Our Process
All of our consultations are custom designed to the specific needs of the client (which we define as the entire family and the business itself, rather than any one individual). In order to accomplish this objective, our usual first step is an introductory meeting with the entire client group.
The purpose of this meeting is to explore the client’s needs and our professional services, and also to provide a face-to-face opportunity to assess our mutual comfort in working together. Our operating philosophy is to make the process collaborative and transparent throughout.
Following the introductory meeting we prepare a proposed work plan and fee estimate for the client's consideration. Our work plans typically incorporate the following stages of the consultation:
Data Gathering:The initial stage of the process consists of confidential individual interviews with those identified on an agreed interview list developed in collaboration with the client. The goal of these interviews is to hear multiple perspectives and develop our own independent view of the current situation. Our Project Coordinator first collects all of the background information and synthesizes it for us in preparation for the interview process. We then proceed to gather all of the pertinent information through the interview process.
Planning: The goal of this stage is to create an overall action plan designed to achieve the client’s stated goals within a reasonable period of time. We first analyze all of the information gathered in the interview process in preparation for the meetings to follow. The meeting pattern and process is tentatively planned in advance of the interviews, and may be modified following the data gathering.
Implementation. The goal of this stage is to implement the action plan developed at the Stage II meetings. Our role (to the extent requested by the client) would involve facilitating the implementation process, and meeting with the client periodically to assure that the action plan is being followed and that the client’s desired goals are being achieved.