MOL-Consulting Report Guiding Thoughts

Last revised: 01/05/06

Consulting reports, such as organizational audits and diagnoses, should be written as final reports to the senior leadership, so address their needs effectively. Use the understanding that you are not writing to the general organization to increase the success of your writing. 

Professional consulting clarifies or substantiates what decision makers find obscure or not believed within their organizations. The consultant uses available gifts, skills and abilities to perceive what is occurring, then collects and interprets available data, and presents specific, viable, problem-solving instruction in the form of reported choices to decision makers.

Consultants structure, contextualize, process and present content in palatable terms. Often, they interview organization members. Good consultants involve people as participants, not as responding objects. In this manner, consultants discover and recommend actions, and report interventions likely to succeed that decision makers can plan.

Compare this to the application Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 14:6 9. If leadership does not have an understandable message, who in their organization engage what is occurring? So it is with consulting. Unless consultants present in understandable language, decision makers are unlikely to comprehend how to plan actions. Make implicit ideas explicit through your reporting.

Focus on decision-making for the decision makers. Appreciate who the involved organizational members are and how proposed interventions will affect them. Treat them with dignity. Use understandings gained to increase the likelihood that your reporting will be used. Do not write to the professor but to the people you are doing the consulting report for.

Here is a proposed outline:

1. Create a title page. Type your name, the name of your company, the name of the report and the name of the client. Include the date the report was delivered to the client.
2. Include an introduction. Write an introduction that explains the purpose of the report. Outline the basic issues addressed in the report. Include methods and approaches used to analyze the given topic.
3. Provide analysis of the issues. Give each issue a descriptive heading. For example, "Sodium Content in Lunch Entrees" is possible heading in a consulting report about school lunches. Under each heading detail the particular issue. Offer in-depth analysis of the issue. Include alternatives, possible solutions and recommendations for each issue. Use researched data and statistics.
4. Create a list of recommendations. Gather all of the recommendations from the analysis sections into one section. List each recommendation in a concise, easy-to-understand manner. For example, "Partner with local vegetarian restaurants to serve vegetarian breakfast and lunch meals in the school once a month" is a possible recommendation for a consulting report.
5. Write a conclusion. Provide a concise summary of the issues and findings explored in the report.
6. Write an executive summary. An executive summary is a concise description of what the report contains. Copy important sections from the body of the report and paste them into the executive summary. Include the major findings, analysis and conclusions. According to Custom Papers, a good executive summary allows the reader to understand the basic content of the report without reading the report. Place the executive summary before the introduction.
7. Create a table of contents. List each section of the report followed by the page number where that section is found. Place the table of contents before the executive summary.

Additional Tips for Success:

• Include appendices for references, photographs and bibliographies when appropriate. The appendix is for detailed support information.
• Use a header or footer watermark with your name and contact information on each page.
• Include a thank-you note to the client along with the completed report.