Consulting Entry: Building Trust & Ethics

Entry in the Consulting Process

• Entry is the first step in consulting, before formal contracting.
• It can occur through networking, referrals, or informal conversations.
• External consultants gain entry by marketing their expertise through networking, phone calls, websites, or presentations.
• Internal consultants promote services by leading discussions, giving presentations, and showcasing their value.

Importance of the Entry Phase

• The entry phase is essential for building trust and relationships and helps the consultant connect with the organization and establish credibility.
• Consultants should listen carefully, show concern, and align with the client’s goals because first impressions matter.
• A strong entry phase sets the foundation for a successful consulting relationship.

Ethical Issues During the Entry Stage

• Consultants may face ethical dilemmas when clients request inappropriate tasks.
• Unethical requests can include giving advice about individuals' qualifications or behavior, or advising on team performance.
• Acting as an "expert" instead of an Organizational Development (OD) consultant and giving content-based advice is unethical.
• The client may want to use the consultant for organizational politics, such as making them a scapegoat or setting them up to fail.
• Recognizing these unethical requests early and setting clear boundaries is important.

Defining the Client

• Contact clients are the initial points of communication in the client organization.
• Intermediate clients are included in meetings or provide data during the engagement.
• Primary clients have responsibility for the problem and generally pay for the services.
• Unwitting clients will be affected by the engagement but may not know it.
• Indirect clients are not known to the consultant but are conscious stakeholders.
• Ultimate clients consist of the larger system or organization.

Importance of Identifying the Client

• Distinguishing between primary and intermediate clients during the entry phase is crucial.
• A contact client may simply be an assistant or colleague.
• Some experts argue that the client is the relationships between individuals, groups, and the organization.
• Properly identifying the client helps define the problem, gather data, and choose effective interventions.

Contracting as the Process of Agreement

• Contracting is the process where the consultant and client agree on what the consultant will do.
• Both discuss their expectations, roles, and the work to be done.
• It's an important step to avoid misunderstandings and clarify roles and expectations.
• Making sure to ask the right questions helps avoid issues.

Importance of Contracting in the Consulting Process

• Contracting ensures a clear understanding of roles and expectations for both consultant and client.
• Without proper contracting, misunderstandings, frustration, and strain can occur.
• Clear expectations must be set from the beginning even without a formal contract.
• It helps avoid confusion and guides the consulting process effectively.

Exploring the Problem

• Clients may call a consultant with a vague idea of the problem.
• The consultant's objective is to understand the root of the problem and its components.
• Contracting is an early stage of data gathering and diagnosis.
• Practitioners may wish to conduct an initial set of diagnostic activities as a starting point.

Consultant Responsibilities

• Understanding how the problem is experienced.
• Determining when was it first noticed.
• Identifying who is involved.
• Exploring how the organization has tried to solve it and with what results.
• Understanding what barriers have prevented the problem from being solved.

Clarifying Goals and Objectives

• The contracting meeting is critical for defining specific and measurable goals.
• Clear goals prevent project scope drift and enable effective evaluation of success.
• In order to ensure goals are met, parties must agree on how to assess the client’s true motivation for change
• Without this clarity, the engagement risks becoming aimless or counterproductive.

Consultant Client Relationship

• Consultants should research the organization's customers, products, and history to prepare for the contracting meeting.
• Both parties can build mutual understanding, with the consultant explaining the role of OD and the client evaluating skills.
• Focusing on listening and exploring the problem to ensure the engagement aligns with their expertise.
• The meeting is not for self-promotion but for establishing a collaborative foundation.

Understanding Commitment to Change

• Validate the feasibility of an intervention by questioning the problem and the client’s approach.
• A client sought help to implement a technology system being piloted within weeks, despite resistance.
• They agreed that a consulting engagement would be frustrating and unnecessary given the lack of opportunity for change.

Consultation Environment

• During the contracting meeting, both share their expectations and support needs
• Consultant outlines necessary support, including client time, public commitment, and organizational resources.
• The client’s role is also discussed, emphasizing involvement in data gathering and planning interventions.
• It is an equal partnership, with the client owning the problem and solution, while the consultant aids in clarifying and implementing solutions.

Clarifying Time Pressures and Expectations

• The client and consultant must align on time expectations for the entire engagement.
• This includes key stages like data gathering, feedback, interventions, and outcome measurement.
• Clear timelines help prevent delays, especially if either party has conflicting commitments
• Addressing these potential time pressures upfront ensures smoother execution and avoids disruptions.

Consultant Client Interaction

• Consultants should establish practicalities like meeting schedules.
• Expectations for an equal relationship, emphasizing authenticity and honesty should be set.
• Consultants should raise sticky issues and push clients while allowing the freedom to decline.
• Consultants can help by asking tough questions about the client's role in a problem to help establish an equal and authentic partnership.

Clarifying Confidentiality Needs

• Confidentiality in organizational development (OD) is crucial due to sensitive situations.
• OD practitioners must address client anxieties about consulting.
• Clarifying who knows about the engagement, how it's positioned, and who accesses data.
• The consultant must discuss how to handle employee inquiries about the engagement's consequences if layoffs are a potential outcome.
• Ultimately, confidentiality is the client's prerogative, and any ambiguity must be immediately addressed.

Planning Next Steps

• By the end of the contracting process, both the consultant and client should clearly know what to do next.
• The consultant submits a formal proposal or contract, confirms discussions, or starts gathering data.
• Contracts can be written in different formats, but should include key details to ensure both parties are on the same page.

Succeeding in a Contracting Meeting

• Agreement on the moving forward process, appropriately negotiated needs and roles, and satisfactory relationships.

Conducting a Contract Meeting

• Listen: practitioners should refrain from interrupting a client’s description of the situation or problem by explaining their experience addressing similar problems with other clients
• Ask questions carefully and sensitively such as asking clarifying questions.

Schein's question recommendations

• Sharpen and highlight aspects of the presented problem
• Test how open and frank the contact client is willing to be

Acceptance of roles

• Roles, activities, or framing that do not meet needs for a successful engagement without being explicit about it should be rejected
• Essential needs such as compensation, time, resources, and relationship dynamics should be stated

Recontracting

• According to Weisbord (1973/1994), consultant is never finished with contracting.
• Each client meeting helps evaluate progress, retain roles/processes, or change them based on experience.
• Recontracting is an implicit evaluation/renegotiation at each stage and can be done explicitly.

Recontracting process

• Follows the original contracting session
• Consultant and client should schedule a meeting to discuss the engagement
• Review the original agreement, the new situation, and agree on how the new situation presents any changes to the contract.

Ethics in recontracting

• Three ethical dilemmas that a consultant must navigate during the entry and contracting stage:
  • Misrepresentation and Collusion:
  • Consultants may overstate qualifications, promise unrealistic results, or collude with clients to avoid difficult problems
  • Value and Goal Conflict: Ethical conflicts arise when the engagement violates OD values
  • Technical Ineptness: The consultant's inability to effectively navigate the OD consulting process