It Takes Two to Tango
by Greg Richards
WHEN CONSULTING ENGAGEMENTS END ON AN UNHAPPY NOTE, IT IS FASHIONABLE FOR CLIENTS TO BLAME THE CONSULTANTS AND FOR CONSULTANTS TO BLAME THE CLIENTS. “IT TAKES TWO TO TANGO” OFTEN REFERS TO THE FACT THAT A CONFLICT REQUIRES TWO COMBATANTS.
It can also refer to the fact that within the consulting engagement, a true partnership between client and consultant can avoid conflicts. In the tango, partners must trust each other, they must stay closely connected to anticipate changes in direction, and they must have a common goal in mind. The same can be said of successful consulting projects. What can clients and consultants do to work more successfully together?
The Canadian Association of Management Consultants (CAMC) focuses on promoting the profession of consulting. Typically, a profession is defined by its body of knowledge, standardized practices, and a strong code of ethics. The CAMC, along with provincial institutes who confer the Certified Management Consultant designation, have worked hard to develop and communicate consulting best practices. In general, these practices are well communicated within the consulting community, but few clients are privy to basics of the consulting process. Clients who understand the consulting process are better able to develop strong relationships with consultants and perhaps avoid seeing themselves on the front page of the newspaper when things go wrong. This paper describes the overall consulting process and discusses the roles of the client and consultant in this process.
The consulting process promoted by the CAMC was initially described in Management Consulting: A Guide to the Profession by Milan Kubr. His key message is that client and consultant are jointly responsible for outcomes of a project. The chart below provides a summary of the five phases of the consulting process. The degree of client engagement varies across the phases.
PHASE 1-ENTRY: During the Entry phase client and consultant share, more or less equally, the role of clarifying what needs to be done. Some of the core issues faced by consultants here include:
• ensuring that the problem is defined in such a way as to provide long-term solutions as opposed to band-aid fixes
• ensuring that the solution provided benefits the overall organization
Sometimes, these issues are viewed by clients as the consultant attempting to turn a simple engagement into a longer-term project.
PHASE 2-DIAGNOSIS: Many clients take the approach that once the deliverables have been identified during the entry phase, their job is over until they receive a report from the consultant. Nothing could be further from the truth. Consultants typically conduct a feedback meeting after they have completed the diagnostic process. Clients should prepare themselves carefully for this feedback meeting because it determines the quality of the final deliverable.
During this meeting, previously unspoken assumptions emerge – especially if different people within the organization are involved who challenge each other and the consultants’ conclusions. Moreover, implications of proposed solutions can be fully examined. In other words, the diagnostic feedback meeting is a learning event for both client and consultant. Sometimes, this meeting has an even more powerful impact on the client organization than the final report ever will.
PHASE 3-ACTION PLANNING: If the diagnostic phase is done well, the remainder of the process tends to flow relatively smoothly. The consultants will use client feedback to develop action plans. Since clients have been involved in the diagnostic phase, they will have a good understanding of how the action plans were created and should be more or less aligned with the recommended approaches. Consultants will use their expertise and past experience with other similar projects to provide a solution that will uniquely resolve the organization’s issues. They will rely on client input to tailor these solutions effectively.
PHASE 4-IMPLEMENTATION: Many consulting projects end when a final report is delivered. In situations where consultants are involved in implementation, they will need to work closely with internal staff. Since the consultants will be on-site on a regular basis, the partnership with clients will need to reach a new level: both clients and consultants will take on new roles that could be substantially different from the roles played during the initial project. Sometimes, the “rules of engagement” need to be renegotiated before implementation begins. For example, who gets to determine that implementation is complete? What if staff does not cooperate with the consultants? What happens if implementation takes longer than anticipated?
PHASE 5-TERMINATION: The Termination phase provides an opportunity for both client and consultant to reflect on the consulting process and on the results. Consultants will typically ask for feedback. This can be a formal process (e.g., a survey) or an informal process (a conversation with the client). Clients should provide honest, straightforward feedback. In truth, clients should be providing feedback throughout the consulting engagement. Ultimately, if both parties have played their roles well during the first four phases, Termination should provide no surprises. The client should feel they have received value for their investment in the project, and the consultant should feel that, through the partnership with the client, they have helped the organization. An evaluation of the process and results is important for both parties.
One key difference between the tango and consulting: in the tango, the man always leads. The consultant-client interaction is much more fluid – leadership shifts back and forth between the parties as the project unfolds. But if both parties stay closely connected and coordinated, the final outcome, like the Tango, will be a thing of beauty.
Greg Richards, Ph.D, Certified Management Consultant, is chair of the Eastern Ontario Region of the Canadian Association of Management Consultants. He has worked as a manager and as a consultant, and is currently working in management with a former client.
