"But you don't know my business, what possible value could you bring to my organization...?"
I hear this quite often as an objection to hiring a Consultant. I have worked with
many different kinds of Consultants; those that told me how to fix the problem and those who worked with me to fix the problem. One commonality of a Consultant is that they are an outsider and your people will talk to an Outsider.
Can You Work Inside A Business, and Still Be A Consultant?
No, I tried this first hand in my families business. "Your just a young kid...what do you know..." I wanted to help my family in their business, but I had the wrong last name and too many knew me when I was growing up in the business.
I thought after working on my own and for other companies, that I would be able to be the "outsider". That didn't work. After a series of meetings, I asked to bring in a Consultant friend. In just 3 meetings, he had more information about what was going on in the business and my parents were shocked.
No Outsider = No One Talking
I learned that you will likely get little value from the group and get them talking without involving someone from the outside. In fact this same consultant said "you could do the same thing in my business, nobody listens...."
If the group was willing to talk to the leadership of the company, it would have already happened and you likely wouldn't be reading this section.
An Outsider, Outside Your Industry?
The person chosen for this should not have any personal affiliation that anyone is aware of. Ideally, you would choose someone who is experienced in facilitating groups or has a strong business background with experience in Marketing, Finance, Operations and Management.
They don't have to be from the same industry. Ford hired a guy who was responsible for building 747's, he didn't know a thing about building cars, but he has made a remarkable turnaround in the Ford Motor Company.
How Often...
Schedule the meetings at least every other week and schedule 2-3 hours. This will allow the group to build trust in the facilitator and let them know that they can talk. The group will be suspicious at first, but if the facilitator is doing their job, you will begin to get very valuable information after the 2nd to 3rd meeting.
The facilitator must build trust by holding the exact details of the meeting to the room the meeting is being held in. In order to build the trust, they must realize that the things the employees say will not get them in trouble.
Don't Persecute The Messenger..
You as the owner should be looking for generalizations or situations without naming specific names. With the feedback from the meeting, you should be looking for problems that can be solved. Ironically, many of the problems are actually able to be solved by the group themselves, but they just need the go ahead to proceed.
The people in your organization may not understand the level of authority they have to solve the problem. The group is a great way to show a favorable change. Solving problems for the group, will spread to the rest of your employees very quickly and you will begin to see a complete transformation in the moral or individual attitudes within the company.
You Have Problems, Trust Me....
One of the greatest misconceptions of business is the fact you don't have problems. If you are an Executive of a Company, you are a problem solver, so you DO have problems, but the people in your organization just aren't talking about it.
Meeting Benefits
The benefit to you is the fact that a simple problem you didn't even know about is likely costing you thousands of dollars per year and you didn’t even know it. The meeting has two benefits:
1 -your employee moral goes up because they FEEL involved and making a difference
2- you eliminate a problem that has had a negative effect on your profitability, maybe for decades.
Take A Look, You Never Know
If the meetings are done properly, the meetings in combination with the facilitator will begin to bridge the gap that seems to exist in every business; THE OFFICE VS. THE FIELD.
That disconnect and constant disagreement is costing your business tons of money and you must begin to break that down in order to make your business as profitable as possible. This process begins with the meetings.
The meetings should start to give you some feedback that will be helpful in running your business. This can be complex problems to the simple ones.
Ready To Begin.....?
