S20 Consultative Advisory Practice

Prepare for each conversation by researching the business, its sector and its history with the service, and planning what you want to find out

Open each conversation with a clear purpose, agree how the time will be used, and invite the client to set out what matters to them

Use questioning, listening and reflecting back to move from the issue the client presents to their underlying needs, constraints and opportunities

Test the client's assumptions and your own, separating what is known from what is believed

Challenge the client constructively, at the right moment and with evidence, while keeping the relationship strong

Recognise when the client is resisting, and explore the reasons behind it rather than pressing your own view

Help the client see the consequences of acting and of not acting, and reach decisions they own

Influence the client towards action using evidence, examples and options, without taking the decision from them

Agree specific actions at the end of each conversation, with who will do what and by when, and confirm them in writing where appropriate

Adapt your consultative style to the client, the issue and the stage of the relationship, moving between advising, facilitating and challenging as needed

Explain to the client how the support fits the objectives of the programme it is delivered through, and make sure your advice serves the client's needs as well as those objectives

Use self-assessment, observation and feedback on your conversations, and reflection, to improve your consultative practice

What makes an advisory approach consultative, and how it differs from providing information or giving instructions

Structures and planning tools for diagnostic and developmental conversations

Questioning techniques (for example open, probing, hypothetical, scaling and reflective questions), and how to sequence them

Levels of listening, and how to listen for meaning, feeling and what is left unsaid

How to distinguish the issue a client presents from their underlying needs, and the common reasons the two differ

Approaches to challenge and influence, including the balance between support and challenge, and how to challenge without damaging trust

How people respond to challenge and change, including defensiveness and resistance, and how to work with them

Cognitive biases that affect business decisions and advisory judgement (for example confirmation bias and optimism bias)

Logic models and theories of change in business support, and how individual interventions contribute to programme outcomes and policy objectives

Tools that support consultative practice (for example question banks, conversation planners, self-assessments and reflective journals)

How to use observation, peer review and feedback to develop consultative skills, including obtaining consent where conversations are observed or recorded