Where do most consulting projects fail, or at least move off coarse? Well there may be many answers to this question, but one consistently sticks out - the consultancy didn’t notice or misjudged the magnitude of the silent problems inside the organization they were working with. For instance, an associate was recently pulled in to rescue a large technology implementation. When he arrived, the project was 2-years behind schedule, millions of dollars over budget (this was a fixed bid project), and no completion date on the horizon. The reason for the fumble? The originators of the bid did not understand nor anticipate the silent problems that would get in their way.
An excellent analogy is the game Minesweep. In Minesweep, you’re provided a grid with the knowledge that a number of unseen landmines exist. As you start clearing the landscape, clues along the way provide an approximate location where they exists. If you fail to read these signals correctly, you will likely hit a landmine, and the game is over.
Such is the situation with silent problems, as described in the book Without Warning. If we search for them by conducting a Silent Problem Audit, you’ll likely identify the silent problems early on, which allows you to adjust or alter your consulting process.
Here is a second example. I was recently brought in to conduct a silent problem audit in preparation to initiating a major project for a large client. My audit turned up silent problems ranging from people, to business structure, to departmental silos and more. With the silent problems now exposed, they’re visible - the first step in addressing silent problems. But more importantly, a strategy is now being developed to either neutralize the silent problems, or take steps to solving them.
Most consulting projects focus on the end point, and create a strategy accordingly. The silent problem audit identifies the problems that can and often will get in the way of success, and creates strategies for addressing them. The Silent Problem Audit will help keep you out of trouble, and enable you to deliver your project on time and under budget.
Tags: audit, consulting, consulting projects, minesweep, silent problem audit
