One of my favourite games right now is, loosely stated, “what structural thing can I understand about an industry that would allow me to predict the shape of an individual career within it?”
This week, the game applied to consulting: commoncog.com/blog/the-consu
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I am just finishing this book now! Great to read someone else's thoughts on it.
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And you work at a consultancy! Brilliant stuff! Does it map to your experiences/is it super helpful for you?
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Yes! I have been reading it as a two-man 'book club' also with a Partner which has sparked great conversation. It definitely maps to my experience and has revealed tensions/opportunities where I find we are in-between segments that he defines.
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I originally thought of the book as a "secret weapon" for our firm, or any firm, since it's fallen into moderate obscurity due to its age. Though most of the things are straightforward, if you are open to implementing/changing practices, I think most firms can improve.
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Also, I know you read The Firm, but have you read Lords of Strategy? I really like that one. The history of strategy in business & strategy consulting as a whole.
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I haven't! I'll add that to my toread, but it'll be awhile before I circle back to it. Thanks for the recommendation though!
Do you, by any chance, have recommendations for actionable, client-facing-skill-related books? Probably my biggest weakness.
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(I switched to a product company sometime back, but my post-mortem of my performance running a consultancy was that I had to get wayyy better at servicing clients. Would love to know what worked best for you).
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This is a great question, not sure I have a ton of good answers. Two books I enjoyed were: You're my favourite client (abookapart.com/products/youre) – more design focused but lots of applicable principles. The other would be Snowball System: amazon.com/Snowball-Syste
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Snowball system is more about New Business, but paired with Meister's book, it helps you realize that New Business = Client Service, and can shape some of the mindset. It's a much more tactical/how-to book than a tree book. I still found it valuable.
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Realise that I forgot to say thank you explicitly! 🙏 I've added both to my toread, and am looking forward to it =]
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