Back to the List
46 Comments

The Great, One-Day Consulting Experiment

Note: At the end of this article, you’ll be requested to join an experiment. If you’re willing to join, simply post, “Yes.” In the comments section below the article.

Have you ever finished a day or a week and thought to yourself, “Holy cow, I can’t believe how insanely productive that time was”? You busted through consulting roadblocks, pounded out important, business-building tasks for your consulting firm, and you finished the day on an almost-better-than-chocolate high.

What happened? Why were you on fire during those times?

Focus.

Relentless, unyielding focus.

Do powerful days like that have to be rare or unpredictable? Could you induce them with a bit of planning?

Let’s find out. I invite you to join in an experiment to find out whether you can create for yourself an extraordinary day:

The Great, One-Day Consulting Experiment

The experiment works like this:

  1. Focus: Choose a core element of consulting firm growth: Winning Engagements, Profitably Delivering Value, or Building Infrastructure. (Strategic Health is the fourth, core element. It’s not part of this experiment.)
  2. Coordinate: Select a day that you and every full-time consultant in your consulting firm will devote to your selected focus. To accomplish this you may need to align calendars and you will need to let your clients know that you’re not available on that day.
  3. Plan: Outline the tasks your consulting team will tackle. There’s more on this step below.
  4. Achieve: Kaboom! Knock it out of the park on your focus day.
  5. Reflect: Evaluate your efforts and admire your progress. There are evaluation thought starters below.

The key to this experiment is to not feed a single minute to any non-focus tasks. During your One-Day Consulting Experiment, from the moment you start work until the moment you finish, you may not engage in:

  • Idle chit chat
  • Surfing the web
  • General reading
  • Anything else that’s not part of your focus

Planning/evaluating Your One-Day Consulting Experiment

Focus: Winning Engagements

Activities you could engage in:

  • Cold outreach via email, social media, phone and/or in-person meetings
  • Warm outreach via email, social media, phone and/or in-person meetings
  • Developing IP
  • Writing proposals
  • Posting on social media
  • Speaking to groups

Questions to evaluate your day:

  • Did you significantly advance your Business Development pipeline?
  • Would you have accomplished more if you tackled fewer activities? More activities?
  • Are you pleased with how much you accomplished?
  • Would it be valuable to devote an entire focus day to Winning Engagements again?

Focus: Profitably Delivering Value

Activities you could engage in:

  • Managing client work
  • Completing client work
  • Presenting client work (to clients)
  • Participating in a client experience

Questions to evaluate your day:

  • Were you efficient?
  • What could have been delegated to someone else?
  • What tasks did you repeat (and therefore, could systemize)?
  • What resources would have helped you deliver more with less effort?
  • What was the quality of your work? Quantity?
  • Would it be valuable to devote an entire focus day to Profitably Delivering Value again?

Focus: Building Infrastructure

Activities you could engage in:

  • Developing systems
  • Hiring or developing staff (employees or subcontractors)
  • Creating processes
  • Learning, reading, improving

Questions to evaluate your day:

  • Did you meaningfully improve capacity, capability, efficiency and/or productivity?
  • Will the improvements you made be sustainable?
  • Are you pleased with how much you accomplished?
  • Would an outside resource have improved your infrastructure more effectively?
  • Would it be valuable to devote an entire focus day to Building Infrastructure again?

Are you willing to try a One-Day Consulting Experiment? If so, post “Yes” in the comments below, and my team will reach out with a form to help you structure the day and also follow up on the results.

Of course, you can also post your thoughts and reactions to this article—I want to hear them!


46 Comments
  1. Jan-Sverre Isaksen
    March 11, 2020 at 6:13 am Reply

    Yes

    • David A. Fields
      March 11, 2020 at 6:15 am Reply

      Terrific, Jan-Sverre. My team will be be in touch.

  2. Carrie Pretorius
    March 11, 2020 at 8:31 am Reply

    Yes!!

    • David A. Fields
      March 11, 2020 at 8:34 am Reply

      Woo hoo! Welcome to the experiment, Carrie. You’ll receive an email today from us.

  3. Daniel
    March 11, 2020 at 8:40 am Reply

    Yes

    • David A. Fields
      March 11, 2020 at 9:03 am Reply

      Welcome to the party, Daniel! I’m glad you’re with us, and you’ll hear from us soon.

  4. Wendy Kurtz
    March 11, 2020 at 9:11 am Reply

    Yes.

    • David A. Fields
      March 11, 2020 at 11:23 am Reply

      Glad you’ve joined, Wendy. You’ll hear from us later today.

  5. Marty Kaufman
    March 11, 2020 at 9:32 am Reply

    Yes.
    Perhaps for a single day I can do one thing well instead of 25 things “meh”.

    • David A. Fields
      March 11, 2020 at 11:23 am Reply

      That’s the spirit, Marty! I look forward to hearing how the one day goes. We’ll reach out soon.

Leave а Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Prev Article

Do You Have Time for This Consulting Firm Builder? (Yes You Do.)

Next Article

10 Tough-Times Strategies for Consulting Firms

NEVER MISS A GREAT ARTICLE ON CONSULTING

Subscribe to receive insiders’ access to information and resources that will help you grow your consulting firm.

Note: By subscribing you are confirming that you have read and agree to our terms of service and privacy policy. You are also confirming your consent to receive emails from David about his articles, programs and recommendations.

Firm Type