The Consulting Practicum · Level 0

Orientation and practice vision

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0.1 What a consultant actually sells

Level 0 · 14 min · 2 knowledge checks

Level 0: 0 of 5 gates ticked0 of 6 tasks done

Short and mostly reading. Its purpose is to remove the false pictures of consulting that make beginners either overconfident or unnecessarily intimidated, and to produce a first draft of your position. That draft becomes the reference point for everything that follows, and you will revise it twice more.

Level 0 lessons

0 of 4 done

What consulting actually is, what it is not, and the first honest description of the practice you intend to build.

0.1What a consultant actually sells14 min 0.2The shapes of consulting work16 min 0.3Entry conditions, honestly stated13 min 0.4Drafting your position20 min

Level 0 exercises

0 of 2 done

Done against a real organisation you choose, not a case study. The gates below are about what these produce.

Exercise 0.A - The position sheet

Produce one page containing: the four questions answered in full, the two-sentence compression, and a list of five real organisations that fit the description and are reachable within two introductions.

If you cannot name five, the definition is either too narrow or describes a client type you have no access to. Both are fixable and both need to be fixed now rather than in month eight. Revise and repeat until you have five names.

Use the position builder tool on this level to draft it, then export the result. Date the page and keep it. You will revise at the end of Level 2 and again at Level 4.

Exercise 0.B - The classification drill

Find five real consulting assignments: published ToRs, RFPs, or job postings for consultants. For each, write one line stating which of the four buying reasons it represents, and one line on the evidence in the document that supports your reading.

Then write one line on how you would behave differently in each. This drill takes ninety minutes and it changes how you read every subsequent opportunity.

Level 0 gates

0 of 5 ticked

What you should be able to do after this level. Tick each one when it is true. Nobody marks these. Sign in to tick them.

You can state who you serve, what problem, what change, and what proof, in two sentences, without notes.

Evidence that shows it: Attach the artefact, or attest with a date if it lives somewhere you cannot upload from.

Not ticked

You can name five real, reachable organisations that fit the description.

Not ticked

You can classify an enquiry as capability, capacity, independence, or cover, and say what follows from it.

Not ticked

You have a dated position sheet and understand that it is a hypothesis rather than a commitment.

Not ticked

You have a weekly block reserved for pipeline work that you have not yet cancelled.

Not ticked

Tools in this level

Position builder

Write who you serve, the problem as they feel it, the change you make and the proof you bring, then compress it into two sentences. The compression is where the work is.

Write it, get automatic feedback