Collaborative Consultants - a rare breed?

Companies who are more cynical about the use of business consultants should consider making a fundamental shift in the way they think about management consulting.


The current preference is for expert-based “knowledge,” meaning that consultants present themselves as acting as trusted advisors to clients, providing outside diagnoses of problems.

Unfortunately, in many cases, these consultants’ suggestions are based on a well-defined body of academic and third-party research, but not necessarily on firsthand experience with the challenges faced.

The consulting approach of “knowing” is more hands-on, involving close cooperation with the client company. One of the advantages of this method, is that information about a given business, industry sector, or project is not merely transferred from consultants to clients, but rather created or learned, during a process of mutually beneficial or active collaboration.

When problems crop up the collaborators have a mutual incentive to solve them — an approach that ultimately spreads more information, accountability, and knowledge throughout the entire team.

Conclusion
Organisations will experience greater benefits if management consultants shift their focus away from the traditional expert-driven, learn-as-u-go approach and instead explore more collaborative and mutually beneficial, client–consultant projects.

How to get fired or caught up in the downsizing threshing machine

Here we are offering you five really good ways that high-tech workers could get themselves caught up in the brutal threshing machine of a downsizing exercise and book themselves a good spot in the expanding ranks of the unemployed.

1. Be invisible
Now is not the time to go unnoticed. It' not the time to shrivel and try to be invisible to management. Many people tend to default to hide-and-retreat mode when layoffs come up, but that could call more attention to you and make it appear you aren't contributing enough to be kept around.

Even those working hard could unknowingly be at risk due to their 'in-office' time. Some IT workers who operate from a home office might need to make a few extra trips into work to remind managers, in person, of their existance and importance to the company.

Being visible during downtime is a big deal. If you are always remote and people at the office don't see you as part of the team, that could cause problems. Often it can be a case of out of sight, out of mind, and remote workers could unwittingly become a target to be cut

2. Let your skills stagnate
There may be no training dollars, but that doesn't mean managers won't be considering IT pros' lack of updated skills when making layoff decisions. Regardless of the current economic trouble, high-workers should always be looking for ways to advance their knowledge.

IT staffers that don't maintain their certifications and stay trained show poor strategic thinking and will very quickly find themselves behind the curve. Turning a blind eye to new technology and thinking it can wait will wear thin in a down economy. Managers don't want staff that add to the can't do list in times like these.

The employee who uses the excuse about lack of dollars won't make points when it comes to cutting staff.

A pet annoyance of mine and many others, is people asking companies for more than they are willing to give. There has to be some level of mutual understanding about what contributions can feasibly be made on both the employer and employee. There are low- and no-cost training options if the employee is willing to make the effort.

3. Snoop into systems
It goes without saying that IT workers shouldn't abuse their access to company confidential systems, but industry watchers warn that if layoffs are going to happen, those high-tech pros with questionable practices will be the first to go.

It is really easy for an IT person to see what others are doing and to look at confidential data, without being caught but if you are suspected of some shady stuff, that would be reason enough to bring your name to the top of the layoff list.

Even if the practices aren't breaking corporate policies, IT professionals need to be on their best behaviour. Try to avoid abusing a flexible schedule with long lunches and don't use your high-tech position as a reason to spend too much time on the Internet for non-work-related activities.

If you are the person viewed as someone just logging their hours to collect a paycheck and don't plan to contribute more than the minimum, management will see that and you will become vulnerable.

4. Make plenty of demands
Pay cuts, hiring freezes, layoffs none of these factors suggest it's an appropriate time to ask for a raise. Yet experts say some will use their ongoing service to a company during a recession as a reason to demand more money and other benefits.

Now is not the time to ask for a raise; now is not the time to complain about needing more time off. In these cases, the squeaky wheel will get the shaft.

While it may seem to IT pros they are going above and beyond and deserve compensation for their efforts, those in the position to fire staff might not want to hear it.

Right now, employees should be nodding their heads a lot, not being surly or pushing back on responsibility.

5. Spew forth negativity
Employers now more than ever want positive attitudes on staff, and those spewing negativity will be weeded out.

The truth is that everybody from a technical standpoint is replaceable. I notice more than anything the negativity an employee displays. Negativity is contagious, and once an employee goes that route, it is nearly impossible to turn them back.

So now, go forth and apply what you have learned and you could soon be free to take a new challenge in a different organisation or just hang out at the local unemployment office with your new friends.

Building Co-operation between Staff and Management

Do you want more cooperation from your staff or from your manager? Of course you do! Well, rewarding the helpful, positive behaviour is always more effective than punishing the negative actions of perceived 'wrongdoers'.

The results from a new experiment in one of my favourite topics, Game theory . The latest experiment helps to confirm or re-affirm our views on this.

The experiment is based on a public goods game. Players choose whether or not to contribute money to a common pot. The pot is multiplied and redistributed equally, regardless of who contributes and who doesn't.

When people play a pure version of the game, the temptation to freewheel or reap the rewards without contributing anything, often leads to rapidly disintegrating cooperation. It sets up a tit-for-tat response.

Previous research found that cooperation is promoted by allowing players to punish slackers and freeloaders: cooperative players would pay a small cost that enables them to inflict a loss on the offender. This approach was more effective than providing a reward, in short term relations i.e. in games where players switch partners every round.

More carrot, less stick
David Rand and his colleagues at Harvard University modified the public goods game to better reflect, what they describe as, a more natural scenario: people play with the same group for many rounds, establishing longer term relationships and their own reputations within the group.

Players could choose to reward or punish others, at a small cost to themselves. Rand found that rewarding or punishing were equally likely to lead to a more cooperative response and therefore, higher earnings for all, but when players had the option to either punish or reward, but chose to reward, they received even higher absolute payoffs. "It becomes in one's self-interest to help, assist and support the group," says Rand.

It's a symbiotic behaviour that Rand explains as 'you scratch the group's back and It'll scratch yours'," he says.

Money for nothing
Sam Bowles at the Santa Fe Institute, New Mexico, cautions that Rand's game does not accurately reflect real economies. He points out, for example, that under Rand's rules the rewarder pays $4 and the rewardee "magically" receives $12. He calls this an unnatural scenario. "If you take away the free lunch, it doesn't work," says Bowles.

Disproportionate rewards often occur when we spend time, effort and money assisting people around us: helping a friend to move furniture, for instance, or recommending a colleague for promotion.

Actions like these may have a smaller cost to us than the benefit they provide others. These sorts of productive interactions and positive co-operative behaviours, are fundimental building blocks of our society and should not be disregarded, dismissed or underestimated.

Where's the Benefit?
Co-operative behaviours do not always have an immediate or quantifiable payback, normally but they do form part of a 'chain' of co-operative behaviours that begins when 2 people first meet.

Generally speaking, on first meeting, 2 people can either;

• a) form a mutual allegiance or friendship and therefore commit to support each other when and if they can. A sense of altruism is visible from the beginning, on both sides.


• b) a mutually supportive relationship does not form or is only sustainable for a very short period, before a 'conflict of interests' occurs and the 'partnership' is quickly dissolved.


• c) a dominant agressive role is taken up by one and the other is expected to take up a submissive, passive role. (This is often mistakenly called 'strong leadership')

Only the first option offers a 'balanced' and mutually agreeable co-operative relationship, which we would all recognise as friendship or collaboration. Either way, this option is the most stable, and the one most likely to provide the most benefit to the greatest number of people. It provides a platform of trust and co-operation that can be expanded and built upon.

Next Steps are yours
Make your choice or take your pick and start to build a better more co-operative relationship with your staff and with your manager. Let them know you want to do this and you are open to it. Show them how it can be done but most important of all, tell them how they can share in the benefits that will come from it.