Diagnosis

is chosen, the client will accept the main responsibility for collecting and analysing data, and the consultant will act mainly as a catalyst, making the client aware of the approach taken and drawing attention to questions and facts that should not escape attention. In other instances, however, the consultant will carry out the bulk of the diagnostic work. As a general rule, it is useful to plan for gradually increasing the involvement of the client and his or her staff in the course of the diagnostic phase.

The same approach and sequence of steps may not fit every situation and every consultant. Every client organization is unique and so is every consultant–client relationship. This general rule also applies to the planning of diagnostic work. For example, Jerome Fuchs described his experience in the following terms:

My personal approach involves techniques which I find most useful. I do not attempt to analyse or compartmentalize data into fact finding, analysis and synthesis, but let it flow as it begins to come in. I let it overlap to a certain extent in each of these stages until a pattern begins to develop. Only then do I begin to weave raw factual material into the analytical phase. When my facts are complete I want them to be so clear that they mirror what the ultimate conclusion of the study will be.2

8.3Defining necessary facts

Facts are the building-blocks of any consulting work. Consultants need a considerable number of facts to get a clear picture of the situation, arrive at a precise definition of the problem and relate their proposals to reality. Facts are also needed if the assignment is trying to develop something new and using a great deal of imagination and creative thinking. Collecting facts may be the most tiring and painful phase of the consultant’s work, but there is no alternative.

When diagnosis starts, a certain amount of data will be handed over to the operating consultants by their colleagues who did the preliminary problem diagnosis during the entry phase. The diagnostic phase will go much further, and will define issues and collect facts in considerably greater detail.

The kinds of facts collected will depend on the area in which the assignment takes place, and on the definition of the problem and the assignment objectives. Facts should enable the examination of processes, relations, performances, causes and mutual influences, with special regard to underutilized opportunities and possible improvements. The conceptual framework reviewed in section 8.1 indicates the main areas in which facts are normally collected.

Plan for collecting data

Data collection has to be prepared for by thoroughly defining what facts are wanted. Consultants should continue to apply the principle of selectivity, although at this stage they need more detailed and precise facts than during the preliminary diagnosis. Virtually unlimited amounts of information are available

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in any organization, but an excessive amount easily becomes unmanageable and cannot be fully utilized in any assignment.

The cost of fact-gathering cannot be ignored, especially if some data are not readily available and special schemes (observations, special record-keeping, numerous interviews) have to be established to obtain them. But the definition of facts needed and their sources should not be too restrictive, since this might exclude some significant information which is often found in unexpected places. At the beginning of the assignment, the consultant may well cast his or her net fairly widely, rejecting some data after preliminary examination, but adding other data, and so on.

In defining the scope of data, the management consultant should keep in mind that the purpose is neither research nor establishing responsibility for past flaws. “The purpose of diagnosis is to mobilize action on a problem – action that will improve the organization’s functioning.”3

The facts to be collected and investigated have to be defined in close collaboration with the client, especially with those members of the client organization who know what records are kept, how reliable they are, and what data will have to be sought from other sources. Collaboration should include the definition of the content of data, degree of detail, time period, extent of coverage, and organization and tabulation criteria.

Content of data

Apparently identical types of data may have a different meaning or content in different organizations. For example, “work in progress” may be defined in a number of different ways: it may or may not include certain items, and its financial value may be determined by various methods. The definition of categories of employees (managers, technicians, supervisors, administrative personnel, production and other workers, etc.) is also subject to many variations. In old firms with established traditions, definition is often complicated by the existence of a specific jargon, which may differ from terminology prevailing in the industry to which they belong. The uniformity of data used in the management of various organizations will be higher in countries where accounting and reporting are subject to government regulations. But even in these cases many differences will be found, especially in the production area.

Degree of detail

The degree of detail required will generally be higher than in preliminary diagnostic surveys. While a general diagnosis may stem from aggregate figures (e.g. total time spent by machines on productive work), change rests upon more detailed data (e.g. machining time for each operation, or time spent on productive work by certain types of machines, or in certain shops). Information may be needed on certain individuals and their attitudes to the problem concerned.

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The more detailed the facts, the more time they will take to collect. The consultant may first collect data in broad categories (e.g. total number of days of sick leave taken by all workers). Analysis of these data will suggest more detail for certain categories (e.g. number of days of sick leave taken by each age group during the winter months). Data may thus be gathered in several stages before the consultant has a sufficiently detailed picture of the situation.

Period of time

Defining the period of time is equally important. For example, to design an inventory management system for finished products, the consultant must know the number of products sold. For how many years must he or she calculate the sales and at what intervals? The period of time should be long enough to show a clear pattern of activity, indicate rates of growth or decline, and reveal fluctuations in activity due to seasonal variations or economic cycles.

Periods of time need to be comparable: months have to include the same number of working days and so on. Periods when exceptional events occurred should be excluded for comparison purposes, but recognized and accommodated in the new situation. Periods preceding major changes in operations (e.g. introduction of new products and dropping of old ones) have to be examined separately from periods of normal operation.

If a period close to the start of the assignment is chosen, it needs to be recognized that the mere presence of the consultant may affect the results. In a particular instance, material wastage dropped substantially from the moment the consultant began to ask questions about it and before he actually did anything.

Obviously the choice of the period of time should take account of the availability of past records, and of changes that the client may have introduced in recording procedures.

Coverage

When it comes to coverage, the consultant must decide whether to collect total information (on all products, all employees, whole units and processes), or a selection only. As a rule, information will be collected for the vital few items that account for the bulk of activity in the current period, and for such items as are likely to become vital in the future (prospective new products, etc.). If the productive capacity is clearly limited by one group of machines which have become a bottleneck, the solution of the problems of this group may be a key to the solution of other problems in the department. In other cases, data will be collected for representative samples.

Organization and tabulation of data

Finally, the preparatory work for fact collection should include decisions on organizing and tabulating the data, which should be made in the light of the

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