Our Approach
- Advisory
  
  How we align professional development and strategy through ‘The Openside Approach’
- Training
  
  The core professional services skills and behaviours we develop for our clients
- Executive
  Development
  
  How we can work with your best and brightest on an individual basis to help them achieve their full potential
- Keynote
  Speaking
  
  We provide expert speakers for large conferences or smaller workshops and focus groups
- MCA Consulting
  Excellence
  
  Openside is proud to be an active participant in The MCA’s Consulting Excellence initiative
Our Story
- Our People
  
  The Openside team can develop your best and brightest by meeting them at their level
- Our Heritage
  
  Discover our long heritage and deep roots in professional services and why they matter
- Our Commitments
  
  These are the commitments we will make to you and the four key principles that will guide our work
- MCA Associate Member
  
  We’re committed to consulting and proud to be an Associate Member Firm of The MCA
Our Thinking
- Points of View
  
  Our latest articles with actionable ideas for your professional services firm
- Special Reports
  
  An insightful, in-depth look at ‘hot topics’ in professional services.
- Webinars
  
  Register for upcoming events and view our archive
Our Work
- Our Results
  
  Read stories from our clients and participants about the impact we have made on their firms
- Our Recent Engagements
  
  Discover a few of our recent client engagements, to help you better understand what Openside does for our clients
Contact

Training

We design and deliver intensive, face to face, interactive programmes that develop the critical skills and behaviours required in professional services.

Throughout their careers, those working in professional services are expected to assume certain core functions on behalf of their firms. How they undertake these will depend on the stage of their career and their firm’s desired strategic position.

We group these core professional services functions under four headings: Consult, Manage, Build, Lead.

If your people are to excel in each of these core functions they need to learn, develop and refine a specific set of skills and behaviours. We help them to do that.

Below we identify some of the core skills, behaviours and competencies we develop for our clients, organised by core professional services function.

Contact us to find out how we can develop the skills and behaviours to fit your firm’s unique context and desired strategic position.

Consult

The core skills and behaviours consultants and professional advisors need on top of their technical knowledge.

Core skills, competencies and behaviours we develop for consultants and advisors might include:

Analytical problem solving
Cognitive flexibility
Critical thinking
Logic development
Presentation skills
Structured analytical thinking – the core consulting process

Manage

Skills and behaviours that help your people manage client engagements, and become effective team leaders and credible ambassadors for your firm.

Core skills, competencies and behaviours we develop for managers might include:

Complex decision making
Conflict management
Effective communication skills
Emotional intelligence
Performance management
Presentation skills
Project and engagement management

Build

Skills and behaviours that develop a stream of business (with new or existing clients) to build your firm in the unique context of professional services.

Core business development skills, competencies and behaviours we develop might include:

Adopting a consultative approach to business development
Forming and offering a point of view
How to illustrate the firm’s values through behaviours
Managing critical conversations
Presentation skills
Storytelling
Understanding client value and articulating a value proposition

Lead

The critical areas of leadership behaviour that successful Partners and Senior Leaders exhibit – exemplifying the brand, embodying the culture and ensuring your firm’s legacy and heritage.

Core skills, competencies and behaviours we develop for professional services leadership teams might include:

Building personal presence – status, impact, credibility and reputation
Disrupting and managing disruption
Emotional intelligence skills
How to identify and illustrate the firm’s values through behaviours
Leading and embracing change
Performance management skills
Strategic decision making