Consulting Confessional: Inappropriate Humour

Management consultants are, as we know, high-calibre individuals who move adroitly through the minefield of process complexity, organisational politics and personal sensitivities to help their clients deliver outstanding results, rarely – if ever – putting a foot wrong. But sometimes, just sometimes, we can commit the odd faux pas…

CMCE’s Consulting Confessional allows you to share, anonymously, those things that you did that, given a second chance, you might have done differently, and what you might have learned as a result.

Our first example is a tale of inappropriate humour…

Many years ago, not long after the Cold War began to thaw, I was working on a transformation project for a multinational client headquartered in Switzerland. We had an interview with a senior executive from, I think, the Czech Republic or a similar country that had emerged from behind the Iron Curtain. I and two of my colleagues trooped off to his well-appointed office. On arrival, he remarked that there were three of us. I immediately thought of something that I’d heard not long before that would break the ice:

“Oh, that reminds me of a joke I heard recently” I said. “Why do the KGB always go around in threes? One to read, one to write, and one to keep an eye on the two intellectuals.”

I paused for laughter. There was none.

“Hmm…” said the executive, breaking the awkward silence, “that’s a bit too close to my personal history.”

I’m not sure our interview went any more smoothly after that…

I’ve learned that humour can be useful to break the ice but when you don’t know your client’s background, you need to exercise a bit of caution to make sure your humour causes them to relax not, as was the case, become more tense.

 

If you’d like to ‘fess up to a mistake in your otherwise-spotless consulting career, send your confessions to The Newsletter Editor info@cmce.org.uk. All submissions will be treated in strictest confidence.