What tools does a consultant need to conduct information analysis? Obviously, these tools will differ widely, depending on the nature of the data that have been collected. Too many consultants come up with the same analysis regardless of the institution with which they are working. These consultants often have a very limited set of analytic tools available to them. Information analysis should involve discovery and surprise. If there is nothing “new” in the information, the consultant should seriously question its adequacy. Perhaps additional information should be collected. Is the consultant’s bias overly determining the information? Does she need another perspective from a different constituency or consultant? Should she use additional information collection methods?
General Principles
A few general principles of information analysis are appropriate and useful. First, information should be identified, screened, organized and synthesized in such a way as to address the central concerns identified by the client during the contracting stage. The trust of the client in the intentions of the consultant is often placed on the line at this point. If a consultant uses her own agenda in working with the information, the client may feel betrayed.
In keeping with the client’s concerns, a consultant may feel frustrated because there is so much more she could do with the information. The consultant certainly can use some of the information to expand the horizon and concerns of her client, but the consultant should not attempt to lead the client too far away from the initial concerns. Even if the client may be convinced of the validity of broader issues, the audience for the consultation will usually lag behind, thereby leaving both the consultant and the client out on a limb. Broad perspectives on the client system should be applied to the convening problem to describe the milieu within which the problem can be understood clearly and solved. One must always balance a broader descriptive landscape rendering of a problem, however, with a more intimate and ultimately pragmatic, in-depth portrait of the problem.
