INTERVENTION

The culmination of a consultancy project is the intervention stage of the consultant's interaction with the client, particularly in respect of getting recommendations accepted. By recommendations I mean not only substantive advice from the consultant as an expert, but also suggestions about processes in which a client might engage, with the consultant in a supporting role. Implementation of a consultant's recommendations is often in two parts: 1) the translation of recommendations into decisions, which is done at an executive level in an organization and 2) the translation of recommendations (or decisions) into action, which may be done at more junior levels. Intervention is discussed in these two respects later in this chapter, but first, we need to consider how to formulate high-quality recommendations.

Consultants are occasionally likened to giant birds that fly into an organization, excrete a fat report, and then fly off again. Obviously there will be occasions when this is just what is wanted. But if the intention is to do something more, failure may be the result of poor recommendations.

Formulating High-Quality Recommendations

So, what makes for high-quality recommendations? There are three criteria to be considered:

• technical adequacy - will they work?

• acceptability to the client;

• the capacity of the client to implement them - their do-ability.

Technical Adequacy

This criterion is the most familiar and straightforward: will the recommendations help the client to address the assignment objectives satisfactorily? Given that the purpose of a consultancy assignment is to do just this, then I hope that the answer is 'Yes'. If in doubt, refer to the terms of reference!

Every assignment should have a spice of originality to the recommendations. No two clients are identical, and so it is unlikely that identical recommendations will be suitable. And, if they are, it should be because alternatives have been considered and abandoned.

Most consultants come to the profession having their roots in some sort of specialized knowledge. So, for example, a marketing consultant will probably have both some formal, academic grounding in the topic as well as previous experience, perhaps, in an executive role in marketing. He or she will therefore, as a subject matter expert, arrive at recommendations that will be excellent for the client, but these may need to be compromised in order to meet the remaining criteria - acceptability and do-ability.

Acceptability

A consultant will often need to work hard to get his or her recommendations accepted and implemented by a client. But if a recommendation is profoundly unacceptable - not in the interests of the client or of influential members of client staff - then compromise is necessary. For example, a consultancy team advising on organizational issues took the view that the newly appointed Chief Executive was the wrong person to lead a particular client forward. The ideal recommendation was to replace him, but soundings showed there was insufficient support for this among the other directors. The compromise was to strengthen the executive team so that the Chief Executive would have adequate support in carrying out the tasks in the areas in which he was weakest.

Acceptability will also be conditional on the culture and values of the organization. For instance, there may be 'rules' about how change may be introduced; for instance, 'no redundancies'.

So, you can define a 'state of readiness' of a client for recommendations of different kinds. The reality, however, is that this is rarely dispersed uniformly across the organization. Frequently, there are differences at various levels of management; top management, for example, embraces structural change as a means of performance development, while middle management - who perhaps see the disadvantages more clearly - are usually more reserved.

Do-Ability

The history of foreign aid to less developed countries abounds in stories of well-meaning donations of sophisticated equipment that cannot be repaired when it breaks down, because of a lack of spare parts, or there is no infrastructure to distribute them, or insufficient skill to fit them properly. From this difficulty arose the notion of intermediate technology - not the most advanced, but that which a recipient country can sustain.

Similar considerations apply to clients; their organizations may be unable to sustain the 'best' technical solution. The consultant may install it, and it works well for a while, but at the first sign of difficulty the new system breaks down irretrievably as far as the client is concerned. So again compromise may be necessary.

Points for consideration are:

• Has the client got the necessary resources - managerial, financial - to sustain this solution?

• Has the client got the skills (technical, systems) to support this solution?

• Is this solution consistent with the client's culture and style of management? Solutions that require a fundamental change in client culture or behaviour are more susceptible to failure.

Translating Recommendations into Decisions

Having got high-quality recommendations adopted by executives, will they be translated into decisions? Whether they are accepted depends on two factors: 1) the consultant's influence, which will affect the weight that the client attaches to what the consultant says; 2) the attractiveness (or otherwise) of the specific recommendations. If a consultant's view carries little weight, then it will be difficult for him or her to get recommendations accepted irrespective of how sound they are.

This is not only about how to present recommendations to best effect. Recommendations are like tender young plants; the ground has to be prepared carefully beforehand if they are to flourish. Similarly, the conduct of the assignment must provide a basis for the warm reception of the recommendations.

The Nature of a Consultant's Influence

By definition, consultants have no legitimate executive authority within the client organization. Sometimes they may have delegated authority; members of client staff may be assigned to work under their direction on a consultancy project, but this authority will be within strict confines. For the most part, however, a consultant can only influence rather than mandate the decision-making processes within a client.

So, what power does the consultant have? It is the consultant's expertise - knowledge, skill, experience, know-how - that gains him or her admission into a client organization. If you do not have expertise, then you cannot act as an expert. Once inside an organization, another type of power also comes into play - connection power. The consultant will often have been appointed by executives more senior than the client staff with whom the consultant is working on a day to day basis. Connection power gives a power of sanction - if junior staff are not cooperative, then the consultant can use connections at a senior level to make things happen. Because of the connection with key people, the consultant may come into possession of information about situations, plans and so on, which is not generally known. This can help in planning how to exert influence. Moreover, client staff may pay more heed to consultants if they believe that they are privy to, and have an influence over, their future careers.

It is the perception of power that leads to influence; for example, irrespective of how skilled you are, if you are not credited with any expertise, you will have no expert power. You therefore need to make careful efforts to develop your influence by using your expertise for cultivating connections within the client and using these connections to exercise influence.

Your behaviour will also determine the degree of influence you have. Consider:

• How do you see yourself? People will initially take you at your own valuation. If you have a low opinion of yourself, your abilities, or your standing with the client, this will come across. Consultants should not be arrogant, but neither are they supplicants.

• What impression do you make? From day one of their career, consultants are taught that first impressions count. It is a point so well known that it may not seem worthwhile repeating, yet it still creates difficulties. So, remember that your appearance, what you say, and how you comport yourself, will affect the impression that you make. And be natural - clients are offended if you try to pretend to be something that you're not.

• How do you and your colleagues treat one another? If you treat one another with disdain, what is the client to make of this? For example, there was a director of a consultancy who was introducing a young consultant to a client. During the meeting, the director peremptorily asked his colleague to fetch his briefcase from his car. Although the director was undoubtedly the senior, he had undermined the standing of his junior colleague with that client from the start.

Optimizing Expert Power

For the most part, a consultant starts with a fund of expert power - an expectation that he or she is expert in their area of specialization. What the consultant says or does enhances or diminishes this. The wrong appearance or asking foolish questions, revealing a lack of knowledge will undermine the perception of the consultant's expertise. The perception of expert power will derive not only from what the consultant says and does, but also from, firstly, the label of 'consultant'. Being labelled a consultant is not always a passport to friendly acceptance by client staff. Negative feelings can arise from consultancy projects in the past that have led to painful change, previous experience of poor quality consultancy service or dislike of the consultant's role, fee rate, etc. Nevertheless, the label of consultant should create an expectation of having at least some expertise.

Secondly, the 'source effect' of the consultant's firm. 'Source effect' is the equivalent of the branding of the consultancy firm; it derives from its reputation. If the consultant works for a practice that is known to the client, he or she will take on some of the attributes of that consultancy. (By analogy, for example, if you go as a patient into a hospital, you assume that the person called 'doctor' knows about medicine!)

Developing expert power comes by displaying technical expertise. This must be complemented by understanding. Airing technical knowledge is unlikely to impress a client; applying technical knowledge to a client's problems in a helpful way, and explaining this in terms the client understands will help to enhance your influence.

Optimizing Connection Power

Connection power derives from contact with important or influential members of client staff, so it is important therefore that a consultant preserves connections with them. For example, the mechanism of a steering committee can be used in project management to maintain contacts with senior people, and to escalate the level of contact within an organization.

Maintaining appropriate contacts within the client organization is, in effect, networking - a concept that we have already met in connection with selling. In this instance the consultant is trying to 'sell' him- or herself within the client organization. To this end, you should seek to establish and maintain a variety of links within the client organization. Every interaction with the client will affect how you are perceived. While preparing for meetings, interviews, presentations or any other interaction, therefore, you must consider not only the business of the meeting, but also how it might be used to develop your influence in the client. For example, suppose that at the start of an assignment you have to collect information from each director on the client's board. This provides an excellent opportunity for the consultant to form relationships with the key executives in the client organization. The risk is that the consultant sees this as solely data collection, thereby missing this opportunity.

Exercising Influence

So far we have been considering the nature of a consultant's influence - the accretion of expert and connection power, so that when he or she speaks, what is said commands at least some attention. Next, we need to consider the exercise of this influence, so as to get adoption of particular recommendations. Getting recommendations adopted starts long before their presentation, and entails managing informal as well as formal communications with the client.

Informal Communications

All interactions with a client are interventions into the client environment, and have to be managed as such. For example, in an interview programme, the consultant might start the process of change by asking a single question. For example, 'Has the company ever considered moving to a lower cost location?' might prompt this consideration if none had previously been given.

It is often useful to get reaction to ideas well before presenting them, during progress reviews and other meetings or encounters with key executives. You can trail them without commitment: 'One of the suggestions that has been made is... ', or, 'We came across this idea at another client's... '. Discussing the way your thinking is going can also elicit useful information that can help you in reformulating or refining recommendations.

Formal Communications

Formal communications will consist of face to face presentations and meetings, and reports and other written communications. This book does not cover the details of how to prepare and deliver presentations to a high standard (see Markham, 2003, for details on these).

The choice of who to communicate to is important. Key influencers within the organization are an obvious choice, but remember, firstly, you may not have direct access to them; you may therefore need to deal (at least initially) with connectors who act as gatekeepers to them. Secondly, the power to say 'No' is widely distributed throughout an organization. Although someone may not be able to make something happen, they may be able to stop it. So remember you will need to convince those who can stop a proposal as well as those who can make it happen.

Matching Communication Style with the Decision-Making Style of the Organization

The style with which an organization takes decisions is on a spectrum from action oriented to reflective. Organizations with an action oriented style will like face to face communications. They will appreciate being presented with the key points and will aim to sort out what has to be done at a single meeting. By contrast, those organizations with a reflective style will prefer to receive a paper on a topic, which is then discussed at a committee meeting.

Working with each has its pros and cons. The action oriented likes to get things done quickly. The disadvantage is that this does not work when dealing with complex problems. For example, one professional services firm was reviewing how it could best develop its business in the midst of a recession. The approach among partners was for each to assert what the solution was and seek to persuade their colleagues of it. This did not allow any effort to be put into thinking about what the nature of the problem was, and so the action taken was not particularly effective.

The reflective style does allow debate about the nature of the problem, but it can also be frustrating for an action oriented organization. For example, a financial services group was considering restructuring its bonus plan, which had profound implications for their (very strong) culture. The consultant sought to explore the issues by presenting a series of papers to a steering committee. The steering committee wanted more speedy action, and so became increasingly frustrated, until the work reached the implementation stage. Here, the consultant had failed to match the required style; a more action oriented approach was required.

This difference of style applies to individuals, too, who can be action oriented, or reflective, or somewhere between the two. The consultant needs to suit the manner of communication to the style. Papers will be read only cursorily by the action oriented, while a reflective manager will not like to make a decision of any moment without a paper being presented on the topic first.

One of a consultant's functions is educative, leaving clients better able to deal with the matters of concern addressed on the assignment (see 'Transfer' later in this chapter). The consultant may need to educate the client in different methods of decision making, so that the issues may be dealt with effectively. In doing so, you have to be careful not to be so countercultural as to be rejected.

Translating Recommendations into Action

The challenges for a consultant in turning recommendations into action are:

• getting recommendations accepted by those affected and gaining their commitment;

• managing the change process;

• ensuring that the client has an ongoing capability to support the change after implementation, so that transfer takes place.

Gaining Commitment

Although in theory it is possible to demand compliance with a change, positive commitment from those affected will yield better results. The following will help to build commitment:

• Changes should be owned and supported by the client organization. Any change should be seen as an initiative being taken by the client organization rather than being identified with the consultants. Active and visible support from top management is required. Giving the project a name can also help (for example, a TQM (total quality management) project might be entitled 'Project Gold'). This conclusion is supported by research, which shows that the majority of change programmes fail to deliver the results that were anticipated. The successful ones have one dominant feature: the active commitment and involvement of top management.

• Participation leads to commitment. People will become more committed if they are kept informed and participate in decisions. The sooner this starts, the better. It may not be possible to involve everybody from the start (for example, before a decision has been made to proceed), but thereafter involvement should be more than is usual. For example, although junior members of staff may not decide where their office is to be located, they might have a say in the layout and decor of where they work.

  More time and resources need to be allowed for communication during a change - existing communication arrangements may not be adequate by themselves. Similarly, there may need to be more participation in decision making. A useful technique here is 'reservations in the right to decide'. Rather than delegating specific decisions to those affected by the change, define those that they should not make, and then leave the remaining decisions to them.

• Honour resistance. Resistance is the opposite of commitment, and dealing with it usually means overcoming it. Richard Beckhard, however, talks of 'honouring resistance' (Beckhard, 1989). This attaches a value to those who resist by assuming that they do so for what to them are sound reasons. These reasons could be germane to the success of the project, and ignoring them would be foolish.

There will be some people, however, who cannot make the change and therefore resist it irrationally and may eventually have to transfer jobs or leave the organization if the change is to be implemented successfully.

Managing the Change Process

Implementing change is a process, and it is a process that has to be managed. The previous section on gaining commitment implied that change often involves new ways of communicating and taking decisions. Key points in managing a change process are:

1. Allow sufficient resources for carrying out the change. Not only does the substance of change take time, but so too does the process. There is rarely enough organizational slack to enable people to undertake a major change while continuing with their existing level of work. Some reallocation of tasks to allow those involved the time to carry out the change is necessary, as well as support from outside consultants.

2. Launch the change. Running some sort of event to mark the start of the change process can raise its profile and start the unfreezing process. A training course, workshop, 'kick-off' meeting or similar event can be used.

3. Work with key people. There will be key people on whom you should devote more time than the rest. You should identify who can make a major difference to the success or failure of the project (not everybody will) and spend a disproportionately large amount of time with them.

4. Nurse the change during the early stages. There are bound to be teething problems with any change, and so more support is required during the early stages when people are learning the new ways. When trying anything new, performance falls (for example, when a baby starts to walk, it makes less progress than when it crawled). People will need reassurance that this is to be expected, and does not mean that the change has failed.

5. Give feedback and celebrate success. People need to know how they are doing; feedback is therefore particularly important during the change process. Celebrating major milestones marks the successful progress of change.

6. Make sure that psychological and material rewards do not act as a barrier to change. People will be inhibited from changing if a bonus scheme, or the basis of performance appraisal, career progression, or simply what managers praise, is oriented to the old arrangements. You should therefore make sure that rewards are modified to be consistent with changed circumstances.