Helping Clients Engineer Solutions to the Problems Confronting Them
WELCOME
I am Fred Nickols, Managing Partner of DISTANCE CONSULTING. This site makes available to you hundreds of articles and papers I've written and published about various aspects of the workplace, and my experiences in it. Also included is information about me and the services I offer. Farther down on this page you will find an index to those hundreds of articles and papers as well as links to the major sections of this site. To reflect my many years of experience across several industries and organizational functions and levels, I added a "Silver Fox" one-page profile to my site. To view it, click here.
LOCATION & CONTACT INFO
The red dot on the map below indicates my location in Ohio. The yellow dots indicate the locations of my client base. You can contact me by email by clicking here.
Enjoy your visit and if you don't do anything else, be sure to visit the award-winning Knowledge Workers' Tool Room.
A GUIDE to THIS SITE
This site contains hundreds of articles, models and tools for use by clients and practitioners in a wide range of domains (e.g., management, work, human performance, human resources, training, organization development, change and change management, consulting, knowledge management, communities of practice, problem solving, strategy, and strategic planning).
In order to keep search simple, I have provided a complete site index, a guide to the resources on this site. It is in downloadable PDF format. Simply open or download the PDF file and scroll through it online or offline at your convenience. It has working links to all sections of the site and to most of the contents of all sections, including the tools in the award-winning Knowledge Workers’ Tool Room. The link to the site index is immediately below. It is your guide to the resources on this site.
Complete Site Index: A Guide to the Resources on this Site
If you want to browse this
site, the links below are to the major content sections of this site (e.g., click on
Book Reviews and you will be taken to that section). The numbers in parentheses indicate the
number of items in that section. You can use the search box below if you're looking for something
in particular.
| search engine by freefind |
The links below are to the personal and professional pages of this site (e.g., clicking on Fred Nickols will take you to my page).
| Fred Nickols | Project History | Resume | Services |
WHAT I DO
If you were to ask me what I do, I would reply, "I help you and your people solve the problems that keep you from realizing the results you'e after." Needless to say, this also greatly reduces uncertainty, anxiety and frustration on the part of all concerned.
THREE KEY ASPECTS OF WHAT I DO
(1) My Value Proposition
(2) My Modus Operandi
(3) My Priorities
My Value Proposition
The
value of the financial, operational, emotional and motivational results my clients achieve far
outweighs the costs of my help in achieving them.
My Modus Operandi
My clients identify, plan and make the changes
necessary to achieve the results they desire. They figure out what to
do, how to do it and who does what when.
I help them do that. I listen carefully, ask lots of questions,
investigate what we uncover, analyze issues and circumstances, surface and
challenge assumptions, and pose
possibilities based on my deep, broad and varied experience.
My Priorities
Listening to others.
Clarifying and understanding what they tell me.
Being alert to unnoticed opportunities.
Compiling credible evidence regarding the
nature of the situation and what to do about it.
Appreciating the contributions made by others.
Sharing the glory.
Giving credit where credit is due.
Paying
attention to the organization’s politics but staying out of them. Looking
for ways to bring my experience to bear.
My clients tell me that I display two key capabilities:
(1) I come quickly to the heart of a matter; and
(2) I am able to get the "little people" to go along with the program.
I can do this in a wide range of situations at various levels because my background has equipped me with some first-rate knowledge about people, systems, organizations, finances, operations, work flows and processes, change and change management, and troubleshooting or problem solving. For more about how I help my clients reduce uncertainty regarding action, see "Helping Clients Reduce Uncertainty."
ASK FRED
I recently offered a new service: "Ask Fred." Oftentimes, people are in search of nothing more than the answer to a specific question. So, to accommodate that need, I set up an email which people can use to send their questions to me. Send any question you might have to askfred@nickols.us. If I can answer it, I will; if I can't, i'll tell you so.
BIG WINS
If you are a senior manager, executive or CEO, you might want to read about a couple of "Big Wins" by clicking here.
MY BOOKS
I have published two books.
(1) Sea Stories: Tales about Leadership, Morale and More, is available on Amazon in Kindle and paper back. One of the sea stories can be read by clicking here.
(2) Tools for Knowledge Workers, Vol 1, is also available on Amazon. It is a collection of 12 visual thinking tools along with information explaining each tool and how to use it, including examples, and cases. Chapter 1 presents each tool in a one-page format. Chapters 2-13 discuss uses and applications of each tool.
You can access both of the books via my author's page on Amazon by clicking on either of the book cover images below.
IMPORTANT NOTICE
You are welcome to a single copy of anything on this web site for your personal use. However, none of the material on this site may be reproduced or further distributed or posted elsewhere without the payment of a modest fee. Compensation for materials on this site rests on what I call an "Honor System" and the honor on which it rests is yours. For more, see Honor System.
This page last updated on September 19, 2024