亲爱的安妮：我在一家公司担任一线管理人员。这家公司在过去五年经历了三次重组。每次重组，公司都会聘用管理顾问团队，针对我们的问题提出解决方案。然而，他们每次提供的建议在真正懂行的人（比如我们）看来，要么完全不可行，要么就是再简单不过的方案。为什么？因为他们从来不会征求我们的意见，或者他们干脆对员工们提供的建议视而不见。

    如今，同样的情况似乎又将再次上演。这帮所谓的“专家”根本没有实践经验，虽然他们确实投入了大量时间，但根据我的观察，他们压根没有找到问题的症结所在。我曾就此向老板提出意见，但他现在只听这些“专家”们的，根本不想听我的。顾问们为什么会这么做？他们的做法似乎完全违反了常识。如果我站出来，是否值得？或者我应该（再次）保持沉默和合作？我想听听您的读者都会有什么样的意见。——敌占区。

    亲爱的敌占区：你的困境其实非常普遍。实际上，凯伦•费伦曾专门针对这个问题写过一本书。费伦曾担任过德勤会计师事务所（Deloitte & Touche）与双子星顾问公司（Gemini Consulting）的顾问，还曾在两家《财富》500强公司（Fortune 500）担任过高管职位，因此，对于你目前的状况，她对双方的立场都有所了解。她在自己的著作《对不起，我毁了你的公司——当管理顾问成为问题》（I'm Sorry I Broke Your Company: When Management Consultants Are the Problem, Not the Solution）中引用了大量顾问出错的生动案例，还详细分析了 “一刀切”的解决途径为何往往不起作用。

    费伦说：“顾问有好有坏。好的顾问结合了侦探工作、咨询服务和深入的行业知识。”而这些知识只能从经验中获得。坏的顾问呢？“接受过高等教育的聪明的年轻人——我之所以知道，因为我之前便是这样——缺乏真正的专业知识，来到一家公司之后，执行的都是标准的方法，完全是他们公司培训的那一套。”听起来耳熟吧？

    其次，顾问“在‘解决’问题之前，找不到问题的根本缘由，”费伦说道。“而这正是（一名好的顾问）提供咨询服务的必要之处。在许多面临困境的公司，人们彼此之间通常不会交流，或者他们根本无法进行恰当的沟通。”

    最常见的结果是：顾问收拾东西离开之后，“没有人知道该做什么，因为适当的员工并没有参与新策略的设计。结果，唯一能够把建议付诸实施的办法就只能使聘请更多顾问。”费伦认为，有时候，这种“依赖关系循环”完全是人为造成的：“它会产生更多费用。”

    费伦补充道，糟糕的顾问经常会忽略像你一样的员工们的担忧，他们会说员工根本不想改变。她说：“事实完全不是这样。人们喜欢改变。否则就不会有人去上大学、结婚生子、搬家或换工作了。而被强迫进行有问题的变化，才是人们所不喜欢的。”

    如果你希望这一次能够避免发生同样的情况，就必须大声说出自己的观点。费伦说：“通常情况下，没有人会尝试提出与顾问想法相悖的信息，因为他们会假设自己的观点将被彻底否决。”然而，需要特别注意的是，发表意见的方式与意见本身同样重要。员工在尝试影响顾问时，通常会“以全盘否定顾问当前的工作作为讨论的开场白，比如他们会说：‘这种做法太蠢了，根本不可能奏效’等等，”费伦说。“如果是这样，自然没有人愿意听取你的意见。”

    Dear Annie: I work as a first-line supervisor at a company that has been through three different restructurings in the past five years. Each time, a team of management consultants has been brought in to come up with solutions to our problems and, each time, they offer recommendations that are either unworkable or blindingly obvious to anyone who really knows the business (i.e., us). Why? Because they either don't ask us for our suggestions, or else they ignore the information employees give them.

    Now, it seems to be happening again. The current crop of "experts" is wet behind the ears, and they are certainly putting in long hours, but from what I can tell so far, they're concentrating on the wrong issues. I've complained to my boss about this, but he's drinking the Kool-Aid and doesn't want to hear it. Why do consultants operate this way, seemingly in defiance of common sense, and is it worth trying to influence the outcome, or should I just keep quiet and go along (again)? I'd love to hear what your readers think about this. – Invaded

    Dear Invaded: Your dilemma is far from unusual. In fact, Karen Phelan wrote a whole book about it. A former consultant with Deloitte & Touche and Gemini Consulting, Phelan has also held executive jobs at two Fortune 500 companies, so she's been on both sides of this situation. Her book, I'm Sorry I Broke Your Company: When Management Consultants Are the Problem, Not the Solution, is packed with vivid examples of consulting gigs gone wrong and examines in detail why one-size-fits-all problem solving so often falls short.

    "There are good consultants and bad consultants," Phelan says. "Good consulting is a combination of detective work, counseling, and in-depth industry knowledge." Such knowledge can really only come from experience. And the bad kind? "Bright, highly educated young kids -- and I know, because I was one -- who lack real expertise but who come in and impose a standard methodology they've been trained by their firms to use." Sound familiar?

    In the second instance, consultants don't "find the root causes of a problem before they 'solve' it," Phelan notes. "This is where the counseling aspect [of good consulting] comes in. In lots of companies that are struggling, people aren't talking to each other, or they're not having the right conversations."

    A frequent result: After the consultants have packed up and left, "no one knows what to do, because the right employees were not involved in designing the new strategy. So the only people who can put the recommendations into practice are more consultants." Sometimes, Phelan contends, this "cycle of dependency" is deliberate: "It leads to more fees."

    Bad consultants often dismiss the concerns of people like you, Phelan adds, by saying that employees just don't like change. "Nothing could be further from the truth. People love change. Otherwise no one would ever go away to college, get married, have a child, move, or switch jobs," she says. "What people do not like is having questionable changes thrust upon them."

    If you want to avoid that, this time around, you're going to have to speak up. "Usually, no one even tries to bring up information that's contrary to what the consultants think, because they just assume they'll be shot down," says Phelan. But -- and it's a big, crucial "but" -- how you speak up is just as important, if not more important, than what you actually say. When employees do try to influence consultants, they too often approach the discussion "by tearing down what's going on, saying things like, 'This is so stupid, it will never work,' and so on," Phelan says. "That will just get you tuned out."