David Nyeste

Learn from the Best  Over the years I have been able to contribute to numerous projects in various roles. Some of them were large ones with international teams and dozens of consultants working around the globe. Some were small in scope, short in timeline, or regionally focused. Some I have overseen and delivered with client staff only. A few were gigantic, long running transformations of entire corporate structures and cultures. Regardless of the set up of any project there are a few crucial ingredients that need to be incorporated into the project set up and execution to enable success. Projects lacking these vital ingredients will lag behind deadlines, miss budget targets and in the worst of cases fail to achieve their desired results. I don't necessarily consider myself one of 'the best'. However I certainly had the opportunity to gather rich experience by witnessing leadership excellence at its best over many years in different environments and situations. Here's m...

Popular work ethic in consulting  has aspects of self exploitation. Most consultants I met had a tendency to stretch the definition of 'fit for work' to its limits. I remember an assignment a few years back where I took the 6am flight on Monday and flew to the next client in the middle of the week or home at the end of it. The problem was that at one point during the winter I caught a really nasty flu that would not go away for several weeks. At its peak it was so bad, my ears would pop on the Monday flight and I would only be able to hear everything in a damp, silent mode. It always took a few days until my hearing was back to normal again, and guess what: that was usually just the time I would take the flight back - back to square one. Another issue was that this situation occurred a few weeks before a major go live of our client and the entire project team was on fire pretty much 24/7. After a successful go live and the first week of hypercare, when the excitement of any maj...

Negotiation Strategy Basics Before engaging in any negotiations you should set up some rules and guidelines for how you plan to approach the situation. Let me elaborate on some basic principles of negotiation and focus on some specific strategies that I was able to apply effectively on multiple occasions. I was able to negotiate multiple work contracts that were mutually satisfying and I was always happy to sign each one of them. Most importantly however: looking back at all the deals I am still happy with each one of my decisions. I accredit this fact to successful negotiations. Principle I The Invariant of Negotiations: Foster Relationships All negotiations should lead to better relationships between the parties. Your paramount objective ought to be to enjoy the debate and to learn something, regardless if a deal is cut or not. Remember you all have a mutual interest and both parties will do their best to find common ground. Hence your focus should not be on convincing your counterpa...

Prepare For Impact Prior to the actual negotiation, you ought to be clear on three things: 1. Your Maximum Plausible Demands (MPD) 2. Your Minimal Feasible Requirements (MFR) 3. Your concessions strategy All three aspects will determine the success of the negotiations. They can make all the difference between you coming out of the negotiations beaming while hovering above the ground or like a beaten dog carrying your head under your shoulder. It is key to be specific and as precise as possible on all three of them. The more you are aware of what you want and what you don't, as well as what you are willing to sacrifice, the more you'll be able to make an impact at the negotiation table and to achieve your goals. For now I will focus on the first: Maximum Plausible Demand - MPD In a job interview, whether with a headhunter or with some staff member of your potential employer it is likely they will ask you for your desired salary or to share information on your current salary. Be ...

The Default State of Society The other day I read a post on my company's intranet that stuck with me and made me think. I'll try to give it in my own words: A teacher entered the class room and started to write equations on the board. 1x9 = 9 2x9=18 3x9=27 The class watched and there was only the usual murmur while the teacher proceeded. 4x9=36 5x9=45 6x9=54 7x9=63 8x9=72 9x9=81 10x9=91 On finishing the teacher turned to the class and noticed some murmurs and giggles. He paused for a moment and the giggles increased. Some pupils started to laugh and after a while others joined in until a majority of pupils found amusement in the teacher's mistake and joined the laughter. After a while, when the laughter dampened down, the teacher said: "I made this mistake on purpose in order to demonstrate a point. I wrote ten equations on the board, of which nine were absolutely correct. Most of you however decided to focus on the one equation that was false. None of you gave me any ...

The Vehicle This simple model may help you to lay out your strategy for the development of your skills, your personality and ultimately a large part of your identity, that will be influenced and defined by your work. Over many years I have developed a model for work that generally resembles a generic type of vehicle that will take you from A to B. Anybody is free to pick their own type of vehicle according to their personal preferences and thus embark on their individual journey. Basic Idea The basic idea behind the model: Different types of vehicles with different kinds of implications make up the unique work experience of the individual. Whether you would rather focus on the journey itself or rather on achieving certain goals, you can make your choice accordingly. For instance there is the hot air balloon,  which could represent the work within a large corporation. With minimal attendance it moves slowly and comfortably -pretty much on autopilot all the time- and is only mildly s...

Start with a purpose Any business related document should start with a purpose. Unless the purpose of the document is not entirely, 100% clear, don't put any effort into the creation process. The typical archetypes of purposes of most business documents can be summarized into three categories: 1. create deeper insight into a subject matter, 2. trigger some decision, 3. trigger some action. Once you are clear on the purpose part, you're free to start into the creation process. Structure your creation process There are certainly myriads of ways and methodologies to create business documents. Chances are you will develop your own approach along with your own style and flavour to create business related documents eventually, once you have sufficient experience. However, as long as you have not created a ton of great ones, a standard framework is a great way to start off and to acquire some practice. In my career I have created more than more than 10.000 slides and hundreds of pro...

The Grand Final of awesomeness has at last arrived: the final five tips to a happier life are on the table. Is my inner most really always happy? And if yes, why am I not happy myself all the time? Are people born happy is happiness rather a temporarily achievement, maybe even an illusion we chase, like the end of a rainbow? Getting a little philosophical here. Let's leave this open for now and move on to more pressing issues, shall we? As a consultant you will actually literally 'each day (yes; and yes, even then) give (your results are sold for top money) something good (value) to others (your client)'. There will be rare occasions, when you don't really have tight deadlines or any urgent deliverables pending on your input. Use those rare opportunities wisely and enjoy these moments of calm. These moments will be rare and they will not last long. I might be able to think of a few areas, where that proposition is contraproductive. Competitiv...

The importance of being 'to the point'   We are on the finish line of our little tutorial of how to improve your consulting skills. This time the focus will be on saying as little as possible and at the same time creating the most value for your customer. Note that this is an imperative to exclusion. Since you will find that in life the majority of things are not worth your precious resources (time/passion/money etc.), I guess an advice to include the most valuable things would be more of a boon, e.g. 'Focus on what is (truly) valuable.' However you will certainly agree, that this is not always easily achieved. The value you actually aprecciate often comes with downsides. Sadly life of adults often is about compromise. Your favorite food is not available at work, so you choose 'the best there is', you would like to travel to far away places, but can't afford it because of time/budget/other restrictions, so you stay within your restrictions, your d...

It has been a while since the last post. Even consultants need vacation. That's the time when they usually get sick. But let's not diverge and get serious right away. Comparing lives does not sound particularly beneficial. First of all, focusing on the past is not the way to go on the path to achievement. Second, comparing 'lives' is complicated, because you have to gather a lot of information. Most of that information will be private, so probably most of the time you will not have sufficient data or any clue at all. This will lead you -most of the time- to bad assumptions.  However you can -and should- compare achievements. This is what people do all the time. Take a public 10k run. Most participants will be there for the fun, a lot of participants will be quite competitive and some will even put in all they can in order to achieve a good or even top result. That does not necessarily mean, they compete against each other. Sometimes beating yourself, setting ...

Welcome back everybody. Here we go again with the series 'How to not suck at consulting'. It has been a while since my last post, but things are running a little crazy at the moment for me.   May has traditionally lots of legal holidays, so it is supposed to be a pleasure from a worker's point of view. If you have multiple projects running simultaniously, the circumstances can differ slightly. It's all about deliverables and delivering. Customers seem to care little about the difference between working days and calendar days. However there's nothing more pathetic than a consultant or even a manager complaining about excess workloads. So let's get to the point.   Well, yes and no. Yes, meaning you should care about the food you eat and how much of it you eat. Basically, food and nutrition are crucial. And no, food is one piece of the puzzle, but the whole picture is your health. So you should eat whatever nourishes your heath. In consulting, tha...

Welcome back, and without further ado here we go, how to avoid gruesome consulting. First of all, I'd like to state 3 general rules of consulting: 1. Create value - Ask yourself, what benefits your customer most. 2. Make a point - After all analysis and evaluation, put your findings in few comprehensive points. Pick the most crucial ones (A-issues) and drop the rest - yes, just cut it out. 3. Enjoy - most of the time, you'll love what you're doing. That is the easy part, because fo lks tend to be best at things the y enjoy and are passionate about. But once in a while, you won't en joy everything . Be a professional: Embrace the suck! It's part of consulting . :-D And now, back to the game: 40 tips of how not to suck at consulting. First one is a good point relate d to customers. Your customers are not only the ones you can bill. Your customers are all people that have expectations tow ards you. Your consultants expect you to be a good manager and...