Key takeaways
- Slides describe solutions, but they aren't the solution. Value only shows up in execution.
- Instead of presentations: workshops where the solution gets built directly, in Miro, the CRM, or Excel.
- The job is done when the solution is implemented and holds up day-to-day. Not when the client nods.
I've never built a slide deck as a consultant, and I don't intend to. That sounds contradictory at first; after all, most consultancies deliver their analyses and recommendations exactly that way. It's an established path. It just isn't mine.
A slide solves nothing
A presentation describes a solution. It isn't one. At the end of a classic consulting project there's often an impressive deck, and a company still standing exactly where it was before. The slides move into a folder nobody opens again.
Value isn't created when someone phrases a recommendation. It's created when the recommendation is implemented and holds up in everyday work. Everything before that is preparation, not a result.
The craftsman among consultants
My approach is different: roll up the sleeves. Instead of slides, I run workshops where we build the solution directly, in Miro, in the CRM, or straight in Excel. We start and do, instead of talking about doing.
I need to touch things to truly understand and improve them. Just talking and handing out clever advice isn't me. I want to implement the work myself, together with the team that will use it afterwards, so the solution stays once the consulting is gone.
When the job is done
My job isn't finished when the client nods. It's done when the solution is implemented and I'm convinced we can't make it any better. Only then has an idea become a result.
This way of working isn't for everyone. Some organisations need the deck first to make decisions internally. But anyone looking for someone who sits at the table and implements rather than just advises notices the difference fast: in the end something runs, instead of merely being documented.
