Consulting or Workshops

Which is best for the most effective knowledge transfer from Iron-Sharpens-Iron.org consultants? Well, I guess that depends upon you and your church! Both have been used effectively and both will work.

Consulting
Consulting refers to both the practice of helping organizations to improve performance through analysis of existing problems and development of future plans, as well as to the industry composed of firms that specialize in this sort of consulting. Management consulting may involve the identification and cross-fertilization of best practices, analytical techniques, change management and coaching skills, technology implementations, strategy development or even the simple advantage of an outsider's perspective. Management consultants generally bring formal frameworks or methodologies to identify problems or suggest more effective or efficient ways of performing business tasks.

Consulting is becoming more prevalent in non-business related fields as well. As the need for professional and specialized advice grows, other industries such as churches, church-type ministriesw, and not-for-profit agencies are turning to the same managerial principles that have helped the private sector for years.

Leadership Coaching is becoming an integral part of the consulting process. Coaching provides access to the consultant or coach via phone, email or one-on-one sessions.

Workshops
A workshop is a gathering or training session which may be as short as an hour or up to several days in length. It emphasizes problem-solving, hands-on activities, and requires the involvement of the participants.

It is particularly important to consider the workshop within the context of the organization's vision, mission and goals. Workshops are most effective when they occur in a setting that provides every opportunity for the participants to get away from the distractions that tend to steal the time and energy that are needed to be open and receptive to the growth opportunities offered at the workshop.

Our consultants highly recommend that a workshop be conducted away from the church building. Perhaps there is a layman in the church who has access to training room or conference room at their place of work. This can be ideal and it may have no cost associated with it's use. Local hotels are also a very good place for these workshops. And many times can be rented for a very reasonable cost on week-ends.

Iron sharpens iron,

so one man sharpens another.