DIAGNOSIS

8.1Conceptual framework of diagnosis

What is diagnosis?

Diagnosis, the second phase of the consulting process, is the first fully operational phase. The purpose of diagnosis is to examine the problem faced and the purposes pursued by the client in detail and in depth, identify the factors and forces that are causing and influencing the problem, and prepare all the information needed to develop a solution to the problem. An equally important aim is to examine the relationships between the problem in question and the global objectives and results achieved by the client organization, and to ascertain the client’s potential to make changes and resolve the problem effectively.

The consultant should start the diagnostic work with a clear conceptual framework in mind. To embark on extensive and costly investigations without such a framework could be unproductive. In any organization the consultant will encounter a host of problems varying in importance and nature: technical and human, apparent and hidden, substantial and trivial, real and potential. He or she will hear many opinions as to what the real problems are and what should be done about them. In diagnosing the problem, the consultant will be constantly exposed to the risk of taking a wrong direction, becoming unduly influenced by the views expressed by others, and collecting interesting but unrelated facts while omitting essential information and ignoring some important dimensions of a complex problem, or interesting new opportunities.

Diagnosis is sometimes viewed as equal to collecting, dissecting and analysing vast amounts of data, including a great deal of data that may have no relevance to the purpose of the assignment. This is a misconception. While diagnosis requires data and facts, it is equally true that (a) diagnosis embraces considerably more than data collection and analysis, and (b) effective diagnosis is based on selected data and is consistently focused on the purposes of the project.

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Management consulting

In principle, problem diagnosis does not include work on problem solutions. This will be done in the next phase, action planning. Diagnosis may even lead to the conclusion that the problem cannot be resolved, or that the purpose pursued cannot be achieved and the problem is not worth resolving.

In practice, however, it is often difficult or inappropriate to make a strict distinction between the diagnostic and the action planning – and even the implementation – phases of the consulting process. It is not only that diagnosis lays down the basis for the work to follow. Frequently diagnostic work will identify and explore possible solutions. In interviewing people, for example, it may be impracticable and undesirable to confine the discussion to problems and their causes, without touching upon the wider context and possible solutions. Thus, although the phases are considered separately here, they will be combined in practice in a pragmatic way, according to the particular case.

Restating the problem and the purpose

The assignment plan prepared during the entry phase and confirmed by the consulting contract (see sections 7.2 to 7.5) provides guidelines and a basic schedule for diagnosis. It may, however, require revision and adjustment even before the diagnostic work is started. There may be a time-lag of several months between the end of the entry phase and the start of the diagnostic phase, and the client’s situation and thinking may have evolved.

Furthermore, many consulting contracts are signed on the basis of general and vague definitions of problem and purpose. When the work starts, the consultant may find that the client actually wants something else or has a different interpretation of the terms used in the contract. One reason may be that the people who start working together on the project are different (on both the client’s and the consultant’s side) from those who negotiated and signed the contract. Explaining what was intended is not enough since there may be a genuine disagreement over the original definitions.

Thus, it is always useful to review and restate the problem and the purpose of the consultancy when starting the diagnosis. A special meeting with the client may be arranged to this effect. In the vast majority of assignments, some adjustments in the objectives and the timetable are inevitable when the work starts.

The human side of diagnosis

There is another significant phenomenon. As we know, the very fact that a management consultant is present in the organization and starts asking questions puts the change process into motion. There may be an immediate impact on the organization. Many people do not have to be told what to do; it may be enough that someone asks a question that implies that there might be an alternative way of doing a job. Sometimes an employee may be heard to say, “I didn’t know they wanted me to do the job that way. Had they spoken to me about it, I would have done it!”

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Diagnosis

This can have very positive effects. By gradually developing a complete picture of the situation, diagnosis increases awareness of the need to change and indicates more specifically the sorts of change that will be required. If well managed, data collection and analysis can involve the client’s staff in the assignment, thus enhancing their sense of ownership of the problem. As a result, at the end of the diagnosis, employees in the client organization will be better prepared to cope with the necessary changes.

There can be a useful learning effect, too. The client and his or her staff should feel not only that they are themselves discovering the truth about their organization or unit and suggesting what to improve, but also that the consultant is sharing his or her diagnostic method with them. The client’s problem-solving potential can be considerably improved during diagnosis. If this opportunity is missed, it may be more difficult to solicit people’s involvement in developing and implementing action proposals.

Certain negative effects may also occur. Some clients try to keep secret the fact that the organization is using a consultant. It is doubtful whether such a secret can be kept but, even more important, an attempt to do so can cast doubt on the consultant and on the entire process. The informal communication network, or grapevine, in an organization will quickly disseminate the information. In the absence of a formal communication from the client to the system, the informal system will tend to generate negative reports. This will seriously inhibit the ability of the consultant to perform effectively.

Unless the client system is prepared to accept the consultant, the entire relationship can be doomed to failure from the outset. Therefore, if possible, the client should prepare the staff for the consultant beforehand. As clients are not always aware of this need, it may be necessary for the consultant to plan a course of action during the entry phase. Obviously, such action is in itself an intervention in the organization, and must be handled with extreme care (see also section 31.2).

The consultant can use a variety of approaches to dispel fear or misinformation. One way is by being readily available to all those in the organization who would like to meet him or her. Particularly when consulting on human resources and organizational development, the consultant should be generally visible and accessible.

Diagnosis can be a painful exercise in an organization in difficulties. But in any organization, diagnosis may uncover situations and relationships of which the client is not proud, which he or she is unable to handle, and which he or she would have preferred to hide from anybody coming from outside, and even from other colleagues within the company. The consultant, however, may need this sort of insight to be able to do anything useful for the client. Diagnosing delicate situations requires a great deal of tact. An aggressive diagnostic attitude (e.g. if people can infer from the consultant’s questions that he or she is looking for errors in their work and is going to criticize them) will invariably generate resistance.

Another type of potentially negative effect is spontaneous change of work methods before a new method has been properly developed, tested and accepted

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