Many of us have been in
situations where we appear to have the right consultation processes in place,
staff seem to be engaged, original propositions change and the final decisions
do reflect what staff have said. Yet, there is a lingering feeling among some
that the process was ‘not consultative enough’, that it took too long, or that
it was too short, or indeed many felt that they were not heard. I have yet to
hear of a situation when there was a consensus that the consultation process
was perfect.
I am often then reminded of a
story that I heard from one of my teachers in school. It is about a man, his
son and their donkey. They were going to a village fair (the story is from
India). Some people remarked, “Silly fellows ! Why can’t one of them ride the
donkey”? The man thought it was a good idea and asked his son to get on to the
donkey. A little later, some people said, “What a disrespectful lad. The father
is walking and the son is merrily riding the donkey”. The son dismounted and
the man got onto the donkey. Further along, someone commented, “How cruel of
the man to be riding the donkey, while his poor son is walking”. So the man
asked his son as well to join him and ride the donkey, only for someone then to
remark, “Poor donkey, carrying the burden of two people on his back”! So both
of them dismounted and decided to carry the donkey instead, much to the
amusement of people around them. And as they were navigating over a log that
served as a bridge over a stream, they lost their balance and all the three of
them fell into the stream.
This simple story is something
I have felt quite useful to hold in my head. The main moral of the story is
equally simple – You cannot please everybody all the time. And that, I find is
key in developing a consultation process. So, what has worked in the cases
where the process of consultation has been considered to be reasonably robust
or effective or successful ? Here are a few principles :
1.
Clarify
purpose : The purpose of a consultation could be to ‘sell’,
‘tell’, ‘consult’ or ‘join’ (ource: Richmond,
Virginia P., James C. McCroskey, and Larry Powell. Organizational Communication
for Survival. Boston: Pearson, 2013) as a decision making process. Dalmau
Consulting refers to Tell-Sell-Test-Consult-Co-create which could work as a
spectrum in decision making with the direction towards ‘co-create’ being more
engaging and empowering. This clarity would help in communicating to all those
involved.
2.
Mapping
out stakeholders : Decisions taken on strategy, organisational
change processes, structure, policies can all have wide ranging impact and/or
influence on a wide variety of stakeholders depending upon the size and
complexity of the organisation, and it may not just be limited to the senior
leaders or managers. Often, it is important to consider the role of the Board
and at what time they need to be brought in, given that charity boards have
trustees who are volunteers with limited availability of time. Equally, one
needs to consider stakeholders who are outside the mainframe of the
organisation, e.g. beneficiaries, partners, allies, network members, other
members of a federated structure, clients, suppliers, as appropriate.
3.
Detailing
a process map : Depending upon the scale or ambition of the
change process, there could be various work streams or different groups of
people involved or different project teams. And while there could be
considerable ambiguity around the sequencing of these, it would be helpful to
have an outline of a process map, which then needs to be constantly kept under
review so that it can be adapted to any changes needed. A key part of the
process map would be to allocate timing for each phase and consider if it
clashes with peak activity periods in a year, holiday season etc.
4.
Decision
making : The entire purpose of a consultation process is to
ensure that staff are engaged, their views heard and a genuine commitment to
demonstrate inclusion. The benefit of a consultation process is the plurality
of the views and the diverse perspectives that are brought in, especially by
those who are most likely to be impacted by any changes, that may not
necessarily be evident to all, especially senior managers. That said, at the
outset, it is absolutely important that there is clarity on the feedback
process i.e. how will the views be considered and communicated, including
comments that are not taken on board, so that expectations can be well managed.
And very importantly, the process of decision making needs to be explicit. Ultimately,
it needs to be clear that decision making is about making the right judgement
call, which is a key part of leadership.
All consultation processes
need to have a formal closure. Where staff are more engaged, committed and
passionate, it is most likely that there will be high participation in these
consultation processes, but equally, there could be a challenge of numerous and
diverse views that the decision makers would find it difficult to accommodate.
Hence, it is really important that there is enough attention to the process of
consultation, communication and arriving at the final outcome, to ensure that
the process has been as inclusive as possible and that the decisions are taken
in the best interests of the organisation – its mission and its strategy,
rather than based on the views of a few highly vocal and articulate
individuals.
(Originally published in the Third Sector, February 2019)
(Originally published in the Third Sector, February 2019)
