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Satori's experience with internal groups highlights the inter-relatedness of group purpose, internal structure, skill mix, client relationship management, work acquisition, priority, and project management. Small groups tend to participate in the initial phases of project work and transition implementation to the business units. Larger groups often participate in the end-to-end project lifecycle. These larger groups generally have an administrative staffing or Team Lead position that is responsible for making assignments from a pool of relatively fungible consultants to staff projects. Successful smaller groups can leverage their limited resources by seeking to empower their HR partners and business clients with organizational consulting skills. Although this approach allows them to meet increasing resource demands, out of necessity the groups' connectedness with the business client is lessened, potentially reducing their insight into the clients' issues.
Targeting group involvement on certain stages of the project lifecycle can help manage resource load, as well as increase client ownership of the solutions. When this approach is selected, it is critical that the client relationship is carefully managed to accomplish successful project transition, and that accountability for results is driven through to the project conclusion.
For large groups, there is generally a heavier administrative burden involved in staffing projects. This may partly reflect the additional scoping and requirements definition work required of groups with a broader range of services, which have the ability to design highly customized solutions to clients' problems.
An engagement methodology, including those that support approaches like Six Sigma, requires the definition of success metrics can facilitate measurement of value contribution in cost terms. A methodology that delineates engagement phases, phase objectives and entry / exit criteria can assist tracking accomplishments and benefits realization for less-defined work efforts (like culture change).
Methodologies that provide a range of standard "gates" defining transition from one project phase to the next also facilitates a degree of standardization that permits relatively objective cross-project prioritization and allows realistic trade-offs between initiatives during the allocation of scarce resources.
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