Hey consultants! How has your work life changed over the last year?

As we pass the pandemic anniversary and gradually emerge into whatever comes next, I’ve been asking peers how they’ve adapted to this new reality.

Today’s post outlines changes in the world of consulting, training, facilitation, and self-employment. In the next post, I’ll share what these colleagues plan to carry forward into the post-pandemic world.

My biggest takeaway: in a shifting environment, you still can build a meaningful, sustainable consulting business. Indeed, these shifts can deepen your work, expand your clientele, and even improve the quality of you work life. Among the themes…

Resetting priorities

A few consultants I surveyed lost clients and projects at the beginning of last year but bounced back quickly. As Bob Osborne of The Osborne Group told me, “During the last crisis of 2007 – 2009, many organizations cut their budgets and fundraising staff. This time around, people seem to be leaning into fundraising and planning – which is great.” 

“In March 2020,” writes Melissa Johnson Hewitt of Forward Movement Consulting, “I was forced to rethink my firm’s goals. With three children suddenly at home and a partner working remotely, it offered a reset. Each new project had to be aligned with my core values and the impact I wanted to make in the world. For me, that meant I said NO … a LOT!”

Heather Yandow and Meredith Emmett of Third Space Studio echo this experience and came to a similar conclusion. “Our pace of work and travel was unsustainable,” they write. “We are creating more balance, negative space in the calendar, saying no to work more often.”

Less travel, more contact

“The pandemic made us realize how much more capacity we have by not traveling,” says Bob Osborne. “I am still evaluating the implications of this because relationships are important, and they are easier to establish in person.”

“Pre-COVID,” says Alyson Molloy Hussey, “I would spend an hour driving to a two-hour meeting, then an hour driving home.” Having freed up eight hours per week (!), she’s using that time for coaching calls. “This additional one-on one time is adding real value for my clients. It ensures that work gets done between meetings.”

Melissa Johnson Hewitt agrees. “For my coaching practice,” she says, “there has been such an increase in interest. The barrage of shocking, violent, and chaotic news can be overwhelming. The need for coaching and getting that 1:1 individual support has been a lifeline for so many leaders.”

Reorganizing everything

For some, it’s been The Year of Getting Organized.

Dana Sanders of Osage Hill Associates shared a detailed list of how he overhauled his entire office management system: client records, meeting notes, workflow, data entry, etc. The result: “Fewer free-floating pages on my desk.”

He also rearranged his home office seven times – that’s persistence! – “to find the best layout for the space. My current layout feels perfect and has lasted the longest.” Dana adds, “I’ve grown to like the comfort of my home more than I ever could have expected.”

Zoom: The good, the bad, the ugly

Over the last year, I’ve facilitated 85 webinars, planning meetings, and workshops online – and it’s worked well for me. However, my peers had a broad range of reactions to the ever-presence of Zoom.

The shift to online workshops “has been a drag,” writes Stan Yogi of Klein & Roth Consulting. “In some ways it’s easier to for people to participate in virtual trainings, but we haven’t been able to replicate the energy and synergy of in-person training.”

“Too many Zoom calls!” says Dana Sanders, noting that he keeps a button-down shirt handy for spontaneous on-camera appearances. “Clients forget that a phone call can accomplish the same thing.”

“Virtual meetings take more time to prepare for, compared to in-person meetings,” according to Meredith Emmett and Heather Yandow. “However, people can chunk the work in different ways. This made us realize how unproductive full-day meetings can be,” adding, “there’s still a lot of room for creativity and improvement in engaging virtually.”

A big moment for equity and justice

The national reckoning on racial, social, and economic justice has filtered into consulting and training in a variety of substantial ways.

“I facilitated two webinar series for consultants who were grappling with how to advance racial equity,” notes Melissa Johnson Hewitt. “This was not in my workplan, but it was the perfect opportunity to build space for the intentional conversations I was yearning for.”

Adds Bob Osborne, “We find ourselves working on lots of assignments centering racial justice and equity in fundraising and strategic planning. Many organizations outside the social and racial justice space seem to be prioritizing this work.”

Heather Yandow and Meredith Emmett agree. “We’re seeing a greater intersection between equity and strategy. Both nonprofits and foundations are creating strategic plans where equity is not a stand-alone goal but is integrated into every aspect of the plan.”

In the long run, this emphasis on equity may have a greater impact than all the tactical steps consultants are taking, day by day, to move their work online and keep their businesses relevant.

Next up: How to bring these positive changes into the post-COVID world.