TABLE OF CONTENTS The feedback meeting has already been arranged during the intake session and recorded in the diaries of those concerned. All those who have already been interviewed are also invited to this meeting, which will last about 2.5 hours.
The feedback meeting is of vital importance to the success of the consultancy project. This is when those concerned must agree on the definition of the problem, the formulation of the assignment and the plan of action. The success criteria for the project are also reviewed. [1] In other words, this is when the contract is finalized. For this reason, the fieldwork supervisor must also be present.
The targets that must be achieved can be summarized as follows:
Explaining the information gathered and the insights thus obtained
Reaching a consensus on the proposed fieldwork assignment
Obtaining approval for the plan of action being proposed
Agreeing on the methods to be used in carrying out the assignment.
To illustrate the type of results we have in mind, look at the checklist for Step 5, and see how it can be filled in after the feedback has taken place. Table 8.1 shows a case study involving a seed company whose profit margin has been declining for some time. The student s initial assignment was to investigate the procedural conflicts between the Production and Purchasing departments and to improve these by means of better communication. The orientation stage indicated that the conflicts could be traced back to a fundamental issue in the organization: should...
