How Consultants and Their Clients Collaborate in Spite of Massive Communication Barriers

Managers often collaborate with members of consultancies with the aim of improving the performance of their organizations. It is astonishing that, after the completion of such consulting projects, both parties in most cases express satisfaction with the results. It is astonishing because, as we show in this article, consultants and the managers of client organizations, when engaging in joint projects, have to overcome severe communication barriers. These communication barriers originate from different frames of reference the collaborators refer to, different goals they pursue, and different logics they follow. As we demonstrate on the basis of an empirical analysis, the communication barriers are overcome predominantly through the use of boundary objects and prototyping