David Morganstein and Philip Rocco Scinto

Many of us have been touting what you should do to be an effective consultant over the past several years, but we have been neglecting the how.

So, how do we successfully implement and execute the necessary “nontechnical” habits, characteristics, qualities, and practices? The answer is to use the same approach as in mastering any subject.

First, we assess our enthusiasm. We often start down the path to statistics (biology, chemistry, engineering, etc.) because we have an interest, desire, and/or passion for the subject. There is no way to sugar coat this: If you do not have a passion, desire, or inclination to dedicate yourself to helping and enabling people and organizations to collect, analyze, and learn from data, then statistical consulting is probably not for you. This is not a bad thing; statistical consulting just isn’t your thing.

Next, we identify the gaps in education. If you wish to be a biologist, you study biology. If you wish to be an engineer, you study engineering. If you wish to be a consultant … Well, what do you do? Since there is no formal degree in consulting, look for bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral programs that incorporate consulting and consulting practice in the curriculum. Make sure you include a good dose of electives involving communication, writing, speaking, humanities, philosophy, and human behavior. Anthropology and sociology (focusing on culture) are valuable, as well. If you already have your degree and do not wish to revisit a college campus, then you will need to find the needed training elsewhere.

When we are talking about consulting, we are talking about interacting with humans. While some online training may be fine (humanities, philosophy, and human behavior), steer away from communication courses in which there is no active, live human participation. Active participation and role-playing are necessary components of most learning and training for communication and consulting.

We must admit that the ASA could do more to offer quality courses, seminars, and tutorials in communication and consulting. The current offerings are good, but they could be better. While several attempts have been made, we need to recruit more experts in the actual communication and consulting fields to teach these subjects. Could these instructors also be statisticians? Yes, but not at the expense of bringing in the most capable instructors.

Practice, Practice, Practice

You have the passion for consulting. Check. You are actively learning the skills involved in communication and consulting. Check. What’s next? Practice.

If you do not practice what you have learned, you will not improve. Consulting is no different than golf, tennis, speaking a new language, or playing an instrument. New skills cannot be mastered by reading a book or attending lectures. They must be practiced.

The opportunities to practice are much more available than you might think. Toastmasters is an effective and convenient way to practice public speaking. Writing in a journal and/or on a blog to communicate your thoughts and/or convey information is a great way to practice writing. If you do not wish to share your writing with the public, write for family and friends. Develop your ability to convey simple ideas and concepts to more complicated ones. These can be topics related to statistics or not, but if you can write about collinearity to your grandparents and have them understand it, then you will probably do well with your clients. Speaking of family and friends, there is no reason you cannot practice empathy, patience, and listening with them.

Reading your presentation for a meeting aloud and practicing it in front of a mirror is effective. You get direct feedback on your timing, expressions, approach, and style in addition to mastering what you want to say and how to say it. Other opportunities to practice communication skills include volunteering for local clubs or professional organizations. Take a leadership position such as chair, group leader, secretary, and/or treasurer for your local running club, an ASA section, or ASA chapter. Volunteer as a spokesperson for a local charity and/or coach a team.

Reach Out to a Mentor

What to learn, where to learn it, and how to practice and improve are just as important for consulting as they are for any effort, whether it’s statistics or tennis. Awareness is a great first step, but action is required. But what action, how often, and how much? How do you know if the action is effective and leading to improvement? In addition to action, we all need guidance, direction, and feedback. The best way to plan your path may be through a mentor. You may not realize it, but you’ve been mentored before. Ever play baseball? You probably had a coach. Play the piano? You probably had a teacher. And most of us have had the fortune of a parent or guardian to help guide us through childhood. Why not a mentor for consulting? A good mentor should have the experience, wisdom, and patience to work with you to explore your passion; identify the skills needed; develop a plan to learn, practice, and strengthen those skills; and provide feedback.

We make these suggestions for many reasons, but the primary one is we have followed these suggestions in our own careers and found them helpful.

We both chose statistics and our sub-areas of survey statistics (David) and industrial design (Phil) because of our keen interest in what we could accomplish and because the field offered a discipline we valued: Enthusiasm!

We’ve filled in the gaps in our educations by taking or offering to teach short courses in relevant and related topics. There is nothing like having to teach a topic to deepen your own understanding! We often look to short courses at professional meetings such as JSM or the Conference on Statistical Practice for opportunities to learn new methods and improve our understanding.

Improving our writing and speaking skills have been fundamental to both of us for professional growth. Here we are, preparing an article for Amstat News. We seek out opportunities to present ideas in various forums, via both papers and presentations. When we have talks to give, our motto is “practice, practice, practice.” At work, conducting a dry run of any talk is a helpful way to improve and sharpen it (not to mention testing to make sure it fits into the allotted time).

Mentors? Here we have some disagreement. Phil believes he had the best mentors in the world, and David argues he did. What mattered to both of us? We were willing to accept the help offered. It is a natural evolution for many to reach a point in their careers when they realize how important it is to help bring along the next generation. We were both fortunate to have superb senior statisticians who taught us so much. We realize the value of what we received and felt the calling to do the same. Throughout our careers, we have both worked to create and grow mentoring opportunities at our workplaces, at conferences, in ASA sections, and in ASA chapters. What is more, we helped acknowledge the outstanding mentors in our profession by initiating an annual recognition bestowed to those who have contributed so much to our profession.

In Summary

We would like to congratulate you on taking this step to improve as a consultant. Step? Absolutely. You have made clear your interest, desire, and enthusiasm by reading this article. Next, determine and reduce the gaps in education and training you may have in communication and consulting. Practice what you learn, and practice the identified effective techniques. Finally, a mentor is of tremendous benefit in providing guidance, direction, and feedback in your quest for excellence.

If you are interested in reading more about consulting, take a look at this summary of the characteristics of a good statistical consultant, also written by David Morganstein.