Internal Consultancy John Evans

Internal Consultancy: Highway to Effective People & Organisational Development?

John Evans

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Internal Consultancy John Evans

MSc Dissertation

1999/2001

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Internal Consultancy John Evans

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1: Towards a definition of "consulting"

Chapter 2: The scope and skills of management consultancy

Part One: The management consultancy industry

Part Two: Consulting models in the industry

Part Three: Application Case Studies

Chapter 3: The skills and models of the Internal Consultant

Chapter 4: Insights, benefits and advantages of internal consultancy

Appendix 1: Research method

Appendix 2: Initial research plans

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Internal Consultancy John Evans

Preface

The central concerns of this dissertation came into focus in early Spring 2000. A

number of issues had been at the top of my agenda for a while and these eventually

crystallised into my enthusiasm for this investigation into internal consultancy.

Organisationally, I was becoming increasingly concerned that the HR training team

(of which I am a part) was not, in my view, moving fast enough in responding to the

business needs of "sections" of the Firm. The traditional concentration upon the

design, delivery and evaluation of training programmes was changing but not, I

thought, fast enough or even in the right ways. We were moving to use different

delivery methods (e.g., using information technology in creative ways to make

training available at the desk top in smaller modules) and addressing the need for

accredited learning but this did not seem to be enough. Sections, which I had always

thought of as our internal clients, wanted a more differentiated, business driven range

of learning and development options rather than access to standardised courses.

A number of observations underlined, for me, how curiously unresponsive our

training had become. One will illustrate the point. As a professional services Firm we

had no agreed process for costing projects and pricing them in tenders and proposals

to clients. As a result, "fee write downs" were a cause for concern. These "write

down" situations typically arise because the costing and pricing of the project (or

client assignment) has not taken into account all of the costs involved in meeting the

client's needs.

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Internal Consultancy John Evans

The Firm's integrated time recording and billing system has enabled the, relatively

new, Finance Director to see what is happening and he has contributed to the

development of a new training programme which is designed to address these issues.

The first group of course appraisal forms from this programme noted the quality of

the theoretical frameworks, applauded the quality of the delivery of the programme

itself but pointed out that the practical application of the learning would be

immensely difficult because the delegate's sections (indeed the whole Firm) still had

no agreed approach, system or process in place which would allow them to

operationalise the learning day to day.

What had happened here, I thought, was that a need (too many fee write downs) had

been identified and one part of a possible solution had been developed and delivered

without adequate attention being paid to other aspects of the problem.

A more rounded and complete response to the problem would, I thought, have

involved HR training in collaborative consultancy out of which a training course

might have emerged as just one part of an integrated response.

Moreover, I also recognised that, personally, I am inclined to take a consultancy

approach to problems - for a number of reasons. I am interested in organisations,

systems and people. I am psychologically predisposed to prefer consulting and

advising to other forms of intervention. I tend to believe that consulting is a richer,

more subtle and a more complete response to problems in organisations than training

– especially when this takes the form of largely undifferentiated courses delivered at

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Internal Consultancy John Evans

pre-set times for people across the organisation with little current training needs

analysis to support the design and much less follow through. I have also come to

believe that the new renaissance manager in today's knowledge rich corporation may,

increasingly and quite reasonably, adopt a consultancy mindset rather than a

managerial mindset. This is significantly because the "do as I say because I am the

boss" approach will not wash with highly skilled, educated and motivated people. In

many organisations individual worth and contribution is becoming, or has already

become, the basis for power and reward rather than position and status. I perceive this

trend increasing. It is a movement that requires a new form of management. What, I

speculated, could models of consultancy offer here?

As organisations rapidly move towards organising around processes and outcomes,

they adopt new configurations which are influenced by political, economic,

technological or social change or the increasing emphasis placed upon being close to

the customer or the developing importance of entrepreneurship both within and

outside established organisations or the rise in importance of multi-disciplinary teams

and networking. Not only did I believe that, in these situations, individual managers

might gain from the appropriate adoption of a consulting style but, also, if they

occupied certain roles in organisations, the adoption of a consulting style might,

perhaps, be almost inevitable. The particular roles where this might be most

pronounced (roles which some writers, particularly Americans, refer to as "staff

roles") are those associated with support functions (finance, audit, HR, marketing,

business development) which have often been outsourced and where the organisation

often has little difficulty finding qualified external consultancy.

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Internal Consultancy John Evans

It is almost commonplace now to affirm that management does not control but

enable. A decent case could be made that the primary function of management is to

provide the conditions and support needed to enable highly skilled and

knowledgeable people to perform at their maximum capability. The particular interest

I had developed, and which I wanted to investigate, in this context, was in relation to

the proposition that internal consultancy and the skills of consulting would both

become very much more critical and valued (within organisations) than they had been

previously.

Did, for example, consulting have the power to make a more powerful, sustained and

significant change in organisations than training? Was it true that many of the

significant changes facing developers (knowledge management, use of new

technologies, empowering people, helping to create self managed teams, more rapid

and effective learning transfer, etc) required that they develop the skills of internal

consultants?

I was also curious that, although my organisation operates as a professional services

consultancy in the financial sector using predominantly actuarial skills, and the HR

training team provide a number of consulting skills courses, no-one had spoken to me

about HR training staff "modelling" consulting skills in their internal client liaison

work. Indeed, my own suggestion made some months before, that developing internal

consulting skills to a higher level within the HR training team would be a valuable

and sensible response to many of the issues we faced was rather frowned on. This

puzzled me because I was aware that the internal consulting model appeared to be

being used successfully elsewhere and "internal consultancy is an operating style

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Internal Consultancy John Evans

which aligns itself to the demands of flatter organisational structures and highly

skilled and knowledgeable workers", according to Thomas and Elbeik1. My

organisation, which is constituted as a partnership, has both of those characteristics. I

noticed that the development of a Firm-wide behavioural competencies framework

was proceeding on the assumption that our central services sections (what the

Americans would call the "staff functions" of marketing, IT, personnel, training,

accountancy, audit, knowledge management, business benefits, etc) would deploy

consultancy behaviours internally in much the same way as we expected external or

client facing staff to use them.

So, in this dissertation I aim to attempt to assess the proposition that internal

consultancy is a highway to effective people and organisational development. Are

writers such as Thomas and Elbeik right in making such striking claims for the value

of internal consultancy as:

· "The internal consultancy model offers immense benefits in harnessing and

actively promoting internal knowledge and expertise to improve

organisational performance."2 and

· "[We] firmly believe that these skills represent the start of a new business

order."3

Phillips and Shaw, writing seven years before Thomas and Elbeik, in 1989, had

suggested that trainers might move into consultancy as a response to the increasing

premium that, even then, organisations were placing on the following capacities4:

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Internal Consultancy John Evans

· Flexibility and creativity

· Vision

· Natural authority

· Diagnostic skills

· Problem solving skills

· Leadership

· Risk taking

· Accurate judgement

· Ability to use all available

skills and contributions

· Teamwork

· Consulting skills

· Decision making skills

· Ability to see the big picture

· Ability to think strategically

· Self-development and self

awareness

· Coaching and counselling skills

· Interpersonal skills

· Sensitivity

· Ability to motivate

· High pain threshold

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Since the late 1980's the perception that these skills and attributes – and other related

competencies – are what divides a world class management team from the rest, seems

to me to have grown. Phillips and Shaw claimed that these capabilities would be

better developed and sustained in organisations by trainers adopting more of a

consultancy approach.

These are not insubstantial claims. My aim in this dissertation is to investigate

internal consultancy and explore the extent to which it may provide a highway to

effective people and organisational development. Thus, as I set out on the journey

into this arena, some of the key questions I wanted to address might be summarised

briefly as follows:

· What is consulting?

· What is the scope and what are the skills of management consulting?

· How are they used?

· What application do the skills of management consulting have to an HR

training team or, say, a Marketing team within an organisation?

· How can I improve my own performance as a consultant?

· What might be done to help colleagues become more effective through the

development and use of consulting skills?

· What particular insights, benefits and advantages does the consulting approach

offer to those who use it within organisations?

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Chapter 1: Towards a definition of "consulting"

"A consultant is a person who takes your money and annoys your employees while

tirelessly searching for the best way to extend the contract." – Scott Adams5

In order to provide a framework for my investigation and development it is important

to be clear about what consulting is. So, in this first chapter, my aim is to seek to

understand the nature of consulting. In doing so, I will explore the contrast between

the executive function (management) and the advisory function (consultancy). I will

consider the idea that the contrast between these two functions is only sustainable if

one considers an older management paradigm and compares that with more recent

definitions of consultancy. I will consider the goals of the consultant – what, very

broadly, they aim to achieve. I will discuss the contention that consultancy must,

almost by definition, be something delivered from outside an organisation and,

consider, the claim that this external locus is central to our understanding of

consultancy. The consultant's claim to independence (of mind, location and

perspective), the tests of professional status and the associated claim to a body of

knowledge together with the ethics of consultancy will all be reviewed in this initial

overview.

Peter Block, writing in "Flawless Consulting"6, takes an inclusive view of consulting.

"All people who have professional expertise, limited direct authority over the use of

their expertise and the desire to make some impact", he says, "may act as

consultants".

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A manager, by contrast, according to Peter Block, is someone who has direct control

over the action. The consultant is a person in a position to have some influence over

an individual, a group or an organisation, but a consultant has no direct executive

power to make changes or implement programmes.

Block considers that much of the disfavour associated with the term consultant comes

from the, ever present, temptation for the consultant to act as a surrogate line

manager. Once a consultant accedes to this temptation they stop truly being

consultants.

In seeking to contrast consultancy with management, Block may be using a rather

dated management paradigm. In order to define consultancy he seeks to say what it is

not. It is clearly not the complete planning, directing, controlling and reviewing

function that would have been recognised as classical, scientific managerialism in the

1950s. My reservation about this approach to defining consulting by contrast with

management, is that management is reinventing itself to address the right first time,

self managed teams, innovative, flexible, customer-responsive, knowledge rich,

devolved and empowered front line culture. Many managers understand that a

(possibly the) key to success lies in reducing reliance on formal managerial authority,

rules, procedures and the narrow functional division of work. Stimulating effective

teamwork, the creation of a positive change climate and the nurturing of new

competencies are all part of the new managerial order. Managers from this new order

do not, I believe, provide such a stark contrast with the internal consultant as Peter

Block would have us believe?

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Prokopenko, Johri and Cooper appear to share my reservations. They write: "anyone

whose main job is to help individual managers, divisions or organisations to be more

effective in whatever they do could be considered a management consultant. Indeed,

nearly every manager and staff professional in an organisation is called on to consult

and advise others on how best to proceed or to gain commitments to change."7

They continue: "… an internal management consultant can be defined as an active

management service practitioner who analyses managerial activities, problems and

processes; make evaluations and recommends improvements and solutions and

whenever possible and if requested assists in implementing these recommendations."8

If the distinction between the managerial and consulting role is blurred is there,

perhaps, a distinction to be drawn at a more subtle level? Thomas and Elbeik contend

that there is – at the level of "mindset".

Old Management Mindset Internal Consultant Mindset

I am in control I serveI direct and command I help to facilitatePeople come to me I go to peopleI breed dependency I promote independenceStatus and position are Status/position unimportant important I think processesI think functionality I like blurred roles

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I like clear boundaries

Figure 1.19

This contrast in terms of "mindset" seems to have some practical value. It certainly

helps me to understand why I have a personal predisposition towards a consultancy

style.

Block contends that consultants have as their goals interventions. These are of two

sorts: organisational and to do with learning. The first type concerns change in

organisational structure, policy, procedure or system. The second type is the end

result that one person or many people may learn something new. However, Block's

detractors may say that he is a man enthralled by learning, who calls one of his

businesses "Designed Learning" and who has written: "consulting is primarily an

educational process."10

Would that more consultants took this view.

There are significant differences in the approach that Block and Markham take.

Markham signals this early. On page 1 of "The Top Consultant" he writes:

"consultancy is 'delivering specialist skills from outside the organisation.'" Markham

generally asserts that being outside the organisation is key to the definition of expert

consultancy that he uses. Though he does allow for the notion of internal consultant

he sees this person as a rather specialist management consultant.

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Larry Greiner and Robert Metzger provide an elaborate definition of management

consulting in their 1983 book "Consulting to Management"11. This also clearly places

the consultant out with the organisation:

"Management consulting is an advisory service contracted for and provided to

organisations by specially trained and qualified persons who assist, in an objective

and independent manner, the client organization to identify problems, analyse such

problems, recommend solutions to these problems and help, when requested, in the

implementation of solutions."

Calvert and Greiner and Metzger, in placing such emphasis on the importance of the

consultant being outside the client organisation, seem to me to court danger.

Organisations are today found with such a range of shapes and with such permeable

boundaries that it is sometimes difficult to know where "inside" and "outside" are.

This is illustrated by the increasing difficulty the Inland Revenue has had in making it

clear to people who engage consultants on a contract of service how these

engagements differ from the engagement of staff on a contract of employment basis.

The distinction, pressed by the Inland Revenue, that the consultant should supply all

the resources needed themselves and that the employee can expect to be equipped by

the employer is blurred when organisations provide desks and facilities to consultants

and require staff to work at home.

What is inside the organisation and what is outside can also become a grey area when

a consultancy unit is established as a cost and profit centre with a brief to meet the

needs of the parent organisation and to trade successfully in the open market.

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A further difficulty arises with the centrality of the "outside" the organisation criteria

when one considers two more aspects of organisational permeability. On the one hand

organisations are becoming more like networks and less like organisations. To quote

"The Economist" of 29 July, 1989, (page 82):

"The newest trend in organisations is almost a non-organisation: networks. The theory

here is that a company is at heart little more than a network of people with specialised

skills. As opportunities arise, the firm re-shapes itself into whatever form is necessary

for it to prosper. Examples of successful networking include the informally assembled

team that built IBM's first personal computer. Working outside the normal corporate

bureaucracy, it developed one of IBM's most successful products, in record time.

Now that's organisation!"

Prokopenko, Johri and Cooper write: "… organisations are becoming boundary less

by creating alliances with customers, suppliers and in many cases even with

competitors. In this context we may need to revise or reinterpret the term "internal" as

applied to internal consultants."12 This absence of boundary opens up the possibility

that the internal consulting team may also provide services to external clients –

moving them, as Prokopenko, Johri and Cooper note, from "cost centre to a new

position as profit centre and valuable contributor to corporate success."13

On the other hand, there are the external consultants who appear to have more

permanence than many of the staff especially when so many of these are being

recruited on temporary or limited term contracts. Understandably, this perception

(that staff come and go but the consultancy is here for the long term) can be the

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source of immense disquiet, not to say resentment, amongst staff. These feelings will,

of course, be heightened if the impression is gained that de-layering or outsourcing

decisions are being made on the advice of consultants at the expense of jobs or career

opportunities in the organisation itself.

Whilst some organisations have a vested interested in defining management

consultancy in terms of its origination (outside the client organisation) other writers

argue otherwise. As I have suggested, it is increasingly difficult to decide what

exactly is inside and what is outside of the organisation and Block, in any case,

accepts that consultants may be internal or external to the organisation. It is not a key

part of his definition that they offer their specialist skills from outside the

organisation. Block, indeed, believes that many people in "staff positions"† in

organisations normally operate as consultants.

Quite naturally, the Management Consultancies Association (MCA), which represents

the major consulting firmsy, provides a definition that highlights the independence of

the management consultant. The MCA definition is clearer about the importance of

the independence of the advice and assistance than about many other aspects of their

definition. Perhaps, however, this is inevitable in the case of a definition probably

crafted by committee to reflect the disparate interests of a wide range of management

consultancies. The MCA definition is:

† This is a peculiarly North American title used to identify central or business support staff employed in personnel, financial analysis, audit, systems analysis, market research, organisational development, safety and HRD functions, for example.

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"The rendering of independent advice and assistance about management issues. This

typically includes identifying and investigating problems and/or opportunities,

recommending appropriate action and helping to implement those recommendations."

The Institute of Management Consultancy* (IMC) also place emphasis on the

independence of the management consultant in their definition of consultancy:

"The service provided to business, public or other undertakings by an independent

and qualified person or persons in identifying and investigating problems concerned

with policy, organization, procedures and methods, recommending appropriate action

and helping to implement those recommendations."

Independence is, of course, not to be confused with external location. External

consultants can lack independence for all manner of reasons.

It is interesting to note that the IMC definition does not expressly refer to

management by name – though the types of problems cited might all be considered

essentially managerial.

There is some evidence that the MCA and the IMC, working jointly with the

Management Consultancy Business School, have recognised the need to address the

debate about whether management consultancy is an industry or a profession. This

question, which few trade associations and institutes seem to be able to avoid in the

* The IMC, founded in 1962, has about 3450 members. There are four grades of membership: affiliate, associate, member and fellow.

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first 30 to 50 years of their lives, came into focus first with the publication of Stanley

Hyman's book, "An Introduction to Management Consultancy" in 1961.

Hyman rehearsed the tests of professional status in relation to management

consultancy and concluded that, at that time, the industry was not a profession. It

must, however, be recognised that the development of the concept of "profession" in

the UK has not been without difficulty. Clifford D Sharp, in a paper delivered to the

Staple Inn Actuarial Society on June 8 1999, quotes Clare Bellis as follows:

"Despite the inconsistencies the definitions [of profession] can be distilled to identify

three main strands, cognitive, normative and organisational (where) cognitive items

include specialised knowledge and long training, normative items include such things

as ethical standards and a commitment to provide a service for the public good –

organisational items such as a national body with disciplinary powers to support the

cognitive and normative aspects." Sharp then goes on to highlight other aspects of

the term "profession". Members of a profession, he says, "place the responsibility for

the welfare, health and safety of the community before their responsibility to the

profession, to sectional or private interests" and "they should apply their skill and

knowledge in the interests of their employer or client for whom they must act in

professional matters as faithful agents or trustees."14 Management consultants seem to

have made some progress in identifying a body of established knowledge (significant

enough to form the basis for the MSc in Management Consultancy awarded by the

University of Surrey); in training recruits to meet the Certified Management

Consultant* qualification benchmark (now recognised in 25 countries through the * A CMC must have a degree or equivalent professional qualification, be a practising management consultant with five years' full-time consultancy experience – unless the individual is a member of an IMC recognised training practice, in which case the requirement is three years.

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partnership activities of the International Council of Management Consulting

Institutes) and in developing a sense of responsibility towards clients. Indeed, with

delightful candour, the IMC have published a questionnaire that was used in the early

1990's to assess the extent to which experienced management consultants would agree

on certain ethical dilemmas. This simple questionnaire was designed to show the

large measure of agreement that was expected amongst a group of predominantly

older, white and male management consultants. In fact the survey showed that the

differences in opinion on a range of issues were considerable. Here are a few

situations and assessments drawn from this questionnaire:

Situation Wrong Wrong but acceptable

Acceptable

You have a home computer but do not have the same software that you use in the office. Your boss says it is ok to take the software home and copy it.

33% 52% 15%

The bank makes a £100 error in your favour – you decide to let them find it.

52% 43% 5%

Your client already knows the solution that they want to the problem.

43% 14% 43%

I own a few shares in my client. 60% 0% 40%My business partner, a chartered accountant, is auditor to my client.

62% 5% 33%

My business partner, a lawyer, is legal adviser to my client.

55% 0% 45%

Fig X.xx15

Despite the difficulties that these varied responses might suggest, the IMC has now

published an agreed "Code of professional conduct" which is based on three

principles:

· Meeting the client's requirements ("a member shall regard the client's

requirements and interests as paramount"16);

· Integrity, independence and objectivity ("a member shall avoid any action or

situation inconsistent with the member's professional obligations or that in any

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way might be seen to impair the member's integrity. In formulating advice and

recommendations, the member will be guided solely by the member's objective

view of the client's best interests"17);

· Responsibility to the profession and to the Institute ("a member's conduct shall at

all times endeavour to enhance the standing and public recognition of the

profession and the Institute"18).

These principles are underpinned by detailed rules.

The trade association of the larger consultancy firms in the UK (the Management

Consultancies Association) also has a code of conduct consisting of five, relatively

brief, rules and a right to exclude MCA members who contravene these strictures.

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Chapter 2: The scope and skills of management consultancy

A management consultant is an individual who borrows your watch to tell the time

and then walks off with it.

The aim of this chapter is to begin to answer a number of my critical questions. I have

selected the management consultancy industry for investigation for a number of

reasons.

First, because my own organisation appears to model it's approach to actuarial

consulting on management consultancy. Second, because we are actively encouraging

our consultants to undertake internal training and external accredited learning at

Masters level which are designed around a management consultancy model. Third,

because in the HR Training team we use a number of management consultants to

contribute to projects and design and develop specialist training. Fourth, because I am

interested in the nature of the relationship between manager and management

consultant. To what extent, for example, might this relationship suggest a model that

could be used to develop the internal consultancy relationship between HR Training

Adviser and internal client?

This Chapter will, therefore, fall into two parts. The first part will analyse the

management consultancy profession or industry from a number of perspectives,

consider its relationship to management and management development and aim to

highlight those aspects of the practice of the profession or industry that may be of

value given my objectives.

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The second part of the Chapter will draw together my findings concerning the

consulting skills which appear to be being used in the management consultancy

industry or profession, examine how they are being used and consider what

applications these may have to an HR team within an organisation. At the heart of this

second part will be the following hypothesis – if the management consultancy

industry is so successful (and that begs the question whether it is or not), what skills

and approaches can be learnt and transferred into internal consultancy practice in the

HRD field.

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Part One: The management consultancy industry

Advice to Vodafone from a firm of management consultants when choosing the

company name: "No company beginning with the letter V has ever been successful."

Volkswagen and Volvo excepted, they might have said. But didn't.19

The global consultancy market is big business. In 1997 "Management Today" (March

1997, page 33) estimated that the market was worth around $40 billion, $15 billion of

that in the US. Upwards of 100,000 of the most highly qualified people in the world

are now employed in consultancy businesses worldwide. A top-level consultant with

one of the big firms (McKinsey, Bain, Boston Consulting Group, Anderson,

PriceWaterhouseCoopers) bills at least £3,000 per day and, on average, a McKinsey

employee generates income approaching $500,000 a year.

Individually, "blue chip" organisations appear to spend lavishly on consultancy –

though apparently AT&T's declared total of $347 million (in 1993) is an all time

record.20

During the period from 1997 to 2000 the Gartner Group estimated that management

consultants fee income would double.

Whilst client organisations down size we have witnessed the steady growth in the

number of consultants employed to absorb or advise on the out-sourced functions.

The scope of the consultancy offer is ever widening. "When British Gas's TransCo

pipeline business faced the simultaneous need to break itself up, introduce a new

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market for gas and conform to a new regulatory formula …it "had consultants

crawling all over the place", in the words of one executive."21 Privatisation and the

marketisation of the public sector has created a huge new market, whilst the

deregulation, de-mutualisation, re-regulation and mergers and acquisitions endemic in

the financial services sector have all created further opportunities for consultants.22

The growth of consultancy, it is suggested, is not without other costs. These may

include "outsourcing of the basic job of management" which saps "managers' ability

to reclaim responsibility even if they wanted to" according to Eileen Shapiro23

(formerly a McKinsey consultant) and the recycling of standard solutions to common

problems. Greiner and Metzger 24 argue that management consultants "define the

problem one way and then implement a solution that fits only a pet idea of the

consultant or the client". Commenting on this observation, Clive Rassam writes25:

"off the shelf solutions are not always appropriate". At the prices charged by the

leading consultancies one might expect not to have to put up with anything "off the

shelf" – but that is clearly not the case.

Costly consultancy may fulfil another function for clients. It may serve to underwrite

top management's own status and responsibilities. ("See how vital and difficult this

re-organisation is? The consultant's report alone cost $1 million!")

One critical question irksome to management consultants and embarrassing to

managers is why, exactly, managers should pay for advice on what they themselves

are paid to do – that is, run their companies. John Peet, writing in "The Economist"26,

suggested that clients call in consultants because they do not know what to do next,

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because it is fashionable, to get a seal of approval for a course of action already

agreed, to strengthen the case for a favoured (but disputed) course of action or even to

provide a pretext for sacking particular managers.

In the early 1970s the Association of Internal Management Consultants was formed in

the USA. At that time, in the USA, there were thought to be about one hundred

companies using internal consultants but ten years later the American Association of

Management Consultants found that internal consulting was the fastest growing

segment of the consulting business.

Prokopenko, Johri and Cooper assert that 100,000 people were working in internal

consultancy units in the UK – the Institute of Management Services having 11,000

members in 1988 and the Civil Service having 5,681 staff engaged in internal

consulting.

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Part Two: Consulting models in the industryIf we now turn to the management consulting industry for a single model of

consulting practice that may be useful to us in our consideration of internal

consultancy approaches we will be disappointed. The industry employs a number of

models that, together with "consulting values", may be seen to influence the

consulting process that a particular consultant offers.

There is almost a sense in which we need to be clear first about what a management

consultant "is" before we begin to consider what the consultant "does". What the

management consultant is will be seen in their approach, style and development and

these attributes may be expected to connect with the consultant's guiding values,

ethics and principles. Values, ethics and principles will also have a complex but vital

relationship with the set of assumptions and beliefs that the individual brings to the

role they play as a management consultant. Indeed, it might be argued that the two

domains are simply two main facets of the individual's belief system. They make up

that individual's "world view". This worldview may be more or less tacit or

acknowledged. Some consultants may prefer to talk in terms of paradigm. In this

context, paradigm might be described as an underlying worldview, possibly largely

tacit, that leads the individual, the consultancy or the wider constituency of interests

to perceive and interpret the world without necessarily being aware of the

assumptions being made. Discussion is further complicated by the fact that many

management consultants are not lone operators and their consulting approach will be

significantly influenced by the values of their firm as expressed in the culture of that

organisation.

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One might expect consulting values to remain relatively stable over a reasonable

period. A consultant exhibiting instability in this area might well be a consultant to

avoid engaging, at least for the time being. As values concern the heart – what one is

passionate about and will not give up – they tend to form an anchor. Without this

anchor behaviour may become unpredictable.

The importance of this anchor in management consulting is that it influences (but isn't

the same as) "the way the consultant works". Their consulting approach or styles are

functions or enactments of the beliefs, values and assumptions that they and, quite

possibly their firm, bring to the consultancy. I am here referring to the general

character, the aura, and the overall tone of the consultancy.

The tone of the consultancy will be influenced by certain qualities of the individual

which, whilst difficult to describe are, nonetheless, instantly recognisable. I am

referring here to the gravitas, presence, centredness, confidence and poise that come

from emotional competence, high self esteem and having a positive self-concept.

Being present requires "not being disabled by anxiety, and so being open to others

rather than closed27". Presence has a number of enemies – apathy, lack of centredness

or facilitation skills, the failure to manage emotions and general anxiety amongst

them. Edwin Nevis, a gestalt practitioner, considers that presence is central to the role

of consultant: "in the process of helping the client system to improve its functioning,

the consultant is to provide a presence that is otherwise lacking."28 Nevis believes that

consultants are to use "certain values, attitudes and skills … to stimulate, and perhaps

evoke from the client, action that is necessary for movement on its problems…"29

28

Gerard Egan strongly urges any person in a helping role to invest in what he describes

as psychological presence: "physical attending", he writes, "is a matter of being

present to another; listening is what you do to attend."30 Peter Block advocates

"authentic behaviour", Nevis highlights the way in which the consultant, by

selectively sharing their own feelings, can establish their presence in the relationship.

The key decision is probably around the selection of what to share and what not to

share.

Within this general character there may be preferences for a particular way of

working. However, it appears that many management consultants can draw on a wide

repertoire of ways of working and, indeed, this is a distinct advantage for the client.

This feature may well be what the client is most keen to secure.

Before beginning to consider a range of management consulting models it is

worthwhile commenting on the relative lack of published academic material on this

subject. Management consulting is still relatively young as a profession, management

consultancies are traditionally secretive (some exceptionally so) and the methods of

training used have, until recently, been based almost exclusively on the

apprenticeship model – work experience and internal training. It would, it seems to

me, be perfectly possible to gain a completely erroneous view of management

consultancy models from the published literature because so much has come from the

organisational developers. OD practice is founded on strong humanistic principles

and OD practitioners have been prepared to discuss their models and ideas in an

academic context. This is helpful in the sense that I am interested in exploring the

contribution that internal consultancy may make to organisational development. It is

29

potentially unhelpful in the sense that the published literature speaks volumes about

OD and related practice but in terms of rigorous, analytical work on management

consultancy, is relatively silent.

Indeed, such is the dominance of the OD specialists in the published literature; it is

worth stopping for a moment and considering the principal ways in which consultants

are used. Kubr considers that "most of the consulting assistance to management will

be given in one or more of the following ten ways:

· Providing information

· Providing specialist resources

· Establishing business contacts and linkages

· Proving expert opinion

· Doing diagnostic work

· Developing action proposals

· Improving systems and methods

· Planning and managing organisational changes

· Training and developing management and staff

· Providing personal counselling."31

Certain of the models following are more closely associated with some of these forms

of assistance than others. Some of the models discussed below are entirely unsuitable

for use in connection with some of these forms of assistance.

Perhaps the most commonly discussed model for consulting practice might be called

the doctor-patient model. The very title harks back to the, once popular, nickname

for management consultants: "company doctors". This model works on the

30

assumption that the client company is suffering from some illness that needs to be

cured. The consultant first takes a history, considers the symptoms and then moves on

to making a diagnosis. This diagnosis is agreed with the "patient" "who" is then

issued with a prescription. This document, the consultant's report, will not only

describe the medicine that needs to be taken, at what frequency and over what period,

but may also detail "operations", "blood letting" and other treatments which should be

carried out.

It would be possible to further elaborate the model by drawing parallels between the

consultant's firm and the consultant surgeon's firm, the role of "juniors" in carrying

out the assignment (once the senior consultant has completed the front end work), the

possible need for "injections" of new ideas or methods and other forms of therapy. It

is also clear that the doctor-patient model draws upon the notion of the consultant as

expert and assumes a relatively passive and uninformed patient. This model

presupposes, I think, a consultant who knows what good health is, a patient resigned

to the belief that they are "sick" and a relatively poorly balanced power relationship

between consultant and client.

Bob Garratt, a management consultant who was for many years Secretary of the

Association of Management Education and Development, identified32 three styles in

consulting practice: expertise consulting, process consulting and contingent

consulting. Garratt's "expertise consulting" also has echoes of medicine.

Garratt likens expertise consulting to surgery. It is a drastic intervention with, often,

irreversible outcomes. It involves an acknowledged expert (e.g., a consulting engineer

31

or an information systems specialist) being invited into an organisation to provide a

solution to an identified problem. Expertise consulting can be high on logic and

rationality and low on involvement or client ownership. It is most useful when the

client has a new and unfamiliar problem that is not expected to recur and where there

is a pressing deadline to meet.

In the features of the medical, doctor-patient, surgical or expertise model I see some

possible dangers. Not least amongst these are:

· the passive role which the consultant expects the client to perform;

· the possible temptation to arrogance on the part of the consultant;

· the fictional (see box below) notion of causal relationships and the

validity of linear organisational analysis;

· the difficulty of creating genuine partnership between client and

consultant when this model is presupposed;

· the "requirement", for this model to work, that the client see themselves

or their organisation (or both) as diseased or unhealthy.

This last "requirement" is particularly restrictive and, I think, peculiar. It rules out the

perfectly reasonable case of the organisation that sees itself as perfectly healthy but in

need of improvement. Somehow this model of consulting requires that the client buy

into the notion of being "unable" – which may be far from the truth.

The fictional notion of cause and effect and the validity of linear organisational

analysis

In my experience, expert consultants sometimes produce reports that rely on highly

simplifying notions of cause and effect (X definitely took place solely because Y was

32

allowed to repeat and consequence W was the result) and are based on a linear

paradigm. Organisations are, however, much more complex than this analysis would

suggest.

Why then do organisations buy into this simplification? I suggest that it is sometimes

explicable by a lack of willingness, common until quite recently, to accept the

essentially chaotic nature of much organisational life. Managers brought up on the

conventions of scientific management naturally find this challenging. Expert

consultants seem to meet a need for the simplicity of certainty and predictability and

clients and consultants collude in preferring this to what Lewin refers to as the

"organised, interconnected, interdependent, interactive nature of the whole"33 – which

is so much less amenable to linear, causal analysis and simple description.

The medical patient entering hospital for the first time is likely to be concerned about

the results of putting him- or herself in the hands of the "experts". David Maister

summarises the insecurities of the client about to place themselves in the hands of the

expert consultant with, I think, considerable insight:

1. "I'm feeling insecure. I'm not sure I know how to detect which of the finalists is

the genius, and which is just good. I've exhausted my abilities to make

technical distinctions.

2. I'm feeling threatened. This is my area of responsibility, and even though

intellectually I know I need outside expertise, emotionally it's not comfortable

to put my affairs in the hand of others.

3. I'm taking a personal risk. By putting myself in the hands of others I risk losing

control.

4. I'm impatient. I didn't call anyone in at the first sign of symptoms (or

opportunity). I've been thinking about this for a while.

33

5. I'm worried. By the very fact of suggesting improvements or changes, these

people are going to be implying that I haven't done it right up till now. Are

these people going to be on my side?

6. I'm exposed. Whoever I hire, I'm going to reveal some proprietary secrets, not all

of which are flattering. I will have to undress.

7. I'm feeling ignorant and I don't like the feeling. I don't know if I have got a

simple problem or a complex one. I'm not sure I can trust them to be honest

about that: it's in their interest to convince me it's complex.

8. I'm sceptical. I've been burned before by these kinds of people. You get a lot of

promises: How do I know whose promise I should buy?

9. I'm concerned that they either can't or won't take the time to understand what

makes my situation special. They'll try to sell me what they've got rather than

what I need.

10. I'm suspicious. Will they be those typical professionals who are hard to get hold

of, who are patronising, who leave you out of the loop, who befuddle you with

jargon, who don't explain what they're re-doing or why, who…, who …, who …?

In short, will these people deal with me in the way I want to be dealt with?"

Figure: X.xx34

The medical, doctor-patient or expert role, whilst subject to criticism, has the

advantage of being well established. It is used especially to refer to the situations

where the client needs expertise or a particular resource. This might include

supplying information, diagnosing the organisation, undertaking a feasibility study,

designing a new system, training staff in a new technique, recommending

organisational and other changes or commenting on a proposed project.

A second model is the sales model. In this case the consultant has a product or service

and will go searching for a potential client with the appropriate need. This modus

operandi is one that has the potential to reinforce a number of the negative

stereotypes associated with management consulting. In cases where the consultant is

34

poorly trained and too eager (s) he may unwittingly be cast in the role of consultant

with a proprietary solution to a problem which the client may not have accepted they

have. In certain cases, IT consultancy for example, this may indeed be the case. Even

here, however, the consultant needs to be able to present features as benefits and talk

about modifications, bespoke adaptations and personal after care services such as

training and technical support.

A third model is that of the travel agent. This is the model preferred by Charles J

Margerison in his book "Managerial Consulting Skills"35. Margerison "assumes that

the client is on a journey. The clients may not always know specifically where they

wish to go or how to get there. It is the job of the consultant to go through their

objectives and to work out the best means to reach their destination."

Margerison goes on to explain that he helps managers decide for themselves where

they wish to go and how they wish to travel. He does this by "designing the

vehicles36" for the managers to use. These include various sorts of meetings to

achieve a range of objectives connected with the journey. Margerison describes his

"code" which he uses to guide his consultancy of this type:

"D = Destinations. Where does this client want to go?

V = Vehicles. What methods are available for getting there?

M = Maps. How can the client understand what has to be done en route?"37

I see echoes here of the classic (Carl) Rogerian model of counselling (or therapy).

Rogers believed passionately that people could gain effective control of their lives if

35

they were helped to understand where they had come from, where they are now and

where they want to be. The Rogerian counsellor's role is to help the client understand

this and provide the motivation to purposeful action.

This counselling model sees the client as the individual human being and not the

corporation or the plc but there are echoes of this approach in what has become

known as process consulting.

From time to time, in discussing management consulting models, I have heard people

talk about consulting "process". Generally, it is the "underpinning logic" of

consultancy that people intend to refer to, but the use of the word "process" is beset

with difficulties. Learning specialists may well use the term to mean the way in which

skills are learnt, adapted and adopted for use in a particular context by a given

individual. Organisational development specialists often mean to refer to the human

interaction aspects of organisations when they talk about process. Psychologists or

those influenced by them may intend something quite different. Process, in other

management consultancy contexts, may mean the entire business activity through

which value is added and a return on the investment generated as in the case of

"business process re-engineering". For all these reasons it is critically important that a

reasonably clear definition of process consulting is adopted.

Process consulting, for Garratt, is like therapy. It involves people much more

because it concerns the people based problem-solving aspects of management.

36

Edgar Schein, who some regard as the originator of process consulting, describes it

as: "a set of activities on the part of the consultant that help the client to perceive,

understand, and act upon the process events that occur in the client's environment"38. I

don't find this a very satisfactory definition as the concept of "process events" is at the

heart of the explanation and, therefore, remains unexplained!

Milan Kubr offers39, perhaps, a more satisfactory definition of process consulting:

"[helping] the organisation to solve its own problems by making it aware of

organisational processes, of their likely consequences, and of intervention techniques

for stimulating change". For Kubr the process consultant is primarily concerned "with

passing on his or her approach, methods and values so that the client organisation

itself can diagnose and remedy its own problems."40

Schein explains that the "most central premise of process consulting is that the client

owns the problem and continues to own it throughout the consultation process. The

consultant can help the client to deal with the problem, but the consultant never takes

the problem onto his own shoulders."41

Process consulting is most useful when the problems are complex and not well

defined, when there is a need for the client to be thoroughly involved in the resolution

of the problem and where there is a continuing need to develop problem solving skills

in the area concerned.

Many commentators distinguish between expert and process consulting. Thomas and

Elbeik42, for example, highlight some characteristic advantages of expert consulting.

37

It can, they say, provide a fast or quick response to a problem; is often highly

focused; may apply exactly the right expertise to the problem and has high impact.

"Directive" in style, operating at the "tell" end of the spectrum, expert consulting may

breed client dependency. Yet technically neat and logical solutions may be delivered

into a vacuum (and deposited on a shelf) because the client commitment has not been

developed. Expert consulting can also deliver the wrong solution, through lack of

understanding combined with little client ownership and no client commitment and

this can lead to a greatly reduced level of client confidence.

One result of an excessive use of expert consulting is that it can lower the collective

morale of an organisation, which is, effectively and constantly, being "told" that it

does not have the expertise to solve its own problems. Expert consulting, overused,

may also diminish or devalue the intellectual capital in the organisation and create a

dependency culture – healthy, perhaps, for the consultant but distinctly unhealthy for

the client.

Process consulting, whilst having the disadvantages of being not particularly fast and

possibly supplying the wrong expertise has the compensating advantages of offering

solutions through high levels of client ownership and commitment both of which

build the client's confidence in the process and can be significantly motivational.

Process consultants work on the assumption that the client has the necessary expertise

to reach a solution but needs help – facilitation – in unearthing this dynamic.

Though attractive in many ways, in this respect, process consultants may, of course,

be wrong! The organisation may not have the expertise needed.

38

One of the problems with many bi-polar models (like the Westminster model of

government and opposition) is that they tend to lead to, often fruitless, argument

about which polar opposite is better or more effective. In the case of these two

models (expert and process) there are a number of reasons why this argument of pre-

eminence is being avoided. First, there appears to be recognition that the two models

have application in particular situations and should be seen as complementary and not

competitive. Second, many technical, expert consultants recognise that the

medical/doctor-patient model has most power when combined with an awareness of

process and organisational dynamics. Third, many organisational development

specialists (for whom the process model may have considerable attraction) accept that

they need to combine their process consulting orientation with technical, financial,

political and economic expertise in order to effect organisational change.

39

Multiple Roles of the Consultant

Reflector Process specialist

Fact finder Alternative identifier

Collaborator in problem-solving

Trainer/ educator

Technical expert

Advocate

Level of consultant activity in problem solving

NON-DIRECTIVE DIRECTIVE

Raises questions for reflection

Observes problem solving processes and raises issues mirroring feedback

Gathers data and stimulates thinking

Identifies alternatives and resources for client and helps assess consequences

Offers alternatives and participates in decisions

Trains the client and designs learning experiences

Provides information and suggestions for policy or practice decisions

Proposes guidelines, persuades or directs in the problem solving process

Figure: X.. xx43

Client

Consultant

It is argued that a flexible approach is most beneficial. This flexibility can be

achieved in different ways. Garratt writes about contingent consulting and implies

that it is an integration of the two extreme models, whereas others argue for a flexible

consulting style which employs insights and approaches from both expert and process

model at different stages in a project to achieve the desired outcome. Gordon and

Ronald Lippitt develop this further by employing a non-directive and directive

continuum (see Figure X.xx, above) and also agree that the consultant may play a

range of roles situational as the project or assignment progresses and the relationship

with the client evolves.

Thomas and Elbeik simplify the non-directive / directive continuum and refer to the

consultant's listening and telling modes of operation. This may be illustrated with a

diagram, which I have adapted from Thomas and Elbeik44:

Use of client's knowledge and experience

Listening

Use of consultant's knowledge and experience

Telling

"Knowing where to be on the Listening-Telling continuum throughout the project is one of my key skills"

Process

Expert

Thomas and Elbeik associate listening with the process consultancy model and telling

with the expert model and summarise one result of this in the following observation:

"Process consulting demands that you focus not only on the problem but also on the

client."45 (Italics supplied)

Contingent consulting has, for me, echoes of both facilitation and non-directive

counselling. Bob Garratt describes contingent consulting as follows:

"It attempts to integrate the expertise and process practices when appropriate to the

progression of the organisation's problem … relying on the asking of high quality

questions and developing an information-based approach to problem-solving."46

Sally Garratt comments that, in using a consultant who operates in this way, "the

client is not buying that consultant's expert knowledge of the subject to unravel the

problem, but rather his intelligence and naivety."47 Contingent consulting appears to

involve restating or reframing the problem in such a way that the client's values are

brought to the surface together with one or more solutions.

Part Three: Application Case StudiesWhat application do these skills have to an HR training or a Marketing team within

an organisation?

Chapter 3: The skills and models of the Internal Consultant

Skills

Peter Block (who is primarily concerned with the internal consultant) suggests that

the consultant needs three types of skill to function effectively: technical skill,

interpersonal skill and consulting skill. Each is essential. Calvert Markham, in "The

Top Consultant",48 takes a somewhat different view about the trinity of skills needed.

Markham agrees that technical and consultancy skills are essential but he replaces

interpersonal skills with "applications skills": experience or knowledge of the

application of the specialist skill to a specific area.

These differences between the types of skills required are a clear indicator of

consultancy style. Markham takes an approach to consultancy that is readily identified

as being of the "expert" type. (At the other end of this spectrum there lies the

"process" type of consultancy). Markham, therefore, sees the consultant's power

deriving primarily from the knowledge, skill, experience and know-how that gain

them admission to the organisation. Markham writes from the power base of the

expert, well illustrated by two quotations:

· "If you do not have the expertise, then you cannot act as an expert."

· "If you are not credited with any expertise, you will have no expert power."49

I note here the strong emphasis on power.

However, even a highly relevant technical expertise may not be sufficient to operate

successfully as an internal consultant, as the writings of RG Harrison suggest.

Harrison has a background in management services and consultancy experience in

both the public and the private sector. Writing in 1981 in "Management Services"50 he

argues that the professional expertise of the management services practitioner is

rarely sufficient to enable him/her to function effectively as an internal consultant.

Harrison's paper is particularly helpful because in the early 1980's management

services practitioners in the public sector, especially, were engaged in the process of

re-evaluating their contribution to the effectiveness of organisations. Harrison argues

that, in two of the functions of management consultancy the MS expert performed

well but in a final functional area the MS expert was most often notable for his/her

absence.

The Management Services Practitioner's Scorecard in 1981 – marked by R G

Harrison

1 Identifying a problem 4

2 Recommending a solution 4

3 Helping with implementation 8

Harrison claims that MS practitioners were good at identifying the problem, getting

beneath symptoms to unearth root causes and the consequences of the problem. He

believes that MS practitioners were good at exploring the costs and consequences of

inaction.

Developing and recommending a solution was also well within the capability of the

MS practitioner. Indeed, "their technical training and professional orientation are

geared towards competent diagnosis followed by the design of technically elegant

solutions,"51 he writes.

What Harrison recognised was that the MS practitioner often departed the scene at

this point. MS practitioners, at this time, were offering sophisticated diagnosis

followed by elaborate technical solutions delivered in a beautifully produced report

that ignored the political, cultural and emotional aspects of the change process.

Moreover, the MS practitioner, according to Harrison, invariably abandoned the

client "precisely at the point where he must begin to take the difficult yet decisive

steps towards action and implementation."52 Little wonder that MS practitioners were

not, according to Harrison, particularly successful as consultants, at this time.

Though Harrison does not advance this view personally, I wonder if the skill-set of

the MS practitioner/internal consultant was deficient in respect of some of the soft (or

permanentY skills that I discuss later in this Chapter.

The parallels here with some training practice today impressed me forcibly. How

often do trainers provide the analysis and the models in a vacuum but then fail to

support the process of change as the manager implements what they have learnt?

How often does the trainer follow the delegate back to work from the course and see

to what extent they actually use any of the skills that have been taught? Would that

not be a way of deciding if anything had been learnt? Trainers who wish to follow the

pathway to consulting, which Keri Phillips and Patricia Shaw claim to be

characterised by a movement from the left to the right on any of the five dimensions

set out below, are probably going to be at least this creative.

Figure 4.153

Just as MS practitioners needed, in Harrison's view, to be aware that previous

experience might only take them so far in internal consultancy, so the trainer (in the

view of Phillips and Shaw) needs to be wary of certain learnt behaviours that may be

a barrier to effective consultancy. Trainers who seek to become consultants may need,

they say, to learn to let go of "performing" before groups; learn to let go of control

and learn to let go of predictability and what comes next. They say:

“Since as a consultant he is not there to teach or train people but to help them learn,

problem-solve and develop, his skills in helping people memorise things will not be

sufficient. Providing instant understanding, making sense of everything for everyone,

may not help everyone learn, least of all himself."54

I notice here that the trainer who functions as facilitator of adult learning (rather than

as didact) will have the advantage, if we wholly accept Phillips and Shaw's argument,

in the transition to consultancy.

Harrison also recognised that the MS practitioner who wanted to act as internal

consultant needed to "engage and manage the client's commitment to solving the

problem and develop a suitable strategy for implementing the proposed solution,

which will cope with the resource constraints and political obstacles which so often

Narrower Organisational Perspective WiderLesser Degree of influence GreaterShorter Timescale of Projects LongerSingle Levels of Working MultipleReactive Orientation Proactive

inhibit change. Developing client commitment and planning for implementation call

for other skills beyond sheer technical/analytical ability. Interpersonal competence

and political judgement are essential ingredients."55

Thomas and Elbeik suggest56 a number of key skills of critical importance to the

internal consultant. These include:

· The ability to supply fresh and independent analysis.

· The ability to provide top quality advice, in the right manner and at the right time.

· The facility to empower teams to develop their own solutions.

· The knowledge and the confidence to think outside the immediate, or the personal

functional "box", and help clients develop solutions that display a strategic

business perspective.

· The confidence to cope with considerable personal and organisational ambiguity

and still retain credibility.

· The competence (and willingness) to challenge and confront senior colleagues

without appearing rude, arrogant or patronizing.

· Marketing skills.

· The ability to manage a number of client assignments coterminously.

· The ability to listen (really listen) to the client, communicate understanding and

suggest to the client that they [italics supplied] are the central focus of your

work now.

· The capacity to negotiate and agree terms of reference in a constrained, internal

market.

· Desk and field research skills.

· Interview, questionnaire design and analysis, process mapping and organisational

analysis skills.

· Challenging and probing skills.

· Project management skills.

· Report writing and presentation skills.§

In larger scale projects there may also be the need to manage the input from a range

of internal consultancy staff.

Considering this discussion about key skills for process consulting, it appears to me,

that there are other skills that will assist the consultant – mostly in the area of

establishing effective, quality relationships with clients. These would seem to include

the following types of skills often developed through counselling and psychotherapy

training and practice:

· Having a strong base of self esteem

· Really listening to clients

· Refusing to be rushed through the contracting stage

· Expressing consultant’s wants for the project as well as finding out what the client

wants - negotiating wants and offers

· Paying attention to any feelings of unease experienced in early meetings

· Being willing to ask direct questions

· Giving and receiving feedback on the progress of the relationship.

The process consultant, Edgar Schein, produces a rich list of factors that, he says,

affect an individual's ability to "build, maintain, improve and, if need be, repair face

to face relationships" which are so critical to success in all forms of consultancy.

These are nine-fold and summarised as:

· "Self-insight and a sense of one's own identity;

· Cross-cultural sensitivity – the ability to decipher other people's values;

· Cultural/moral humility – the ability to see one's own value system as not

necessarily better or worse than another's values;

· A proactive problem solving orientation – the conviction that interpersonal and

cross-cultural problems can be solved;

· Personal flexibility – the ability to adopt different responses and approaches as

needed by situational contingencies;

· Negotiation skills – the ability to explore differences creatively, to locate some

common ground and to solve the problem;

· Interpersonal and cross-cultural tact – the ability to solve problems with people

without insulting them, demeaning them, or destroying their face;

· Repair strategies and skills – the ability to resurrect, to revitalize and to rebuild

damaged or broken face to face relationships; and,

· Patience."57

Of course, the nature of the internal consultancy business and the strategic objectives

of the internal consultant will affect the type of skills that are considered most critical.

A consultant with an action learning or process consulting practice to develop will be

more interested in honing the skills that Schein highlights. If the business is centred,

say, on the design and development of knowledge management systems the skills

base will be different.

Margaret Neal and Christine Lloyd (who have specialised in organisational

development) highlight the importance of "extremely well developed systems

thinking and awareness of organisational dynamics"58 combined with "a deep

awareness of [personal] biases and values in the consulting processes"59 and the

"ability to think conceptually, extracting simple patterns from the internal

complexities of organisations".60 Like Thomas and Elbeik they put a premium on the

ability to "confront" which they describe as the "courage to challenge internal

direction and decisions while still sustaining effective working relationships"61 and

Neal and Lloyd also assert that internal consultants need to be able to "coach, share

best practice and transfer skills across the organisation."62 Sharing best practice and

transferring skills across the organisation is a role that the internal consultant can

perform. [Insert quotation from first interview with NT here] Neal and Lloyd also

recognise this, writing: "One of the key roles of the internal is to enhance internal

capabilities over a prolonged period of time."63

The internal capabilities of organisations may, of course, relate to intellectual capital,

process management expertise, managerial effectiveness, corporate governance

capability, releasing and promoting corporate vision, quality management – indeed,

any of these areas where external consultants may contribute.

In a series of reported case studies, Neal and Lloyd highlight the need for the internal

consultant to:

· "Stay objective

· [Be] independent

· [Be] scrupulously honest in not playing people off against each other ot trying

to gain favour by siding with the senior manager

· Not be intimidated by the seniority of the clients

· Preserve confidentiality of any of the one to one discussions with individuals

unless there is expressed permission to do so†

† Meaning, unless the individual gives the internal consultant permission to break the code of confidentiality surrounding the one to one discussion.1 Mark Thomas and Sam Elbeik, "Supercharge Your Management Role", 1996, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, 1996, page 32 Thomas and Elbeik, 1996, page 43 Thomas and Elbeik, 1996, page 54 List adapted from Keri Phillips and Patricia Shaw, "A Consultancy Approach for Trainers", 1989, Gower, Aldershot5 Quoted in an article by Simon Caulkin in "Management Today", March 1997, page 33. Institute of Management, London6 Peter Block, "Flawless Consulting: A Guide To Getting Your Expertise Used", 1981, Pfeiffer & Company, San Francisco7 Joseph Prokopenko, Hari Johri and Chris Cooper, "Internal Management Consulting: Building In House Competencies for Sustainable Improvements", Entreprise (sic) and Management Development Working Paper – EMD/20/E, published on the internet by the International Labour Organisation8 Prokopenko, Johri and Cooper, op cit9 Thomas and Elbeik, 1996, page 410 Peter Block, "Flawless Consulting: A Guide To Getting Your Expertise Used", 1981, Pfeiffer & Company, San Francisco, page 8211 Larry Greiner and Robert Metzger, "Consulting to Management", 1983, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ12 Joseph Prokopenko, Hari Johri and Chris Cooper, "Internal Management Consulting: Building In House Competencies for Sustainable Improvements", Entreprise (sic) and Management Development Working Paper – EMD/20/E, published on the internet by the International Labour Organisation13 Prokopenko, Johri and Cooper, op cit.14 Clifford D Sharp, "Professionalism, Vision and Values", pamphlet published by the Staple Inn Actuarial Society, June 1999, London15 Christian Paul Lynch, IMC Questionnaire and responses, 1992, quoted in "Management Consultancy: a handbook for best practice", Editor: Philip Sadler, 1998, Kogan Page, London, Chapter2, page 4216 Code of Professional Conduct, Institute of Management Consultant's brochure, London17 Code of Professional Conduct, Institute of Management Consultant's brochure, London18 Code of Professional Conduct, Institute of Management Consultant's brochure, London19 Chris Blackhurst, "Blackhurst's Diary", in "Management Today", July 2000, page 16, Institute of Management, London20 According to Simon Caulkin, article in "Management Today", March 1997, page 34, Institute of Management, London21 Quoted by Simon Caulkin writing in "Management Today", March 1997.22 The NHS spent £200 million on consultancy in 1996 alone.23Quoted by Simon Caulkin writing in "Management Today", op cit.24 Larry Greiner and Robert Metzger, "Consulting to Management", 1983, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ25Chapter 7 in "Management Consultancy: a handbook for best practice", Editor: Philip Sadler, 1998, Kogan Page, London26 'A Survey of Management Consultancy' in "The Economist", February 13, 1988, London27 William A Khan, "To Be Fully There: Psychological Presence at Work", 'Human Relations', 45 (1992)

· Listen carefully and summarise accurately in the diagnosis of the situation

· Create opportunities for clients to reach their own solutions rather than telling

them what's best for them."64

… and …

28 Edwin C Nevis, "A Gestalt Approach to Organisational Consulting", 1987, Gardner Press, New York, page 5329 Edwin C Nevis, "A Gestalt Approach to Organisational Consulting", 1987, Gardner Press, New York, page 5430 Gerard Egan, "The Skilled Helper", 1975, Brooks/Cole Publishing Co., Monterey, USA31 Milan Kubr (Editor), "Management Consulting: A Guide To The Profession", 3 rd edition, 1996, International Labour Office, Geneva, page 1332 Bob Garratt, "From Expertise to Contingency: Changes in the Nature of Consulting", Management Education and Development (Workshop), Vol 12., part 2, pages 95-101.33 Kurt Lewin, "Field Theory in Social Science", 1952, Tavistock Press, London34 David Maister, "Managing the professional service firm", 1993, The Free Press, New York, page 11335 Charles J Margerison, "Managerial Consulting Skills: a practical guide", 1988, Gower, Aldershot, page 10636 Charles J Margerison, "Managerial Consulting Skills: a practical guide", 1988, Gower, Aldershot, page 10637 Charles J Margerison, "Managerial Consulting Skills: a practical guide", 1988, Gower, Aldershot, page 10638 Edgar H Schein, "Process Consultation", Vol. II, "Lessons for managers and consultants", 1987, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts, page 3439 Milan Kubr (Editor), "Management Consulting: A Guide To The Profession", 3 rd edition, 1996, International Labour Office, Geneva, page 5840 Milan Kubr (Editor), "Management Consulting: A Guide To The Profession", 3 rd edition, 1996, International Labour Office, Geneva, page 5841 Edgar H Schein, "Process Consultation", Vol. II, "Lessons for managers and consultants", 1987, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts, page 3442 Mark Thomas and Sam Elbeik, "Supercharge Your Management Role", 1996, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, page 1343 Adapted from G Lippitt and R Lippitt: "The Consulting Process In Action", 1979, University Associates, La Jolla, California, page 3144 Mark Thomas and Sam Elbeik, "Supercharge Your Management Role", 1996, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford45 Mark Thomas and Sam Elbeik, "Supercharge Your Management Role", 1996, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, page 1746 Bob Garratt, "From Expertise to Contingency: Changes in the Nature of Consulting", Management Education and Development (Workshop), Vol 12., part 2, pages 95-10147 Sally Garratt, "How to be a Consultant", 1991, Gower, Aldershot, Hants.48 Calvert Markham, "The Top Consultant", 3rd Edition, 1998, Kogan Page, London49 Calvert Markham, "The Top Consultant", 3rd Edition, 1998, Kogan Page, London, page 12750 R G Harrison, "Management Services practitioners as internal consultants – two alternative role models", article in "Management Services", December 1981, pages 16 - 1851 R G Harrison, "Management Services practitioners as internal consultants – two alternative role models", article in "Management Services", December 1981, pages 16 - 1852 R G Harrison, "Management Services practitioners as internal consultants – two alternative role models", article in "Management Services", December 1981, pages 16 - 1853 Keri Phillips and Patricia Shaw, "A Consultancy Approach for Trainers", 1989, Gower, Aldershot

· "Be prepared for a multi-faceted role: coach, support, counsellor, "sheep dog"

(at times!), cheerleader, challenger, adviser to senior managers, and be ready

to tolerate the ambiguity and manage the potential stress in that."65

In my research I interviewed one trainer offering internal consultancy who described

his initial meetings with clients as simply 'frightening' in their ambiguity.

54 Keri Phillips and Patricia Shaw, "A Consultancy Approach for Trainers", 1989, Gower, Aldershot, page 3255 R G Harrison, "Management Services practitioners as internal consultants – two alternative role models", article in "Management Services", December 1981, pages 16 - 1856 Mark Thomas and Sam Elbeik, "Supercharge Your Management Role", 1996, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford – skills derived or extrapolated from a close reading of much of their text, rather than direct quotation.57 Quoted by Milan Kubr (Editor), in Appendix 9, page 798, "Management Consulting: A Guide To The Profession", 3rd edition, 1996, International Labour Office, Geneva58 Margaret Neal and Christine Lloyd, "The role of the internal consultant", Chapter 22, page 436 in "Management Consultancy: a handbook for best practice", Editor: Philip Sadler, 1998, Kogan Page, London59 Margaret Neal and Christine Lloyd, "The role of the internal consultant", Chapter 22, page 436 in "Management Consultancy: a handbook for best practice", Editor: Philip Sadler, 1998, Kogan Page, London60 Margaret Neal and Christine Lloyd, "The role of the internal consultant", Chapter 22, page 436 in "Management Consultancy: a handbook for best practice", Editor: Philip Sadler, 1998, Kogan Page, London61 Margaret Neal and Christine Lloyd, "The role of the internal consultant", Chapter 22, page 436 in "Management Consultancy: a handbook for best practice", Editor: Philip Sadler, 1998, Kogan Page, London62 Margaret Neal and Christine Lloyd, "The role of the internal consultant", Chapter 22, page 436 in "Management Consultancy: a handbook for best practice", Editor: Philip Sadler, 1998, Kogan Page, London63 Margaret Neal and Christine Lloyd, "The role of the internal consultant", Chapter 22, page 436 in "Management Consultancy: a handbook for best practice", Editor: Philip Sadler, 1998, Kogan Page, London

Models

The multi-faceted nature of internal consultancy seems to have resulted in the writers

I have studied and the practitioners I have interviewed, taking a pragmatic and

eclectic approach to their practice. I offer this as a tentative observation for a number

of reasons:

· internal consultancy is neither so well established nor as well understood as

external consultancy

· there has been time for a body of literature to grow up about the process of

external consultancy

· those writing about internal consultancy often have an interest in highlighting

the similarities rather than the differences between the two

· it may be that internal consultants have absorbed the consulting models,

developed for, and predominantly by, externals; accepted that they have

sufficient transfer value to be helpful in understanding some of what the

external does and then moved on.

I have concluded that internal consultants are, typically, not only pragmatic but also

eclectic in their use of consulting models and approaches. I think that this is probably

because their role is so "multi-faceted".

The internal consultancy literature and the internal consultants I have interviewed

recognise the role complexity of the activity they perform and draw on a very wide

range of sources to inform both the content and style of their consulting.

A number of writers including Thomas and Elbeik describe a consulting cycle the key

stages of which are commonly six fold:

1. Getting in and contracting with your client

2. Understanding and defining your client's problem

3. Action planning

4. Implementation

5. Reviewing and exiting the project

6. Presenting client feedback.

Sometimes this is, confusingly, called the consulting process model but I shall try to

avoid that title.

Thomas and Elbeik make the point that the internal consultant might expect to be

excluded from some stages of the project for various reasons and that they should be

able to feel comfortable with this ("unless you have done something negative to

justify your exclusion"). Even though, say, the client may undertake stages 3 and 4

they emphasise the circularity of the process, rather than its linearity, and strongly

urge all consultants to present feedback to the client throughout the process.

Harrison developed and published two alternative role models intended for the

internal consultant:

Internal Consultancy: Two Alternative Role Models Problem Centred Person/Client CentredConsultant's General Orientation

The consultant focuses upon his client's problems/difficulties and is less concerned with his feelings and needs as a person.

The consultant deals with his client at a personal level seeking to establish a basic condition of trust and openness, which is the pre-condition of change and learning.

Consulting Objectives

Intellectual. To diagnose the nature, source, causes, and consequences of the problem conditions of the system. Diffusion / transferral: to generate and transfer our ideal solution.

To establish a climate of psychological safety. To manage the client's self -confidence. To improve the client's capacity for learning by dealing with personal blockages which inhibit growth and/or change. To transfer coping skills rather than solutions.

Methods The consultant operates from a specialist's knowledge base and uses standard diagnostic procedures to isolate the problem and identify the solution or remedy. He writes a report to advise the system of this.

No set paradigm exists, but competent practitioners typically favour a counselling approach based upon reflective listening and the ability to confront when needed.

When/where appropriate

When the client has a specific problem which he is able to articulate and to resolve and to which he is already emotionally committed. When the client expects structure. When the client is really hurting and needs a speedy solution, often later rather than earlier in the helping cycle.

An initial stage of almost all helping encounters. When the substantive problems are about behaviour, attitude, roles, relationships and other "people" issues.

Risks The consultant takes over. Mystique. Client dependency. "Ideal" solution is rejected because no psychological ownership by the client.

Consultant is seen as ineffectual or as withholding help. Client dependency.

Influence Basis

Intellectual competence. Expertise. Ideas and concepts. Ability to provide structure.

Trust based upon mutual regard, genuineness and respect.

Helping Behaviours

Probing. Evaluating. Interpreting. Reflective understanding. Supporting. Encouraging.

Figure 4.166

Phillips and Shaw, writing for the trainer, identify close parallels between the so-

called "training cycle" and the "consulting cycle":

The Training Cycle The Consulting CycleIdentifying training needs Gaining entrySetting training objectives Agreeing a working contractSelecting methods of validation and evaluation

Data collection, analysis and diagnosis

Designing the training course Formulating proposalsRunning the training course Feedback to clients and decision to actCarrying out validation and evaluation Implementation

Follow upFigure: X.XX67

(Notice how their "consulting cycle" broadly parallels Thomas and Elbeik's "stages".)

Both training and consulting are cyclical processes but the consulting cycle is likely

to encompass overlap between stages and more recycling – underlining the greater

ambiguity in consulting work. It is partly this ambiguity that, I suspect, may prevent

some trainers making a successful transition to consulting. It is also, I believe,

possible that this ambiguity is one reason why the internal consultant is often very

eclectic in their use of models. It is my impression that successful internal consultants

adopt and adapt models of professional practice from a vast range of disciplines and

sources to create solutions for the client. This thinking out of the box coupled with

tolerance of the challenge of personal ambiguity and contentment with a relatively

simple but robust, consulting cycle model may be part of the secret of their success.

The Training Cycle The Consulting Cycle

Identifying training needs

Gaining entryAgreeing a working contractData collection, analysis and diagnosis

Setting training objectives }Selecting methods of validation and evaluation }

Formulating proposals

Designing the training course }

Feedback to clients and decision to actRunning the training course ImplementationCarrying out validation and evaluation Follow upFigure X.XX

Phillips and Shaw then juxtapose the two cycles (as above) to draw attention to the

trainer's transferable skills and the areas where, after a move into consulting, the

former trainer may feel less well prepared. These are "gaining entry", "agreeing a

working contract", "feedback to clients and decision to act" – in all cases where the

consulting cycle does not appear to relate to the training cycle.

Drawing on my own experience in guidance and counselling I can also compare this

model of the consulting cycle with a "generic" guidance and counselling model, as

follows:

The Guidance Process The Consulting Cycle

Agree a contract with the clientIdentifying client needs

Gaining entryAgreeing a working contractData collection, analysis and diagnosis

Exploring alternative courses of actionAgreeing and planning action Formulating proposals(Supporting client taking the action)

Feedback to clients and decision to actImplementation

Follow up Follow upFigure: X.XX

Again, this comparative analysis shows where another professional specialism relates

to the consulting cycle.

It is interesting to compare these models, developed primarily with the internal

consultant in mind, with a model developed by KPMG for their use with external

clients. This model is referred to as the engagement cycle within the firm. It contains

a number of commercial additions, necessary when operating externally, but is not

wholly dissimilar to the Thomas and Elbeik and Phillips and Shaw models we have

been examining.

Figure X:xx68

Pre-proposal

Proposal Fact Finding

Analysis & Conclusion

Alternatives & Recommendations

Reporting & Client CommunicationImplementation

Close Out & Evaluation

The KPMG Engagement Cycle

Chapter 4: Insights, benefits and advantages of internal consultancy

"If this happens, you are out of a job, even if they keep you on the payroll."

Throughout this dissertation comparisons between internal and external consultancy

have been drawn. Emphasising these differences can obscure the similarities. Both

types of consultancy are forms of helping, reliant on others to get their jobs done

through people who don't report to them, lacking formal positional power and

authority but having considerable influence.

Examining the differences does often point to ways in which the internal consultant

may emulate the external or seek to build value added on the basis of the advantages

that internal location affords. I have already noted the ambiguity, the complexity of

relationships and the impact on the espoused models of practice that can be a strong

feature of internal consultancy. In this chapter I aim to focus on the benefits and

advantages of internal consultancy – first by direct comparison with external

consultants.

Mark Thomas and Sam Elbeik assert that external consultants are:

1) "employed for a fixed period to work on a specific problem

2) potentially able to get the full attention of senior managers more easily –

clients tend to value more what they have to pay for

3) presented as experts – they have specialist expertise and experience which is

not present in the organisation. This is often combined with an extensive

knowledge of either specific or different industries which clients find very

attractive

4) generally highly motivated and committed people who display high levels of

energy towards their work and their clients. While many are paid lots of

money for doing this, their motivation and commitment is often to their

work and clients first and their pay cheque second

5) not always conversant with their client's business. Thus the client may have to

pay for the consultant to learn about the business in the initial stages of a

project. This can be expensive

6) a flexible resource. The organisation is not burdened with long term costs –

when the work is finished the consultant leaves (although in some

organisations this never seems to happen!)

7) able to learn from their clients and use this learning with other clients

8) not emotionally involved with their client's problems – they have no history of

investment in the situation and can therefore be more objective and critical

in reviewing situations

9) independent – this is, of course, debatable

10) often investing in new approaches and methodologies – they have something

new to offer clients

11) not always required to live with the consequences of their work

12) not always being entirely honest when they say "we've done this!". What they

often mean is that "we haven't, but we have really great people and

expertise and we are really confident that we will find a solution"

13) capable of developing a sense of dependency from their clients – "we cannot

function without you now"

14) in a business themselves – they are selling people and time and are interested

in consultant utilization and profit maximisation."69

Thomas and Elbeik's first point could be objected to on the grounds that some

consultants expend considerable energy ensuring that in the course of the first

assignment they build a solid and irrefutable case for their subsequent employment on

a related contract. In certain cases the client may lose control over the definition of

the problem so that this function passes to the consultant.

Point 2 amounts to a curious commentary on the fact that when evaluating advice

from senior internal people the real cost of employing them is often overlooked. It

also points to one of the challenges for the internal consultant – namely having the

presence, skill and knowledge to gain the attention of senior people in the

organisation without having the psychological advantage of providing an above the

line, invoiced service.

Point 3 goes to the heart of the knowledge management issue for organisations. How

many organisations have such comprehensive knowledge management arrangements

in place that they know that the expertise and experience is not present in house? If

they did have such systems in place the opportunity to avoid paying for the external

consultant to learn about the business would present itself.

A number of internal consultants I have worked with have highlighted the sense of

quiet resignation they feel about the common assumption, made by managers, that an

internal consultant could not possibly be as good, as capable, as resourceful, as

knowledgeable or as skilled as an external consultant. (It is difficult being a prophet

in your own household!)

Point 5 should be one of the internal consultants main strengths. Provided they can

combine critical objectivity and skill with their knowledge of the business they should

be able to drive home their advantage on this point with little difficulty. The problem

arises where the client is not persuaded that they have the necessary skill, can

maintain the critical objectivity and that they know enough about the business. If

these doubts are combined with client worries about the "face validity" ("what will it

look like to my colleagues if we use the internals?") of using internal consultants, a

vague sense that the internal consultant is too close to the problem to have the critical,

detached perspective required and a traditional view that "pukka consultancy" is

bought in – then the internal has real problems.

In my experience, organisations often find the disengagement of external consultants

difficult. Point 6 should be applying but somehow the external consultant seems to

have more permanence than a fair proportion of the employed staff. Naturally,

external consultants develop a range of more or less sophisticated techniques designed

to create long-term dependent relationships with the client. The client needs to be

clear thinking, direct and firm with external consultants who have outstayed their

welcome.

Point 7 is both a reason for using consultants and a reason to be very cautious about

using consultants. Clients are buying this knowledge and experience sourced from,

quite possibly, their competitors and they need to be aware that any sophisticated

consultancy will have carefully considered how best to store, analyses and use the

extremely valuable experience and information that each client will provide.

Point 8 helps in understanding some of the challenges facing the internal consultant.

Internal consultants need to be able to bring this level of detachment to the problem in

order to achieve the objective and critically informed perspective that, perhaps, may

be more easily achieved by the external consultant. The internal consultant may have

a more complex, sophisticated and subtle appreciation of what is happening

internally. But this level of detailed understanding may make it difficult to "see the

wood for the trees". If the internal is able to operate at the tactical and strategic level,

whilst making use of their more detailed understanding of the subtleties and nuances

of the politics of the organisation then they have something very valuable to offer

indeed.

Point 9 is most debatable when the consultancy and the client have a long-standing

association or where the manager who places the contract is an alumnus of the

consultancy engaged. Certain consultancy firms actively encourage consultants to

move either up the organisation or out to the higher reaches of client firms where they

can exercise influence over the purchase of consultancy services. Nevertheless,

independence (of mind, perspective and of approach) is one of the most difficult

claims of the external consultant for the internal to counter. When the cry is: "What

we need here is an independent perspective, a fresh pair of eyes!" the internal

consultant needs to be excellent to be towards the top of the list.

Point 10 may well be true but the purchaser needs to be clear that the consultancy is

not simply recycling ideas from the last client, promoting the latest fashionable

management fad or promoting a methodology that has never been fully and

successfully implemented anywhere, but does look good in a report.

Point 11 may be the source of considerable difficulty for the client and should always

be carefully thought about. Peter Fraser, Group Human Resources Consultant, Zurich

Australian Insurance Group describes this as the external consultant's 'tourist feature'.

"The external consultant", he says, "is more like a tourist – someone who can spoil

the environment and leave it for someone else to clean up".

Point 13 refers to the fact that it is an unusual external consultant that invests in

developing the client's independence. This is an area where the internal consultant

need not feel under pressure to maintain dependence. Indeed, as I have noted already,

Neal and Lloyd say that the internal consultant has a key role in enhancing internal

capabilities and not, to such an extreme as the external, in breeding and cultivating

the culture of dependence.

Thomas and Elbeik are only concerned with internal consultancy. They see the work

of the consultant beginning when a part of an organisation's structure, processes or

systems are failing to deliver the necessary levels of performance. Consultants are

employed to improve the performance gap; their involvement can be short or long

term; they assist the client without taking over the control of the problem and they

provide advice in ways which enhance the client's ability to solve their future

problems and challenges. The consultant leaves behind an improved capability.

A Thomas and Elbeik consultant would exercise influence to get things done

differently in such a way that the client becomes fully committed to the solution. Like

Block, Thomas and Elbeik see consultancy as based on a combination of expertise

and influencing skills but not based on overt authority or control.

This approach to internal consultancy highlights, in particular, one difference between

the external and the internal consultant that is worth exploring in some detail.

External consultants may find it difficult to single-mindedly commit to improving the

client's independent capability.

The independent or external consultant constantly faces the dilemma about the extent

to which he / she enables the client to become more independent or maintains the

client's dependence on him / her. This is a dilemma that is shared, to some extent,

with those in the helping professions. Alfred Benjamin, writing in "The Helping

Interview"70, comments on client dependence thus:

"The interviewee may have learned to regard himself as someone who requires the

advice of others, who is incompetent to choose, who must always be dependent on a

"specialist"."

For the counsellor this raises ethical issues as Benjamin writes: "Am I really helping

by tendering the advice he seeks? May I not be reinforcing his negative concept of

himself? Will he be able to build on my advice, or will advice seeking lead to more

advice seeking, dependence to more dependence?"

One might speculate that, for some consultants, the growing dependence that

Benjamin sees as a danger in counselling may be a something to be cultivated.

How this dependency can be stimulated is worth considering. External consultants

may encourage dependency by developing unnecessarily complex solutions to the

problem. They may make use of carefully selected language designed to obfuscate

rather than illuminate. They may deliberately build into their solutions the need for

further consultancy and imply that only they can provide this assistance. They are,

unfortunately for the client, well placed in the course of their diagnosis and

investigation, to make the required assessment of the capability of the staff they meet

and to pitch their solution just beyond the grasp of the staff. Consultants who

emphasise their educative approach may, quite genuinely, see this behaviour as,

ultimately, contributing to the growth in the organisation's capability. Just

incidentally it generates good quality continuing business.

The internal consultant may be tempted to breed dependence in similar ways albeit

for different reasons. The internal consultant may feel under pressure to justify their

role. They may suffer insecurity about repeat business. They may operate in a culture

that exhibits the tendency to believe that if it is supplied internally it can't be as good

as an externally supplied service. They may not have developed their internal

marketing skills and strategies to match their functional expertise and, as a result may

feel more comfortable delivering and less so when scouting for business. They may

have an astute understanding that completely new business is invariably more

expensive to deliver than repeat or follow on business.

The internal consultant operating as a business unit within a host organisation and

subject to cost and profit centre pressures is best regarded, in this respect, as an

external consultant and subject to the full range of pressures to limit the client's

independence.

Thomas and Elbeik consider that internal consultants are:

1) "likely to understand the overall business better than external consultants

2) sometimes more knowledgeable than external consultants. They should

know their business and industry extremely well. They may also have

developed an approach or a methodology which is ahead of any

external group

3) normally part of a specific function (information technology, training and

development, finance, business development)

4) aware of the right language and culture of the organisation. They know

how things work and how to get things done

5) able to identify with the organisation and its ambitions – as employees

they have a big emotional commitment

6) liable to be taken for granted or lacking the credibility of some external

consultants

7) prone to being too emotionally involved in an organisation – thus perhaps

influencing their ability to be truly objective

8) required to live with the consequences of their advice – they are still

around long after the external consultants have left

9) able to spread their knowledge and experience around the organisation –

they can enhance your organisation's overall capability

10) required to redefine past organisational relationships – the move from

"colleague" to "client" requires a period of adjustment"

Point 1 may well be true. As part of the system they can be expected to have a solid

knowledge of the language, culture, background and organisational policies, politics

and norms but there may also be a dark side to this better understanding. The internal

consultant may be so immersed in their understanding of the business that they find it

really tough taking a detached (even semi-detached) perspective.

Point 2 can be very powerful but also the source of trouble for the internal consultant.

With all this knowledge and expertise to bring to the consultancy there is the ever-

present danger of being typecast as an expert consultant and never being able to

escape these expectations. One of the most experienced of the consultants I

interviewed emphasised that, to be truly effective, the internal consultant needs to be

able to manage process interactions as effectively as the expert intervention. He said:

"You can't say: "Oh! I am terribly sorry, I can't do process because I am an expert."

Or vice versa. People want solutions, someone to help them with their thinking and,

therefore, they need the consultant to be able to do both."71

Point 3 can be the source of the internal consultant's expertise and the resources of the

support department can be invaluable. Problems may sometimes arise where the

internal consultant needs to draw on expertise from a range of sources – including

those outside her/his section.

Point 4 also has a sting in the tail. As Peter Block points out, "line managers can see

[the internal consultant] as being captured by the same forces and madness that

impinge on them. Thus they may be a little slower to trust you and recognise that you

have something special to offer them."72

Point 5 has all manner of downsides including the notion of being captured by

corporate "forces and madness" as Block writes, having too great an emotional

commitment to be dispassionately analytical (when that is required), being unable to

access key people at the right time because you don't have the clout of the external

consultant, being up against a conflict of interest between the needs and aspirations of

the consultant's section and the client section, being seen (by top management) as an

emissary evangelist for a particular corporate solution which needs to be pressed into

action at every opportunity – whatever the real needs. Peter Block sees this as being

"asked to sell your own department's approach, and the pressure to do this can be

immense."73

Point 6 raises the issue of the ways in which the internal consultant builds credibility.

Raphe Berenbaum, contributing Chapter 4 in "Developing Organisational

Consultancy"74, says that the internal consultant's credibility is built in the same way

as the external consultant's. "Credibility," he says, "comes from favourable references

from credible sources." Whilst this is true, the downside can be catastrophic. Peter

Block puts it this way:

"Having one manager angry at you can be a disaster. The potential number of clients

is limited to the number of managers in one organisation. If you blow one or two

jobs, word can get around fast and the demand for your services can disappear

quickly. If this happens you are out of a job, even if they keep you on the payroll."75

Point 8 may lead to reluctance to give "honest feedback"76, "very cautious

behaviour"77 and, as Peter Block says, "the internal consultant [coming] to be used

only as a pair of hands." However, the internal consultant who is still employed when

the results of their intervention crystallise can be involved in implementation

monitoring and advising on the desirable adjustments to their recommendations.

Internal consultants cannot walk away in exactly the same way as the external

consultant may do.

Point 9 also contains the seeds of destruction within it. Senior management may come

to see an internal consultancy team as acting as missionaries to the furthest flung

(ideologically or geographically) parts of the organisation, spreading the word about

good practice, whipping in the recalcitrant and promoting the corporate ethos. The

weight of these corporate expectations may prove too much for an internal

consultancy to bear. Conversely, the sometimes-incidental enrichment of an

organisation's knowledge base brought about by internal consultants who are skilled

at transferring learning from one department to another is an extremely valuable

source of organisational and individual learning.

Point 10 is complicated in situations where the internal consultant is "required to

convert an adversary. A certain line manager may have rejected your department's

services for years, but it is up to you to bring him into the fold."78

Appendix 1

In this appendix I will examine my methodological approach to planning and carrying

out the research reported in this dissertation. I will seek to critically examine my

assumptions and try to identify the influences that shaped my thinking and practice.

Why did I want to carry out the research in the first place? My reasons were, I

believe, two-fold:

· I wanted to discover the extent, to which the services provided to internal

clients by "staffers", as Peter Block would call them, in my organisation,

made use of the internal consultancy skills that I have examined in this

dissertation. At the outset, I thought that this might illuminate my

understanding of internal consultancy in a number of ways. First, I thought

of the research as a way of comparing current practice in one organisation

with the body of knowledge about consultancy that I had been exploring.

Second, I imagined that I would discover – in the "gaps" between the

writings of others and the current practice in my organisation – a rich vein

of tension and opportunity. Here, perhaps, might be the indicators of

development needs, here I might uncover practitioner insights which would

challenge established thinking, here I might come across views and

experiences that would add depth, richness and texture to my understanding

of the internal consultancy process. Finally, I hoped that I would find my

own expectations and practice being challenged by the reported

experiences and evident skills of those I interviewed.

· I was also interested in the possibility of making a research-based contribution

to the debate within my organisation about the nature of the similarities and

differences between external consultancy and internal consultancy. The focus

for this debate had been the creation of the behavioural competencies map for

my organisation. Was it reasonable to propose that the firm had one common

behavioural framework for all staff (external client facing consultancy staff

and internal corporate staff) that included a set of common consultancy

behaviours?

What method would I use? My approach to this was essentially discursive and

accumulative – gradually focusing down on a method and process that I thought

appropriate. My thinking was influenced in several ways:

· First, the Roffey Park research team helped me to decide that what I was about

was essentially pure research. I wanted to "add or contribute to the general

body of knowledge in this particular field". There were aspects of action

research here also in that I wanted to bring about some change but I was

not proposing to actively seek to change current practice in the firm during

the course of the research phase. I did hope, however, that my research

results and discussion of the final dissertation would lead to the

development of internal consultancy training (there was no formal training

for internal staff at the time I commenced my research), better support for

staff involved in providing internal consultancy services and more

understanding of the importance of internal consultancy and the skills upon

which it is based in the firm.

· Secondly, I engaged with the question about whether my research would

primarily be qualitative or quantitative. Initially, I had considered a

quantitative approach and I got so far as developing materials for a

structured interview based survey (see Appendix 2). In the course of debate

within the learning set I came to understand that this form of enquiry was

framed in such a way as to exclude me accessing the rich results that could

be generated by a more qualitative approach. By seeking largely to control

my interviewees responses to frames (through the use of the 'cards' offering

a restricted range of options) which I was imposing on them, I was, indeed,

likely to produce results which would have been of dubious validity. I also

realised that, in adopting the market researchers approach, I had intended to

collect data that I could then analyse numerically to test a hypothesis. In

fact, what I wanted to do was to understand, describe and reveal the social

and behavioural phenomena and not test a single hypothesis.

· Third, I came to realise, through discussions in the learning set and the

development of my colleague's thinking, that what I wanted to do in the

course of the interviews was to understand more about the different, multiple

realities of providing internal consultancy services; engage with those I

interviewed (rather than remain detached); understand the meanings and

emphases that they used rather than impose outsiders' meanings or my own;

examine the whole context of internal consultancy and become alert to

complex and subtle issues and patterns of meaning. I did not want to constrain

the responses of those I interviewed rather to gain as full an access to the

knowledge and meanings of each person. I wanted to gather case study

material of some depth rather than worry about generalisability. I wanted to

hear and understand about the informant's context. I wanted to understand

more about how people know about these issues as much as about what they

know about consultancy. What skills and competencies have they developed

and demonstrated and what part has intuition and informal knowledge played

in developing this skill?

With these matters clarified I developed a much more open ended approach to my

interviews based around the following key questions:

· What do you do for your internal clients?

· Could you tell me about one project or incident? Follow this line of enquiry in detail.

· How do you go about gaining access to the key people in the sections you work with?

· What would you see as the purpose of this service?

· Is your role changing in this area? Why?

· What do you find rewarding about this part of your job?

· What do you find challenging?

· Can you tell me about your most successful incident / project or assignment in relation to this kind of work?

· What made it so successful?

Appendix 2

Introduction

Thank the participant for their time and explain that, as part of a programme of

research, I am currently investigating the role of the "internal consultant" in

organisations.

I am particularly interested in the extent to which client liaison roles in Bacon &

Woodrow's HR Training team and account management roles in the Firm's Marketing

team are developing and your experience of these developments.

I have arranged to interview most people in the HR Training team who have

experience of the client liaison role and will also arrange to meet with all the account

management staff in the Marketing team.

The information you provide will form part of my dissertation but the information

you give me and the comments you provide will be non attributable.

Check that this level of confidentiality is understood and accepted.

Interview Questions

Question 1: Which four of the statements on Card 1 best express what you offer to the

sections you provide client liaison services to?

Question 2: How do you go about gaining access to the key people in the sections you

work with? [Record answers].

Question 3: What do you find rewarding about this part of your job? [Record

answers].

Question 4: What do you find challenging about this part of your job? [Record

answers].

Question 5: I have introduced the idea of internal consultancy. Here are a number of

definitions of internal consultancy. (Show Card 2.) Which definition comes closest to

describing the work you do in your liaison with sections of the Firm?

Supplementary: Please explain why? Could this chosen explanation of internal

consultancy be improved? If so, how? [Record answers].

Question 6: Consider the list of skills on Card 3. Which of these skills do you think

(minimum of five and maximum of eight) are likely to be of most importance to an

Adviser in the Bacon & Woodrow HR team, with a training background, operating as

an internal consultant?

Why have you selected these? [Record answers].

Question 7: People who act as consultants within organisations may take on a range

of roles. On Card 4 you will see many of these roles listed, together with a brief

explanation of each role.

Please tell me which of these roles you have performed in Bacon & Woodrow.

Which of these roles have you performed most often?

Could you give me some examples of what you did when you performed this most

frequent role?

Thank the person being interviewed.

Card 1

1. I know the HR Training systems and can show them how to use them

2. I know how to ensure that the section's investment in training supports the

section's objectives

3. I know the key people in the section and in the HR team and how to influence

them

4. I have an established network of contacts which sections know they can access

through you

5. I have a lot of information about ways in which training and development can

solve my section's problems

6. I find I can work unobtrusively at times

7. I am well placed to seize opportunities to develop solutions to the section's

problems

8. I make it my business to keep in close touch with the long term consequences of

my section's investment in training and development

9. I am a channel of communication to/from the client sections and the HR

Personnel and Training teams

10. I interpret Bacon & Woodrow's training policies and help "my" sections to apply

them

11. I detect training and development needs which are not being addressed and

ensure that the HR Training team have the opportunity to respond to these

Card 2

A Internal consultancy is what is provided when people who have professional expertise, such as trainers, but limited direct authority over the use of their expertise, intervene to recommend changes to organisational structures, policies, procedures or systems.

B Internal consultancy, for trainers, is primarily an educational process that aims to increase the stock of knowledge in an organisation or to increase the effectiveness of knowledge management.

C Internal consultancy, provided by trainers, is about helping clients (in an objective manner) to identify people and organisational development problems, analyse them, recommend solutions and help with implementation, when requested.

D Internal consultancy is about giving independent advice and assistance to clients. This typically involves identifying and investigating problems and / or opportunities, recommending appropriate action and helping managers to implement those recommendations.

E Internal consultancy is an independent professional advisory service assisting managers and organisations in achieving organisational purposes and objectives by solving human resource development problems, identifying new opportunities, enhancing learning and implementing changes.

Card 3

1. The ability to supply fresh and independent analysis of HR development

issues.

2. The ability to provide top quality advice, in the right manner and at the right

time.

3. The facility to empower teams to develop their own solutions.

4. The knowledge and the confidence to think outside the immediate, or the

personal functional "box", and help clients develop solutions that display a

strategic business perspective.

5. The confidence to cope with considerable personal and organisational

ambiguity and still retain credibility.

6. The competence (and willingness) to challenge and confront senior colleagues

without appearing rude, arrogant or patronizing.

7. Marketing skills.

8. The ability to manage a number of client assignments at the same time.

9. The ability to listen (really listen) to the client, communicate understanding

and suggest to the client that they are the central focus of your work now.

10. The capacity to negotiate and agree terms of reference in a constrained,

internal market.

11. Desk and field research skills.

12. Interview, questionnaire design and analysis, process mapping and

organisational analysis skills.

13. Challenging and probing skills.

14. Project management skills.

15. Report writing and presentation skills.

16. Having a strong base of self esteem

17. Refusing to be rushed through the contracting stage

18. Expressing my wants for the project as well as finding out what the client

wants - negotiating wants and offers

19. Paying attention to any feelings of unease experienced in early meetings

20. Being willing to ask direct questions

21. Giving and receiving feedback on the progress of the relationship.

22. Self-insight and a sense of one's own identity

23. Cross-cultural sensitivity – the ability to decipher other people's values

24. Cultural/moral humility – the ability to see one's own value system as not

necessarily better or worse than another's values

25. A proactive problem solving orientation – the conviction that interpersonal

and cross-cultural problems can be solved

26. Personal flexibility – the ability to adopt different responses and approaches as

needed

27. Negotiation skills – the ability to explore differences creatively, to locate some

common ground and to solve the problem

28. Interpersonal and cross-cultural tact – the ability to solve problems with

people without insulting them, demeaning them, or destroying "their face"

29. Repair strategies and skills – the ability to resurrect, to revitalize and to

rebuild damaged or broken face-to-face relationships

30. Patience

31. Extremely well developed systems thinking and awareness of organisational

dynamics

32. Deep awareness of [personal] biases and values in the consulting processes

33. The ability to think conceptually, extracting simple patterns from the internal

complexities of organisations

34. Courage to challenge internal direction and decisions while still sustaining

effective working relationships

35. The ability to enhance internal capabilities over a prolonged period of time

Card 4Consultancy Roles

Reflector Process specialist

Fact finder Alternative identifier

Collaborator in problem solving

Trainer/educator Technical expert Advocate

Raises questions for reflection

Observes problem solving processes and raises issues mirroring feedback

Gathers data and stimulates thinking

Identifies alternatives and resources for client and helps assess consequences

Offers alternatives and participates in decisions

Trains the client and designs learning experiences

Provides information and suggestions for policy or practice decisions

Proposes guidelines, persuades, or directs in the problem solving process

64 Margaret Neal and Christine Lloyd, "The role of the internal consultant", Chapter 22, page 438 in "Management Consultancy: a handbook for best practice", Editor: Philip Sadler, 1998, Kogan Page, London65 Margaret Neal and Christine Lloyd, "The role of the internal consultant", Chapter 22, page 443 in "Management Consultancy: a handbook for best practice", Editor: Philip Sadler, 1998, Kogan Page, London66 R G Harrison, "Management Services practitioners as internal consultants – two alternative role models", article in "Management Services", December 1981, pages 16 - 1867 Phillips and Shaw, "A Consultancy Approach for Trainers", 1989, Gower, Aldershot68 MSc in Management Consultancy, "Module 2" papers, 1998, The Management Consultancy Business School, Coventry69 Mark Thomas and Sam Elbeik, "Supercharge Your Management Role", 1996, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford70 Alfred Benjamin, "The Helping Interview", 2nd Edition, 1974, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, page 13171 Interview recorded in July,2000.72 Peter Block, "Flawless Consulting: A Guide To Getting Your Expertise Used", 1981, Pfeiffer & Company, San Francisco, page 10673 Peter Block, "Flawless Consulting: A Guide To Getting Your Expertise Used", 1981, Pfeiffer & Company, San Francisco, page 10674 Raphe Berenbaum, "Internal Consultancy", Chapter 4, page 87, in "Developing Organisational Consultancy", Edited by Jean E Neuman, Kamil Kellner and Andrea Dawson-Shepherd, 1997, Routledege, London75 Peter Block, "Flawless Consulting: A Guide To Getting Your Expertise Used", 1981, Pfeiffer & Company, San Francisco, page 10676 Peter Block, "Flawless Consulting: A Guide To Getting Your Expertise Used", 1981, Pfeiffer & Company, San Francisco, page 10677 Peter Block, "Flawless Consulting: A Guide To Getting Your Expertise Used", 1981, Pfeiffer & Company, San Francisco, page 10678 Peter Block, "Flawless Consulting: A Guide To Getting Your Expertise Used", 1981, Pfeiffer & Company, San Francisco, page 106