Learning the First Tool of the Consulting Workshop Series: Charrette

Editor's Note: Take a look at our featured best practice, The Silly Cow Exercise (23-slide PowerPoint presentation). The Silly Cow Exercise is a fun and effective activity for promoting out-of-the-box thinking and creativity in teams. This exercise is ideal for organizations that need to innovate their products, services, business models, and ecosystems to create a competitive advantage. It can be held in a [read more]

* * * *

In today’s business environment, management consulting firms must be ready to address client challenges and needs that will transform their business by 10 or 100 times.  Tools and methods must be scaled up to ensure applicability to the widest possible audience globally.

The Consulting Workshop Series provides a good understanding of the 10 Methods of conducting Workshops that are custom designed to fit specific workshop objectives.  Different methods are developed for the purpose of providing organizations the most appropriate tool necessary to support organizations in their Strategic Planning.

If it is the management’s goal to cultivate creativity and innovation with their organization, then the Charrette is the perfect method to undertake.

Understanding Charrette

Charrette is one method of conducting consulting workshops that can generate consensus among diverse groups of people and form an action plan. Charrette provides time for a deep intellectual exploration of matters significant to the success of the firm. Charrette allows people to work not only on their own pace but also on projects that matter most to them.

This is one method that can effectively assemble practical ideas and viewpoints at the beginning of a planning process. It encourages input and collaboration from a wide range of participants.  When the process is mature, it can facilitate decisions on difficult issues and resolve indecisions or deal with dead blocks between groups.

Charrette can effectively lead to developing feasible projects and action plans with specific practical steps. It can be applied to development, design, and planning projects and identify potential funding sources for projects.

The 3-Phase Approach to Charrette

Charrette must be done in phases with each phase directed towards attaining a specific objective.

Each phase is undertaken following a specific number of steps. These steps are necessary to achieve the specific objective of each phase and reach the ultimate goal of the entire workshop using Charrette as one of the methods in the Working Consulting Series.

A Purview on the Pre-Charrette Phase

 The Pre-Charrette Phase focuses on developing and working with a Steering Committee. A Steering Committee is vital as it serves as the coordinator of Charrette activities. The committee will be the one to establish a timeline and meeting schedule, as well as a preliminary list of issues the Charrette will focus on.

Once a Steering Committee has been organized, the organization is now ready to take on the 5 specific steps underlying the Pre-Charrette Phase.

1. Issue/Problem Identification
2. Identify and invite Charrette participants (team)
3. Develop community relations and public awareness
4. Assemble support information
5. Logistics

Before undertaking these 5 specific steps, there are preliminary preparations that must be undertaken. First, there is a need to hold an organizational meeting with the Steering Committee and the Charrette facilitator to set the goals and arrange a basic schedule. It is essential that the Steering Committee must hold a regular meeting to ensure that all necessary preparations are being made.

A well-executed Charrette will set the pace towards a fun and productive opportunity for the organization to build and visualize its future and successfully achieve Business Transformation.

Interested in gaining more understanding of Charrette? You can learn more and download an editable PowerPoint about Consulting Workshop Series: Charrette here on the Flevy documents marketplace.

Do You Find Value in This Framework?

You can download in-depth presentations on this and hundreds of similar business frameworks from the FlevyPro Library. FlevyPro is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives. Here’s what some have to say:

“My FlevyPro subscription provides me with the most popular frameworks and decks in demand in today’s market. They not only augment my existing consulting and coaching offerings and delivery, but also keep me abreast of the latest trends, inspire new products and service offerings for my practice, and educate me in a fraction of the time and money of other solutions. I strongly recommend FlevyPro to any consultant serious about success.”

– Bill Branson, Founder at Strategic Business Architects

“As a niche strategic consulting firm, Flevy and FlevyPro frameworks and documents are an on-going reference to help us structure our findings and recommendations to our clients as well as improve their clarity, strength, and visual power. For us, it is an invaluable resource to increase our impact and value.”

– David Coloma, Consulting Area Manager at Cynertia Consulting

“As a small business owner, the resource material available from FlevyPro has proven to be invaluable. The ability to search for material on demand based our project events and client requirements was great for me and proved very beneficial to my clients. Importantly, being able to easily edit and tailor the material for specific purposes helped us to make presentations, knowledge sharing, and toolkit development, which formed part of the overall program collateral. While FlevyPro contains resource material that any consultancy, project or delivery firm must have, it is an essential part of a small firm or independent consultant’s toolbox.”

– Michael Duff, Managing Director at Change Strategy (UK)

“FlevyPro has been a brilliant resource for me, as an independent growth consultant, to access a vast knowledge bank of presentations to support my work with clients. In terms of RoI, the value I received from the very first presentation I downloaded paid for my subscription many times over! The quality of the decks available allows me to punch way above my weight – it’s like having the resources of a Big 4 consultancy at your fingertips at a microscopic fraction of the overhead.”

– Roderick Cameron, Founding Partner at SGFE Ltd

“Several times a month, I browse FlevyPro for presentations relevant to the job challenge I have (I am a consultant). When the subject requires it, I explore further and buy from the Flevy Marketplace. On all occasions, I read them, analyze them. I take the most relevant and applicable ideas for my work; and, of course, all this translates to my and my clients’ benefits.”

– Omar Hernán Montes Parra, CEO at Quantum SFE

Do You Want to Implement Business Best Practices?

You can download in-depth presentations on Workshops and 100s of management topics from the FlevyPro Library. FlevyPro is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives.

For even more best practices available on Flevy, have a look at our top 100 lists:

• Top 100 in Strategy & Transformation
• Top 100 in Digital Transformation
• Top 100 in Operational Excellence
• Top 100 in Organization & Change
• Top 100 Management Consulting Frameworks

These best practices are of the same as those leveraged by top-tier management consulting firms, like McKinsey, BCG, Bain, and Accenture. Improve the growth and efficiency of your organization by utilizing these best practice frameworks, templates, and tools. Most were developed by seasoned executives and consultants with over 20+ years of experience.