to help an organization do what it does better, faster, with greater revenues, fewer expenses, increased productivity and improved profitability than it might otherwise. This would serve to be a less than effective response to a question I get on a regular basis, “What do you do?"
Confession # 1: I don’t know exactly how to answer the question.
Here’s my typical response to the question: “You know, that may be one of the world’s great mysteries, similar to the question of whether the light in the refrigerator really goes out when you close the door. Tell me a bit about your business and perhaps I can answer your question more clearly.”
Why should this be important to you? We all have plenty to do in our lives, and few people lie awake at night wondering what John Carroll and Unlimited Performance can do for them. I certainly understand and accept my place in the universe. This is exactly why I don’t tell people that we specialize in certain skills or specific competencies. As my mentor and friend Alan Weiss would say, “People are waiting to check off the entire list of your products or services as you recite them. They’re saying to themselves, ‘I don’t need that, that, that or that. Great! I don’t need you and now I can forget about you and get on with the rest of my life.'"
Our role and objective with any client is simply to improve that client’s condition. How we do that, within strict legal, ethical and moral boundaries of course, is entirely secondary to the outcomes the client realizes as a result of our working together. When we can help improve productivity within a client’s organization, through any number of means, we’ve effectively generated a higher return on payroll, often the single largest investment many firms make every single day. When we can help increase client profitability, we assist in fueling their growth and strength in the marketplace. When we can expand the capacity of a firm’s leadership team by building their skills and ability to lead effectively, they experience step function improvement in many areas simultaneously. That is, I believe, why our clients hire us, to do something that they deeply desire to accomplish and haven’t been able to do so on their own. That leads me to John Carroll's Confession #2:
Confession #2: We enjoy an unfair advantage in our work with clients.
Unfair in this sense doesn’t mean unethical, immoral or illegal; it simply means that we enjoy an advantage in client work that clients seldom enjoy. It’s this: by looking into the organization from the outside, we can see and sense issues and opportunities that clients sometimes don’t see for themselves. This doesn’t qualify us as seers or prophets of some sort. On the contrary, we’re simply using a fresh pair of eyes, a fresh pair of ears and all other pertinent senses and tools to detect and determine areas of strength and weakness.
How do I know this? We use outside resources to help our organization in the same way. Earlier I mentioned Alan Weiss. As a mentor, he has helped us make tremendous strides in our value to clients. Nido Qubein, another mentor and friend, has taught us some valuable ways to look at opportunities to grow and strengthen our firm as well as those of our clients. I’ll also often confide in colleagues and peers to understand more fully how we’re perceived in the marketplace and how that impacts our approaches in everything we do. As a result of using these valuable outside resources for our own organization, we’re taking full advantage of the very opportunity we provide for our clients.
Why is this important to you? I’ve found that by walking the talk of organizational development, we accomplish three critical objectives...(click here)
Confession #3: I have a passion for the business of business.
That must sound like “consultant speak” to those who don’t know me. Those who do know me have seen that I will often take hours, listening intently and discussing at length business opportunities, situations and options, sometimes to my own detriment. Just as those who loves to hunt, fish or play golf may get themselves in trouble for too many hours in those pursuits and too few hours with the family, I tend at times to get caught up in what I consider to be the fascinating aspects and intricacies of organizations of all shapes and sizes. While our work tends to attract privately held firms, I’m often meeting, speaking with or writing to executives of publicly held firms and directors of non-profit organizations as well. These stories land in the thinking mill for possible use at a later time. That’s also why I tend to take copious notes in such meetings.
This passion for business often mirrors that of our clients in their efforts to attain specific objectives. That’s exactly why I help clients understand this fourth and final confession:
Confession #4: We don’t charge for our time. Period.
No, we don’t have an hourly rate or a daily rate. (I do wish I had $10 for every time I’ve been asked that question.) When we’re working to improve productivity, increase profitability, grow revenues, strengthen management teams and generate greater levels of associate involvement and business literacy, it takes time. While time is money, time is not a meter ticking in our clients’ work with us. Here’s why: we don’t want you as a client to have to make an economic, financial decision before you pick up the phone to call us or jot an e-mail message to us. We’re not about pumping hours on your behalf. Rather, our entire raison d’etre in client relationships is to help generate intended outcomes and objectives, regardless of how little or much time is required on our part. If you go to the dentist with a toothache that hurts beyond description, how would you feel if the dentist went about his or work slowly so as to justify the fee that you pay for otherwise prompt relief of your pain? Truth be known, you’d rather be rid of the pain and get on with your life in as short a time as possible. That’s the premise on which we set our fees: that there’s a pain or unfulfilled desire that you’d like to address and resolve right now.
Business today hinges more than ever on shorter response times. Horst Shulze, former head of Ritz Carlton Hotels, says response time is one of three top concerns of its guests. In our experience, clients are much the same way. By the time they ask us to help them accomplish a key objective, they would like to have been done with it yesterday. Therefore, if we have to count on long hours as the only route to deliver your intended objectives, you’re forced to endure added suffering.
We base our fees on the level of value we add to an organization. That’s why we work hard to understand how value is created and grows within your specific organization. When we help increase that value, we earn fees and create a mutually beneficial relationship, ideally one that lasts for years. I’m convinced more than ever, as we celebrate 10 years in service to our clients, that our long-standing relationships come about as the result of our focus on client value realized.
One of my concerns about this: the tallest compliment may also be the chink in our armor.
Recently we were considered as one of several firms to assist a Charleston-based non-profit organization build and implement a long-range plan. The search committee performed due diligence in a thorough manner and awarded us the opportunity to work with this group. In the feedback that I received on reaching their decision, I learned that one client responded, “John (Carroll) truly has a non-profit heart.”
I’m honored by that compliment. Believe me when I tell you that it can be both good news and bad news, all in one short statement. Yes, I believe as Nido Qubein says, “Service is the rent we pay for the space we occupy on the planet.” I prefer to take that a step further with, “The nicer the space, the higher the rent!” Since I’m grateful for the many blessings I’m afforded in our home, our town, our country and in the consulting profession, I do indeed tend to have a soft spot for those who work to make the world a better place for the injured, the disengaged and the less fortunate. I’ve found that many if not most of the lessons I’ve learned in the private sector hold true for non-profit organizations and often work to help them be more effective in their respective missions. That’s the good news.
The bad news? I’m guilty at times of setting our fees too low. And that’s not simply my diagnosis. I’ve heard from it from several sources, including mentors, colleagues and friends. This is one of the issues that I face and work to improve daily, the sense of value that we deliver to our clients and commensurate fees for that level of value.
Don’t take my word for this. Click here to read what some of our clients say about us.
There you have it, the confessions I’ve held inside for years are now out for you and the entire world to see. I’ll continue to do the work required to make Unlimited Performance a better, more highly competent firm to improve each client’s condition and generate targeted, desired results. If I get a little involved in the discussion, I simply ask that you’ll forgive me for loving what I do.
Cordially,
John Carroll
P.S.:
Clients continue to invite us to work on their behalf, often considering our fees miniscule in comparison to the value of accomplishing their objectives. It’s a rather simple equation most of the time and provides us with opportunities to delight our clients and generate valuable referrals. Those referrals give us more time to focus on client outcomes as opposed to marketing and business development. Do we sell our services? You’d better believe it, and we encourage our clients to do the same, very effectively. I’d be happy to have you speak with one or more of them, so that you may ask the difficult questions and decide for yourself.
P.S. 2:
A word of advice: in choosing any consultant, I’d use the criteria I recommend clients adopt in their people selection process. The specific ones are these: Would you feel comfortable inviting the consultant you’re considering to Sunday dinner at your home? Would you be open to having your son or daughter work with this individual consultant or consulting firm? How would you feel if you were locked up in a room with this consultant with no escape possible for 24 hours? If we can’t pass this three-pronged test with prospective clients, we simply move on and wish them the best.
P.S. 3:
May we help you in some way with a word of direction? We only know whether we can help you directly or connect you with someone who can by speaking with you. To that end, feel free to contact us at jcarroll@uperform.com or by calling us toll-free in North America at 1-877-755-8844. If you’re reading this as you sit somewhere in beautiful Charleston, South Carolina, you can reach us locally at 843-881-8815
