Innovating Consultancy

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Thesis by

R.T. van Gennep

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of

Master of Science

Information Studies: Business Information Systems

Supervisor: E. J. de Vries Second assessor: A.W. Abcouwer

University of Amsterdam Amsterdam, the Netherlands

2015

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c

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Acknowledgments

This thesis consumed a lot of time and dedication. I would like to show my gratitude to all people who were involved and helped me.

First of all I want to thank my supervisor Erik de Vries for his valuable insights and the time he dedicated. I would also like to thank all the interviewees who have chosen to participate in this research. Ted de Brabander, Fons Panneman and others who would like to remain anonymous.

Last but not least my friends, family and especially my partner Eva who supported and motivated me during the process.

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Abstract

Consultancy is an indispensable profession in our society. Organisations are insecure and always looking for advise. This research focuses on new ways for consultants to approach their work that can improve the process and results. These approaches are called participatory design and design thinking which have proven to be successful in many professions other than consultancy. A com-parison is made between a typical consultancy process and the participative design approaches that resulted in a hypothesis. The hypothesis claimed that consultancy firms and their clients can make use of participatory design and design thinking to improve their collaboration and ultimately estab-lish a foundation for innovation at the client’s organisation due to a better advice of the consultant. Expert interviews show that the approaches, provided that the important elements are internalized (i.e. not used as a checklist) by the consultant, are well suited to use within consultancy. It can help in better understanding the client by empathizing with them and it also improves the process due to small iterative cycles that are supported by prototypes. The approaches particularly show their value in process consultancy but less so in IT consultancy which is more project based and often has tight schedules and budgets.

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List of Figures

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List of Tables

2.1 Typical Consultancy Process according to Schein (28) . . . 6

2.2 Comparison between consultancy process and Particpatory Design process . . . 9

2.3 Comparison between consultancy and design thinking process . . . 13

4.1 Essence of the problem . . . 20

4.2 Common pitfalls . . . 20

4.3 Mutual understanding . . . 21

4.4 Recognisable aspects . . . 23

4.5 Similarities to scrum . . . 25

4.6 Remarks with regard to hypothesis . . . 26

4.7 Striking remark . . . 27

4.8 Positive effects . . . 28

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Chapter 1 Introduction

For over more than 100 years (21) consultancy as a business has been growing and has become indispensable in our current society and economy. Consultancy is hard to grasp in a short definition. The following citation is most comprehensive and covers the essence of consulting: "Management consulting is an advisory service contracted for and provided to organisations by specially trained and qualified persons who assist, in an objective and independent manner, the client organisation to identify problems, analyse such problems, recommend solutions to these problems and help, when requested, in the implementation of solutions" (16). As the world and its economy is changing and the relationship between consumers and companies is changing as well, companies are facing problems that are new to them. In order to cope with these problems they will sometimes need the external experience and knowledge of consultants. In order to be able to provide in this, consultancy firms need to adapt to these changes and evolve their efforts to stay relevant and provide their clients with an advise that can help them in ensuring a solid future.

In the world of business IT alignment, people examine how a certain IT system can contribute to goals that are set by an organisation. These systems need to perform consistently in order to support the organisation in a constantly changing environment. Due to these constant changes it can become inevitable to call in help from a consultant that can help the organisation with a problem that they are facing. The experience and knowledge of a consultant can lead to a solution that would not have been conceived without their help. That is why consultancy is an important profession within the field of business information systems.

How can consultants and their clients be supported to keep up with this constantly changing environment? Problems that clients are facing need a solution that helps the clients in the long run. As short term solutions, that are stacking up, will eventually bring even more clutter to an organisation. Participatory design and design thinking are two approaches that can possibly help to improve the process of consultancy and ultimately have a positive impact on the consultant’s clients Participatory design is something that originated from the thought that people who are using or are affected by a specific design should also have influence on the process that leads to a particular design (2). In other words; the end users of a product should also be involved in the process of designing that product. If consultants use this approach in their work they can hypothetically

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in-crease the involvement of the client’s employees which can inin-crease the acceptance rate of a certain solution. This also enhances the chance that a solution will last for the long term.

Design Thinking is relatively new and can be seen as a follow up or extension of participatory design. It can also be considered as a new paradigm for dealing with complex problems which can be applied to multiple kinds of professions (10). Design thinking is becoming more and more popular. Stanford University already dedicates a whole institute to it (22)(12). In design thinking teams are set up with a multiplicity of disciplines which has a beneficial effect to the end product that they eventually will create (22). Design thinking is also characterized by a lot of small iterative steps. Consultancy does not belong to the aforementioned multiple kinds of professions, that is why this research will look into the possible advantages of using this approach in consultancy. Design thinking is considered as a well suited approach to solve so called ’wicked problems’ (6). These problems are ill-defined and the information that is available is confusing (6). Also, people that are involved can have conflicting values that can make it an even harder problem to solve (6). Consultants regularly face this kind of problems in their work. Clients that are facing a certain problem most of the time can not perfectly describe it. That is why design thinking can be a valuable approach to use within consultancy. It can help in getting to the bottom of a problem in order to come up with a well suited solution due to a lot of iteration.

As already mentioned, the usage of participatory design and design thinking in consultancy can lead, in a joint effort with the client, to a solution that will last for the long term. Which subsequently provides in a solid foundation for innovation. This resulted in the following research question.

How can consultancy firms make use of participatory design and design thinking to innovate their customer’s businesses?

This research will provide insight on how these two approaches can be used to improve consul-tancy and ultimately stimulate innovation due to solutions that are accepted by a bigger part of the employees and therefore last longer than the traditional, often, short term solutions.

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Chapter 2 Literature Review

2.1 Introduction and Scope

This research mainly focuses on consultancy and how it can be improved or innovated by the usage of participatory design and design thinking. The society is rapidly changing and companies and their employees need to adjust to these changes in order to stay competitive. But this can sometimes be a tedious task that requires a lot of effort and perseverance from these companies. That is why the help of consultancy firms can be the solution for businesses who are facing internal problems or are struggling to keep up with their competitors.

In order to properly advise a company, you, as a consultancy firm, also have to be aware of new challenges that might influence your customer’s business. Also a good and fast understanding of new strategies and methods, that might help the customer in need, are important.

In this chapter, approaches or in other words, ways of thinking get an explanation and it will show how these can improve or innovate consultancy in a way that both the consultants and their clients will benefit from it. This will result in a hypothesis about the usage of participatory design and design thinking in consultancy. And if it can help consultancy firms and their clients to innovate the client’s business.

As already stated in the introduction, this research will focus on three main topics (i.e. con-sultancy, participatory design and design thinking). First off, the process of consultancy will be explained. Secondly participatory design and design thinking will be explained and supported by an exemplary case that best describes the essence of that topic.

After the exemplary case a comparison will be made between consultancy and both of the ap-proaches. This is done to make the concepts of participatory design and design thinking more tangible.

The choice of topics is based on recent developments and their interesting new take on design, development and ways of thinking that is applied in various sectors other than consultancy. The combination of these topics can result in a valuable new way to approach and/or innovate consul-tancy and inherently their customer’s business.

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2.2 Consultancy

As for the definition of consultancy the following citation is used. As already stated in the introduction: "Management consulting is an advisory service contracted for and provided to or-ganizations by specially trained and qualified persons who assist, in an objective and independent manner, the client organization to identify problems, analyse such problems, recommend solutions to these problems and help, when requested, in the implementation of solutions" (16).

In a nutshell, consultancy can be considered as a (long term) commitment wherein the customer receives advise from the consultancy firm on how they can improve or save their business. This whole process can be divided into five phases as Block (3) states in his book. As opposed to Block, Schein talks about seven phases in his process consultation book (28). This section will elaborate on both and point out the differences in order to get a proper understanding of consultancy as a whole. This section will end with the choosing of a frame of reference for this research.

They both start of with the initial talk between the consultancy firm and the potential customer (28) (3). During this initial talk both parties can decide on whether they want to start a collaboration. For the client this means he has a good and trustworthy feeling towards the consultancy firm. For the consultancy firm this means that they find the goals that are discussed, feasible within the available time and with the available resources. Schein (28) makes a clear distinction between the initial contact and the signing of a contract where Block (3) defines this as one phase. This distinction is made because a lot of consultation efforts are terminated at this early stage due to the lack of confidence from one or both parties (28).

Where Block still resides in phase one, Schein considers defining the relationship and a formal contract as a second phase. A clear emphasis is put on this initial contact with the client by defining it as a separate phase. The psychological contract is equally important as the formal contract. Next to an agreement about money and time, there has to be a clear understanding of what can be expected from each other (28). The consultants needs to have a clear understanding of the problem that the organisation is experiencing.

A third phase is specified by Schein where the setting is selected and the method of work gets chosen (28). The way of observing and collecting data has to be agreed upon. This will be an ongoing process where dialog and constant feedback is necessary.

After the formal contract negotiations are done, the goals are clear to both parties and there has been chosen a method of work, the consultancy firm starts gathering data that is needed for the analysis. Within this phase of data gathering, that Block considers as the second and Schein as the fourth, the consultants and the client need to open up the dialog (28)(3). In order to give the best advise possible, a complete and full understanding of the client’s business, their procedures and methods is deemed necessary.

Phase 3 for Block, feedback and plan of action, coincides with the fourth phase of Schein, data gathering and diagnosis. Schein does state that phase four and five (intervention) must alternate each other, they have to occur simultaneously in order to get the best result (28). This does point out the importance and necessity of the opinions from the (respective) employees. Block describes

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that in this phase, recommendations have to be made to the client based on the data that is gathered by doing observations, interviews and handing out questionnaires (3).

Doing recommendations and handing out a plan of action is the end of the third phase and continues in Block’s phase 4: engagement and implementation (3). The consultant will be actively involved in the process of change and the implementation of the advise (3). That is what Schein describes as the alternation between his phase 4 and 5. You can not intervene without engagement from the consultant and constant feedback sessions with the employees who will be affected by the change (28).

In some more detail, phase 5 of Schein, specifies what has to be done in order to make the intervention a success. As already stated, phase 4 and 5 can not be completely separated. After an intervention new data shows up due to reaction from the employees on the changes that have been made. Schein describes a case where employees, after an intervention, are more aware of their responsibility regarding organisational change instead of letting the top management solve all their problems (28). The commitment of the client’s employees is something that is crucial in order to succeed. The following sections will elaborate on possible approaches that can improve or innovate the whole process of consultancy in which the intervention is an important phase. To cite Schein: "The essence of the process-consultation model is to continuously rediagnose and to act accordingly" (28, p. 121-122).

Into the last phase (5) that Block describes: expansion, start over or terminate (3). Block does not explicitly mentions the reduction of involvement as a phase. Where Schein dedicates his sixth phase to reducing the involvement of the consultant (28). Schein emphasizes the fact that this should be mutually agreed upon (28). It is important that on both sides, for the consultant as well as for the client, there is a comfortable feeling towards each other in which they support each others choices (28). There must be room for negotiation though. Schein describes that after a period of time a certain relationship has been built between the consultant and the client that is not terminated, even if the formal contract has. He therefore states that reinvolvement is always possible where generally the client should be the one who reestablishes contact again (28).

Phase 7, Schein’s last phase is simply put: termination (28). The option to expand on the initial agreement should be done in the previous phase, where involvement is reduced. It is disputable that this will not be necessary if the whole consultancy process is executed properly, but it is possible that the scope of the original agreement was limited to certain divisions within the client’s company. Also new problems could have surfaced. Both can lead to an expansion of the original agreed upon proceedings. As a consultant you need to assure that the client is comfortable with the implemented changes and that they do not fall back in old behavior before terminating the collaboration and contract. They need to be able to proceed on their own.

As stated in the introduction, this research tries to innovate or improve consultancy. There has been chosen to compare and elaborate on the views of Block (3) and Schein (28), to get an understanding of consultancy and the underlying processes. Comparable with consultancy efforts; when you want to propose a change of something (an organization), there has to be common ground

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on that particular thing. That is the purpose of the previous section, to define what is understood by consultancy.

A clear emphasis, by both writers, is put on the initial contact. There has to be a comfortable feeling on both sides. As mentioned by Schein, the psychological contract is equally important, maybe even more important than the formal contract (28). Although Schein wrote his book in 1969, this statement still defines one of the most important phases in consultancy. They both also emphasize the fact that consultancy is an iterative process, which alternates between interventions and feedback from the respective employees. Mainly this fact calls for a concept that can empower the respective employees of the client’s business and simultaneously take advantage of this concept that has proven to be valuable in other sectors (e.g. design thinking).

After the comparison of the two views of Block and Schein on the consultancy process there has been chosen to use the consultancy process of Schein (28) as the frame of reference throughout this research. Mainly because it has the most detailed and comprehensive description. It is shown below in table 2.1.

Schein’s Consultancy Process

1. Initial contact with the client organization

2. Defining the relationship, formal contract, psychological con-tract

3. Selecting a setting and a method of work 4. Data gathering and diagnosis

5. Intervention

6. Reducing involvement 7. Termination

Table 2.1. Typical Consultancy Process according to Schein (28)

2.3 Participatory Design

Participatory design (PD) is about direct involvement as Robertson and Simonsen state in their paper (27). This is applicable to a wide variety of ’things’. It can be used while designing a new tool, developing a new product, creating a new environment or restructuring a business organisation (27). What happens a lot is that products get designed ’for’, instead of with a specific target group (13). This often results in products that lack certain details that can make it a success. Participatory design tries to tackle this problem by involving the intended users in the whole process (13). From first draft until final product. This minimizes the chance that something is made that does not entirely suits the demand of the end user. With this in mind it is also important that ideas are prototyped so they can be tried out, even in the early stages of the process (2). To cite Good: "Participatory design is an approach that responds to its context, rather than a fixed set of procedures used in all situations

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Participatory design can be considered as the predecessor of design thinking (2), which will be discussed in section 2.4.

Postma et al. describe that design-led approaches, like participatory design, typically focus on getting a thorough understanding of the experience of a user (24). "The idea is not so much to develop an ultimate truth about relationships between people and their environment, but to build actionable understanding for design." ((19), (30) as cited by (24, p. 61)). Designing prototypes is part of the research process. It can be used to make a certain design more tangible early on in the process (24).

2.3.1 Examplary Case

The case that will be described in this section is conducted by Ellis and Kurniawan in 2000 (13). They wanted to make use of participatory design in their goal to make an existing website easier to use for older users (13). They made use of a six-step process in order to optimally exploit the participatory design principles (13).

This six-step process, or a close equivalent, has already been used in multiple similar projects and is predominantly adapted from Good’s paper (15). The researchers of the case study did some minor changes and came up with the following six steps: 1. build bridges, 2. develop user model, 3. map possibilities, 4. develop prototype(s), 5. elicit and integrate feedback, 6. continue iteration. The first three steps can be seen as preparation for the last three steps which are constantly alternating each other.

2.3.1.1 Build bridges

The first step in this process is to build bridges. And in this case it means building a relation-ship between two parties (older adults and developers) that are facing a considerable gap due to a difference in age. The intended users and the developers form a participatory design team and open up the dialog to get acquainted with each other (13).

2.3.1.2 Develop user model

During the development of a user model everything needs to be considered in order to make accurate design decisions. As Ellis and Kurniawan state; the needs, capabilities and limitations are represented in the user model (13). There needs to be a proper understanding of each others situation in order to work together in a PD team (15). This can be via multiple ways, Good recommends contextual inquiry (15), where Ellis and Kurniawan made use of a survey and a literature review in their case (13). As for the case, the user model made the developers aware of the issues that the older users were experiencing (13).

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2.3.1.3 Map possibilities

At this stage they let the PD team come together in order to get the last details before they would start creating the first prototype (13). The purpose of this step is that, as a team they should look for possible design problems and how the design can be enhanced, but more importantly, there should be discussed how this design could be achieved together (13).

2.3.1.4 Develop Prototypes, Elicit Feedback, Continue Iteration

The development of prototypes marks the beginning of an iterative cycle which consists of the last three steps. The creation of prototypes gives the end user an idea of how the final product, or in this case: website, could look. Based on the feedback by the end users on the prototype the requirements of the final website are already very detailed for this stage of the development process (13). It is important at this stage that the whole PD team is participating in the creation of the prototype. That is also what the researchers tried to achieve in this study (13). A method was used to actively involve the elderly in the prototyping, called cooperative prototyping (13).

In order to elicit feedback and also interpret it in the right context the researchers used observa-tions and open-ended discussions (13). These techniques were used to discuss and evaluate the four prototypes that were made in the case at hand (13). The information gathered from these sessions was used to develop a new prototype and so on. This proves the importance of the iterative cycle where feedback on a certain prototype gets used to implement changes and create a new prototype which will then be evaluated. A close cooperation between end users and developers is key here.

2.3.2 Relevance/conclusion

As for the process of participatory design projects and consultancy, there are a lot of similarities. As described in the above section, products get designed ’for’, instead of with a specific target group (13). A parallel is quickly drawn to organisations. If the restructuring of an organisation is done without the involvement of the people that are actually affected by it. It will most certainly not be a success.

The case from Ellis and Kurniawan (13) shows that their usage of PD was very valuable and successful. They also state that their findings (the six-step process) are firm and generalizable and can lead to success in other settings. Although they were focused on an information system (website) a parallel can be drawn between their six-step process and the consultancy process that is lined out in section 2.2

Build bridges can be seen as the first initial contact between consultant and customer. The importance of this step is emphasized by Schein (28) as well as by Ellis and Kurniawan (13). The phase where the relationship is defined, formal as well as psychological is similar to the development of a user model. This user model describes in detail what the needs and issues are of a certain target group, which can be seen as the employees of a company.

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be drawn to when a PD team maps the possibilities, together as a team they look for design issues, how it should be designed and how they can reach their goal. This is also done when the consultant sits down with their new client.

With the development of prototypes a lot of data can be gathered. This links step 4 of Ellis and Kurniawan to Schein’s 4th phase. As described, the last three steps in the six-step process are part of an iterative cycle. Schein also describes that his 4th and 5th phase are constantly alternating each other. An intervention (prototype) is needed in order to determine if the proposed changes (design) are as discussed with client. Constantly eliciting feedback, developing a new prototype and contin-uing this iteration is exactly what is done in consultancy. Changes should not be implemented in a fixed manner, that is why participatory design can be a valuable approach to use within consultancy. It responds to its context instead of using the same procedures in different situations (15).

Schein’s Process Participatory Design Process Initial contact with the client

organiza-tion

Build bridges

Defining the relationship, formal con-tract, psychological contract

Build bridges

Selecting a setting and a method of work

Map possibilities

Data gathering and diagnosis Develop Prototypes, Elicit Feedback, Continue Iteration

Intervention Develop Prototypes, Elicit Feedback, Continue Iteration

Reducing involvement N/A

Termination N/A

Table 2.2. Comparison between consultancy process and Particpatory Design process

2.4 Design Thinking

Design thinking can be considered as a successor to participatory design but it has developed to an approach on its own. Tim Brown introduces design thinking in a paper, which was published in 2008 (5). He perfectly describes what the design thinking approach is about. To cite Brown: "Design thinking" is a methodology that imbues the full spectrum of innovation activities with a human-centered design ethos" (5, p. 1). It is not only about supply and demand, design thinking goes further and wants to understand the needs of people, their likes and dislikes of certain products (5). To go even further, in order to keep innovating, the society needs a new approach, one that combines the needs of their citizens with the natural world (4). As Brown also describes, design thinking is about using the feeling and skills of a designer (consultant) and matching that to the needs of the people (client) involved (5). The approach is widely applicable as it can also be used to gain

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market share and take advantage of market opportunities if the right business strategy is developed with the help of design thinking (5). As Brown points out, iteration and a lot of perspiration is the key to successful innovations (5).

Brown describes that innovators who use design thinking move through three general phases, these phases are general because there is no exact roadmap that ensures a good ending. (4). The first phase is called "inspiration", this phase is about a problem or opportunity that is experienced by an innovator. This leads to the "ideation" phase where ideas are generated and tested. Eventu-ally the innovator enters the implementation phase where his innovation is actuEventu-ally brought to the market (4). As stated earlier, a lot of iteration, changes and perspiration is needed (5). That is why products/strategies can possibly go through these phases multiple times (4).

In more detail, design thinking uses divergent and convergent thinking to come up with solutions for existing problems at a certain organisation (22). Where convergent thinking does not allow a lot of creativity and is mainly focused on the one best solution to a specific problem, divergent thinking provides in the possibility to come up with wide ranging and creative ideas and solutions to that one problem (25). These two ways of thinking can reinforce each other in what is called design thinking. First, many solutions are found due to divergent thinking and afterwards convergent thinking is used to choose and implement the best resolution (22). It is important to stress the fact that design thinking encompasses the collaboration of diverse disciplines who all try to find solutions to complex problems with the ultimate goal to ensure an improved future as MacFadyen states in his paper (22).

Design thinking has proven to be a suitable approach to solve so called ’wicked problems’ (26). "Wicked problems are a class of social system problems which are ill-formulated, where the information is confusing, where there are many clients and decision makers with conflicting values, and where the ramifications in the whole system are thoroughly confusing." ((26) as cited by (6, p. 15)). Based on the above citation it can be stated that these wicked problems or a close related form occur a lot in the world of consultancy, where the problems are ill-defined or even unknown. That is what makes it a good approach to use within consultancy.

2.4.1 Exemplary Case

In order to show how design thinking can be applied in practice this section will discuss the case of Steen, who in 2011 showed how design thinking can be used to innovate the healthcare sector (29).

Steen argues that design thinking, as mentioned earlier, the successor to participatory design, can help by using its participative approach in successfully deploying innovations within the healthcare sector (29). In participatory design (2.3.1) as well as in design thinking, approaches and methods from industrial design, interaction design or service design are used, i.e. iterative design, creative workshops and early prototyping. With early prototyping for example, innovations are tried out on small scale in order to see the pitfalls early on in the process (29). As Brown points out in his article, iteration is the key to successful innovation (5). These methods are most commonly used in close

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cooperation with employees and customers in order to solve social problems (29).

Steen describes transformation design as an example of design thinking in public healthcare (29). It is characterized by a couple of principles that are interesting and a good fit for this research. Definition and redefinition of problems and goals is a key principle in order to reinforce the process of innovation ((7) cited by (29)). Also if people from different disciplines collaborate, complex problems are more easily solved due to the different perspectives. Third principle is concerned about enlarging the capability of an organisation to innovate. If this can be achieved, innovating, learning and experimenting can be more than a one time thing. Last two principles describe the need for a solution that fits not only the one client but all the companies that are affiliated with that client. That is how the whole sector can be taken into account. It is therefore crucial that clients as well as their service providers are actively involved in the process of innovation. That are the principles that made the usage of design thinking a success in the public healthcare sector ((7) cited by (29)).

A crucial point that is made by Steen in his article: "Design thinking is a way to critically look at existing processes that originated from multiple random circumstances. It is about designing new processes and a way to actually realise these innovations. With design thinking, ’people from the outside’, like clients, can work together with ’people from the inside’, like healthcare professionals, to (re)design their processes" (29, p. 8). He also stresses the fact that a close and healthy cooperation between management and employees is needed in order to innovate successfully (29).

It is pointed out that in the healthcare sector, in order to successfully innovate, it is important to have an inspiring long term vision. But at the same time it is important to have tangible short term projects (29). It is about combining these two, and learning from the iterative process where people try new things (29). As a closing argument he states that design thinking can enthuse people because it brings them together and as a team they are capable of solving problems with creative solutions which are, most importantly, feasible in terms of practical implementation (29).

2.4.2 Relevance/conclusion

The, in the above section, discussed case sheds an interesting light on the practical implementa-tion of the design thinking approach. Steen gives multiple examples of successful usage of design thinking to innovate the healthcare sector.

In particular the participative approach that is used within design thinking makes it a suitable ap-proach to innovate in a difficult sector like healthcare. Employees, management but also customers and other companies that are part of a certain supply chain need to join forces and think of creative solutions to problems that someone or everyone is experiencing (29). This participative approach is also what makes design thinking a well suited approach for consultancy firms. As already stated in section 2.2, consultancy is about involving the respective employees of the client’s company. In order to make the advise of a consultant last longer there has to be an enlargement of the capability of an organisation to innovate. As mentioned by Steen (29), this can lead to structural change within the company of the consultant’s client which will subsequently give them a competitive edge in their

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sector.

The citation of Steen (29) perfectly points out why design thinking can be used to innovate the approach of consultants. It describes that ’people from the outside’ (consultants) can work together with ’people from the inside’ (client) to (re)design their processes. That is exactly what is needed in this line of work.

Lastly, the fact that the iterative process gets stressed by Brown (5) as well as by Steen (29) shows that it has a lot in common with what is done in consultancy. Because when you, as a consultant, are intervening the current processes of your client, it is crucial to constantly elicit feedback and use that in your next iteration of the intervention.

2.4.3 Stanford Design School’s Design Thinking Process

This section will describe the practical implementation of a design thinking method that might be of value to consultants and their clients. This will be done with the consultancy process, described by Schein, in mind (Section 2.2). The chosen method is created by Stanford Design School (12) and encompasses five phases that can lead to successful innovation. These five phases can be considered as a way to improve Schein’s phases 1 to 5. Phase 6 and 7 are also not relevant for this comparison. The design thinking method and its phases (depicted in table 2.3) are used to provide a guideline for a human centered design process. As it is pointed out in the above discussed exemplary case it is of vital importance that the end user is central in the whole process. This is very similar to the position of the client when they are working together with a consultant. The method is explained phase by phase while the frame of reference, the consultancy process of Schein (28), is constantly kept in mind.

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Schein’s Process Stanford Design School’s Process Initial contact with the client

organiza-tion

Empathize

Defining the relationship, formal con-tract, psychological contract

Empathize and Define

Selecting a setting and a method of work

Define

Data gathering and diagnosis Ideate

Intervention Prototype and Test

Reducing involvement N/A

Termination N/A

Table 2.3. Comparison between consultancy and design thinking process

2.4.3.1 Empathize

The first phase in the design thinking method is empathize, Stanford describes that empathy is of great importance when you are designing with a human-centered approach (12). Observing, engaging and immersing are key in this phase. You, as a designer (consider this to be the consultant), need a full understanding of the people (the consultant’s client) for whom you are designing (12). In other words, the designer has to know everything of the problem at hand. Schein describes this in step 2 as the psychological contract (28).

In order to determine the setting and method of work (Schein phase 3) there has to be a constant dialog between consultant and client (with regards to the setting and method of work) as all the observations and interviews (Schein phase 4) can be overwhelming for the client. Stanford d.school encourages the designer to deeply engage with the people as this can lead to surprising and unan-ticipated insights (12). The engagement can help discover emotions that form the basis of choices that are made by employees (12). As a consultant it is therefore important to discover and document those. All within the agreements that are made with the client with regards to the setting and method of work. Moreover, next to interviewing and observing, Stanford d.school suggests to experience the ’problematic’ situation yourself, which can be a very valuable approach for a consultant (12).

2.4.3.2 Define

The next phase is ’define’, this phase is characterized by using the data that is gathered during the empathize phase and developing your own point of view (12). This point of view needs to take in consideration all the needs and insights that you have discovered during the previous phase. In order to solve the problem at hand you first need to define a specific and compelling problem statement that has focus and frames the problem correctly (12). As design thinking is characterized by iteration it is therefore needed to keep an open mind and the ability to revisit and reformulate your problem statement as you are learning new things by doing (12).

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As a consultant it is important that you have framed the problem correctly before you are trying to solve it. It is important to check with your client if you understand them and have a full under-standing of why and how your help is needed. This will greatly benefit your efforts to come up with a solution (12). Phase 4 of Schein describes this as the diagnosis.

2.4.3.3 Ideate

The ’ideate’ phase is about encouraging divergent thinking. As mentioned earlier divergent thinking provides in the possibility to come up with wide ranging and creative ideas and solutions to one specific problem (25). As Stanford d.school states, a phase where a wide solution space is explored (12).

For the consultant this can be a challenging but important phase. They need to gather a variety of people, their client’s employees, but also people from other disciplines can be interesting in order to explore the best solutions. Multidisciplinary teams are able to push beyond obvious solutions and increase the innovation potential of the solution (12).

2.4.3.4 Prototype

The prototype phase, the fourth in the design thinking process, has a lot in common with the intervention phase (5) that Schein proposes. The ideas and solutions that have been thought of in the previous phases need to be converted into something tangible (12). As Stanford d.school states, this can be everything, from an object to a role-playing activity (12). The goal of prototyping is to gain empathy but also to test and explore multiple solutions in order to refine the solutions together with the end user (12).

For a consultant it can be of great value if ideas and solutions can be tested in the form of a prototype, as mentioned above with a role-playing activity for example. If every member of the team can interact and experience a prototype it will be most successful (12). These interactions can lead the consultant and his team to meaningful insights, more empathy and ultimately drives them to come up with an innovative solution (12). Prototyping can also solve disagreements as it eliminates ambiguity and can start conversations from another perspective because it is tangible instead of inside the heads of people (12).

2.4.3.5 Test

’Test’ is the last phase in the process. Due to the emphasis on iteration in the whole process, this phase also is focused on that. The main difference between prototyping and testing according to Stanford d.school is the fact that "you prototype as if you know you’re right, but test as if you know you’re wrong" (12, p. 5). Testing can reveal that the proposed solution is not right but also that the problem is not framed correctly (12).

As a consultant you want your solution to innovate and improve your client’s business. That is why testing is of vital importance. If the initial problem is not solved correctly it means that

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something has gone wrong in the process and you have to iterate through the process again before you reduce the involvement (Schein’s phase 6) or terminate (Schein’s phase 7) the contract.

2.5 Conclusion

Considering the above discussed literature there can be concluded that consultancy is a very mature profession in an even more mature market. Schein describes in much detail what consultancy is about and what makes a person a good consultant. Even though it is a relatively old profession, it is just as relevant today as it was decades ago. To stay relevant and keep being able to innovate the business of your clients it is important to keep looking for alternative approaches to your current ones.

That is where participatory design and design thinking have proven to provide in a suitable approach to improve the relationship between consultant and their clients and ultimately also im-prove their joint results (section 2.3 and 2.4). The various topics show multiple similarities in their approach. What is most striking is the fact that all three topics emphasize the iterative process as an important phase of everything that is designed, developed or with strategies that are conceived. Section 2.3 shows an almost identical process in participatory design (13) as in consultancy (28). The design thinking process from the Stanford Design school (12) shows a lot of similarities to the consultancy process as well. Due to these similarities it can be stated that the concept of design thinking can be a valuable way to approach your work as a consultant. By making use of the impor-tant elements like, close involvement of the client, iterative steps and prototyping, you can achieve a positive effect on the relationship as well as on the results of the joint effort.

This resulted in the following hypothesis that will be tested in expert interviews.

Consultancy firms and their clients can make use of participatory design and design thinking to improve their collaboration and ultimately establish a foundation for innovation at the client’s organisation due to a better advice of the consultant

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Chapter 3 Research Method

This chapter will give an insight in the research method and the structure of the interviews which will lead to the data that can be used to test the hypothesis.

To gain insight in consultancy as a whole and who it is described by people who call themselves consultants, interviews can be valuable. Also to pinpoint how consultancy firms and their clients can be helped by using participatory design and design thinking, interviews can help. Interviewing is a qualitative research method. This is commonly used in the social sciences in order to predict social and cultural phenomena (23). The main advantage of doing qualitative research, as Myers (23) puts it, is the fact that the researcher has a face-to-face conversation with the interviewee. This adds context while trying to explain a certain phenomena, as where in quantitative research this context is quickly lost due to the quantification of the data (18).

In this research, expert interviews will be done, this will be done in Dutch as this is the native language of everyone involved. This ensures that minor details are not overlooked due to miscom-munication. Expert interviews are different from regular interviews as the name already suggests, it involves experts. Experts in this field of research, or experts in the sector that they are currently working in. Although the validity and quality of the data obviously depends on the quality of the experts it is a good way of collecting data that can be used in an explorative fashion (11). These people have a close understanding of consultancy due to their experience in the field, that is why they are perfectly suited to test the hypothesis, which is the result of an extensive literature review. The difference in experience and age of the interviewees can also shed an interesting light on the hypothesis that will be laid out to them. On the one hand, ’new’, younger consultants can lack experience and have a different view on consultancy because they are not hampered by experiences from a long time ago. And on the other hand, consultants with a lot of experience are capable of spotting trends within their field of work throughout the years, which can be valuable in order to see what works and what does not.

The potential usage of either participatory design or design thinking can not be researched by a quantitative research method because it will lack context, as already mentioned in the beginning of this section. The resources needed for this research are approximately seven experts. The exact structure of all the interviews will be described in the section below.

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3.1 Interview Structure

This section will describe the structure of the interviews and how they will be used to test the hypothesis and ultimately an answer to the research question.

The intention of the interviews is to reflect the structure of the literature review in section 2. In short this is a description of consultancy, followed by an explanation of participatory design and design thinking included with an exemplary case and comparison to consultancy. Before the interview starts they will be asked to sign an informed consent form which can be found in appendix section 6.1

The interview will start off with a short explanation of the research, the motivation behind the research and the research question. In order to see whether there is a clear distinction between the opinion of an experienced consultant and a newly started one, their experience as a consultant is asked. This is followed by the question if they can describe a typical consultancy process in their words. This can be used as a comparison between the participants and moreover as a comparison to the frame of reference that is used in the literature review, namely the consultancy process as described by Schein (28). They are then asked to describe common pitfalls, how they cope with them and how they try to avoid them. If this is known, it can be used to state whether the usage of participatory design and design thinking is able to avoid or cope with these pitfalls.

After these questions are answered. The frame of reference of this research, adopted from the book of Schein (28) is shown to the interviewee. With the help of a PowerPoint presentation, that can be found in appendix section 6.2, the interviewer will walk the expert through the 7 phases (section 2.2). Afterwards they are asked if they agree with the vision of Schein.

After it is made clear what the frame of reference is that will be used during the interview an explanation is given on participatory design. This is also done with the help of a PowerPoint presentation. With that in mind, a practical implementation of participatory design is shown. This is the 6 step process that came forward in a case study, which is described in section 2.3.1. These 6 steps are described and compared to the consultancy process phases of Schein (28), exactly as in section 2.3.2.

After the comparison, the interviewer will tell the interviewee the hypothesis on how participa-tory design can help consultancy and their clients. This comes down to the following statements: 1. it helps to get a more participative mindset instead of an expert mindset. 2. It can help to get a better relationship with the client and through that, get a better understanding of their client’s problem. 3. This ultimately leads to a better advise which can help the client to innovate or improve their business.

Next to participatory design, design thinking is introduced in the presentation (emphasis is put on divergent and convergent thinking). After an explanation a comparison will be made between the design thinking process of the Stanford Design School (12), that is described in section 2.4.3 and the consultancy process phases of Schein (28).

After the explanation of Stanford’s design thinking method and its comparison to the consul-tancy process, the interviewer will conclude on the application of design thinking within consulconsul-tancy

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due the number of similarities between the two. An explanation will be given on how design think-ing can improve consultancy in the form of a hypothesis. Firstly, it can help by better understandthink-ing the problem at hand as, in design thinking, a lot of time is spent on figuring out the problem or wish of the end user. This can also be of help for consultants and their clients to define a clear problem statement. Secondly, due to divergent and convergent thinking an innovative solution can be found for and together with the client. Lastly, its iterative character makes it a good fit as consultancy greatly benefits from iteration.

After the two comparisons are made, the interviewee will be asked to give his opinion on the comparisons. Next to that he or she will be asked if they think that participatory design and design thinking can help to innovate or improve consultancy or not. Also if it can have a positive effect on the business and successes of the client.

As a closing question, the interviewees will be asked to give their opinion on how consultancy could be innovated or improved. This will be done in order to see where they think the opportunities are and how these can be exploited to benefit their work as a consultant.

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Chapter 4 Results

This chapter will revolve around the data that is gathered during the seven expert interviews that were held during this research. The results will be shown in a sequential fashion. In other words, as the interview is divided in different sections, these sections will form a guideline for this chapter.

4.1 Introductory Questions

As stated in the previous section, after the explanation of the research and its goal a couple of introductory questions were asked (e.g. their experience in the field of consultancy).

To get a feeling of how the consultants are experiencing their own work and to acquire a frame of reference, which can be compared to the one used in this research (section 2.2), they are asked to describe consultancy and its typical process.

Table 4.1, with citations from the interviews perfectly shows the importance of getting to the essence of the problem that a certain organisation is experiencing. An organisation reaches out to a consultant because the complexity of the problem at hand goes further than their own capabilities to solve it. This is consistent with what Schein (28) describes as an important part of the exploratory meetings.

After the problem is thoroughly understood a consultant will look for ways towards a solution. "There are two aspects that need to be considered while looking for a solution. One side is the hard side: the structure of an organisation and on the other side: if something has to be changed and you want to change, you need people on your side. So you need to look at the human side. Hard and soft side. From the problem statement I extract where the pain resides. Then the first step is to see whether we, as people, can come to a common ground of which direction the organisation should be headed. A sense of purpose of the organisation as well as of the concerned employees. That has to be consistent."

What comes forward in the above citation is the importance of the consistency between two aspects that every organisation has; the structure and the humans. If these are not consistent a proposed change by a consultant will not have a positive result. That is why it is important, as a consultant, to involve the employees who will be affected by the change. Not involving people is

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"The work that I do as a consultant is to see what happens in a certain situation. You get invited somewhere with a question. The first thing you do is test whether this question is indeed the question that is asked. You have to get to the bottom of it, the question behind the question." "In principle, it starts with: you arrive somewhere, you get acquainted with the organisation that needs you. Then you start talking about the problem. What is the background of the problem? You try to get to get a picture of the problem at hand. You also get a picture of your client and your role. Can you do something about it?"

"A typical consultancy talk starts with a bottleneck, with an issue in an organisation and the search for a solution to that issue. Then you always start with the exploration of the problem, what is it about, what is it?"

"I think, as a consultant you should do a very good intake, you have to get to the core of the problem. You have to keep asking questions, over and over. Know the essence of the problem, this doesn’t succeed all the time because you tend to think that you know the solution upfront for certain cases."

"Consultancy in its core is, to me, solving problems for organisations as these problems are too complex to fix by the organisation itself."

"It comes down to an organisation that is experiencing a certain problem and they lack knowledge on that matter. That is why they look outside their company to tackle that problem."

Table 4.1. Essence of the problem

mentioned as a common pitfall within consultancy, the section below describes more pitfalls.

4.1.1 Common pitfalls

"Not delve into problems, but immediately suggesting a solution or work with a solution that the client proposes."

"1 of the pitfalls that occurs often is that you draw conclusions based on a couple of short impres-sions and you think you know where the problem comes from."

"A pitfall is your own knowledge, thinking you know the solution upfront."

"Prepossession. With that I mean, as a consultant you have a lot of experience and knowledge, next to that, you also have your opinion and it is better to be reticent with those."

Table 4.2. Common pitfalls

The four citations in table 4.2 have a lot in common as they all refer to the pitfall that as a consultant you do not delve deep enough into the problem. Due to experience and knowledge they tend to think they have the solution based on the first talk and first impressions.

An interesting citation is the one below, where an interviewee states that a consultant is con-stantly balancing their need for contracts and their integrity as well as their professionality. This is reality though and it is therefore an interesting side note that not one consultancy job is the same and there are different interests for the consultant as well as for the client. As Schein states in his

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book: ".. he may expect me to lend support to some program or decision he has made which he is trying to sell to others" (28, p.85). These things should be discussed in the exploratoy meetings so they will not result in a trap of some sort. It should be made clear what both parties expect from each other.

"A consultant gets himself hired to the highest paying client. He is happy to have a job and he writes the advice the client wants him to. Here you go, are you satisfied? If the client is, the consultant might have a next job. That’s reality, it does make you compromise your integrity as well as your professionality.

The next citation discusses the phase where a consultant starts to gather data for the analysis. For this he needs the cooperation of the employees in order to get the information he needs.

"During the analysis you can face the problem that the cooperation from within the organisation is very poor. This can be due to political games, balance of power, fear of change or people who fear they will lose their interests. This can cause poor cooperation and therefore poor information sharing."

In order to cope with the above pitfall the citation below perfectly describes how you, as a consultant, should involve the employees while you are suggesting a certain change.

"You should give the people the feeling that they can be honest in telling what is going on. That people open up. That they don’t have to feel unsafe, that it is going to befall them. In the contrary, they can play a role in it. And if they can’t play that role, then we’ll have to look for a way to handle that in a decent manner."

4.2 Frame of Reference

As stated in the previous chapter, after the interviewees were asked to give their view on con-sultancy, the interviewer presented the frame of reference for this research. This is the process, consisting of 7 phases that is adopted from the book of Schein (28). Afterwards, or during this, they were asked to give their opinion about the frame of reference.

"You can have a dislike towards a potential client, then you should not take the job."

"That mutual understanding is significant, if that exists and somebody thinks; if I hire him and we work together, then we’ll achieve something nice."

"That psychological contract, as I see it. Usually there is some sort of tender on the market, a couple of people make their offer and the one with whom there is the best mutual understanding gets the job."

Table 4.3. Mutual understanding

During the presentation of the frame of reference it became apparent that; what Schein describes as the psychological contract is recognised by the interviewees, as can be seen in table 4.3. They describe it as a mutual understanding between consultant and client and emphasize the fact that you, as a consultant, should not take a job if you feel that there is a dislike between you and the potential

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client. If this mutual understanding does exist it can lead to good results or as the last citation states; it can lead to getting the job.

The following two citations describe the importance of last two phases where the involvement is reduced and the cooperation comes to an end. As the first citation describes perfectly, if you finish the job properly, they will remember the whole process as something positive.

"Phase 6 and 7 are quite important. Because it will determine how the work will be evaluated. If the wrap up is good a positive thought will remain."

Another interviewee backs this statement by saying:

"And with regard to reducing involvement, what I think is important. As a consultant, you have to go in with a broom and when you are finished you have to use that broom to disconnect yourself from that organisation. If that is done properly you ensure that you will be asked by that organisation to work on another job in the future."

In order to stay competitive and ensuring that you will get requests from potential clients in the future, it is important to keep focused and wrap up your work in a way that your clients are satisfied and possibly will recommend you to others. In that way you will not get tempted to jeopardize your, earlier mentioned, integrity for the sake of getting a new job.

"When you look at the phase where the setting and method of work gets selected. What helps in that phase is the usage of a framework to establish a common language. Frameworks like, ASL, BISL, COBIT can help you in the communication with your client."

Frameworks like ASL, BiSL and COBIT are used as a standardized approach to improve or-ganisations on multiple aspects (14). ASL (Application Service Library) focuses on application management and tries to professionalize it by a way of working. It will make the organisation more efficient and cost effective (14). BiSL (Business Information Services Library) facilitates a common language where organisations understand each other and can communicate more efficiently to all parties involved (14). COBIT is designed as a framework for the governance and management of enterprise IT, it helps in managing risk and also to achieve strategic goals, all by the effective use of IT (8).

As these frameworks are interesting tools to improve, or help in, the communication between two parties they can be of value to this field of research as it is focused on improving the relation between consultants and their clients. However, it falls out of scope for this research.

4.3 Participatory Design and Design Thinking

The interviewees are given an explanation of the idea behind participatory design and design thinking from the perspective of the researcher. During this explanation the interviewees made comments because they recognised aspects of the two approaches in their own work as a consultant. As the first citation in table 4.4 focuses on the usage of prototypes in participatory design as well as in design thinking it becomes apparent that the interviewee recognises this and sees it value

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"Prototypes can help in getting the client aware. If you say: the requirements as you state them will lead to this result. Then it will get them thinking that maybe they meant it a bit different. It helps in raising awareness."

"It often starts with a derivative of the problem. While searching for solutions you, indeed, often see multidisciplinary brainstorm sessions that lead to certain scenarios between which a choice has to be made."

"You have a problem, you try to understand and analyse it. Before you dive into the problem you need to establish a bond with the one who is experiencing the problem. A client/supplier relation-ship is not very healthy in the field of consultancy. It is better to say; I’m going to participate in the problem and together we’ll solve it. More like a coaching process, where you, as a consultant, use your experience and knowledge, gathered in the past, to solve that unique situation because you don’t have the answers in advance. That is the process you want to go through together and if you’ve talked about that and you have a feeling like: it’s going to work this way, then you can follow those steps, together."

Table 4.4. Recognisable aspects

when it is used in consultancy. "It helps in raising awareness". When you create prototypes early on in the process the client can become aware of the direction he wants to go.

The second citation from table 4.4 focuses on the usage of multidisciplinary teams. Section 2.4.3.3 describes how the usage of multidisciplinary teams can result in solutions beyond the obvi-ous and stimulate innovation. The interviewee states that these multidisciplinary brainstorm sessions are already used in his work to come up with scenarios in which a certain problem can be solved.

The last citation perfectly describes the process that can be facilitated by an approach as design thinking. You try to empathize with the client, come to the essence of their problem. After that is done, you, as consultant, try to use your experience and knowledge together with the insights of the client to solve their problem. The most important part is that there is a mutual understanding and you are tackling the problem together, the essence of design thinking.

4.3.1 Agile Software Development Methods

"Is there a significant difference between participatory design and scrum?" "I think we call this agile in software development."

"A question that arises: did you have a look at agile and scrum?"

After the explanation of the two approaches the interviewees saw a lot of resemblance to scrum, an agile development method, and questioned themselves if there is a difference at all. As the above citations point out.

To provide a little background. The release of the agile manifesto marked the beginning of agile software development (1). A big group of software developers came up with this manifesto in 2001 which describes, as they say it, better ways of developing software (1). To cite the manifesto by Beck et al. (1):

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• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools • Working software over comprehensive documentation • Customer collaboration over contract negotiation • Responding to change over following a plan

They emphasize the fact that the things on the right (in the above listing) are not necessarily wrong, but the things on the left are valued more by them (1). The items or approaches on the right are characteristic for traditional software development methods like the Waterfall method (20).

Agile software development is characterized by its incremental and iterative process. All the phases that need to be dealt with in a development process are constantly revisited with feedback from the customer as input. This iterative character improves the software continuously which results in final software that satisfies customers ((31) as cited by (20)). Agile methods and thus also scrum are constantly responding to change which can be done due to emphasis on teamwork and its communication. As shown in the citation below, there is a lot of resemblance.

"Those key values have a lot in common, its iterative character, involving the user, those aspects are also present in a scrum approach."

Scrum in its purest form is a software development method, but the essence of the method can be used in consultancy as some of the interviewees are already doing in their current projects. And the essence of scrum has a lot in common with participatory design and design thinking as not only the above citation points out but also the literature on these topics (see the above list of Beck et al. (1) and section 2.3 and 2.4).

As the experts are pointing out in table 4.5. Conceptually there are no big differences between participatory design, design thinking and scrum. The idea of agile development is to gather all the stakeholders and keep each other informed on the work you did, going to do and have finished. The same goes for the design approaches, you involve the targeted users in the whole process towards a certain product. That explains why three of the interviewees immediately thought about scrum when they were told about PD and DT. By the experts stating that scrum is a valid and proven approach to use within consultancy the usage of participatory design and design thinking, with a lot of similarities to scrum, can be a valuable approach for consultancy.

4.4 Usage of Participatory Design and Design Thinking in

Con-sultancy

This section is about the answers that were given to the comparison that is made in the pre-sentation (appendix 6.2). The comparison of participatory design as well as design thinking to the consultancy process of Schein. The hypothesis, laid out in section 3.1, will be tested by the opin-ions/views of the experts. To see whether they think that the usage of these approaches can innovate or improve consultancy and ultimately have a positive influence on the successes of the client’s business.

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Interviewee: "I use it for organisational development. I don’t see any step that doesn’t belong there. It is about products and services, well, in organisational development it is about services, not about an IT system, but about an organisational design. How would you do that? How would you organise that? How would design that process? How do you get those people together? So if you look outside there are 3 to 4 whiteboards for 3 to 4 projects, with on those boards: to do, in progress, finished." Interviewer: "That is scrum."

"It’s a way of work, you do it constantly, every day you sit down for half an hour with your people. So not only the designers, but people who are in the process, the end users, the professionals. Not necessarily every day, but once a week: what are we going to do, how are we going to do that, then you have that talk. Then you move on and that iteration is usually a day, a week or two weeks, those are the iterations you go through. Deal with small pieces immediately instead of spending a year on a big masterplan and then implementing it. Achieving one small thing after another. Conceptually I don’t see the difference."

"You start out with a core from which you expand. That is a good way. If you look at scrum with its backlog and all, you say: I have one big story, I divide that properly and create value on the parts that I’m already building. I came to the conclusion, a couple of years ago, when I heard about scrum that I can use it for a lot more things, next to building IT components. I use scrum for a lot of things. Currently I’m working on a consultancy task, I use scrum for that. With a product owner, the organisation. Some other parties are involved as well. You’re constantly thinking about how to divide the product into pieces that are easy to work on but immediately create value when they are finished."

Table 4.5. Similarities to scrum

The citations in table 4.6 describe the attitude of the experts towards the hypothesis that is laid out to them during the interview. An expert describes how he feels that consultancy as a profession should take a step towards a more participative approach. As he describes in the second citation, the last decades consultants were primarily focused on structure. He stresses the fact that the people who eventually will be affected by the change should be actively involved in the whole process. As nowadays organisations are constantly changing you need to find a way to get your employees motivated to participate in these changes. Prototyping as part of both approaches is a suitable outcome for that matter, as stated by the interviewee.

Although the hypothesis is confirmed in the second citation, the third citation adds an interesting remark. By involving more people into the process you introduce a risk in the process of the con-sultant. Consultants, as mentioned earlier, have experienced and know about certain organisational issues, even though not one organisation is the same, they tend to know how certain issues can be resolved. By moving to a participative approach you question their experience and knowledge but you are increasing the acceptance rate of a certain solution that involves change.

The fourth citation goes into more detail on the innovative part, the interviewee thinks design thinking is a suitable approach to achieve that in the consultancy process. The importance of the relationship between two parties is stressed. There has to be trust and there has to be a mutual understanding of what both parties want to achieve, as mentioned earlier in section 4.3. As this

Innovating Consultancy

R.T. van Gennep

Acknowledgments

Abstract

Contents

List of Figures

List of Tables

Chapter 1

Introduction

Chapter 2

Literature Review

2.1

Introduction and Scope

2.2

Consultancy

2.3

Participatory Design

2.4

Design Thinking

2.5

Conclusion

Chapter 3

Research Method

3.1

Interview Structure

Chapter 4

Results

4.1

Introductory Questions

4.2

Frame of Reference

4.3

Participatory Design and Design Thinking

4.4

Usage of Participatory Design and Design Thinking in

Con-sultancy