The Consultant's Toolkit: High-Impact Questionnaires, Activities and How-to Guides for Diagnosing and Solving Client Problems [Paperback]

Mel Silberman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 19, 2000

Written and field-tested by practicing consultants, The Consultant’s Tool Kit will save consultants both time and money-as it makes their work with clients much more effective. Each tool or activity is designed to solve a common consulting problem. Reproducible worksheets, exercises, and questionnaires are easily downloaded from the web and customized by consultants to fit the exact needs of each client—and help them effectively implement the solutions.

This collection of field-tested tools, customizable questionnaires, and techniques for working with clients provides crucial problem-solving help in areas such as:
• Managing and leading change
• Organizational initiatives
• Assessing team and organizational functioning
• Improving relationships between departments and business units
• Creative problem-solving techniques

Mel Silberman, Ph.D., (Princeton, NJ) is a best-selling author and editor. A professor of adult and organization development at Temple University, he is the author of Active Training.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

READY-MADE, HIGH-QUALITY CONSULTING TOOLS THAT HELP YOU HELP YOUR CLIENTS!

Consultants need help too! Consulting is a demanding profession and today’s busier-than-ever consultant needs intelligent tools and resources to speed up and improve the process of working with clients. Help is now here in The Consultant’s ToolKit, an indispensable collection of 50 sophisticated team and organizational assessment questionnaires, team problem-solving activities, and how-to guides for diagnosing and solving client problems. Whatever the challenges facing you as a consultant—from showing your clients how to manage and lead change, to improving relationships between departments, to goal setting and planning—this book provides dozens of client-tested problem-solving tools and solutions that can be used immediately, saving you hours of time and making your interaction with clients more effective.

Created by 50 top professionals in the consulting industry, all the tools in this sourcebook are fully reproducible and can be easily customized to fit your client's needs. Included are creative, ready-to-implement approaches to guiding a client in:

*Finding the right business strategy
*Making meetings more productive
*Creating effective teams
*Involving people in decisions that affect them
*Coaching employees through change
*Identifying performance problems
*Dealing with management resistance
*Stimulating creative thinking…
*And much more!

ABOUT THE EDITOR: Dr. Mel Silberman is the author of Active Training and other organization development and training books. Professor of Adult and Organizational Development at Temple University, he is the editor of the annual Team and Organization Development Sourcebook, and The Training and Performance Sourcebook Annual. He has been a consultant to hundreds of corporate, governmental, educational, and human-service organizations, and is a popular presenter at professional conferences.

About the Author

Dr. Mel Silberman is the author of Active Training and other organization development and training books. Professor of Adult and Organizational Development at Temple University, he is the editor of the annual Team and Organization Development Sourcebook, and The Training and Performance Sourcebook Annual. He has been a consultant to hundreds of corporate, governmental, educational, and human-service organizations, and is a popular presenter at professional conferences.

Product Details

• Paperback: 354 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (September 19, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071362614
• ISBN-13: 978-0071362610
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #84,140 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #44 in Books > Business & Investing > Industries & Professions > Consulting
  • #47 in Books > Education & Reference > Education > Questions & Answers

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Consultant's Tool Kit, November 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Consultant's Toolkit: High-Impact Questionnaires, Activities and How-to Guides for Diagnosing and Solving Client Problems (Paperback)

I purchased this book at a conference and have been surprisingly pleased! Typically this type of book can be filled with "already know" information, but this was not! Instead I found useful tools and information. I have been in the training field for 12 years and am now a training manager for a mid-sized company in the bay area. Especially helpful are Chapter 15 (How to make use of Four Organizational Assessment Tools) by Cathleen S. Hutchison and How to Develop and Chapter 26 (How to Implement an Evaluation Strategy) by Susan Barksdale and Teri Lund. Both of these are examples of the quality and strength of the publication.

39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tools, Assessments, and Ideas You Can Really Use!, November 19, 2000

By 

Doris Sims, SPHR "The Succession Consultant, LLC" (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Consultant's Toolkit: High-Impact Questionnaires, Activities and How-to Guides for Diagnosing and Solving Client Problems (Paperback)

The Consultant's Toolkit contains survey tools, assessments, training activities, and step-by-step procedures for organizational development projects that are practical, easy to follow, and easy to customize. Even though the book is designed for organizational development consultants, in-house training and development personnel will benefit from this book just as much as independent consultants. There are even surveys, forms, and other tools in this book that can be downloaded so users can edit and print the tools to fit their own specific company or client needs. Anyone who is responsible for building management coaching skills, leading change, implementing 360 degree or employee surveys, building teams, and enhancing an organization's culture will find ideas they can use immediately.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Good Thought Jogger, March 29, 2005

By 

Michael McLaughlin (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Consultant's Toolkit: High-Impact Questionnaires, Activities and How-to Guides for Diagnosing and Solving Client Problems (Paperback)

Silberman has brought together 45 different tools to help the consultant carry out a variety of projects. The book is probably due for a new edition, but many of the tools are as relevant now as they were when the book was published.

Because the book's scope is broad, it's best used as a way to frame your thinking on how to solve a problem, or to suggest a summary approach to a client issue. It's a good reference to be sure you're not leaving things out that you should think about, rather than a comprehensive guide to engagement problem-solving.

This is an ambitious book with lots of great ideas.

Michael McLaughlin, coauthor with Jay Conrad Levinson of Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants.