Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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.

This is a wonderful book that combines the expertise of a wide range of experts in the consulting field. Due to the different styles of the authors, the reader is bound to find several that really address their concerns.

The book is a useful toolkit as it has templates that one can easily adapt to meet their needs. Most of the common consulting problems are addressed. Among the readily useable tools are the various exercises, questionnaires and reproducible worksheets and techniques for working with clients, among others, which make this a very user friendly book that makes life easier for a consultant, particularly those like me that are relatively new to the profession.

This is a well written book that is easy to follow and understand and that should be a valuable tool to both the seasoned professional and the novice. It is certainly a very valuable reference book that can be used as a checklist when delivering services.

This is a great book. It has contributions from 45 different authors. The contributions are too many to list but include such areas as 360 surveys, coaching, managing change, teambuilding and many more. You are also able to download many of these which allows for easy duplication. For the price it is a tremendous value. I am glad that I purchased it.

Part of my consulting practice is to create and facilitate group learning for various situations. I enjoy leafing through this book to both remind myself of tools, techniques and concepts I have explored in the past, and also to expand my options to incorporate new material into the mix. It is a bit like hanging out with a bunch of other consultants for a day to share ideas.

you'll find a good deal of material here. silberman hasn't published much consultancy stuff since this hit the market - the fact that this book is 8 years old makes some of the content outdated. he is a dependable author though, who provides alot of practical advice. if you are looking for an author who can teach you how to train - check some of his other books. if you are looking for a full system of diagnostic tools - ready made, this is for you. many of them require modification, but that's the case with any book like this. i would also spend the money on some of alan weiss' books. in my view, they are more relavent and comprehensive.

Unlike "A reader", I think this book is valuable. It is indeed a hodge podge collection of contributions from many authors and their styles are certainly different. But that is OK. This is not a novel, it is a toolkit, and an excellent one. Take what you need when you need it and leave the rest alone.

A good book with some solid approaches to consulting that many have found to be useful.

The only downside, if you can call it that, is that quite a number of the solutions may not work well in a good number of real-world consulting assignments.

Overall not a bad read and worth further investigation if you're looking for something to lead you step-by-step through solving certain client problems.

I want to use this book, as it gives practical forms with good instructions but the Word editable downloads are not available. Hope the download gets resolved