At Crest, we advise clients to examine what they are trying to achieve before they even think of talking to a consultant.

The first question you should answer is "what kind of change am I trying to make?". This can range from "polishing" what you are already doing, through "spotting" opportunities and ways of working used by other organisations, to "shifting" to completely new ways of doing things by creating new or altered processes and ways of working.

The second question you should answer is "do I have the resources to do all of this in-house or do I need to use external help?".

The answers to these two questions will lead you to the kind of external support you need (if any at all). Possible support includes:-

• complementary resources (i.e. consultants who can bring another skill that you don't currently have and won't need in the longer term)
   
• supplementary resources (for situations when you have the right resource in-house but not enough of it to achieve your targets in the time available)
   
• training
   
• project management