‍If you are facing complex strategic challenges as an organization, you can choose to add external expertise. But how do you prevent valuable knowledge from seeping away as soon as the consultants are ready? And how do you ensure that not only content, but also the necessary skills, are retained for the organization? Share in this article Lidia Swinkels and Arjen Verwer, co-owners and management consultants at Summiteers, their vision of effective knowledge transfer during strategic change processes.

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The power of working together

“We believe in a intensive cooperation with our customers,” Lidia kicks off. “It's most valuable to work directly with the people who know the organization best. They know exactly what is going on in their context. We add a fresh, critical view and our experience from the market and other organizations. By combining knowledge and experience in this way, we will achieve much more and you will arrive at a supported strategy.”

“We don't work so much for, but much more with a customer,” she continues. “By working together, thinking together what needs to be done and jointly shaping implementation, knowledge transfer becomes a natural process. We often play a leading role as consultants, but involve management and employees very closely. This way, there is no separate plan that you have to transfer afterwards - the customer is involved from the start.”

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Tailored knowledge transfer

There are also situations where a more independent role for consultants is desirable. “Sometimes an assignment requires an independent outside-in perspective, or there is limited internal capacity available,” explains Lidia. “In such cases, we tackle specific parts more independently. But even then, we ensure a careful transfer of knowledge. We consciously schedule moments to share insights, involve key stakeholders at important milestones and ensure a thorough transfer to the internal team that will work on the next steps.”

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Our goal: leave a stronger organization behind

“In addition, our goal is to leave an organization better than we found it,” says Arjen. “In addition to successfully completing an assignment in terms of content, we focus on increasing the strategy execution power of an organization. We always do that. within the context that we find. By working intensively with the client's team, we show how we do our job: how do you make a strategy effective? How do you set goals? How do you form a plan and set out a roadmap? We really include the customer in the way we work.”

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Knowledge transfer as an integral part of strategy

A successful strategy process therefore provides more than just a sharp plan. It offers an excellent opportunity to permanently strengthen your organization with new knowledge and expertise. By focusing on that from day one, you ensure that the insights and working methods of external experts really last. This requires a thoughtful approach and close cooperation between consultants and internal teams.

“We have different ways of doing this,” explains Arjen. “In addition to the natural transfer of knowledge while working, we also have more explicit ways, mainly focused on our field: advisory skills. We formulate concrete learning goals, coach on the job and give direct feedback on what we see happening. Last year, we also had The Ascent launched, an extensive and intensive development program, in which there is room for each individual to structurally develop such skills. It's just what it takes.”

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From theory to practice

“Recently, we had a great assignment at a major financial institution,” says Lidia. “We were asked to co-write the strategy for an organizational unit with a team of internal strategy consultants. The assignment was clear: to cooperate with the team and to ensure a concrete end result. But during the process, together with the client, we discovered that the team still had to grow in seniority. What started as a collaborative assignment became a project where we had to take more of a pioneering role to meet the deadline.”

“The team really appreciated the way we work,” she continues. “They asked if we couldn't teach them more about our approach. We then started working according to what you could call a master ensemble structure - just like we do internally. We made it more explicit by providing targeted training courses: what should you consider when making a strategy? What questions should you ask? How do you properly supervise such a process? So what started as a substantive process ultimately became a combination: we delivered the requested end result and further developed the team.”

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Fadeout model

A tried and tested approach for knowledge transfer is the “fade-out model”. “In the beginning, as a consultant, you take more leadership,” explains Arjen. “You show how certain analyses work, how to involve stakeholders, how to approach complex decisions. Gradually, this will shift to a more supportive role. From a leadership role, you are increasingly working side by side, with the internal team increasingly taking the lead. Towards the end of the process, you often work intensively with one or more of the customer's employees who will take over your role. Ultimately, this often grows into a role of a sparring partner who occasionally thinks along and the moment of permanent transfer often comes naturally. This gradual transfer has two major advantages. First, people can really grow in their new roles or the content they're taking over from us. They are not thrown into the deep end, but are given the opportunity to develop. Secondly, you prevent knowledge from suddenly dropping out when the project is finished.”

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Checklist: How to get the most out of external expertise

Are you considering using consultants for a strategic process? Use this checklist to make sure the knowledge really lands in your organization:

☑ Think about how to safeguard the knowledge from day one

☑ Involve your own people directly and actively and let them work with consultants

☑ Think about how to incorporate learning & development from your team into a project

☑ Gradually transfer responsibilities (fade-out)

☑ Schedule a structural sparring moment with the person taking over the directing role to share challenges and new insights

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Need help with strategy and execution?

We are Summiteers, we create movement, make something that is complex understandable again, something big achievable, a - vague - idea concrete and make something difficult succeed. We call that strategy execution. Can you use help with this? Take contact with us.

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