Truthiness and the Role of Euphemism in Consulting
Things They Forgot To Tell Me in Business School

Euphemism - the substitution of a mild or vague term in place of one considered to be unpleasant or offensive – is not a word we use every day. In the consulting business, however, it may be just as important as its far more popular cousin exaggeration, even if rarely so named. While all consultants would like to believe that they spend their lives speaking truth to power, and some indeed do ascend to this level, there is a word for mere mortals who spend too much time 'telling it like it is', and that word is unemployed. With the exceptions of outright wrongdoing or negligence, if a client is determined to pursue an option very much at odds with the penetrating analysis and sage counsel delivered to them, and the consultant is faced with the stark choice of standing firm and angering or losing the client, or finding a face-saving way out for both parties, many will opt for the latter. All clients say they want the straight story, and most actually do, right up until the point their minds are made up and they don’t anymore.

Fortunately, complex business issues are never black and white, with leeway existing for accommodation, interpretation and opinion, most often backed up with reams of supporting data no matter what the position. Thus, if ever a consultant begins shading their findings in the face of resistance from a determined client, retreating to a place of safety in euphemism, it can be difficult to discern. 

Technically speaking, euphemism sits along the descending path of untruth, but only at its most humble beginnings. When compared to the ravages wrought by its siblings misdirection, omission, and false representation, euphemism is often a small price to pay for continued engagement. Little white lies smelling faintly of hypocrisy that allow conversations to continue where otherwise they would stop.

Taking a relatively benign example from the land development business, we can introduce the term, the concept really, of the ‘developer’s project’. A developer’s project is rooted in the ‘build it and they will come’ school of induced demand, also known as speculation. Through market alchemy the supply of a product will create a demand for it. In the construction sector this is often seen in fast growing markets where both confidence and cash are in ready supply, and where people with large amounts of both, as well as access to land, are eager to take on substantial risk in anticipation of even greater glory - even when there is little indication that this greater glory will be attained. The developer’s project is juxtaposed with the ‘market project’, a more orthodox development scenario responding to detailed analyses of actual, or projected, market conditions and needs. Sensible but boring.

The beauty of marking an initiative as a ‘developer’s project’ is that it is value neutral, places the onus of responsibility on the owner, and replaces the terms speculation, vanity project, or others equally loaded with negative connotations. Within the consultant team it becomes a valuable tool of self-justification. It allows the consultant to sidestep any moral responsibility over the rightness of the underlying choices while allowing them to retain an ethical position of providing the best technical advice possible under the circumstances, never mind that a bad idea well executed still rarely succeeds.  

While the worst that can happen in this example is another unsuccessful real estate venture, it isn’t difficult to see how this approach could lead to more dire outcomes in different circumstances. It also begs the age-old question of how to maintain grip on a slippery slope?