Can't See the Wood for the Trees?

One of the most satisfying parts of what we do at Select Planning is helping potential clients gain clarity on what they want or need to do.

It is a complete myth that people who seek help from consultants always know exactly what they want. Far from it.

Often, we’ll speak to people who know they need help but have been battling for some time to articulate what that help might be. Usually these are very passionate people, they love the business they are in and see huge potential for improvement. But they can see so many opportunities they don’t know where to start, how to structure anything, think it’s too big and can’t quite see the end point.

Our approach is very simple. We let them speak. We listen.

These people need to get things off their chest, sometimes to ramble on and on and get stuff out of their heads. Crucially, they need someone to listen to them, sift through the myriad of words and ideas and make sense of them. The words come tumbling out – it is almost like therapy for them – and we listen; carefully.

Importantly we don’t playback our thoughts immediately. We take them away to create a structured set of work scopes and options for discussion. This gives everyone a little time to reflect and some breathing space.

When we playback these scopes and options we see a range of reactions. The strongest one is usually relief. Relief that they have unburdened themselves, someone else understands and has been able to make sense of their thoughts and ideas.

Yes, there are discussions around the options to get to a final end product – giving someone clarity helps them to add to it, but this time in a structured manner.

Often the feedback is that we have read their minds and created a programme of potential work that completely fits the bill of what they need. Interestingly, usually the scope of work can be quite small – not every perceived challenge needs a big project. Some of the greatest transformations start from small beginnings.

It’s easy to over-estimate client expectations and think they can tell you exactly what they want straight up. But these are incredibly busy people, with multiple priorities, many stakeholders, and many challenges. Just giving them the opportunity to be heard – really heard – is the best thing we can do for them in that first instance.

If you’re struggling with any aspect of resource planning, you’ve got loads of thoughts and ideas but can’t see the wood for the trees, we’re here to listen.