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The issue you're overlooking is that these management consultants are being paid large fees for information that a company can get for free just by listening to

The issue you're overlooking is that these management consultants are being paid large fees for information that a company can get for free just by listening to their existing employees. However, that's not a slight on the management consultants themselves (nice work if you can get it), but is a slight on companies that don't trust that their employees can give them sound advice. Problems at the ground level are going to become apparent earliest to those working at that level, if you ignore that feedback you're potentially throwing away valuable information.

Kinrany 9y ago
How do the companies know that they can trust their employees?
- ZenoArrow 9y ago
  They must trust them enough to employ them. Even if they don't think any single person they employ has "all the answers", if you listen to feedback from your employees you can get a sense of trends. Furthermore, these observations should be something verifiable. You're asking for concrete feedback on issues, not vague comments about what's wrong.
- pjc50 9y ago
  How do they know they can trust the consultant? (More seriously, being unable to trust your employees to give useful feedback is a sign that your culture is a disaster)
  - jwhitlark 9y ago
    They diff the output of the consultant against that of the employee. Trust, but verify.
- JohnnyHero 9y ago
  You are asking this as if the trust question relates to honesty of the employee. Trust in this scenario is NOT a question of "are they going to lie and steal and cheat! The trust in question here is whether or not the employee/s are sophisticated enough in their understanding of the organizations "big picture directives" to contribute the correct feedback to the questions in need of answers. It is the rare employee whose feedback takes into consideration the big picture because they rarely are exposed to all the information that upper management is. Either management (or a consultant if need be) has to pull in the data/answers and then prioritize the problems relative to the bigger picture. This is a perspective that the production line worker rarely considers when answering questions. Even the biggest brains in any organization can be blinded by the problems that immediately affect them as opposed to the issues that are central to the organizations overall health and strategic goals.
amenod 9y ago
As GP stated, this is not about (not) believing your employees, this is about risk management. In many cases it is justified - do you really want to run your company based on everything your employees come up with? Sometimes you need to check if their instincts are right, especially for decisions that have huge impact on your business. Price for consultants, while it might seem high to you, is actually pretty low compared to business values. Look at it as a kind of insurance.

Kinrany 9y ago

How do the companies know that they can trust their employees?

ZenoArrow 9y ago
They must trust them enough to employ them. Even if they don't think any single person they employ has "all the answers", if you listen to feedback from your employees you can get a sense of trends. Furthermore, these observations should be something verifiable. You're asking for concrete feedback on issues, not vague comments about what's wrong.
pjc50 9y ago
How do they know they can trust the consultant? (More seriously, being unable to trust your employees to give useful feedback is a sign that your culture is a disaster)
- jwhitlark 9y ago
  They diff the output of the consultant against that of the employee. Trust, but verify.
JohnnyHero 9y ago
You are asking this as if the trust question relates to honesty of the employee. Trust in this scenario is NOT a question of "are they going to lie and steal and cheat! The trust in question here is whether or not the employee/s are sophisticated enough in their understanding of the organizations "big picture directives" to contribute the correct feedback to the questions in need of answers. It is the rare employee whose feedback takes into consideration the big picture because they rarely are exposed to all the information that upper management is. Either management (or a consultant if need be) has to pull in the data/answers and then prioritize the problems relative to the bigger picture. This is a perspective that the production line worker rarely considers when answering questions. Even the biggest brains in any organization can be blinded by the problems that immediately affect them as opposed to the issues that are central to the organizations overall health and strategic goals.

amenod 9y ago

As GP stated, this is not about (not) believing your employees, this is about risk management. In many cases it is justified - do you really want to run your company based on everything your employees come up with? Sometimes you need to check if their instincts are right, especially for decisions that have huge impact on your business. Price for consultants, while it might seem high to you, is actually pretty low compared to business values. Look at it as a kind of insurance.