Introduction

Contracting is the first and most critical step of the consulting process. This workshop focuses on the skills you need to build productive working relationships with clients. You learn how to get a project started on the right track. As a staff person, our lives are challenged to make our work work for us and our internal clients. In cultures where control and predictability seem to be the order of the day, we realize our great expertise does not guarantee us control or even authority to make decisions or see our plans implemented. So what is left? Collaborative relationships with our clients and internal customers.

There is a way to overcome this.

Flawless Consulting 1: Contracting is the workshop developed by ground-breaking author Peter Block that served as the basis for his recently revised best-selling "Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used". Through powerful experimental designs, participants will learn how to have a 50/50 relationship with their clients - even in a 90/10 high control environment. Most projects fail not because of the work we do, but because of the weak contracts we agreed to. To deal with this, we must have strong partnerships built through effective contracting from the start. The key is developing the skill and courage to act upon the fact that we have a right to make demands on the people we are there to serve. Courage, based on the power of our honesty and openness in the given situation. Listening intently; knowing what we want, and how to say "no" to what we don't want.
Through the skills developed in this popular two day workshop, we can learn that there is more room for us to operate as an equal with our clients than we ever thought possible. We can in fact, create organizations where we want to live. You will leave with confidence and renewed optimism in your ability to do the consulting work you love with clients that you can influence.