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Getting the Best from your Adviser
Many of you will be planning ahead for your Accreditation Review and may be thinking about how best to prepare. Bearing in mind it could be three years since your original Assessment, the change to the matrix Standard and changes that inevitably occur within organisations, you might be considering using the services of a Registered matrix Adviser to help you prepare for your Accreditation Review. If so, you may already have someone in mind, perhaps you worked with them the first time round. If not, a list of Registered matrix Advisers can be found at www.matrixStandard.com/aa.
So what should you consider when choosing a Registered matrix Adviser? Criteria to consider when choosing an Adviser include:
- Experience of your sector and type of organisation may be important. However, it is worth remembering that a Registered matrix Adviser will be able to work with the matrix Standard in any sort of environment and sometimes it can be valuable to have ideas and input from someone with experience of other sectors/types of organisation.
- Size of organisation – you may be very small and informal or large and formal and you may want to choose a Registered matrix Adviser with experience of working in your sort of setting.
- Client groups – again, Registered matrix Advisers should be able to work with a range of clients but you may want to explore the extent to which an Adviser has had experience of your particular client groups.
- Geography – Registered matrix Advisers are based throughout the country and there should be a choice within a reasonable travelling distance.
- Cost – there is no fixed cost as Registered matrix Advisers set their own day rates. Remember to check the day rate for your size of organisation and sector as it may vary with some Registered matrix Advisers. Also, ask whether expenses or VAT will be charged.
- Personality – choose a Registered matrix Adviser you feel you can work with and will "fit" in your organisation. You may consider a selection process which enables you to meet two or three Advisers in person before you decide which to use.
Once you have chosen your Registered matrix Adviser, how do you ensure that you get the maximum benefit from your investment?
- Ensure you agree a contract that sets out the parameters for the Advisory
work. This may seem to be an obvious thing to do but is often over-looked.
A contract should ideally include:
- Purpose of the Advisory work – why are you buying in the Advice?
- Your objectives – what do you want to achieve?
- Outcomes – what will be produced either during the Advisory work or at the end of it?
- Methodology – what activities are to be undertaken, who will be involved, and how will Advice be delivered?
- Evaluation – how will the Advisory work be evaluated? What measures of effectiveness will be used to evaluate the work?
- Follow up and reporting – what sort of follow up activities are to be included? Will the Adviser produce a summary or report and if so in what format? Will the Adviser produce an action plan or work with you to do so? When will the report/summary/action plan be produced and who for?
- Timescales for the work – start and finish dates; interim milestones if appropriate.
- Venue for the Advisory work – especially important if you are multi-site organisation or using off-site premises, say for a workshop programme.
- Cost – day rate, expenses, total cost, VAT, payment terms.
- Who will be the contact within your organisation for the purposes of the contract?
- What happens in the event that something goes wrong e.g. cancellation on either side at short notice?
Where the Registered matrix Adviser is to be working with a number of people in your organisation, make sure everyone is adequately prepared to be able to participate in Advisory activities (workshops, groups activities, one to one discussions). Let people know what the Registered matrix Adviser will be doing and why as well as why they have been chosen to be part of the Advisory process.
- Have a plan – if the Registered matrix Adviser is going to be conducting a readiness test agree the schedule for the day as if it were the Assessment. It is surprising how many times organisations leave it until the Adviser arrives before checking on peoples' availability on the day.
- Be prepared – give some thought to the questions you want to ask and specific issues or areas you want the Registered matrix Adviser to help with.
- Where the Registered matrix Adviser is facilitating a workshop or group activity, ensure that any resources are available and be clear about who is responsible for providing them. (E.g. laptop and projector for Power Point presentations and so forth).
- The Advice should meet your needs, whatever they may be. If necessary you may need to be flexible and be prepared to change your original plan – in agreement with the Registered matrix Adviser, of course.
Following the tips above will hopefully help you get the most out of working with a Registered matrix Adviser.
In addition to the expertise of a Registered matrix Adviser there are other resources available to help you prepare for Accreditation Review. Take a look at the rest of this website (www.matrixStandard.com) for information on networking events, road shows and a range of publications such as matrix Explained or the matrix CQI Toolkit.