Rear Window
Despite the aphorism of Latin origin, these days it is actually not recommended that physicians heal themselves. Nor consultants, it seems.
Which must explain why EY has turned to … well, others, to resolve a tricky situation developing across its fast-growing cybersecurity consulting teams.
From what we can gather, a certain factionalism has developed across state lines. The Sydney team doesn’t like its Melbourne counterpart, and vice versa.
Allegations of favouritism and complaints about management style have been made (and mostly dismissed). And in response, EY tells us it has engaged an “external consultant to help us work through teaming challenges”. Whatever those are.
The home to the Melbourne “faction”. Justin McManus
The ultimate aim of all this is to “improve collaboration”. The addition of yet another layer of advice being a truly fitting way for a consultancy to solve this kind of impasse.
It’s all par for the course. Last year, EY hired an external HR consultancy to review the team culture of its marketing and comms teams after several complaints. That review found a tendency to avoid conflict, a lack of honest feedback and debate holding the team back from building trust.
And all this suggests maybe EY isn’t going far enough in splitting off its consulting arm.
If anyone’s clamouring for their own standalone business, it’s EY’s HR advisory teams. After all, who better to understand and adjudicate EY’s occasionally fractious team cultures than a bunch of ex-EY consultants.
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