A few days ago I got very upset to hear that a restaurant where a friend works as a manager was calling in a communications consultant to work with the staff. The owner’s wife was using her 'life coach' to work with the restaurant staff.
The first day of training in communications involved meditation and yoga.
The reason I was upset is that this is likely to result in problems for my friend who is a manager. Aside from potentially losing some good employees one of the outcomes is often a decline in output and productivity.
I have been involved in two categories of problem arising out communication consulting. The first problem that has been created by the communications consulting arises because hiring a communications consultant is usually done when there is a serious underlying business problem that no one is willing to discuss and often not recognize. The communications consulting is a cheerful frosting on the cake. But the cake has turned to cardboard. My job is then to fix the underlying problem, to generated a tasty fresh cake.
I'm not around to clean up the mess thousands of communication consultants make.
The second category, which is associated with large organizations, is that some employe doesn't want to take advantage of this thumb twiddling time in classes and decides to sue because meditation and yoga are in fact part of a New Age religion. The use of New Age religion in a modern secular corporation is grounds for lawsuit. I have been called as an expert witness to support the argument that a New Age religion imposed in a work environment effectively violates an individual's First Amendment rights.
I am not wholly against communications consultants. A good friend of mine, the late Michael Doyle was communications consultant who used facilitation and other open methodologies to improve communication. There are many people who do the type of work that Michael Doyle did and their role in corporations is positive. It results in well-planned meetings and effective participation by all people who are attending.