{"id":833,"date":"2021-03-27T19:04:48","date_gmt":"2021-03-27T23:04:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/socialimpactblog\/?p=833"},"modified":"2021-03-27T19:06:18","modified_gmt":"2021-03-27T23:06:18","slug":"what-does-success-look-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/socialimpactblog\/2021\/03\/27\/what-does-success-look-like\/","title":{"rendered":"What does success look like?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Patrick<\/em><\/p>\n

If you can\u2019t solve the original problem, did you fail? No. Business problems tend to be symptoms of other problems. Assisting with those underlying issues can remove the roadblock the client needs to solve the bigger issue on their own. When the client has been better positioned to address the big problem on their own, they might even be better equipped to solve the next big problem rather than if you had just solved the initial one for them. <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When I signed up for this class, I, admittedly, had never sat in a room with a consultant and I didn\u2019t know exactly what to expect. I thought, \u201cconsultants solve problems, so it is my job to solve a business problem over the course of this semester.\u201d Easy enough. The company will have a business problem when I start that they won\u2019t have when I finish. I\u2019ve come to realize that that\u2019s not going to be the case, and that\u2019s okay.<\/span><\/p>\n

I noticed early on that I am not a natural consultant. As someone who struggles with overpromising to both myself and the client, I exist to please while sabotaging my own success. In my defense, my compulsion to say the easiest thing doesn\u2019t come from a place of real dishonesty, but more from living in best case scenarios. But unfortunately, life is not like that, regardless of what I tend to tell myself and the client, and overpromising is a recipe for disappointment in consulting. I had to learn to stop pushing the goal posts out and to do what I can to move them closer. I needed to know and broadcast my limits. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One thing I didn\u2019t consider was whether the client had ever dealt with a consultant before. Even if they did, do they know what a realistic goal looks like for a semester\u2019s worth of work? In retrospect, how could it have been possible for them to know what problems I\u2019m capable of solving or how much time I can realistically dedicate to this class? One of the most important things I\u2019ve learned is that saying no to an idea isn\u2019t as disappointing to the client as it feels to me. This is real life, so the scope of the business problem will get as big as you let it.\u00a0 <\/span>There isn\u2019t a set number of pages to this case study. Learning to limit the scope to something realistic and achievable with the client is so important, and they are grateful for the help with whatever sized problem you land on together.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, what does success look like? Ultimately, if you worked on scoping the problem together with your client, it\u2019s going to look like what we have at the end of the semester \u2013 even if it\u2019s not as big as you had originally thought. If you can\u2019t solve the original problem, did you fail? No. Business problems tend to be symptoms of other problems. Assisting with those underlying issues can remove the roadblock the client needs to solve the bigger issue on their own. When the client has been better positioned to address the big problem on their own, they might even be better equipped to solve the next big problem rather than if you had just solved the initial one for them.\u00a0 <\/span>That\u2019s not to say that I wouldn\u2019t solve their biggest problem if I could, but it\u2019s okay that I can\u2019t. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Patrick If you can\u2019t solve the original problem, did you fail? No. Business problems tend to be symptoms of other problems. Assisting with those underlying issues can remove the roadblock the client needs to solve the bigger issue on their own. When the client has been better positioned to address the big problem on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12084,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/socialimpactblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/socialimpactblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/socialimpactblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/socialimpactblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12084"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/socialimpactblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=833"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/socialimpactblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":835,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/socialimpactblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833\/revisions\/835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/socialimpactblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/socialimpactblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/socialimpactblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}