Consulting Skills in Action:
Making Quality Happen II
continued...
Being a
true consultant
doesn’t just happen, anymore than quality just happens. It has to be
learned.
TODAY’S QUALITY CONSULTANTS WORK WITH ENTIRE ORGANIZATIONS
Once upon a
time a quality consultant was seen as an auditor, controller and
policeman, responsible for quality control or quality
assurance. Today companies expect quality consultants to go to every
part of the organization as advocates for the quality effort. It is no
longer a matter of doing it to the organization. Now it is
a matter of working with the organization to ensure that quality
is a way of life for all who work there. This new approach requires a
change in the way people perceive quality consultants. The new
perspective sets new expectations about how consultants interact with
clients or customers in the organization.
Quality concerns steadily expand and deepen.
Technology proliferates; its applications expand. In an era of sharply
increased competition, quality reaches far beyond products. Quality
today encompasses the performance of everyone in an organization,
including support personnel. “Everyone has suppliers and customers.
Wherever a supplier/customer relationship exists, quality can be defined
and tracked,” says Randy Trombly, an internal consultant with Compaq
Computers.
The marketplace constantly redefines
quality. “As our customers get smarter,” says Xerox’s John Barr, “they
are thinking of new ways of doing business. They are looking for quality
in total customer support. Quality is not a buzzword. Quality
means conforming to customer requirements. As our customers discover new
and unique requirements, we have to be constantly changing to meet
them.”
Change is rarely easy. Of course, no one can
be against quality: It’s one of those universals, like motherhood and
goodness. Yet integrating a philosophy of quality into employees’
productivity is easier said than done. Quality consultants believe in
the importance of quality. They have the technology, the tools, and the
ability to help. But they are not always met with open arms. Consultants
often find that frustrating, if not downright disappointing.
CONSULTANTS NEED NEW WAYS TO INTERACT
Quality
consultants come with different experiences and expertise from line
functions or previously existing staff organizations. They are experts
in quality methodologies, but few have developed the skills to be
effective consultants. Quality consultants need to understand the most
effective to interact with clients so that ideas and changes are
implemented.
Quality consultants face uncertainty and
conflict. Their roles and the boundaries in which they operate are
changing. Clients with whom they consult, the organization’s top
management — even consultants themselves — may have different views.
Sometimes conflict occurs over turf. Quality
issues may be seen as the responsibility of human resources, operations,
safety or manufacturing. Sometimes managers in departments not directly
related to the company’s products or customers have difficulty viewing
quality as their concern. Internal clients may see consultants as
advocates for processes driven from above which can lead to assumptions
that they are out of touch with everyday operations. Clients may not
understand the value of quality technology, wondering what’s in it for
them. Reports and programs may be politely received and then left to
gather dust on shelves.
The cumulative effect often is that quality
consultants suffer burnout. They typically have to influence their
clients, higher-level managers over whom they have no authority or
direct control. In some cases, they may be called in or sent to a
particular client to solve a problem. Other individuals may be needed to
achieve success, people who are sources of information or who will
implement quality measures.
Consultants
must identify these people, gain access to them, win their trust and
contract with them as partners to solve problems. By creating
relationships in which clients are open to influence, consultants can
foster a commitment to change.
CREATING RELATIONSHIPS ENHANCES QUALITY CONSULTING
“As
staff consultants,” says John Barr, whose company has earned a Malcolm
Baldrige National Quality Award, “we need to understand our clients’
motives. Why do they do what they do? Then we use those motives to
provide them what they need to achieve their objectives. That’s why we
went to
Designed Learning’s Flawless Consulting Workshops
— to try to get our people to understand how to consult with clients
about quality, how to communicate that there’s something in it for
them.”
Compaq’s Randy
Trombly explains, “The quality consultant needs to answer the question:
What will the employee gain by participating in a quality effort? To
achieve employee buy-in, quality consultants need to communicate key
concepts and let employee work groups define how the concepts will be
integrated.”
DEALING WITH RESISTANCE IS AN IMPORTANT SKILL
Dealing with
client resistance — a predictable, normal, and necessary reaction
against the process of being helped — is a key skill for effective
consultants. Resistance has many sources, including fear of losing
control or of facing up to difficult organizational problems. Resistance
to change can cause clients to withhold commitment to quality measures.
“This resistance,” says John Barr, “comes about because people say to
themselves, ‘I know the rules of the game I am currently playing, but I
don’t know the rules of the new game. I’m not sure I can win in the new
game.’ As consultants, we constantly try to understand this resistance.
We want to help them recognize that it’s healthy and normal. We offer
alternatives to this we-can’t-change attitude. We show them how they can
change and be successful in the new way.”
Designed Learning’s
Flawless Consulting Workshops
teaches consultants, first, to understand their clients’ vulnerability.
For example, managers might fear that poor quality results will be seen
as a reflection of their own poor management. Consultants can be seen as
spies trying to find fault. Getting people to talk about these concerns
requires compassionate listening skills.
In one company, a
consultant was trying to help a young manager implement a change on a
manufacturing line to improve quality. The manager said he wanted to
improve quality, but he was swamped with customer orders and didn’t have
time to discuss the new measures. The next week was equally unsuitable.
And the next. Finally, the manager said he just didn’t have time to
devote to quality consultants.
This was a clear
sign that he was facing difficult realities in his department, painful
problems that could require painful solutions. The consultant had to
help the manager see that his challenge was not time constraints;
rather, he was uncertain how the new quality measures would affect him.
Skillfully approached in a way that addressed his concerns, the manager
finally confessed to feeling intimidated by an older, entrenched foreman
whose role would have to change with the new quality measures. The
manager feared he could not convince the foreman that the changes were
necessary, making make him look like a bad manager. Once his defensive
pretexts were dropped, the consultant could help him deal with these
natural emotions. The quality measures were more easily implemented.
“Designed
Learning’s Flawless Consulting Workshops
help people learn that resistance is not something the consultant must
overcome,” says Randy Trombly. “The process of dealing with resistance
helps the client move from a position of helplessness, alienation and
confusion to a position of choice, engagement and clarity.”
TRUE
CONSULTANTS ACT STRATEGICALLY
The
Flawless Consulting Workshops also prepares individuals to contract with
upper management and function as true consultants, avoiding roles that
can undermine their status. For example, consultants must avoid becoming
a pair of
hands,
doing tasks their clients should be doing. They also learn to avoid
assuming the role of the
expert
who makes recommendations instead of winning collaboration. They learn
how and when to say no. In Randy Trombly’s words, “The consultant’s role
is to serve the team rather than lead the team.”
At
Alcoa Laboratories, quality consultants assist teams in problem solving.
Professional development coordinator Jim Ice says, “Many new
facilitators want to help the team, so they
own
the problem and take that responsibility from the team. The team is now
free to maintain the status quo, by rejecting the consultant’s solution.
The consultant has to confront the team’s attempt to transfer
responsibility. The facilitator must establish the team’s ownership of
the problem and thereby increase their energy and urgency to develop and
implement a solution.”
Quality
consulting means partnering equally with clients. Effective consultants
look beyond the immediate problem to obtain information on the big
picture. Their goal is to apply a long-range view and act strategically.
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