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Showing posts with the label Management Consulting

Dirty Consultant: The Wrap-Up

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At Orchan, we’ve seen consulting at its best - and at its glossiest. Dirty Consultant is our no-nonsense series calling out the theatre, the buzzwords, and the shiny distractions that get in the way of real change. Because true consulting isn’t about polished decks or clever algorithms - it’s about rolling up sleeves, getting into the grit, and facing the messy human reality head-on. Six parts. One truth. Consulting has become too glossy. Too shiny. Too surface-level. Slides instead of substance. Algorithms instead of empathy. Platforms instead of people. That’s why we created the Dirty Consultant series - to call it out. And to remind leaders that real change isn’t clean. It isn’t easy. And it certainly isn’t click-to-download. Here’s the journey we took together: Part 1: She Was! The consultant who rolled up her sleeves, got messy, and truly understood context. (Link:  Are You a Dirty Consultant? She Was! (Part 1) Part 2: Death by PowerPoint Why endless slides d...

Dirty Consultant: Part 6 - Getting Dirty with Change

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At Orchan, we’ve seen consulting at its best - and at its glossiest. Dirty Consultant is our no-nonsense series calling out the theatre, the buzzwords, and the shiny distractions that get in the way of real change. Because true consulting isn’t about polished decks or clever algorithms - it’s about rolling up sleeves, getting into the grit, and facing the messy human reality head-on. Change looks glamorous on stage. Keynote speakers talk about it with perfect slides, smooth metaphors, and big promises. But behind the curtain? Change is chaos. It’s messy conversations. It’s sleepless nights. It’s mistakes, do-overs, and awkward silences in meeting rooms. It’s resistance from people who don’t want their world turned upside down. Real change isn’t clean. It’s dirty. It’s uncomfortable. And it demands more than lip service and buzzwords. But here’s the thing: dirty doesn’t mean impossible. Dirty means real. And real is where transformation happens. At Orchan, we don’t shy ...

Dirty Consultant: Part 5 - Culture Can’t Be Clicked

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At Orchan, we’ve seen consulting at its best - and at its glossiest. Dirty Consultant is our no-nonsense series calling out the theatre, the buzzwords, and the shiny distractions that get in the way of real change. Because true consulting isn’t about polished decks or clever algorithms - it’s about rolling up sleeves, getting into the grit, and facing the messy human reality head-on. “Don’t worry,” they say. “We’ve got the platform for that.” Engagement apps. Gamified dashboards. AI-driven culture trackers. Click here to connect. Click here to align. Click here to build culture. But here’s the problem: Culture doesn’t live in an app. You can’t download trust. You can’t gamify belonging. And you sure as hell can’t fix a toxic workplace with push notifications. Culture lives in conversations, not code. It shows up in how leaders behave when no one’s watching. It’s in the stories employees tell when they go home at night. It’s in the way people show up for each other when...

Dirty Consultant: Part 4 - Best Practice is Worst Practice

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At Orchan, we’ve seen consulting at its best - and at its glossiest. Dirty Consultant is our no-nonsense series calling out the theatre, the buzzwords, and the shiny distractions that get in the way of real change. Because true consulting isn’t about polished decks or clever algorithms - it’s about rolling up sleeves, getting into the grit, and facing the messy human reality head-on. “Best practice.” Consultants love to drop those two words like they’re magic dust. They’ll tell you, “This is how the market leaders do it.” “This is the proven model everyone follows.” “This is best practice.” Sounds smart, right? Except it’s lazy. Here’s the truth: What works brilliantly in one company can crash and burn in another. Because culture isn’t copy-paste. Context isn’t universal. And your people aren’t someone else’s case study. Best practice? More often than not, it’s just someone else’s story, stripped of context and dressed up as a shiny solution. At Orchan, we don’t deal in...

Dirty Consultant: Part 3 - When Algorithms Replace Empathy

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At Orchan, we’ve seen consulting at its best - and at its glossiest. Dirty Consultant is our no-nonsense series calling out the theatre, the buzzwords, and the shiny distractions that get in the way of real change. Because true consulting isn’t about polished decks or clever algorithms - it’s about rolling up sleeves, getting into the grit, and facing the messy human reality head-on. Data is sexy. Dashboards glow. Algorithms hum. Today’s consultants sell you the dream: “real-time insights” into how your people feel. Red dots for disengaged. Green dots for high performers. Charts that promise to decode human behaviour. But here’s the problem. People aren’t data points. They’re messy. Irrational. Emotional. And no algorithm in the world can tell you what it feels like to drag yourself into a night shift after a 90-minute commute. Numbers tell you what . But only people tell you why . When consultants replace empathy with algorithms, they miss the heartbeat of the organisation....

Dirty Consultant: Part 2 - Death by PowerPoint

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At Orchan, we’ve seen consulting at its best - and at its glossiest. Dirty Consultant is our no-nonsense series calling out the theatre, the buzzwords, and the shiny distractions that get in the way of real change. Because true consulting isn’t about polished decks or clever algorithms - it’s about rolling up sleeves, getting into the grit, and facing the messy human reality head-on. Some consultants think their job is to build slides. Endless slides. Perfectly formatted, pixel-perfect decks. Buzzwords stacked higher than the Petronas Towers. Slide 12: Vision. Slide 27: Mission. Slide 43: Engagement Strategy. Slide 89: "Key Takeaways.” By the time they’re done, your people are asleep - or worse, politely nodding while thinking about lunch. Because here’s the problem: No slide has ever fixed a culture issue. No chart has ever built trust. No bullet point has ever sparked a movement. Real change doesn’t live in PowerPoint. It lives in conversations. It lives in unc...

Are You a Dirty Consultant? She Was! (Part 1)

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At Orchan, we’ve seen consulting at its best - and at its glossiest. Dirty Consultant is our no-nonsense series calling out the theatre, the buzzwords, and the shiny distractions that get in the way of real change. Because true consulting isn’t about polished decks or clever algorithms; it’s about rolling up sleeves, getting into the grit, and facing the messy human reality head-on. Are you a dirty consultant? She was. Back then, she didn’t sit behind a shiny desk. She pulled night shifts. She rode shotgun with truckers. She sweated it out in the warehouse. She asked the tough questions: to managers in ties, and to workers in boots. She refused to give advice until she knew what the advice meant for the people who had to live with it. That was consulting. Now? Consultants stroll in polished and perfect. Designer suits. Fresh slides. Laptops glowing like neon signs. They sell “platforms” and “solutions” and “engagement dashboards.” But they won’t get their hands di...