consulting. 1 1 consulting sources: peter block. consulting
TRANSCRIPT
Consulting. 11
Consulting
Sources: Peter Block. Consulting.
Consulting. 22
1. Introduction. Presentation of the course
2. Framework. Consulting as a Strategic Management Process
3. The Consulting process
4. Data gathering, sampling and investigation of data
5. Frameworks for analysis
Agenda
• Interactions all the time lead us to be consultants...
• ...especially at work
• A consultant is someone that has some influence over the people, but not authority to implement the recommended changes
• “Staff managers” are consultants in: finance, human resources, auditing, system analysis, market analysis, product design, planning, security, efficiency, etc.
• “Line” managers are generally the beneficiaries of the consulting, the clients
• The “Intervention” is the goal or final product of the consulting. It means any action taken in a system that does not belong to the consultant: an interview, a training program, an evaluation, a study.
We are all consultants...
• Technical skills: functional skills (engineering, sales, accounting) and experience (management, science, organizational)
• Interpersonal skills: ability to translate ideas to words, to listen, to support, to disagree while keeping a relationship.
• Consulting skills: the consulting process has 5 steps,
1. access and agreement
2. data gathering meeting and evaluation
3. information and decision making
4. action
5. stretching, feedback or termination
Required skills
1. Access and agreement. Initial contacts, exploring the problem, select the consultant, expectations of the client and the consultant, how to begin. This step is critical to avoid future wrecks
2. Data gathering meeting and evaluation:
• the consultant should give a first opinion about the problem
• main questions: who will be committed in the definition of the problem, what methods will be used, what sort of data must be gathered, how long it will take
3. Information and decision making. Reduce the information needed to the minimum to overcome the normal resistance. The project must be planned, the final goals must be set, the best actions and interventions must be previously analyzed
4. Action, execution of the previous plan. The execution must start with some training event or events, and followed by some some action plan that involves the consultant
5. Stretching, feedback or termination. The action must involve more areas? The analysis, plan and implementation were OK?
Required skills. Consulting process.
Consulting skills:
• Agreement. Will to agree, overcome mixed feelings, treat risks and potential loss of control, reach agreement
• Diagnostic. Ease analytical step, face the political climate, resist the wish to have complete data, the interview must be considered and intervention
• Final report. Concentrate data, identify and deal with different sorts of resistance, present personal and organizational data
• Decision. Manage group meetings, focus the options for each moment, don’t take it personally
Required skills.
What can you expect from your consulting:
• better use of your experience
• your recommendations are used more frequently
• get larger participation with clients
• develop in clients an internal commitment
• obtain support from clients
• increase your influence over clients
• establish a confidence relationship with your clients
Goals
• Affections are important, you should be able to express in words how do you feel about the way the relationship evolves, avoiding to put your client in a defensive position:
1. Responsibility: must be 50-50
2. Feelings: can the client express his/hers? How do he/she feels about the problem. How do the consultant feel toward the client, is he responsible, over controlling, open?
3. Trust. Lack of trust must be talked: the consultant is not an enemy, someone to take care of, he/she will not supersede or eliminate the client, will be confidential
4. Your own needs: to be accepted, considered and respected by the client, what you have is valuable. You have the right that your need be fulfilled
Beyond the techniques
• Roles that a consultant must play vis-a-vis the line manager, according to management styles, sort of job, your own preferences:
1. Expert. “You are the expert, I have no time, you handle”.
• The manager has a passive role, you must gather the information, make decisions, you do not need collaboration, mutual communication is limited, you make the questions, you carry on the main events, the line manager will judge and evaluate ex-post. You have to solve the problem.
• The main problems: I. you can deal with the technical problem, but the “personal” side will be more difficult for you, and then you can commit a big mistake, and people will not help you. II. When you leave, the employees will hardly follow your advices.
Roles of the consultant
• Roles ...
2. The “right hand”. “I have these ideas, please do it a.s.a.p.” The manager keeps the control, the goals, you must implement them with your skills.
• Your is rather passive, the manager decides how to proceed, you can provide your suggestions, your collaboration is not completely necessary, you may ask, mutual communication is limited, The manager will judge and evaluate you closely
• The main problems. The manager may be not so skilled, the plan can be wrong or inaccurate, and you can become the escape goat. If you want to double check, it can generate lack of trust on the manager.
Roles of the consultant
• Roles ...
3. Collaborator.
• You must join your knowledge to the manager’s one. It is a joint effort, both in technical and human aspects, you help the manager solve his/her problems, both tend to be interdependent, decision making is bilateral, data gathering is a joint effort, control issues is a matter of discussion and negotiation, you must get their strong commitment in advance, and responsibilities must be discussed and agreed. The problems must be solved and remained solved, and the manager will learn the skills to do it.
• Main problems. Some managers that prefer the “expert role” may think that a collaborator as sluggishness slow. Those who prefer “right hand” may see a collaborator as insubordination.
Roles of the consultant
Areas of collaboration
• express clients wishes
• plan how to inform an organizational analysis
• decide who will participate in the data gathering
• which data will have to be gathered
• interpretation of the results
• decide how to implement the changes
Roles of the consultant
Areas of experience
• design a pump
• training project
• model of questionnaire
• program a computer
• pricing strategies
• composition of a polymer
1. Define the initial problem. Ask him/her what is the problem. You add your comments on the potential causes: 50-50.
2. Decision to carry out the project. You can decide whether to go along or not, a joint agreement must be negotiated: 50-50.
3. Select the aspects to be studied. You might know best what parts of the problem must be analyzed, but the client can contribute. You need to ask him/her, eventually, give him/her a full questionnaire. 50-50.
4. Who will participate in the project. A team consultant-client must be created. This strengthens the commitment. Do it alone may be faster but you need their participation for the final success. 50-50.
5. Select the method. The client must have ideas on how to gather the data. Ask him/her. Simple but important questions, this provides 30% of the information and requests 70% to shape it. 50-50.
6. Data gathering. Try that your client do it with you. This is the core of the Knowledge Management process. 50-50.
Client participation
7, 8 and 9. Concentration, summary and data analysis. Try to have the client participating in the analysis (sometimes this is not possible). 50-50
10. Inform the results. It is good that the client participate in the meeting when you present the final report. 50-50
11. Advise. During the development of the work you need to integrate your technical, practical and organizational related to your client. Ask his/her opinion after the information meeting. 50-50
12. Decision on actions. It is good that the consultant is not excluded in the next steps, in the decision making meetings.
Client participation
The moment that the consultant can exercise the highest influence is in the contract.
The contract is an agreement on what the consultant and the client expect from the other, and how they will work together. Can be verbal or written. Its main goal is to communicate what is expected from the project. Two basic elements:
• mutual agreement. Both parties must celebrate the agreement freely and upon their own choice. This is not always so easy, as sometimes the managers hire a consultant under pressure. However this will have an impact in the future work.
• valuable retribution. Something valuable for both parties must be exchanged between the manager and the consultant. For the internal consultants sometimes the recognition is part of the retribution. However the following elements must be present:
• share the operations with the company (have influence, know what is going on, get the respect for your contribution)
• access to personnel and information (freedom to search)
• have time from the employees, very sensitive issue that can show a non 50-50 situation.
• opportunity to be innovative.
The contract. Elements
You need to have some skills to have a good agreement meeting:
• formulate direct questions; who is your client, what are the less evident parts of the agreement
• get to know your client’s expectation related to you
• present in a clear and simple way what you expect from your client
• be ready to decline or postpone an agreement that is bound to fail
• directly investigate the concerns from your client related to the loss of control, risk and vulnerability
• give your full support to your client
• if the meeting does not go very well, analyze this with your client
The contract. Skills
1. Object of the job. What is the problem?
2. Goals of the project. Expected benefits if everything goes well:
• solve a problem (commercial, technical, ...)
• train the client on how to solve a problem by him/herself the next time
• improve the way the organization administrates its resources
3. Sorts of information required. You need access to people and information. Information: technical data, figures, production circuits, attitudes – vision – perceptions of the people towards the problems, functions, responsibilities
4. Roles of the different participants, responsibility sharing on the identification of the problem, interpretation of the conclusions, development of suggestions and action plans.
5. Deliverables. Written or verbal report, extension and level of details of the report, reach of your advice, will you give general outlines or detailed list of measures, will you provide specific actions?
The contract. Components
6. Support and commitment expected from the client. It is critical. Must be written down for a better communication.
7. Schedule. Initial date, main events, date of conclusion. Interim reports. Set the dates.
8. Confidentiality. The client must define whom he/she wants to share the information and conclusions with. Internal consultants must present their work to their authorities. Who will be addressed copies of the information.
9. Further information for you. After some months you may want to know how things evolved.
The contract. Components
Questions on the phone, previous to the meeting:
• what does he want to treat?
• who is the client for this project?
• who else is coming to this meeting? what are their roles/
• how much time we will have?
• does he want to start a project, or are we going to analyze if we are going to do something?
The clients are those who:
• go to the first meeting
• set the goals of the project
• approve any actions to be taken
• receive the final report
The contract. The meeting
Step 1.
• Personal recognition: talk about the weather and sports, tell your feelings on how well do you feel about that meeting and that client.
Step 2.
• Communicate that you have understood the problem.
• clients are anxious to inform you the situation and also how unique the situation and they are, that it would demand a long time to understand them
• they want to know if you are able to deliver, your credentials
• Admit the singularity of the situation: in your mind try to compare to other cases
• Present, in your own words, how do you perceive the problem. Even though it is difficult, you start to understand.
• Reassure the manager that there are solutions, and you can help
The contract. The meeting
Step 3.
• Client’s needs and offerings. Ask directly: “what do you expect from me?”, the answer is the core of the contracting process. Examples (tend to be very specific):
• a study on a specific commercial problem
• advises on how to solve a problem
• a training program
• personal advise
It gets more complex when you want to know about the difficulties:
• you have 2 weeks for a 4 week work
• you can not talk to anyone
• you should not tell anyone what this project is for
• the budget is $ 2
• the client will not have more time to dedicate to you
The contract. The meeting
Step 4.
Your needs and offerings.
• Essential needs:
• access to key persons
• needed time to do a professional job
• they will not require to assess the individual performance of the people that will work with you
• money
• access to some files and documents
• commitment from the senior officer
• out of pocket expenses
The contract. The meeting
Step 4.
Your needs ...
• Desirable needs:
• that someone from the organization work with you
• that the manager meet individually with all people involved to explain the project
• commitment and cooperation from all the senior management
• schedule
• client inform to the rest of the organization about the progress of the job
Express them with words. It is simple and honest to express your needs.
The contract. The meeting
Step 4.
What you offer. Be realistic in what you can offer, you are not a wizard. Be clear in your proposal.
Step 5.
Reach the agreement. You can be happy and tell it. But you did not finish.
Step 6.
Request information over control and commitment. Some contracts are inefficient because of: 1. the client reached the agreement under pressure. 2. The client approved but under the feeling that he was loosing control over it. You should ask him: this is what you wanted? you feel satisfied? You need to know if he/she is committed. If not, you’d better know it.
The contract. The meeting
Step 7.
Offer your support. Show him/her your recognition: he/she is bold in having decided to hire you, taking risks, his/her honesty, good attitude.
Step 8.
Reconfirm the steps to be followed. Just check with your client what you are supposed to do next.
The contract. The meeting
When people want to say...
• I do not like it
• I do not want to do it
• I don’t understand a word. You must do it as I said god dammit.
• I will not allow you to get close to our door
The contract. When are you stuck
...they express it saying
• I do not understand
• Let’s get more data
• I will analyze it other time
• Let me discuss it with my staff
• None
• Why don’t you think it gain and come back later
• We want to discuss it with other people to have other approaches and then we will let you know
You are stuck when:
• you hear yourself saying three times the same thing
• your client is explaining three times the same thing
• your body tells you. Yawns, boredom, looking at the watch, look out of the window
• body language. Your client pushes you away with his/her hands, wants to beat you, to shoot you with a gun.
What can you when you realize you are stuck?
• think, have some rest, walk away (mentally), become an observer, eventually cancel the meeting to gain some time.
• find new solutions, or new needs.
The contract. When are you stuck
You need to start again and revise your strategy, your client is not trusting you. Forget about the whole project, just concentrate on the meeting.
• Just say that you are stuck, and invite your client to analyze why.
• Ask him/her how he/she perceives your efforts to to get to an agreement. He must be upset about you, your attitude, your bad reputation, that you don’t understand him, about the limited benefits of the project, that he/she may loose control. If this is the case you need to know it and discuss it openly. The problem rarely is the project itself.
Once again analyze the needs and the offerings.
If you are still stuck, try to delay the project, reduce your investment to the minimum, as the chances to fail are high.
The contract. Stuck again
Consulting. 2929
1. Introduction. Presentation of the course
2. Framework. Consulting as a Strategic Management Process
3. The Consulting process
4. Data gathering, sampling and investigation of data
5. Frameworks for analysis
Agenda
Is the basis for investigation, interviewing, observation.
Sampling is the process of systematically selecting representative elements from a population.
• which of the documents should you care for (reports, forms, memos, etc.)
• whom should you meet with or observe.
Sampling
Why sampling
1. costs of examining different papers, talking to people, photocopies, employee time
2. speed by collecting and analyzing only needed data
3. effectiveness, talking to fewer employees allows to talk more in depth and detail, having more time to complete missing data and fix the errors
4. ascendancy, talking to people really involved, that have direct access to the information
Sampling
Sampling design
1. define the data to be gathered. The goals of the study, the variables, attributes and concepts to be recollected, the way of recollection (investigation, interviews, questionnaires, observation)
2. define the population to be sampled, the time scope (last 2 months vs. the whole year), levels (VPs, managers, all levels, clients)
3. select the type of the sample.
Sampling
not based on probabilities based on probabilities
the sampled elements are
selected without
restrictions
1. Convenience: a note in the bulletin inviting interested people to a meeting.
Is simple but the answer is not reliable.
3. Simple random: you need a list of the population.
Is not very practical especially when the sampling involves documents and
reports.
the sampled elements are
selected according to
a specific criteria
2. Intentional: invite A and B to a meeting, as you know them and believe
they could be helpful.
The criteria is your belief.
Is relatively reliable.
4. Complex random. There are 3 options: systematic, stratificated and
agglomerated sampling
Sampling design (cont.)
3. Select the type of the sample (cont.)
• systematic: call the n-persons of the list
• stratificated: it must define first a subpopulation or strata, and then the objects or persons to be sampled. It allows to use different methodologies for the different subpopulations. Is the most efficient.
• agglomerated means selecting only one subpopulation, and assume that the rest are similar.
4. Decide the size of the sample, according to the dispersion of the data (people can think exactly the same, so we need only one person). What matter is the size, not the % of the population (20 in 200 = 20 in 20.000). You must decide the level of confidence and the accuracy (standard error).
Sampling
Sampling design (cont.)
4. Decide the size of the sample (cont.). Example of attributes as data.
Percentage of products with errors:
1. define which attribute will be sampled: orders that have errors in the names, addresses, amounts, numbers of the models
2. find the database or report where such attribute can be found: copies of the order forms from the last 6 months
3. estimate “p”, the proportion of the population that has the attribute: 5%
4. decide the acceptable interval “i”: subjective decision, +/- 2% is acceptable
5. select the level of confidence and coefficient of “z” (table): you define 95%, from the table you obtain a: z = 1.96
6. calculate the standard error “” = i / z = 0.02 / 1.96 = 0.0102
7. determine the size of the sample n = [p (1 – p) / ] + 1 =
[0.5 (0.95) / 0.01022 ] + 1 = 458 is the sample size
Sampling
Sampling design (cont.)
4. Decide the size of the sample (cont.). Example of variables as data.
The variable is the average $ amount of the orders
1. define the variable to be sampled: average $ amount of the orders
2. find the database or report where such variable can be found: orders of the last 6 months
3. estimate the average ($ 1500), and the standard deviation “s” ($ 100)
4. decide the acceptable interval “i”, subjective decision: $ 5
5. select the level of confidence (96%) and coefficient of “z” (table): 2.05
6. calculate the standard error “” = i / z = 5 / 2.05 = 2.44
7. determine the size of the sample n = [s / ]2 + 1 = [100 / 2.44 ]2 + 1 = 1681 will have to be sampled.
Sampling
Sampling design (cont.)
4. Decide the size of the sample (cont.). When data are qualitative.
Information can not be found so easily in files so you need to have interviews. There are no formulas. The main cost is the time of the interviews. If the stratificated is well done, a small number could represent the whole organization.
Sampling
Sort of information sought during the investigation
1. Written information.
• Analysis of quantitative documents.
• Report used for decision making: inventory, sales, production, etc.
• Performance reports: actual vs. forecast, gap, etc.
• Records that show what is going on in the business. The information that can be analyzed: review errors in amounts and totals, search for opportunities to improve the design of the report, observe the amount and type of transactions, what can be computerized.
• Forms for data input. Any area of the data input format is always in blank, if the people receive the forms, if they are used in a standard form, if they are stored and eliminated reasonably. It is good to have a catalog of all forms, to understand the flow of information.
Sampling
Sort of information sought during the investigation (cont)
1. Written information (cont).
• Analysis of qualitative documents. I. Examine the keys, metaphors, guidelines, II. Relationships among insiders and outsiders, III. What terms refer to “good” and to “evil”, IV. Recognize the sense of humor in the documents.
• Memorandums. They are not always available. In what direction the information flows (top bottom, horizontal), what are the values, attitudes, beliefs of the members of the organization.
• News boards and bulletins. Show the organizational culture, whom are they addressed to, who handle the information shown.
• Handbooks/manuals, including operations and processes. They are the ideal situation, although sometimes nobody care for them.
• Policy handbooks/manuals. Show the values, beliefs and attitudes of the organization.
Sampling
Sort of information sought during the investigation (cont)
2. Files. Such documents are not in use today. They were filed for accounting, regulatory, financial reasons. Such information is very reliable, although not so easy to be understood or relevant. Guidelines: generate subgroups and try to cross check them, compare them to other sources such as interviews.
Sampling
Before the interview, have an interview with yourself:
• what do you prefer: your education, intellect, culture and emotions are filters for what you will hear in the interviews
• visualize why you are going, what will you ask, what should be a satisfactory meeting for you, how is the person you ate going to interview.
The goal of the interview is to gather information: what is going on, organization goals, procedures, etc.
The opinions of the interviewed person are very important. It allows to double check what your heard from the line manager, if he/she has exaggerated, if what he/she believes about the problem is correct, if there is a different problem.
Feelings also must be considered to understand the organizational culture, optimism, emotions, attitudes.
Objectives must be gathered at the interviews, as they show the future. Interviews are the best way to obtain them.
You need to “sell” the project, sell yourself, generate trust.
Interviews
1. Read the background material. You can get it at the web, ask them, financials. Try to understand their vocabulary.
2. Set the objectives of the interview. You need to focus in the information gathering process, its analysis and use for decision making, planning and control. Sources of information, formats of the information, frequency of decision making, etc.
3. Who is going to e interviewed. You need samples of the different layers of the organization.
4. Prepare the interviewed. Call them in advance so they can be prepared. The meeting should not last more than 45 minutes-1 hour.
5. Decide on the sort of questions and structures.
Interviews. Planning the interview
Types of questions.
• Open questions. Give the interviewed unlimited options to answer.
• Examples:
• What do you think/what is your opinion about ...?
• How do you see …?
• How do you relate this with that …?
• What are the problems you experiment …?
• What are the typical errors you found …?
• Describe the most frustrating ...
Interviews
Types of questions. (cont.)
• Open questions. (cont.)
• pros:• makes the interviewed comfortable• helps you learn his/her vocabulary, values, attitudes, beliefs• gives you rich details• opens the door to new questions and roads to explore • the interviewed will be more interested• allows more spontaneity• you can use them if you are trapped
• cons:• these questions can generate answers with too many details• that answers can be difficult to be analyzed• you can loose control of the interview• too much time for too poor information obtained• can show the you are not well prepared• it may seem that you “went to fishing” without a clear goal
Interviews
Types of questions. (cont.)
• Closed questions. Give the interviewed limited options to answer.
• Examples: • How many …?• How long …?• Which of the following …?• List your two main priorities …?• Who receives your …?
• Examples of bipolar interviews:• Do you use …?• Do you agree or not with the following situation …?• Do you want to receive …?• Do you provide information to …?• Is that form filled up?
Interviews
Types of questions. (cont.)
• Closed questions. (cont.)
• pros:• save time• facilitates comparisons among interviews• easier to get to the point• keep control on the interview• can treat several issues fast• can obtain relevant data
• cons:• boring for the interviewed• cannot obtain great details• can loose important ideas• do not generate a relationship between you and the interviewed
Interviews
Types of questions. (cont.)
• Investigation questions. It tries to go beyond the initial answer, get its meaning, have it more clear, to expand points of view.
• Examples: • Why …?• Give an example.• Give an illustration of what you have just said.• What you just said seems in contradiction with what you said
earlier: can you clarify?• What makes you feel that way?• Tell me what happened, step by step.
• Pros:• it is a sign that you are listening and you are interested in the
interview• can give you very good information
• Cons:• it can be rude “reporter-investigator”• it may seem that you distrust the interviewed
Interviews
Mistakes in the questions.
• Avoid conducent questions. Tend to direct the interviewed to the answers that we seem to want.
• Example: you must agree with that? Don’t you?
• You should ask instead: what do you think about that?
• Cons: information will not be reliable, valid, and easier to use
• Avoid double questions. Two questions in one.
• Example: what sort of decisions you make during the day, and how do you make them?
• Cons: answers can be incomplete, confusing, difficult to be interpreted.
Interviews
Logical sequence of the questions.
• Pyramid structure. Inductive approach. You start with very detailed closed questions, and then expand the interview allowing open questions and more general answers.
• Useful when the interviewed needs time to get into the subject or has some resistance. If he/she told you on the phone that he/she knows what’s the problem.
Interviews
Specific question: what is exactly your problem?
Did you consider obtain more updated information?
What solutions do you think can make it faster?
End with something general: generally speaking, how do you feel about this task?
Logical sequence of the questions. (cont.)
• Funnel structure. Deductive approach. You start with very general questions, and then concentrate the interview using closed questions.
• Useful as you start your interview in a relaxed way, nobody will feel intimidated, there is room to answer mistakes, gives you a more human and intimate atmosphere, avoid starting with boring details.
Interviews
Start with a general question: how do you feel about ...?
What computer do you use?
What is the cost of the new system?
End with a specific question: is the new system worth what you spent on it?
Logical sequence of the questions. (cont.)
• Diamond structure. Inductive deductive approach. Is a mix of the previous two. You start with very specific questions, turned into general questions, and then focus again the interview using closed questions.
• It has the benefits of both approaches, keep the interest at a high level, but requires more time.
Interviews
Start with a specific question: how do you make this decision ...?
Do you think you can train some else to do this?
More general: what do you need to establish decision making mechanisms so that everybody can …?
Computers are useful for decision making …?
End with a specific question: can a computer decide on ...?
Structured vs. unstructured questions.
Interviews
Unstructured
difficult
high
very necessary
a lot
a lot
a lot
low
low
low
high
evaluation
time required
training required
allows spontaneity
allows interviewed shrewdness
flexibility
interviewer control
accuracy
reliability
wide and depth
Structured
easy
low
limited
little
very little
little
high
high
high
low
Recording the interview.
• Using a tape recording.
• Pros:• provide a complete a precise record• releases you to listen and respond fast• gives better eye contact and therefore a better relationship• allows reproducing the interview to others
• Cons:• might be intimidating and reducing freedom in the answers• you may be less concentrated• it is difficult to find important paragraphs in a long tape• it may require to re-transcript what is expensive
Interviews
Recording the interview. (cont.)
• Taking notes.
• Pros:• you may be more alert• allows to remember important questions• allows to remember important subjects• show you interest• show your preparation
• Cons:• lack of eye contact and relationship• can loose the focus of the conversation• can intimidate the interviewed• to much attention to facts and too little to emotions
Interviews
Writing the call memorandum
• Interviewed, interviewer, date, subject
• Goals of the interview. The goals were met?
• Main issues
• Opinions of the interviewed
• Next steps, Goals for the follow up meeting
Discuss the call memo with the interviewed.
Interviews
Is a technique to gather information to analyze attitudes (what people says they want), beliefs (what people think is true), behaviors (what they do) and characteristics (properties of people and things) of different people.
Questions may be closed (can be quantified) or open (can be analyzed and interpreted).
They make sense when:
• people are geographically dispersed
• many people are involved and is important to know what proportion of people have such or such belief
• as an exploratory survey, before investing into the whole survey
• to reinforce the future survey before it is launched
Questionnaires
Open questions.
• Must be focused on concrete aspects, such as products, processes, etc.
• Can be useful in order to generate a list of potential answers, or when the potential answers are so many that it is useful to have a list of the ones perceived as more important by the people interviewed.
• Can useful in exploratory situations, when the possibility of answers is so wide that the analyst feels lost.
• The potential answers can be somewhat narrowed, by suggesting potential answers, characteristics.
• Examples:
• List the most frequent problems that you have:
a. ………….…………. b……….……………… c……..…………………
• From the above list, which gives you more problems?
• Why?
Questionnaires
Closed questions.
• It is useful when the analyst have a limited set of options, mutually excludent, or when the population is too large.
Questionnaires
Open
slow
high
high
easy
difficult
speed to fill them up
exploratory nature
wide and deep
easy to prepare
easy to analyze
Closed
fast
low
low
difficult
easy
The language.
• use the language of the interviewed, simple
• be specific, not vague, but not exaggeratedly specific
• keep the wording short
• do not use too low level language
• do not put yourself above them
• do not assume they have a high level of knowledge
• make sure the questions are technically right
Questionnaires
Use of scales. Assign numbers, symbols to an attribute or characteristic in order to measure it.
Ways of measuring:
• Nominal. Are used to classify associating to names. Example. What sort of program do you use?, a. word processor, b. worksheet, c. database. Is the weakest form of measurement.
• Ordinal. There is a rank/hierarchy. Example. The personnel is: a. too useful, b. very useful, c. moderately useful, d. not so useful, e. useless. Using math here is complex as the ranks are not similar (between 1 and 2, is not the same as between 4 and 5)
• Interval. There is a rank/hierarchy, and the intervals between each number are equal, therefore it allows for math calculations. Example. How useful was the support for you?
USELESS EXTREMELY USEFUL
1 2 3 4 5
• Relationship. Are similar to the intervals, but have a zero. Example. How many hours do you spend in front of your PC:
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Questionnaires
Use of scales. (cont.)
Problems.
• “Soft” effect. Interviewed qualify very softly. Example. When the qualifications are not very strong, they can tend to assess everything very high. The information center is useful
NO RATHER YES
1 2 3 4 5
To avoid it you need to be more dramatic:
NO YES EXTREMELY
1 2 3 4 5
Questionnaires
Use of scales. (cont.)
Problems.
• “Centralization trend” effect. Interviewed qualify everything as average. You can solve it: a. by making the differences at the extremes smaller, b. by strengthening the descriptors and c. creating a scale with more points. Example. The monthly reports are useful:
NEVER OCASIONALLY ALWAYS
1 2 3 4 5
adjust the descriptors and increase the number of points:
RARELY SOMETIMES FREQUENTLY
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Questionnaires
Use of scales. (cont.)
Problems.
• “Halo” effect. When the impression generated in one question is conveyed to the next. For example, if you are analyzing several employee characteristics, is useful to have each characteristic in a separate page so that the interviewed can input the data with the same criteria.
Questionnaires