Bullshit bingo
ITIL, Six Sigma, Total Quality Management, Lean, COBIT, Balanced Scorecard, Kaizen, Prince II, Deming quality circle, hoshin kanri, togaf, participative management … name it …
Of course methodologies, models, frameworks market and good practices, standards and directives are theory. Of course, consultants of all places are making money out of it. Of course too often without adding value for the client. But on the other hand: stop thinking you’re the first with a particular problem or challenge.
So, the first question that raises, faced with a problem in your organization: who else has ever been confronted with the issue you’re facing. In which way have they failed coping with the particular challenge? How did they overcome? The answer is not selecting the right frameworks, methodologies, market standards, certificates or other practices. A fool with a tool is still a fool. But good practices do exist, but how to valorize them? I’m sorry, but the answer often is ‘consultancy’.
Consultant is not a protected title, as ‘surgeon’ is for instance. Can you imagine everybody would be able to put that on a nice plate besides his doorbell? Also, everybody can appoint him or herself ‘consultant’. Fair enough, I’m not that keen to rules, regulations, criteria, laws and red tape hindering progress in organizations because of missing the right label on a person. And indeed whatever organization we’re talking about, you can’t compare it with a human life, a surgeon is working with. But how to avoid paying advisory services without payback?
The two sides of the coin. Those talking the talk, but absolutely not walking the walk, selling slideware, using expensive words, complex concepts and ideas. But on the other hand, although rather funny, is the bullshit bingo game that is too often abused to slow down, or even worse, to kill good ideas, because of job protection, fear for new things, exaggerated sarcasm or striking up ego. For those who don’t know bullshit bingo: fill out a grid with so called buzz words and as soon as the speaker used 5 words of the grid, you just stand up and shout ‘bingo’!
Yes, you do have herds of low value consultants, not difficult to waste your money. But the right person with the right experience and expertise can really make a huge difference.
Reinventing the wheel
In order to appreciate the value of models, methodologies and frameworks, we have to understand where they are coming from, what the sources were, at the outset, the process the particular framework or methodology went through until you’re considering to using it.
A good methodology or framework is born out of real life. The fruit of hands-on experience, the result of trial and error, successes, application of common sense, but redirected by reality and failures, shaped through practice on the floor. All the input and experiences, a number of people do take it forward and invest in materializing it in some kind of concept, structuring checklists, concise directives or tips and tricks. In such a way a framework, model or methodology is born. It is nothing more, but absolutely nothing less neither, than the crystallization of tons and tons of experience, summarized in a structured way and ready for use. Ready for use, because of … already used, in real life situations, smoothed by frequent use and the process of learning through application.
Another type of frameworks and models you don’t want to spend money or time on. Where do they come from? For one strange reason or another, quite some advisory firms are desperately looking for a proprietary methodology or framework. They allow a number of consultants to escape from the slavery of billable hours and ask them to sit together and to come up with something brand new, developed on paper, baptized with a lot of coffee and sandwiches, transferred from the whiteboard to attractive handbooks, leaflets and the internet. And most important, with a stamp of the company on it. You don’t want that. They are ‘theory’, laboratory proof, but most of the time without a serious reality check. Or they take as a starting point an existing good practice and in order to justify the hours spent on what is overhead for the company, they start ‘enriching’ the model with complete lists of two dimensional correlations between parameters, endless checklists, complex and ingenious key performance indicators, pages and pages of surrounding and supporting text. That’s where the ‘over-engineering’ of frameworks is coming from. And that’s a pitty. It hinders the manager in the field, looking for a solution to perceive the real value of the practice.
A tool, but no fool
And that’s where a consultant has to add value. Not by being the smarter guy or girl in the play. But
- He has time! The consultant is not facing the daily fire fighting of an operational environment. That should allow him or her to study and discuss theoretical concepts and ideas. To analyze cases and to understand the reasons behind failures or successes.
- He has a diverse background. Throughout his or her career, he or she has seen tens of organizations, He or she has seen happening failures and successes. What was working in a particular organization? What wasn’t? Why or why not? What seemed to be a ‘good practice’? Why were things working in one environment and not in another?
A good consultant combines theoretical knowledge with experience on the floor. He has seen the application of the material in real life, he or she lived through the pragmatic use of frameworks and methods. And if you really can choose, pick somebody who has walked the walk, not only as consultant. But somebody who knows what operational, daily responsibility is. Knowing the theory and knowing what it means standing at the front, with the feet in the mud, executing! And being accountable for the outcome in the long run.
And that’s what you should pay for: expertise (the knowledge of the tool) and experience (the practice with accountability).
Experience and expertise
As stated above, you’re not the first with a particular problem. Through the right consultant, applying an existing framework or methodology in a pragmatic way, tailored to your organization, staying focused on the particular context an organization is functioning in: the smart application of such a framework or methodology will allow you leveraging the experience and expertise that is consolidated in the methodology. Do not waste time nor money in reinventing the wheel.
“Experience is one thing you can’t get for nothing”, to quote Oscar Wilde. Or Albert Camus:” you cannot acquire experience by making experiments. You cannot create experience”. But you definitely can buy experience. Don’t pay a consultant, but pay experience and expertise. Everybody can call him or herself consultant. But before spending money, check the track record, ask for references. Invite the consultant, query and challenge him or her. He does not have to be (let’s hope he doesn’t pretend neither) the smartest guy in the room. Don’t evaluate him with the bullshit bingo grid. Check personal references, check the track record. Leverage the experience and expertise in your organization.