Management Consulting - some practical guidelines

From Block (2000), I note the following advices on Management Consulting practices. I capture the key headings and some of the key words to facilitate my lectures; you still need to refer to Block (2000) for the detailed reasoning:

Part I: Block (2000; chapter 3) stresses the following 2 vital concerns in Management Consulting practice

1. Being authentic: Being authentic enables a consultant to establish client commitment
2. Address the requirements in each phases of a Management Consulting process:
• Phase 1: contracting
• Phase 2: Discovery and data collection
• Phase 3: Feedback and the decision to act
• Phase 4: Engagement and implementation

Part II: Block (2000; chapter 10) offers some advice on the "From Diagnosis to Discovery":

1. A process of discovery and diague is much preferred over a process of diagnosis and prescription.
2. The process of discovery should aim at encouraging members in the client system to be take informed actions. (You should refer to Block's discussion on the Research Approach vs Action Approach on pg. 177 as well as the discovery model on page 178 of Block (2000).)
3. Study the data gathered to synthesize the findings into a few core issues
4. In the process, communicate with your client members in a language that they can understand

Part III: Block (2000, chapter 18) makes the following advices on Management Consulting ethics:

1. Consulting practice is based  on a commitment to care; this commitment can be compromised by the pressure arising from the commercialization of consulting services, e.g. in change management (including business process re-engineering), on edutainment on leadership programmes. And these consulting services incorporate technologies that have a dark side.
2. Consulting firms sometimes use client need assessment to market their consulting services. Thus, the assessment can be biased.
3. Consulting services are sometimes employed as cosmetics to make painful organizational changes, e.g. downsizing, more attractive in appearance, not in substance.
4. Consultants may take credit for things not done by them.

From this discussion, Block advises consultants to firmly uphold their professional ethical standards and noble values, e.g. truth seeking and suppotive of capacity-building in clients' organizations.


Reference
Block, P. (2000) Flawless consulting: A guide to getting your expertise used, Pfeiffer (A Wiley impprint)