The purpose of this quick reminder is to try and capture all of the things experience has taught us need to be in place to ensure the project goes as smoothly as it can. The start-up is the foundation of the project.

This is written from the perspective of the engagement manager.

When reading this, remember we are trying to write a guide for project start-ups when there are numerous kinds of projects:

Projects with just one consultant
Projects with a small team
Projects with a small team full time…or part time
Projects run on the clients premises…or off their premises
Projects where the project team reports to someone not directly involved in the project

Anyway, you get the point. There are many, many variations. Our guide needs to be useful to them all. Therefore although parts may not apply to you, we think 90% will.

Start with understanding the client first. Always!

Make sure you have a network map that identifies all of the political and decision making network.
Ensure you have a client face-off chart to clarify who owns which client and who needs to be briefed and debriefed before and after each contact with a specific client and that your team understands their individual responsibilities.
Get the most up to date organisation chart you can.
Make sure you know all of the key client’s secretaries; they will get you in to the client’s office when nobody else can. They usually start off suspicious of your motives. If you can prove to them by demonstration that your intent is to help their boss, they will generally be more helpful to you than they are to their own organisation. For example if some documents need to be passed on to ensure the client is fully briefed before a meeting, make sure the secretary knows the reason.
Be honest.
The top clients expect interesting, exciting, value-adding updates with consultants. Don’t leave them in a one month void before the first update meeting. It is also wise to remember many consultants are at a client. Make sure you (and your team) stand out from the pack.

Your project team

Have a week zero if possible. A week zero is one week set aside prior to the project start to ensure everyone is briefed, familiar with the tools and ready to hit the ground running.
Have a team meeting every week preferably off-site.
If there are multiple locations in the project have one per location and try to get around to them or use conference calls.
The agenda should be relevant to the project but should also contain out of project elements. “Consultants Corner” where team-members have the opportunity to bring something new to the attention of the team is useful. Consulting training should be part of the meeting bringing additional content, experience on previous projects, techniques or processes to the team. This is a really good idea and should be made compulsory.
For large projects, a Project Balanced Scorecard should always be implemented and acted on. It is a pain to start with and sounds like too much work, however it is necessary so do it.
Although the aim is to discuss project issues within the consulting team meetings sometimes it is necessary to discuss them in the security of just your team and without the client. This is OK and the team needs to understand this. To do the job properly for the client you sometimes need to guide them through some treacherous waters. This means you have to know as a team where you are going and stay in front.
Create an On-Project Training Curriculum for the consultants.

Setting Consultant Expectations in Your team

Set consultants expectations carefully. Make them realistic and achievable but a stretch where possible.
This also feels like a lot of work to start with but will save huge amounts of time later. Bear in mind that this is what you will be judging their performance against at the end of the project or at review time. If you didn’t feel that your performance and contribution was going to be valued, how would you feel?
Spread the work to your team and stream leads (consultants running distinct pieces of work) but retain control. Get the consultants to write down what they think the expectations on them are, let the stream leads discuss with them and clarify and then ensure that you agree and understand. If