ABSTRACT
Samir Parikh, author of the influential “Consultant’s Handbook” (2015), defines consulting as “a helping relationship provided based upon expertise and experience” (p. 6), with a primary focus on helping a client achieve a desired outcome. Instructional designers (IDs) typically serve in a consulting capacity regardless of job title, career environment, or whether they are operating within an organization or externally. They use their expertise and experience to solve a wide range of educational and performance challenges, and it is that very expertise and experience that constitutes the value-added they bring to an instructional design project.
What are consulting skills? Across career environments, public and private sectors, and disciplines, the skills that empower IDs to consult are often referred to as “soft skills” or “interpersonal skills.” The category includes many different skills, including effective oral and written communication, negotiation and persuasive skills, relationship building and conflict resolution, and a wide range of other interpersonal competencies. These competencies are essential to the practice of good instructional design. Yet, if the mastery of IDT consulting skills requires both expertise and experience, how can IDT programs foster the development of those skills for novice instructional designers? While many of the skills and competencies identified as those required for consulting are routinely addressed in IDT programs, there are gaps in coverage that have been noted in the literature, specifically in the area of soft skills of an interpersonal nature.
