Smart Consulting

The Situation:

Sheridan Jones is the Director of Marketing at TrueMessages^©, a 16 year old Advertising and PR firm with revenues of $35 million dollars annually. The firm has been able to increase its revenue every year except this year. Employees are proud of their past achievements, and Sheridan shares this pride but is concerned about keeping the creative and competitive edge for the Company. She has noticed some signs of complacency and lack of innovation on her team. She informed the President and CEO of TrueMessages^©, Jonathan Morson that she hired Idea Consulting Company (ICC), to help inspire the team to improve its performance.

The ICC consultant Tim Lee met with Sheridan to plan a six hour team building workshop, one of ICC’s areas of expertise. The design was approved and a date was set for the training. When Sheridan informed the team of these arrangements the staff were stunned. The communication was tense and emotions ranged from irritation to anger. The remaining agenda was met with silence or very short responses. Sheridan was surprised by her team members’ reactions and called Tim for consultation.

If you were Tim what would you advise Sheridan to do?

Ki ThoughtBridge Counsel:

I. Admit Your Mistake: Start Over!

Sheridan’s perception of the team’s functioning differs from that of her team members, and since the team was not included in the decision to be trained they were probably surprised to hear that their leader feels they have a problem. Untested assumptions and conclusions were allowed to define the decision. The consultant will need to help Sheridan debrief the situation first to understand what happened and why from her vantage point; then plan the meeting with her team, find out why they were upset, apologize for making a mistake.  Using a tool like the Ladder of Inference^© could help her and the team express their feelings, thoughts and concerns in a clear and non-defensive manner that respects the fact that they have different perceptions and perspectives. Once they reach this level of understanding they are ready to work on defining the problem.

II. Get the Fuller Picture: Conduct Diagnostic Interviews

All of the team members need to be interviewed to determine what they think the issues are that are affecting their performance. This will give the consultant much more data from which to design a more effective intervention. There could be a number of reasons why their creativity has declined or why Sheridan sees that it has.

III. Involve Those With the Problem in Solving the Problem

Meet with Sheridan and her team and provide a report of the survey responses, making sure that the sources of information are kept confidential. This is a point of negotiation that will influence whether the intervention addresses the real issue and whether it has a good chance of succeeding. If done well the group will accept ownership of the issues and the content of the design of the workshop.

More Advice

• Companies seeking outside consultation need to take more time to hire the right consulting professional or firm.
• The best consultants will not come up with a recommendation or solution without extensive diagnostic work. This includes getting information from all of the parties involved, not just the manager or CEO.
• No matter how smart or well intended these persons may be their perceptions are limited. You can’t have a fuller understanding of what the problem/issue is without talking with others in the organization.
• Companies that ask for consultation and estimated times and fees aren’t going to get the best information. This is comparable to expecting a physician to treat you via your written description of your symptoms. No one should trust they will get the best results in this way.  

Below is the model Ki ThoughtBridge uses. It is always adapted given what we learn about the organization, its culture, the issues, goals, and needs. If followed it inevitably leads to good results.

Let us know what you think at info@kithoughtbridge.com.