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What is really going on? Confessions of a Management Consultant

C.J. Kuelzow
Zybic, Inc.
New York, New York, USA

While recently speaking with a client he earnestly asked me “Chris, what is really going on?” 

Twenty years ago, flush with cold hubris, I would have gladly spouted off while thinking - Ok, just what took him so long? Oh well, I guess it is finally obvious to him that I already know more than he does about his own business. After all I’ve been here for portions of each day and night for almost three days now. Isn’t it about time that I shape this program and move his people to my way of thinking! After all isn’t that why he asked me to come out here in the first place? Isn’t this just the same, or only a bit different than what I discovered and fixed so effectively during that other recent engagement? Life is good. Shouldn’t he be kissing my ring now? 

But today my immediate thoughts are very different - Oh boy, here we go again! Memories percolate. Emotion flows. Is it really wise to share some provisional special insight or worse, admit to a lack thereof? And what is really going on anyway? Can I really truly know?  What did I miss? Over the years, how many times did I intellectually even passionately know something that when tested actually wasn’t so?  Isn’t the answer sought by this client in fact the foundation of my value to him and his enterprise? He needs my help. Forget my compensation; any flawed input could really cost him big time.

Looking confidently into my client’s eyes and without hesitation, I gushed back with some upbeat, all knowing, fact flexible, consultant speak - that thankfully stopped that thread dead in it’s tracks. Rationalizing to myself that if it still works, use it. Sound familiar?

However, deftly avoiding spiraling in with a client is not the same thing as objectively wrestling with a truly complex question like that. And wrestle it I have over much of my career. What I understand today that I didn’t twenty years ago, was not that my client posed an unreasonable question. No, rather it was a very tough or even impossible one to properly answer.

Why? Because all seasoned consultants have learned that:

• Facts presented with certainty and passion to promote a particular view may sound or even “feel” right, but often are completely incorrect, inadequate or irrelevant.
• Until the results of an action are in, there is no way to completely validate the “truth” or relevance of the original facts that were used to support the actions taken. In fact, the correct and real answer to “What is really going on?” is often only apparent or even available well after the action plan has been implemented.
• The motivation for asking the question is usually due to some individual’s or group’s need for “factual” support to favorably influence an outcome as they define it.
• Factors that might ultimately control the outcome, may in fact be missed or willingly misrepresented, discounted, underestimated, or ignored.
• And so on…

Do you think it’s an accident that the question “What happened?” is so regularly employed once the reality of decisions taken slap us on our faces?

I don’t really know why, but perhaps the guilt of another apparently successful reflexive discounting of a client’s legitimate query is motivating me to properly quantify and share my true view of it. Here I will make the effort once and for all to bracket this deceptively simple yet cosmically slippery facet of nature.

Why is the question “What is really going on?” cosmic? Well let’s see:

• Cosmic as the question can be innocently applied in manifold situations with oftentimes nasty results.
• Cosmic since when asked it can become the proximate cause of or even force important decisions to be taken.
• Cosmic as one who wields the “correct” or “best” resulting answers to the question can accumulate and use power.
• Cosmic because the answers can be accidentally or deliberately manipulated and accepted as “true” by an ignorant audience.
• Cosmic because the answers can by default develop into the popular and sanctioned view, regardless of its “truth” and/or relevance, or impact.
• And so on…

Truth is, in any complex human endeavor it is almost always impossible to know “What is really going on”, when it’s actually going on. 

I believe that the behavior associated with this question is something like quantum physic’s Uncertainty Principle, since whatever answer given (especially when the answer to the question is most needed/relevant), may ultimately turn out to be any combination of the following:

• Correct or incorrect
• Relevant or irrelevant
• Constructive or destructive

Here is an organized presentation of this paradox. 

The Engagement Paradox Matrix 

Quadrant A - We followed up our analysis with decision(s), executed then met our original objectives, relying on a body of facts that turned out to be true, relevant and adequate.  How we love this place. This is where we all want to stay. This is a demonstration of our skill; born of experience, tempered by prior challenges. We have the right stuff; the intellectual capital, the knowledge, the facts, the intuition. We managed expectations and smell like roses. I’ve heard people speak about this place.

Quadrant B - We followed up our analysis with decision(s), executed then met our original objectives, in spite of relying on a body of facts that turned out to be either untrue and/or irrelevant and/or inadequate. I know this place. Boy do I know it. This is where we end up too often. Sure on its face this is a demonstration of our skill; born of experience, tempered by bla bla bla bla bla. Problem is that we had just enough luck and flexibility in the execution to address left field realities that nearly compromised the whole effort. Yes, the client thinks we smell like roses, but what do they know? Fact is we worked hard through it and are hoping nobody ever digs too deep into a postmortem analysis. We live in this place.

Quadrant C - We followed up our analysis with decision(s), executed but missed our original objectives, even though we had relied on a body of facts that turned out to be true, relevant and adequate. Ouch! I have a vague memory of this place - the mind has terrific compartmentalizing capabilities. Maybe this is where we won a battle, but lost the war. Or perhaps it was a great demonstration of our skill to define and solve a problem that didn’t exist or wasn’t really important. We can always try to point out that this result could have happened to the best of us. Why shouldn’t we be held harmless? The client suspects that we wasted much of their money, but we hope that they won’t tell anybody. Sadly, smell we do, just not like a rose.

Quadrant D - We followed up our analysis with decision(s), executed but missed our original objectives, relying on a body of facts that turned out to be either untrue and/or irrelevant and/or inadequate. Ah, the third rail of consulting! Brushed against it, but thankfully never landed here. This is the land of systemic and complete failure. Sure the client was hopeless, but didn’t we take their money leaving things even worse than when we arrived? Fact is we avoid this outcome like the plague.

So what are we to do when we can only truly be confident of our position after we have already taken it? How do we compound our chances of treating our clients and ourselves to productive, profitable and low trauma engagements?

Well I hold the following:

• The oldest advice is still the most important. Observe, listen, then ask questions. It is just plain arrogant to believe that an outsider can quickly build, refine and test his or her model of the organizational dynamics that they immerse themselves into at the start of every engagement.
• Analyze, test, learn - repeat. Build confidence that you can identify the right mountain and then be able to climb it.
• Actively and constantly manage expectations. Make commitments that you can achieve two or three different but still effective ways.
• Manage commitments. Be certain that all parties have the horsepower available and are fully committed in support of the effort. Test this often.
• Promote and broadcast a general openness to input. It always amazes me where many of the best suggestions/information actually comes from.
• Set up real and meaningful milestones. Challenge and test them against the mission when you arrive at every one.
• Avoid being whipsawed or blind-sided by making efforts to quietly establish each players motives as well as their ability to shape and influence your desired outcome.
• And remember, you can get more done with a smile and a gun than just a smile alone. Translation - Once every so often you will need to hold a position and be properly armed to strongly defend it.

So now you know the truth. Sure I bring some useful experiences and value to the table, but sometimes I don’t really “know” what is going on. Like the rest of you I strive to make the best of it and do what I can in spite of the inherent uncertainty.

I have evolved to a point where I have found that the best way to make the best of it is to be well prepared, strong, knowledgeable, open, respectful and flexible while I manage expectations and strive to deliver the desired and promised result.

That said, I find that I continue to spend most of my time in Quadrant B, but am always inspired to strive for the bliss that Quadrant A surely must hold.

Next time that question comes up, I will just hand my client this paper. Yeah, right.

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