Why I'm making a major update to The Resilient Consultant course
Over the summer I asked my followers on LinkedIn a simple question.
I have a course - The Resilient Consultant - that has been popular and had good feedback. I developed it 2 years ago and my understanding of the topics it covers has moved on a lot since then.
I'm going to update and re-launch it over the next 4-6 weeks.
My question on LinkedIn was to see if people would be interested in seeing my process of updating the course. The overwhelming response was "Yes".
I'm going to write the detailed stuff on here and share highlights on LinkedIn. So as a subscriber you get first access and more detail / inside thinking. Go you.
First, why am I updating my course content? And why has my understanding of resilience moved on?
The consulting industry is at an important moment in time.
Horror stories of burnout are increasingly common. I heard recently that the London office of one top-tier strategy firm has ~15% of their Consultants off work with stress, and Management Consulted still give "The Work is Stressful" and "Long Hours" as 2 of their top 3 reasons not to work at McKinsey.
We've even tragically seen a story of an EY employee dying at work after a "mental welfare report".
Resilience is needed more than ever.
For me, resilience isn't about being tough. Pushing through hard times. Getting the job done no matter what, without complaining.
That's a recipe for looking like you're coping... until you aren't.
No. Resilience is about recognising your own stress, and managing your own stressors. Developing deep self-awareness so you know what triggers you. What situations you find difficult. And then developing the confidence to set the boundaries that you need so you can make your work long-term sustainable.
I also asked my LinkedIn followers what skill they think consultants most need to get better at. 50% of them said "Self-awareness" - more than problem-solving, building trust with clients, story-telling, or creating memorable visuals.
With this back-drop I know there are lots of people out there that need help. I want to update The Resilient Consultant course content and how it's delivered so I can help more people.
The course format is currently a combination of videos, exercises, group discussions, and async chat. It's designed for small groups to go through in a fairly high-touch way, with facilitated live sessions.
That has implications for cost, with the base cost of the course being £345 per person. Of the 89 people who've signed up so far, only 1 was paying his own way - the rest were funded by their firms.
I want to create lower-cost options that make it more accessible (including with purchase-power parity for those not earning in dollars, sterling or euros). I also think we need a more cohort-based way of going on the journey with others - sharing & talking is such a critical enabler of the benefit - that enables each person to start developing a support network.
Alongside these improvements to the learner experience I want to update the content to reflect the journey I've been on personally.
In the last two years I've directly invested ~1,000 hours into my own personal development & self-awareness, through therapy, coaching, men's group work, and weekends with The Mankind Project (as a participant and as staff). Plus countless hours of reading, journaling, talking, and reflecting.
I feel I am uniquely positioned to help consultants develop their resilience for three reasons:
- Consulting experience - from Bain & Company to independent consulting to working in & with dozens of boutique specialist firms, I can draw on all my experience as a consultant since 2005. I know what it is like to be stressed as a consultant, and I've developed a powerful toolkit to manage this over the years.
- Growing self-awareness - the personal work I've done recently has bolstered my original consulting resilience toolkit with new ways of looking at myself, and new tools to manage that stress. I'll be sharing a significantly deeper and broader set of tools that consultants can use to make the job sustainable.
- Comfort with transparency - I've already started sharing my own journey in all it's ups and downs, and I know from the response to it that has been helpful to lots of people. I want to help others feel safe to share so that they can learn about themselves and, in all likelihood, realise that they have much in common with others. The more I can be transparent, open and honest the better.
I'm excited to work on this update. I'm not sure yet where we'll land on everything. There's lots of work to do.
I'm going to start with a blank sheet of paper and write down my first draft on what this course now needs to cover. From there I'll look at other courses out there, and review learner feedback, to iterate that.
Here's my overall update process. I'm using Notion to organise it.
I hope you find it interesting and useful to follow along. I'd love your input, comments, critiques, and questions.
Deri.
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