Transforming stakeholder relationships: from transactional to proactive
A government enterprise recognised a need for their People & Culture (P&C) division to build more strategic and value-adding relationships both internally and externally. They wanted to empower P&C’s Learning & Development (L&D) team to change how they supported the broader business, strategically developing the team to shift from reactive and transactional to proactive and value-adding. This shift required the targeted development of the L&D team’s consulting capability.
GRIST designed a Consulting Skills Program aligned with the pre-existing framework of the government enterprise. This program helped the L&D team to develop specific proactive and value-adding consulting capabilities.
Objectives
Develop participant consulting capabilities with a focus on better understanding clients: their objectives, priorities, key initiatives, challenges and skills gaps.
Improve the participant’s proactive, value-adding capabilities through the development of specific consultant skills such as building trust, negotiation and influencing without authority.
Develop a consultant mindset in line with the pre-existing framework, allowing participants to work more collaboratively.
Outcomes
“In the words of one of my clients, ‘Wow, you are really getting to know our business!’” — L&D partner
With the help of GRIST, the stakeholder developed and improved the consulting capability of its L&D team. This uptick in consultant capability improved the quality of client and stakeholder relationships, increased productivity, and improved the L&D team's ability to negotiate and influence decisions. With this culture shift, the L&D team was able to dramatically improve their overall results.
Other outcomes included:
Increased consultation with clients and stakeholders, leading to improved relationships and a dramatic increase in efficiency
An improvement in the design and quality of effective client-centred, targeted solutions for stakeholders that delivered demonstrable results
An improvement in workflows leading to a decrease in workload for participants and their clients
Positive changes to working relationships with clients and stakeholders lead to more collaborative and beneficial outcomes.
GRIST’s Consulting Skills program transformed how the L&D team builds and manages its stakeholder relationships. It shifted the culture of the L&D team from one that was broadly reactive and transactional to one centred on proactive, meaningful and value-adding relationships with clients and stakeholders. It aligned the team and enabled them to influence key decisions, improve client results, and work collaboratively within P&C to deliver for their clients and the broader organisation. Most importantly, the program enabled the participants to develop strong working relationships and garner the authority they rightfully deserved within the organisation. As one of the participants proudly noted, "I went from having zero communication with the client to them reaching out to me daily for my opinion.”
Client
Government enterprise
Audience
Learning & Development team
Program
Consulting Skills
Duration
4-month blended program
Included:
3 Consulting Skills workshops
2-hour face-to-face workshops
3 x 4 weeks of deliberate application
Purpose
To enable the people & culture division to build more strategic and value-adding relationships, both internally and externally.
Deliverables
3 Consulting Skills workshops delivered across 3 months
Leadership workshop
Presentation of case studies and results
Theories Used
Aggregation of marginal gains
Self-determination theory
70-20-10 learning model: leveraging on-the-job application
Deliberate practice
