As part of your training you’ll have several mock consultations where you’ll get the opportunity to practice not only teaching someone about the things you’ve been learning but begin to think about how you teach and help others.
The Art of the Consultation
Every consultation will look a bit different based on what the student needs but here are things to consider as you begin your journey as a consultant:
Building Rapport
- Start with a friendly introduction. Make sure you introduce yourself and make sure the student feels comfortable and welcome.
- Show interest in the project: The first important step in a consultation is asking them about their project. This not only helps you determine what course of action to take, but asking questions about their project will make them feel you care about their success in the project.
Active Listening
- Listen more, talk less. Especially when you are gathering information about their project you’ll want them to use their words as much as possible. Of course there will be times you are talking more, especially if you are explaining a new concept, but as much as possible ask the students questions to give them the opportunity to talk.
- Pro-tip: Asking, “What questions do you have?” instead of “Do you have any questions?” can make the person you are helping feel like they should have questions instead of feeling like they should have gotten it all in one go.
- Ask clarifying questions: Ensure you fully grasp their issues before offering solutions. Sometimes students don’t know how to fully explain what they need or are looking for, don’t be shy in trying to ask more questions to further your understanding instead of guessing what they need.
Communication
- Be clear and concise: It can be important to teach students the terms they’ll need to be able to successfully complete their project but be wary of using jargon without explaining. When possible simplify the concept for someone and make analogies.
- Show, don’t tell (when possible): If you are trying to explain a new concept showing them what you mean is often better than explaining it in words alone. For example seeing how subdomains work and having an example on hand goes a long way to helping someone wrapping their heads around it.
Encourage Independence
- Let the student drive: As much as possible you should let the students do the work of clicking, pushing, moving things around when they are learning how to navigate a tool. Additionally, if you’ve already shown them how to do something once see if they can figure out how to do it again. If you are always telling them what to do next they’ll find when they leave the appointment they don’t know how to get to where they need to go themselves.
- Provide Resources: Show them the guides and other resources that can help them continue learning outside of their appointment.
Problem-Solving Approach
- Troubleshooting: Sometimes a student needs our help because something is broken. It is important to ask lots of questions to gather information and have them show you exactly what is happening when they run into an issue. This will make the troubleshooting process go by faster.
- Be a supportive collaborator on projects: Sometimes a student will come in with an open-ended project. It is important to work with them instead of making decisions for them. Asking them questions about what they are looking for or if they have examples of what they are trying to achieve can help with letting them lead the way with your support.
Concluding the Consultation
- Encourage follow-up: Let the student know that you and other consultants in the DKC is available for further assistance if needed.
- Invite them to stay: Especially if a student has started working on a project let them know they are welcome to use the DKC to continue to work on their project.
Questions for Reflection
We will record several of the mock consultations. For the ones we record I’ll want you to review the video and reflect on a couple of questions in a blog post:
- What parts of the consultation made you feel confident, and why?
- Was there a moment during the consultation that felt tricky? How did you handle it?
- How did you go about figuring out what the student needed and wanted?
- What did you learn about your own consulting style from this experience?
- What would you change in your next consultation based on what you learned this time?