Do You Know How Long Your Client’s S Is?
A colleague of mine was venting recently about a consultant who supports her that in her opinion spends too much time catching-up, chit-chatting, and talking about personal things at the beginning of their meetings. My colleague, although extremely nice and personable, is also a “Type A” and is keenly focused on successfully meeting their project objectives. I asked her if she had ever heard of the SOLAR Model…she had not…because I think she might have a short S!
It’s funny how some things just stick with you. Back when I was a fledgling internal organizational development consultant fresh out of college, I read two books that influenced my now career as an organizational change management consultant: Flawless Consulting by Peter Block and The Consultant’s Handbook by Thomas Werner. Although I don’t think I have read either of them since the mid 90s, I know for sure that I have drawn on both of them throughout my client-facing work as a consultant and they both sit on my office shelves today.
The Consultant’s Handbook, which I think had one and only edition in 1994, outlines the SOLAR Model for an effective consulting contract:
Socialize – Begin the session with an informal conversation
Objective – Establish the objective of the contract
Listen – Use listening skills to assess the client’s situation
Advise – Influence the client by making recommendations, coaching, persuading, confronting, or helping to solve a problem
Record – Identify and record specific next steps
Pretty solid and timeless outline for a client meeting, right? Especially for a newbie consultant 20-something-year-old sitting across the table from a client for the first time.
But the part that really stuck with me and that I have leveraged throughout my career is the S for Socialize. Werner writes, “The aim of socializing is to relate to the client on a personal level. Socializing is equivalent to an icebreaker. The goal of socializing is to check how busy the client is, be a reinforcing person socially skilled, aware of the client’s interests, upbeat about life and the change effort, and get a reading on the client’s current reaction to the change effort.”
Back in 1994, my fellow internal organizational development consultants and I used to talk about our client’s Ss. “Oh, schedule 60 minutes rather than 30 minutes because so-and-so has a loooonnnng S!” or “Beware, so-and-so barely has an S.” This seemingly simple model provides an extremely useful construct for better consultant / client alignment by creating awareness of how much or how little your client wants to socialize before getting to the heart of matter.
My colleague points out that people’s Ss may change depending on circumstances, “The thing is, I think people's Ss can fluctuate. For example, if I think the project is going well, I may be more open to chit chat - but when I can't get responses on work I need done, then I want limited chit chat. It is really about reading the person and if you are socially aware you should be able to determine when to shut down the S!”
Do you know how long your client’s S is? If not, you better find out!
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