Organizational Diagnosis: The First Step in Consulting

Have you ever felt any pain and needed to see a doctor? Think a little about the procedures he performs. You may be wondering: "He takes the necessary tests to identify my problem, then proposes the medicines I should use and, finally, follows my results, seeking to improve my health." We can make an analogy of this situation to organizational diagnostics in consulting.

As in the patient-physician relationship, in consulting the client presents the business pains and the consultant seeks to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the organization, enabling a quantitative and qualitative critical analysis of the main areas of the company. This process is what we call Organizational Diagnosis.

What is Organizational Diagnosis?

Organizational diagnostics is a series of measures, analyzes, evaluations carried out with the purpose of analyzing the company's processes in all areas. In this way it is possible to obtain a broad and real view of how the company is.

But you must be wondering, why should I spend time making an Organizational Diagnosis?

This step is very important for the realization of a consulting project because it allows you to turn your clients' pain into real causes of problems. That way, you can define the focus of the project and act exactly on the cause of the problem, bringing a faster and more effective solution to the customer.

All subsequent steps in your consulting project will be linked directly to the diagnostic phase. So if you take this first step on the wrong side, along the project you will realize that you have expended enormous energy on something that might not be a priority at the moment. And you do not want that to happen, do you?

How to make Organizational Diagnostics?

So, now that you already know what an Organizational Diagnosis is and how important it is to you, keep reading this article to learn the 3 steps to a well-done diagnosis and stand out as a consultant.

1) Survey of information

To start Organizational Diagnosis, the first thing you need is to search for information that allows for consistent analysis. There are several ways you can get this information.

But before you know which are the five most used forms, you need to know the main areas of business that should be analyzed throughout business diagnosis. You should also know what can be raised from information in each of these areas.

For example, in the area of ​​Finance it is important that you know how the financial health of the company is, understand how it does the financial management and know its main financial results. A good strategy is to analyze cash flows and statements of income.

Well, now that you know the main areas of business and what to investigate in each one, I present the top five ways to get the company’s information.

• Internet

The Internet is a way of easy access and much used lately, isn’t it? Here you can find information that lets you know the internal and external context of the company. I'll give you two examples of how the internet can be useful to you at this stage.

The first one is the company's own website. In it, it is possible to know several internal aspects, like history, products, communication with clients, etc. The second example is news and announcements. They will give you a perspective of relevant company moves over the years, as well as the type of target audience and how you communicate with them.

Ideally, this channel should be used early in the diagnosis, where you still have little company information.

• Interviews

Conducting interviews with managers and other employees is a great strategy for a good business diagnosis. But for them to occur effectively, it's important that you schedule ahead and get ready, setting some questions in advance, and tailoring the audience you will interview.

In addition, it is necessary to leave the interviewees very comfortable so that they answer all the questions with enough sincerity.

• Reports

Many companies have annual reports that present valuable information, especially in the explanatory notes and Management comments that indicate the decisions taken, as well as their results and justifications. In addition, you can request documents, systems and other reports that are relevant to your analysis that are specific to the company you are performing the diagnosis.

• Go to Gemba

Go to Gemba is an observation carried out in the field that accompanies the day-to-day business of the company, which means "Go and see". That way, you can observe the movement, how employees work, the existing interpersonal relationships, mistakes and successes and a series of "hidden" characteristics. It is essential to let the employees carry out their activities without interfering.

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2) Analysis of the information

Having all the information in hand, how about starting to analyze each one of them?

You should gather all the information collected, presenting them in the form of reports, charts, spreadsheets and other methods that can show everything that has been verified and that needs some modification.

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3) Identification of problems

Finally, with the information compiled, it is time to identify the problems!

In this step, you must make an investigation of the problems, seeking to find out what the root causes are, i.e.  what are the events responsible for the existing faults.

But how do you identify these causes? There are some tools that can help you, like the Ishikawa's Diagram, or Fishbone, and the Technique of the 5 Whys.

By following all these steps, you will get the result of your diagnosis: root cause identification. With them in hand, you'll be prepared for the next step in your consulting project - setting assertive action plans to avoid future failures. How about starting a consulting project, putting into practice your first step, the business diagnosis?

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