The Consultant’s Toolkit: Consulting Training

Organizations look to consultants to provide necessary guidance on important business decisions. Designed for internal consultants with less than seven years of experience, The Consultant’s Toolkit program explores a variety of consulting tools to teach you how to diagnose organizational problems and evaluate potential solutions, while strengthening your leadership skills to effectively guide teams, influence stakeholders, and drive strategic change.

Some of the topics you’ll cover in the program include:

• Strategic frameworks for the consulting process
• Operational diagnostic tools
• Hypothesis trees
• Research methods
• Presenting recommendations

Through a combination of lectures, case discussions, and interactive group exercises, this program focuses on teaching analytic techniques that can be applied in diverse settings, ranging from small and large companies to for-profit and nonprofit organizations. You will also develop essential leadership skills, such as managing client relationships, guiding teams through problem-solving processes, and communicating insights in clear, compelling ways that drive action.

Benefits of the Consultant’s Toolkit Training

The Consultant’s Toolkit program offers the opportunity to develop a strong knowledge base and the skills required to complete successful consulting projects.

Participants will learn:

• The baseline for success in a consulting role and an understanding of the consulting process
• Various consulting techniques in areas of strategic formulation, market research, operations, performance management, and project management
• To lead consulting engagements with confidence, ensuring buy-in from key stakeholders
• Effective methods for achieving impactful implementation
• Essential consulting skills for collecting, analyzing, and presenting data
• To engage more effectively with independent consultants working for your organization

Upon completion of the program, you will receive a Certificate of Completion from the Harvard Division of Continuing Education recognizing your achievement.

Who Should Take the Consultant’s Toolkit Training?

This program is designed to offer significant benefits to internal consultants and individuals who are currently collaborating with consultants or seeking to integrate consulting tools and techniques into their organizations.

Participants with less than seven years of consulting experience can expect to discover additional tools to enhance their expanding toolkits. However, those with over seven years of experience may find the content too foundational.

This program is particularly valuable for professionals looking to enhance their ability to lead consulting engagements, manage stakeholder expectations, and build credibility as trusted, strategic advisors.

Program participants hold positions such as:

• Financial consultant
• Project manager
• Human Resources manager
• Business Analyst
• Solutions consultant
• Lawyer
• Political strategist

Professionals working within small or medium-sized consulting firms, as well as internal and independent consultants, will find this program most beneficial. This program is not recommended for consultants from the largest consulting firms.

Curriculum

In The Consultant’s Toolkit, you will learn through a combination of lectures, case studies, and interactive group exercises. Topics covered include:

• An overview of the consulting industry, trends, and the role of consultants
• Step-by-step strategic frameworks for the consulting process:
  • Problem definition
  • Discovery and data collection
  • Recommendation and presentation
  • Implementation
• Operational diagnostic tools
• Hypothesis trees
• Research methods
• Dealing with resistance