D. Campbell, The long and winding (and frequently bumpy) road to successful client engagement: one team's journey, SYST DYNAM, 17(3), 2001, pp. 195-215
Successful client engagements require both good model-building process and
good facilitation. Using an executive team-building wilderness journey as a
n analogy, this article describes the process and facilitation of one parti
cularly successful client engagement. At completion, in addition to using t
he model results to guide their strategic decision process that year, the c
lient took on full ownership of the model, its use as an ongoing decision-m
aking resource, and its maintenance. Yet, between the smooth and relatively
easy sales process and the important final results were a myriad of ups an
d downs. Each obstacle in our road brought learning and insight, and confir
med standard processes or suggested new ones. In the end, we developed a mo
del to guide a specific but not restrictive strategic decision area, facili
tated an understanding within the organization of the dynamic complexity of
their business without the detail complexity, organized their data in a wa
y that made it useful for them as it had not been before, and built a very
strong client-consultant team relationship. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley &
Sons, Ltd.