PROFESSIONAL NEUTRAL
The most important single service a good consultant will provide is that of a Professional Neutral.
The value of an objective, independent observer in the context of trying to examine something as sensitive and nebulous, really, as corporate culture is readily evident. No matter how well-intentioned you are at the start of this exercise, there is a natural tendency for even the most sophisticated of us to become pretty defensive, pretty quickly. And who among the staff will tell the emperor about his clothes? They’re more likely to tell a consultant, especially a Professional Neutral.
A Professional Neutral is a slightly different from judge, juror, arbitrator or referee, all of whom are “professional neutrals” by dictionary definitions of those titles, but all of whom are called upon to exercise their independent expert judgment: make decisions. The role of a consultant in the process of corporate introspection is most expressly not to pass judgment. It is not to intercede between differing factions, at least not right away. It is simply to:
Your consultant shouldn’t care whether you are Robin Hood or robbin’ the ‘hood. He should care only that you recognize where you stand on that particular continuum.1. Serve as a conduit for unbiased observations, criticism and feedback; provide a buffer between the messenger and the emperor
2. Help recognize reality; to cut through differing viewpoints to determine consensus or to identify underlying truth.
Just the facts.
The right consultant can engage in dialog with management, employees, vendors and end-users, alike, and can identify and asses the significance of commonalties and conflicts among the various constituencies and determine which observations are most germane.