Management Consulting Productivity Hacks

Why it is important to know what to do? Preview 01:05

In this lecture I will show you why it makes so much sense to be very good in selecting the topics on which you should concentrate.

See the forest first and then the trees Preview 07:29

In this lecture I will explain you why you should not concentrate too much on details at least at first. I will also show you ways to avoid it.  I will also do an example to show you how to apply these principles in practice

Simple math in decision making Preview 04:39

In this lecture I will explain you why you should not concentrate too much on details at least at first. I will also show you ways to avoid it.  I will also do an example to show you how to apply these principles in practice

Issue tree - intro Preview 01:44

Issue tree is a simple yet powerful concept used in consulting for structuring discussion and picking the right topics to concentrate on. In this lecture I will show you the principles of using it as well as a practical example

Issue tree - example of application in consulting project in logistics Preview 01:42

Issue tree is a simple yet powerful concept used in consulting for structuring discussion and picking the right topics to concentrate on. In this lecture I will show you the principles of using it as well as a practical example. Here I show how to use it in practice on a consulting project

Issue tree – Retail Preview 03:46

In this lecture I will show you another example of an issue tree. This time it will be for retail

Low hanging fruits Preview 02:27

In this lecture we will talk briefly about applying the low hanging fruits in practice. I will show you the principles of using it as well as a practical example

Applying 80/20 rule in practice Preview 02:51

In this lecture I will show you how to use in practice 80/20 rule also known as Pareto principal

Set SMART goals Preview 05:24

Goals are good as long as they are SMART. In this lecture we will talk briefly about applying this useful concept in practice. I will show you the principles of using it as well as a practical example: some of them general and one specific for consulting

Priorities Preview 04:00

Without setting the right priorites to tasks you may end-up concentrating on the wrong things.In this lecture we will discuss the ways in which you can set priorities to tasks that you have to perform. At the end I will apply them in an example to show you the difference in outcome

Benchmarks Preview 02:53

In this lecture I will discuss the role of external and internal benchmarks. They are a powerful help in business and will help you boost your productivity yet have to be used with caution.  At the end I will apply them in an example to show you the difference in outcomes.

Create to-do lists Preview 08:37

To-do list – highly popularized by David Allen in Getting things done is a great tool to make sure that you do the right things at a fast pace. In this lecture, we will talk briefly about applying them in practice. I will show you the principles of using it, types of a to-do list as well as a practical example, including the one I am using.

Use the right tools and master them Preview 04:42

By using the right tools you can drastically improve your productivity. In this lecture, I will talk about how to get and use the right tools in practice. I will show you as well a practical example

Remove bottlenecks Preview 05:23

Bottlenecks are one of the biggest threats in making faster meaningful work. In this lecture I will explain briefly what it is and how to find it. I will show you as well as practical examples

Avoid multitasking Preview 03:45

Multitasking is pure evil and should be avoided. In this lecture I will show you how to do it and it will give you. At the end there will be a practical example

Avoid emails Preview 03:53

People think that sending emails is an effective way to move things forward. The problem with them is they introduce iterative communication that can cause a lot of noise and wreck havoc. In this lecture I will show you how to do it and it will give you. At the end there will be a practical example. In this lecture I will teach you how to avoid emails in practice

Create universal structure of folders Preview 02:07

Standard folder structure is important  tool to save time and introduce order. I will show you the principles of using it as well as a practical exampl

Talk and write in a simple, clear and coherent way Preview 04:13

In this lecture I show you the importance of writting in a clear and coherent manner that will help you get things done faster. You will also waste less time on writing things that nobody reads

Standardize everything Preview 04:28

A lot of things are repetitive. Therefore, it makes sense to standardize everything. In this lecture, we will show to do it in practice. 

Create templates Preview 05:08

The next step after you created standards is to create templates. In this lecture, I will explain how to do it in practice

Example of standards and templates for Excel analysis Preview 04:22

Here I show you templates of excel analysis

Create modules Preview 01:27

For some things, standards cannot be applied straightforward. You need to introduce modules to move forward. I will show you in this lecture how to implement it in practice.

Shelf management Preview 07:26

In this lecture I will show you how to take advantage of periods of lower activitie

Avoid iteration Preview 11:33

As you saw in the example of email exchange iteration is one of the worst things that absorbs preposterous amount of  time and prolongs all activities. Iteration is not only taking a lot of time of all people involved but also does not let you go forward fast enough.In this lecture I will show you how to avoid it in pratice

Guess and prepare ahead Preview 03:32

By preparing ahead you can avoid iteration and save a lot of time. In this lecture I will show you how to do it in practice

Get rid of unused things Preview 03:52

We are very fast to acquire, buy and collect because even if we do not use it know at some point (usually very distant in the future) specific thing may prove to be  lifesaving.  Most often, the staff we collect we do not use more than once (80/20 rules come into play. In this lecture I will show you how to get rid of unused things it in practice

Deadlines Preview 02:07

We will talk on the importance of deadlines, types of deadlines and how to set them

Know your customers Preview 02:04

Whatever you do is for some sort of customers – your boss, your girlfriend / Boyfriend, other departments who use what you do. Therefore, you have to identify and understand your customer. In this lecture I will show you how to do it in practice

Be your customer Preview 03:37

As I have mentioned previously customers are all the people to whom you deliver whatever you do. In consulting when you are business analyst your customers would be the customer of the company for whom you do the project but also associate or project manager supervising your work. If you are also doing some knowledge base generation then you may have as a customer additionally the Partner responsible for this area. It makes a lot of sense to become your customer. This will help you even further understand how to communicate properly and what will give you biggest results. In this lecture I will show you how to do it in practice

Master your field Preview 07:26

At some point being a jack of all trades is not enough. You have to choose some sort of specialization. It may change over the course of years as your role will change but consciously define it and execute it.

First of all you have to define the fields in which you want to excel. Then you have to diagnose yourself how good you are and set the target level. This will be the starting point of your development and mastering fields that will make the difference for you. . In this lecture I will show you how to do it in practice

1 piece flow Preview 06:35

1 piece flow is a concept from lean manufacturing very useful also at normal work. In this lecture I will show what it is and how to use it in practice

Smart batching Preview 05:30

Smart Batching is a concept from lean manufacturing very useful also at normal work. In this lecture I will show what it is and how to use it in practice

Automation Preview 04:40

Automation is the Holly Grail not of consultants but basically of everybody. You want you work to be done hopefully without your presence but all the praise to go to your name :) In this lecture I will show what it is and how to use it in practice

Delegate Preview 04:46

At some point, all of the tips I have mentioned will be not enough if you want to really scale up what you do. For this, you will need to delegate some work and I will show you when and how to do it properly.

Zero defect rule Preview 02:33

Zero defect rules is not about making zero mistakes. It is about finding mistakes as soon as possible and eliminating them. In this lecture I will show what it is and how to use it in practice

Introduction to team efficiency Preview 01:33

In this section, I will show you how to 10x your team efficiency

Why manager should not work? Preview 02:03

Your work as a Project Manager is totally different than the work of a business analyst or consultant. A good project manager doesn’t work directly. He manages people and relations

Introduction to creating ideal team members Preview 01:36

If you want to have an effective team you should know what you want and implement it. The first step is to create the profile of an ideal team member.

Values Preview 05:12

Consulting is teamwork so you have to define what values you want your team to follow. This is crucial as it will be something that will be the basis for the team culture. In this lecture, I will show my values that provide a good ground for managing properly the consulting project.

Profile of the team member Preview 02:55

As we discuss previously you want to turn inexperienced graduates into seasoned consultants. This gives you greater chances of success during the project. Therefore, you have to define the profile of an ideal consultant and set your team member on the course to achieve this level. In this lecture, I will also show you the profile I have defined for an ideal team member.

Structure for cooperation - Set and use the same standards, templates and ready Preview 00:57

If you want the team to work as one efficient body you have to facilitate communication between them. This means especially that you should set standards, create templates and modules so that you create similar end-products.

Why team members have to constantly improve Preview 01:42

You have to make your team constantly improve to get a self-improving machine for work. In this lecture, we will discuss how to achieve it.

How to teach your team members Preview 04:01

In this lecture, I will show you how you can teach your team members efficiently

Introduction to managing the team efficiently Preview 01:05

Once you have set the rules and standards it’s time to make sure that the team works efficiently. In the next lecture, I will talk about few concepts that are very useful in managing a team. I will also give you an example from managing a team during a consulting project

Critical Chain Preview 03:16

One of the biggest problems for efficiency is the so-called Parkinson’s Law – Work expand so as to fill the time available for its completion. People when asked to evaluate the time certain things will take build-in buffers. One of the ways to deal with it is the so-called Critical chain. Here I will show you what it is

How to manage your team - example from managing a consulting project? Preview 04:59

In this lecture the tools and ways in which you should manage your team. I will also show you how your daily schedule should look like

Managing the team in practice Preview 05:56

Here I will show you an example of managing a team in practice. I will use a team of project managers for this example

Introduction to identifying and dealing with bottlenecks in teams Preview 02:31

One of the biggest problems in team management is the problem with too narrow specialization and bottlenecks. In this lecture and the next one, I will talk about ways how to deal with them.

Removing bottlenecks Preview 05:23

Bottlenecks are one of the biggest threats in making faster meaningful work. In this lecture, I will explain briefly what it is and how to find it. I will show you as well as practical examples.

Collect knowledge Preview 03:04

You have to use all the strengths of your team and at the same time find a way to capture them into something more tangible. That is why it is important to have a system to collect knowledge from your team.

How to manage your career? Preview 00:24

Here I will share with you some tips that will help you with your career.

How to learn fast new things? Preview 00:28

Here I will share with you tips that will help you learn fast new things

Bonus Lecture Preview 01:14