13.1 Do No Harm

Part of the Hippocratic Oath that doctors take as they enter the medical profession is "Do no harm." This same statement equally applies to the work done by internal consultants. The statement also applies at many different levels within internal consultants' area of responsibility. These areas include the company, the plant site, the department, the work group, and all the people who populate all of these groups. Additionally you do not want to do any harm to yourself so that you can have a long and productive career in the internal consultant field. The overall ethical principle of doing no harm can lead to some very interesting dilemmas:

• As the site internal consultant, you are supporting a change initiative that is failing. Much of the reason behind the failure was your inattention to detail as the initiative was developed and subsequently deployed. Because of this, the initiative failed before it even had a chance to get started. Management is trying to figure out why the effort failed so that they can institute some corrective action. You realize that if you keep your mouth shut, the team will be blamed and your credibility will not be damaged. What should you do?

• The change team with whom you are working has developed some very innovative ideas. Your manager doesn't realize that many of these ideas were developed independently of your involvement.