"Assistance at A Distance"

Consulting Services from Fred Nickols

Through my company, Distance Consulting, LLC, I provide a variety of consulting services. 

My primary focus is on helping your company realize performance improvement at any or all of three levels:

    (1) Organizational,

    (2) Operational (i.e., process) and

    (3) Individual (i.e., Jobs/Tasks performed by people).

More often than not I start in the middle, with a process or a piece of one, and work my way up and down.  Sometimes I start at the bottom, with job/task performance, and work my way up.  And sometimes I start at the top (e.g., with profits or costs) and work my way down to processes and people.  On occasion, my work is confined to a single level.  In all cases, I make clear the links to the bottom line.

I also present custom workshops and seminars.  Past topics include:

• Change Management

• Problem Solving (Solution Engineering)

• Performance Improvement

• Human Behavior & Performance

• Knowledge Work

• Communities of Practice

• Strategy, Strategic Planning & Strategic Decision-Making

Consulting Philosophy

I don’t simply peddle advice and I won’t drop a report on your desk then walk away leaving you scratching your head about how to proceed.  By the same token, I try not to do work your people can do.  And I won’t bring in an army of outsiders.  I work with your people to get the job done.  The measures of what I do are the results your people achieve with my assistance.

• Would you call me in to fix a situation?  Maybe, but you'd be better served by asking me to help your people figure out what’s broken and have us work together to come up with some ideas about how to fix it.  And these would be things your people can do.

• Would you call me in to overhaul or reengineer or simply “tweak” one or more of your company’s business processes?  Maybe, but you'd be better off by asking me to take a look at your current processes and tell you what I think about ways in which they might be improved – quickly, painlessly and inexpensively.  And these would be things your people can do.

• Would you call me in to train your people?  Maybe, but you might also ask me to figure out if training is the solution and, if so, what it might look like.  And, if not, I can suggest some things to do instead of training.  And these would be things your people can do.

• Would you call me in to increase sales or profits or productivity?  Maybe, but you might ask me to take a look at those things and provide you with some ideas about how they might be increased.  And these would be things your people can do.

• Would you call me in to improve performance, whether it is the performance of people, processes or your entire organization?  Maybe, and I'd be glad to take a look at those things and apprise you of ways in which such improvement might be realized.  And these would be things your people can do.

One more thing:  What sets my consulting practice apart are the models and methods I use to examine situations, pinpoint problems and come up with solutions.  These models and methods are the source of the value I bring to you.  I already have many models and some I might create because your company’s circumstances just might be unique.  When I go away, my models and methods stay behind.  They are tools your people can use and I make sure they can use them.  In the future, then, the things you might ask me to do would be things your people can do.

For more information send an e-mail to me, Fred Nickols, by clicking here.

This page was last updated on July 13, 2008