PSYCH 678 Week 1 The Consulting Process Example

"We Just Need a Better Rating Form": Mapping a Consulting Engagement at an Engineering Firm Before Saying Yes

[Student Name]

University of Phoenix

PSYCH/678: Consulting and Business Skills

Week 1 Assignment

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The engineering firm, its people and the engagement are composites written for a model paper; consulting models come from the sources listed.

Lauren called on a Tuesday afternoon. She is the chief operating officer of a civil engineering firm in Chandler with about 160 employees, and she wanted a quote for a new performance rating form. "People hate the one we have," she said. "We just need something better." Before quoting anything, I want to map what this engagement could become and which questions to ask first.

The Presenting Request

A year ago, the firm replaced informal annual conversations with a structured system: managers score every employee from one to five on eight competencies, and the firm requires that no more than fifteen percent of employees receive the top rating and at least ten percent the bottom two. Since then, engineers have complained in surveys and exit interviews, and three senior project managers, all of them veterans of over a decade, have left for competitors. Lauren believes the form's wording is the problem.

Phases of an Engagement

Block (2011) described consulting as a sequence of phases, each with its own tasks and skills. Entry and contracting involve the first contact and an explicit agreement about what the client wants, what the consultant will provide and how they will work together. Discovery and dialogue involve gathering data and developing a shared picture of the problem. Feedback and decision to act involve presenting findings in ways the client can use and choosing a course of action. Engagement and implementation carry out the plan, and extension, recycle or termination decide whether to continue, adjust or end the work. Block stressed that the consultant's work is to be authentic and to complete the business of each phase, and that many failed engagements trace back to contracting that was rushed or unclear.

Applied to this request, the phone call is entry. If I simply quote a new form, I skip contracting and discovery and assume Lauren's diagnosis is correct. The forced-distribution rule, manager skill, the link between ratings and pay or something else entirely could be the real problem.

What the Client Is Really Asking For

Turner (1982) argued that consulting is more than giving advice and arranged consulting purposes in a hierarchy. Lower purposes include providing information, solving the problem the client names and making a diagnosis that may redefine that problem. Higher purposes include making recommendations based on the diagnosis, helping implement them, building consensus and commitment, facilitating client learning and improving the organization's effectiveness. Turner noted that clients often begin by asking for the lower purposes and that consultants add more value as the engagement moves up, though only with the client's agreement.

Lauren's request sits at the bottom of Turner's hierarchy: solve the problem as she defined it. A useful engagement would at least add diagnosis, which might confirm or redefine the problem, and could extend to recommendations and implementation if she wants that.

A new form would be the fastest thing to sell and the least likely thing to fix the firm's problem.

Choosing a Role

Schein (1978) contrasted two consultant roles. Under purchase of expertise, the client decides what is wrong and pays an outsider for information or a service, which works only if the client has diagnosed the problem correctly and communicated it clearly. When the relationship resembles a doctor and patient, the outsider examines the organization and writes the prescription, which risks resistance and depends on accurate diagnosis by an outsider. Process consultation works differently: the consultant works alongside the client so the client comes to perceive and make sense of events and then acts on them, gaining skill in solving future problems too. Schein argued that consultants should often start in a process mode, because the client usually knows more about the organization than the consultant does.

For this engagement, I plan to begin in a process role, helping Lauren and her leadership team examine what the performance system is meant to do and why it is failing, then move into expert mode on specific questions, such as whether forced distribution has research support or how to train raters, where my I-O training adds value.

Who Is the Client?

Lauren called, but the firm's founding partners approved the system and the managing partner championed forced distribution after reading about it in a business magazine. Engineers and managers live with the system. I will need to clarify who my primary client is, the person who owns the decision and pays, and who else must be involved for any change to stick. Here, the likely primary client is the partners' group, with Lauren as my contact.

Business and Ethical Questions

Several questions need answers before I propose fees. What does success look like to the partners: fewer complaints, lower turnover or better performance? What budget is realistic? Will employees' survey and interview data remain confidential, reported only in aggregate? If my diagnosis finds that the partners' own decision is the problem, will they want to hear it? As a psychologist, I must avoid promising results the data cannot support and protect participants who share candid views.

The First Meeting

I proposed a ninety-minute meeting with Lauren and the managing partner, free of charge, with three goals: understand what the performance system is meant to achieve, learn what they have already tried and agree on whether a short diagnostic phase makes sense before any redesign. I will bring two or three questions rather than a solution.

Internal or External?

Lauren asked whether her HR manager could do this work. An internal consultant knows the culture and costs less, but may struggle to challenge the partners who hired her. An external consultant brings independence and specialized expertise but needs time to learn the firm. A partnership, in which I lead diagnosis and the HR manager leads implementation, may offer the best of both.

Questions for the First Meeting

The questions I bring will shape the engagement more than any slide. I plan to ask what the partners hoped the new system would accomplish that the old conversations did not, how ratings are used for pay, promotion and project assignments, what managers were told about applying the distribution rule and what the three departing project managers said on their way out. I will also ask what would happen if the firm dropped formal ratings entirely, not because I am recommending it but because the answer reveals how much the partners value the ratings themselves.

What I Will Not Promise

Lauren hopes for a quick fix before the next review cycle in four months. I will tell her plainly that a diagnosis can be completed in that time, but that a redesigned system rushed into place without manager training could fail in the same way the current one has.

Conclusion

A request for a new rating form is the start of an engagement, not its definition. Moving through contracting and discovery before delivering anything, aiming higher on the hierarchy of consulting purposes and starting in a process role give the firm the best chance of solving the problem behind the complaints.

References

Block, P. (2011). Flawless consulting: A guide to getting your expertise used (3rd ed.). Pfeiffer.

Schein, E. H. (1978). The role of the consultant: Content expert or process facilitator? The Personnel and Guidance Journal, 56(6), 339-343. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2164-4918.1978.tb04644.x

Turner, A. N. (1982). Consulting is more than giving advice. Harvard Business Review, 60(5), 120-129.