Month: June 2022

10 STEPS TO HELP YOU TRANSFORM INTO AN EFFECTIVE GOVERNMENT CONSULTANT

Posted on by Marketing

By Leezan Omerbell

 

Government consulting is a big industry. Luckily for you, the industry is not as mysterious as some make it out to be. In fact, it is a profession with very clear expectations and requirements. Most of these expectations are based on common sense that are also shared across other industries. The requirements are tied to your contract’s scope of work, which requires no guessing. However, I would like to point out that there are a lot of consultants providing almost the exact same service as you are planning to provide. In other words, there are thousands of “you.” So, how do you distinguish yourself from the rest? Through lessons learned at Country Intelligence Group, we have compiled a list of the most important things to practice and keep in mind when providing service to your government client:

  1. Understand your client’s organization: Study and understand your client’s organization by researching where their organization falls within the government framework. For example, the Department of Defense is large and contains not only the Military Services but also the Combatant, Geographical, and Functional Commands, as well as the 4th Estates. So, if your client is a DoD “agency,” it falls under the 4th Estates. In addition, research the organization’s mission and how they relate to other DoD and non-DoD entities.
  2. Know the Stakeholders: Knowing the stakeholders is crucial to being a consultant. Pay attention to who the stakeholders are, both internally and externally. Do your due diligence and conduct a stakeholder analysis to understand each stakeholder’s interest, influence, and future participation in your client’s program or project.
  3. Pay attention to the internal culture: This one sound obvious but can be easily overlooked. Pay attention to the internal culture of your client’s organization. This will help you navigate any vague or sensitive situations you might encounter.
  4. Study the rank and grades: If you don’t come from a military background, it would be beneficial for you to study military ranks that are applicable to your client’s organization and stakeholders. It would also be beneficial to learn civilian grades and their military equivalent.
  5. Identify the decision makers: Your client is going to depend on you to help strategize and communicate level of efforts with individuals throughout the organization and across the stakeholder domain. For this purpose, you need to be able to map out and identify decision makers within the crowd. This is where you can help your client make impactful engagements.
  6. Remember, we only “recommend”: This one can be difficult for many to understand. Your job as a consultant is to recommend solutions and options to your client. That is it.
  7. Listen: I am sure you have heard this multiple times, but it really is an overlooked interpersonal skill. If you want to understand your client and their pain points, really listen to what they are saying and even to what they are not saying.
  8. Always follow up: When turning in a product or providing a recommendation, always follow up with your client. Ask questions to figure what whether the product met their expectations or if they have any feedback for you. Did your recommendation cover the pain point or was there an angle you missed? Take this feedback, implement the changes (if any), and re-engage.
  9. You are not part of the staff: Remember, you are not part of the extended staff. You are a hired consultant.
  10. Remain Professional: Always, always, always, remain professional. You are not part of the staff and should not take part in office gossip. This will be hard if staff members come to you and begin such a conversation. But just because they do, does not mean you should contribute to an unprofessional gossip session.

Your value to your client is that you are a consultant with a wide range of expertise to provide. Wear your badge of honor with pride and take lead in the government consulting world!

 

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WHAT DOES A DATA DICTIONARY AND A REFUGEE CAMP HAVE IN COMMON?

Posted on by Marketing

By Leezan Omerbell

 

In my last life as a foreign affair professional, I worked as a field volunteer for Un Ponte Per, a non-governmental organization under the United Nations, at the Domiz Refugee Camp in the Kurdish Province of Dohuk, Iraq. As a volunteer, I used my language skills to collect data to help manage and allocate resources. A few days after arriving, I was in one of the trailers looking over my notes when a man entered the trailer. The man was about my age and wanted to know if his grandmother could come inside and sit on one of the empty chairs while waiting to be processed. Without hesitation, I agreed. A few minutes later a young woman entered with him and sat on one of the chairs. When I questioned him about the whereabouts of his grandmother, he simply pointed to the young woman.

As it turned out, the woman was not his grandmother, but his wife. You see, I had failed to take into consideration that even though I spoke the regional languages, there can be variances in vocabulary depending on location and dialect. Although the man thought he was communicating effectively, and I thought I was receiving the information correctly, there was still a disconnect.  To me the word he had used meant someone old, such as a grandmother. But in his dialect, it meant “wife.”

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines communication as “a process by which information is exchanged.” This process is the foundation of all relationships, personal and professional. But what we often forget, is that machines too need to communicate and exchange information with one another as an integral part of modern life and business. Broken down to their simplest level, machines such as database systems communicate with one another continuously and need to so do to remain relevant.

But how do we prevent miscommunication between these machines? If humans can have such misunderstandings, like the one that took place between that young man and myself, then machines can most certainly experience miscommunication too. As a solution, data dictionaries for database systems were created to enable clear and correct exchanges of information. For your own systems, before accurate exchanges can take place, you should do your due diligence, and do some database dictionary “house cleaning.”

  1. Update your data dictionary: Update your data dictionary to reflect your database as it changes. Databases change…a lot. Columns and fields become irrelevant; some are taken out while new ones are added. So, before you begin exchanging data with another database, make sure your own data dictionary is up to date.
  2. Make your data dictionary readable: This isn’t corporate law where you must write policy in a language no one can read. The point of your data dictionary is so that others can clearly understand what your database is about. If others can’t read it or understand it, then you have failed to create a working data dictionary. Make your data dictionary simple and easily readable.
  3. Answer questions: This might sound like common sense, but if an individual who is working with your data dictionary has a question, answer it. And set up time to provide clarifications. Learn from these instances and update your dictionary accordingly to prevent similar questions in future.

Again, the whole purpose of your data dictionary is so your database can communicate with another system. This allows everyone involved, machines included, to get on the same page. If it fails to accomplish this, your data dictionary needs work. Small improvements to your data dictionary can yield huge benefits for your database.

 

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