Reflective Essay

I, along with four other students, comprised a group whose primary duties were to provide consultation for the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) of our university. The primary question was to determine whether or not it was feasible for the university to offer qualifications in management and leadership, as well as how much this qualification was in demand. My experience with the client consultancy project saw my group of five students come together successfully as a team in order to achieve these goals. While there were issues with communication and work ethic that needed to be addressed at first, our attitudes and working relationships developed over the course of the project until we functioned excellently as an efficient working team. The following outlines our overall theoretical framework, leadership styles used, and an account of the process and problems encountered during this project.

Theoretical Framework

Acting as management consultants for the CMI program, our group analyzed the existing nature of the organisation, as well as ways in which we could improve the program (or justify its elimination). To that end, our first step was to determine the current state of the program and its demand. Our philosophy of business was one of efficiency - the CMI program would not be feasible if it were not performing a sufficiently demanded service, and/or if it happened in an inefficient way (Drucker, 1954).

In order to assess the efficacy of the CMI program for our university, we utilized a systems approach to change management. Change management is the process of facilitating the institution of changes in an organisation in the most efficient way (Prosci, n.d.). One of the most important theories applied in our project was the “Five Whys," a convenient way to discuss the possibility of changes to the CMI program using systems thinking (Senge, p. 108).

The Five Whys are as follows:

  1. Why are we doing this project?
  2. Why do we think the identified problem really is the problem?
  3. Why do we think this is important to solve now?
  4. Why do we think this proposed action would solve the problem?
  5. Why do we think this action won’t make anything else worse? (Senge, p. 108)

By framing our solutions and presentations to our clients in this way, we were able to offer intriguing, systems-based and sensible solutions, while also increasing communication within our group.

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