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ultimate use of the data. Typical groupings are:

●for events – time, frequency, rate, trends, cause, effect (e.g. number of accidents resulting from specified causes that occurred each day of the week during the past year);

●for people – age, sex, nationality, family status, qualifications, occupation, length of service, earnings (e.g. absenteeism by age group);

●for products and materials – size, value, technical characteristics, source (e.g. value of materials by type and size in the inventory at the end of the past 12 calendar quarters);

●for resources, inputs, outputs, processes and procedures – rates of activity (sales, consumption, production), location, control centre, geographical distribution, use of equipment (e.g. numbers of specified parts produced by selected processes during each of the past 24 months).

Tabulation allows facts to be arranged in digestible form. Descriptions and narratives may be noted separately under selected headings (e.g. responsibilities of each manager). Answers to a questionnaire can be tabulated on a summary questionnaire, i.e. using the same form of questionnaire that is distributed to the respondents. Processes and procedures may be represented by a chain of symbols, such as the activity symbols used by systems analysts or in work study. Shapes are best shown on drawings. Figures are usually set out in tables.4

Keeping notes in an orderly way, and organizing files for easy retrieval of information, will help the consultant to keep on course. The meaning of notes should be as clear months after the event as when they were written. No figure should be recorded without being precisely qualified.

8.4Sources and ways of obtaining facts

Sources of facts

By and large, facts are available to consultants from three sources:

–records;

–events and conditions;

–memories.

Any of these sources may be internal (within the organization), or external (publications, statistical reports, data on customers and competitors, opinions of people outside the organization).

Records are facts stored in forms that are readable or can be transcribed. They include documents (files, reports, publications), computer files, films, microfilms, tapes, drawings, pictures, charts, and so on. Facts are obtained from records by retrieval and study.

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Events and conditions are actions and the circumstances surrounding them, and are obtained by observation.

Memories are stored in the minds of people who work in the organization, are associated with it, or simply are able to provide information of use to the consulant (e.g. for comparison). This body of knowledge embraces proven facts, experiences, opinions, beliefs, impressions, prejudices and insights. The mind stores all these data in the form of words, numbers and pictures, which the consultant can reconstruct by means of special reports, questionnaires, interviews, and so on.

Indirect and time-consuming ways of collecting information should be avoided if the same information can be obtained directly and simply. In many cases this means – go and ask people. People at all levels in business firms and other organizations possess an enormous amount of knowledge about their organization, and nearly everybody has some ideas on needed and possible improvements. But they usually do not divulge this information if they are not asked.

Retrieval of recorded data

Records are a prolific source of information, and some records will be examined and studied in any management consulting assignment. Clearly, consultants will give preference to the use of information that is already available in records before looking to other ways of collecting data. There are, however, certain pitfalls to be avoided in using recorded data:

●Many records are not reliable and can give a distorted picture of reality. This is common in such cases as records on machine breakdowns and stoppages, or waste. Materials may be charged to products for which they were not used. Factory plans and layouts are seldom up to date. Organizational and operational manuals may include detailed descriptions of procedures that were abandoned long ago. Mission reports may be incomplete. Computer files may be incomplete and unreliable. If the consultant or the client has doubts, the validity of existing records should be verified before they are used.

●It is common in organizations, both business and government, to find that various departments have different records on the same activities, inputs or outputs. Some departments may be more careful and disciplined than others in record-keeping, and records may differ both in the criteria used and in the magnitude of the recorded data.

●Criteria and values used in recording are modified from time to time and the consultant must find out about all such modifications.

Special recording

Special recording can be arranged if information is not readily available in existing records, or cannot be relied upon. It may be established for a limited period, say a month or two, according to criteria proposed by the consultant. As a rule, the client’s employees working in a given area will be asked to record

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data and pass them to the consultant. For reasons of economy such recording should be kept simple and last no longer than necessary for reliability. Everyone should know at the start how long the period will be, and why special recording has to be introduced.

Observation

Observation is used to obtain information that is not readily recorded. The consultant is present while an event occurs (e.g. while a manager instructs subordinates, or while a production worker performs a task), and sees and hears how the event occurs, so as to be able to suggest an improved practice.

In process consulting, the consultant may observe management and staff meetings, during which it may be possible to identify group processes and behaviours that are related to the problem. Usually, the observation will be of groups, rather than individuals. If, however, the purpose of the consultation is to help an individual improve performance, then the observation can focus essentially on that individual. Alternatively, the consultant may observe patterns of socializing. Where do people gather to talk and exchange information? Who has frequent working or informal contacts with whom? Who is avoiding whom? What pattern emerges from these contacts?

Because most people feel uncomfortable under scrutiny, the consultant must take special care to put employees at their ease before starting to observe their activities. First the consultant should tell them what he or she is going to do. He or she should never start watching employees without warning. The consultant should explain the purpose of the survey and make it clear that it is not critical of particular persons but simply aimed at obtaining reliable information on how certain activities are performed. An exchange of views with those under observation, allowing them to point out the factors that influence the activity or the work relationships and inviting their suggestions for improvement, will probably enlist their cooperation. As far as possible they should behave normally under observation and make no attempt to give a better, worse, faster, or slower performance than usual. If there is any unusual occurrence, the observation should be disregarded and repeated when conditions return to normal.

If procedures, operations and processes are observed, the consultant may choose one of the many methods that have been developed for that purpose and whose description is available in the literature.5

If the assignment is dealing primarily with human problems and relations between individuals and groups, the consultant may have to explore the attitudes and behaviour of the client’s staff in depth. In other assignments he or she may probe less deeply into these aspects. The consultant should observe the inclinations, preferences and prejudices of people to the extent necessary to understand how these affect the problems he or she is concerned with, and to enlist cooperation. Such observation should continue throughout the assignment. It starts during the introductory meetings when the consultant gains first impressions. These will be verified or modified during later encounters. To

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a considerable extent the consultant gathers information on attitudes and behaviour as a by-product of interviews to elicit memories, exchange ideas or develop improvements. However, during interviews not directly concerned with personal traits, the consultant would distract both himself and the client by writing down his impressions. He should therefore make mental notes and only afterwards put them in writing and classify them.

By taking personal traits and attitudes into account, the consultant will increase the chances of understanding factors that affect change in the client organization.

Special reports

Individuals or teams in the client organization may be requested to help in the assignment by giving thought to particular aspects of the problem and putting their suggestions in a special report. This should include any supporting information that the author might be able to supply. The method is selective – in cooperation with the client, the consultant should choose employees who are likely to have specific views on the problem in question, who are aware of various pitfalls, and who are a source of good ideas. Anybody in the client organization, however, might offer to prepare a special report on his or her own initiative; this should be welcomed, but treated with some caution.

Questionnaires

In management consulting, questionnaires are useful for obtaining a limited number of straightforward facts from a large number of people (e.g. in a market survey), or from people widely separated from each other (e.g. reasons for equipment failure from users throughout a whole region). They are generally unsatisfactory for gathering all but simple facts.

The questionnaire may be distributed to correspondents with an explanatory note asking them to complete and return it, or canvassers may question people and note their answers on the questionnaire. Either case calls for a full explanation, telling the respondent:

●why he or she is being asked the questions;

●who is asking them;

●what the questioner will do with the replies;

●who else is being asked.

Before drawing up the questionnaire the consultant needs to decide exactly what information is wanted, how it will be used, and how the answers will be summarized and classified. Then precise, simple questions free from ambiguity have to be framed. As far as possible, answers should be “yes” or “no” or numerical. Where longer answers are required, it may be useful to provide a list of possible answers and ask for one to be marked. Questions should be arranged in logical order so that each answer leads to the next.

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If there are doubts about the respondents’ ability to understand the questions and give clear answers, the questionnaire should be subjected to preliminary tests.

Interviews

In management consulting, interviewing is the most widely used technique of data-gathering, together with the retrieval of recorded data.

One advantage of interviews over questionnaires is that every answer can be tested and elaborated. Questions supplement and support each other, confirming, correcting or contradicting previous replies. They also lead to related facts, often revealing unexpected relationships, influences and constraints. The interview is flexible and adaptable. If one line of questioning fails to produce the required data, another can be tried. This may be suggested by the interviewee’s answers.

The consultant needs to be alert and attentive to learn not only from the direct replies but also from the inferences, comments, asides, opinions, anecdotes, attitudes and gestures that accompany them. Non-verbal messages can be very significant.

The consultant should be guided by general rules of effective interviewing, which have been described in various texts.6 Some more specific experiences and suggestions concerning the use of interviews in management consulting are given below.

What facts. In deciding what facts are needed, the consultant takes account of the knowledge the interviewee is expected to have – for example, a production manager is unlikely to know precisely what terms of credit are extended to customers, while a district sales manager is probably not informed about the planned maintenance of machines. For background information, a general discussion may suffice. On the other hand, information that will help to solve problems or develop improvements needs to be thoroughly examined, probed and understood (e.g. workers’attitudes to simplifying working procedures in order to raise output).

Who should be interviewed. Obviously interviewees should be dealing with the activities under study – for example, for billing procedures, the invoice clerk would be the best source of information. To obtain full cooperation and avoid slighting anyone, however, the consultant should first approach the manager responsible and allow him or her to designate informants. Later the consultant may refer to others to complement or confirm information. During initial interviews he or she can ask who has supporting information.

When to interview. Information gathered from interviews makes more sense if it comes in logical order – for example, if products are known it is easier to follow the operations for manufacturing them. Interviews should therefore follow a sequence so that each builds on information derived from those preceding it. They should be preceded by a careful study of records, so that time-consuming interviews are not used to collect data available in another form. The amount of time an interviewee can make available for the interview and his state of mind cannot be ignored.

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Where to meet. Selection of a meeting place should take into account the following:

–proximity to the activity under study;

–the convenience of the interviewee;

–avoidance of noise and interruption.

Generally, people are more relaxed and communicative in their own surroundings. They also have all information to hand there. Only if the interviewee’s workplace has serious drawbacks, such as noise, lack of space or frequent interruptions, should the consultant invite him or her to meet elsewhere (perhaps in the consultant’s office at the client’s premises).

How to proceed. Although the conduct of an interview will vary according to the characters of the interviewee and the consultant, their relationship, and the circumstances under which they meet, the guidelines summarized in box 8.3 usually apply.

In interviewing, the consultant may encounter unexpected resistance. This can be expressed in many different forms: questions are not answered, answers are evasive or too general, doubts are expressed about the usefulness of the exercise and the consultant’s approach, and similar (see also section 4.4). If this happens, the consultant should quickly consider whether he or she is provoking resistance by aggressive or tactless questioning, or by asking questions that the informant considers banal or poorly prepared. It may be good tactics to ask the informant directly about his or her feelings concerning the interview: this may unblock the situation. There is, however, not much point in pursuing an interview in which the informant is clearly not cooperating.

Data-gathering meetings

Another possibility in diagnosis is for the consultant to arrange a special meeting, a sort of collective interview, to generate data related to the problem under consideration. During such a meeting, care is needed to ensure that it does not move into discussing possible solutions before sufficient data have been gathered.

Data-gathering should involve all those who are associated with the problem in any way. Sometimes the consultant may suggest including others who are not directly related, but whose presence could be helpful for datagathering. However, a data-gathering meeting should not be too large; this can inhibit some of those present and prevent the sharing of needed information. It may be preferable to schedule several small meetings in order to offer the more intimate climate essential for gathering data, and to hold separate meetings with people who would not give their views openly in the presence of their superiors or other colleagues (e.g. supervisors may speak more openly in a meeting where the production manager and the personnel manager are not present).

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