An interview with Jose Luis Alcaraz, Human Capital Development Manager at strategy and operations Consulting Company, NEXE-the Way of Change, in Barcelona.Nexe is one of the leading Spanish consulting companies for the design and implementation of organizational change. Since opening its doors in 1993, Nexe has specialized in business consulting and change management, process design and communication training.
Its business portfolio includes clients, such as Volkswagen, Banc Sabadell, Desigual, Seur or Carrefour, just to name a few. Nexe’s primary focus is that of introducing and accelerating necessary organizational changes, in order to improve organizational results. Moreover, Nexe is committed to these changes, guaranteeing that they remain in the company’s organizational culture. This has converted NEXE in one of the most prestigious consulting companies in the market. 
José Luís Alcaraz is responsible for Human Capital Development at Nexe. In addition to an extensive career as a consultant and coach, he has spent over 11 years working at Nexe. Therefore, through the WOP-P newsletter we are interested in obtaining his point of view on our role of Work, Organizational and Personnel Psychologists.
To begin, in your opinion what are the differences between a strategy and operations consultant and a HR consultant?
“On one hand, a strategy consultant must have a global understanding of the organizational, an overview of the business. The consultant must be able to enter the most difficult area of the business, as well as being a visionary of the business and be capable of comprehending the inner company dynamics in order to communicate with top management levels of the organizational and do so in a discrete manner.
On the other hand, an HR consultant focuses on people and sometimes this causes them to lose sight of the overall impact on the company. The consultant’s role is more technical.
From your point of view, how do you think that the role of HR consultant has changed in the last 10 years?
José Luís considers that the role of HR consultant has not developed very much. Also, he stresses the importance that this type of consultant understands that in order for all of the methodology and implementation of HR technology to be effective, they must be aligned with the company’s strategy.
“The challenge that the consultant must face is to comprehend the business of the client in order to provide the client with the best service. Furthermore, there should be more of development into the specialization and become organizational development consultants, because organizations are not just a group of people, but also a set of processes and methods, communication systems...that interact together within a complex environment”.
The master we have completed has trained us as work, organizational and personnel psychologists. This has allowed us to analyze and identify not only employee behaviours of an organization, but also the behaviour the organization itself.
What value could WOP-P psychologists bring to the consulting and business strategy world?
“The value that a WOP Psychologist could have is through making companies comprehend the effort they must exert in learning, in order to face their new challenge. This involves, knowing what we are going to be faced with. In other words how people are feeling, how they relate to one another, how they perform their work, etc. To understand this and the gap between the present moment and the challenge they will encounter, firstly, I will establish an adequate plan to face this challenge. Secondly, provide resources in order for this to occur and have the necessary patience to see how those changes evolve. In many companies there is little patience, because of this the consultant should keep in mind that in the course of the plan of action, small victories should be highlighted so that people can see that changes are happening and that the company is on the right track”.
“Another value that WOP psychologist can provide is through understanding what the change represents and the resistance the people may have towards this. In the change process, people have to change their work methods, their tools, they should acquire or improve certain abilities and abandon certain habits. Comprehending this is necessary and sometimes other professional profiles take this for granted or do not understand the resistance that people may manifest. However, when this is taken into account, it more likely to obtain commitment from people, which is indispensible in order to accomplish this transformation.
Focusing on the economical crisis which we are living in, and in this time of uncertainty which companies are facing, what are the most frequent needs that you have found companies have?
In general the needs that we have found companies have to improve sales, improve the management quality and the cohesion in management teams. Also, we find companies that want to standardize their methods and ways of working in commercial areas of their business.
How do you think our role as work, organizational and personnel psychologists can help the consulting field at this present time?
“Certainly we can help. In fact, at Nexe the success of change is based on proximity, in other words, being close to the people who will implement the change. This proximity focuses on accompanying managers and other people in the organization, in order to observe how they do their job and from this point identify what are the needs or difficulties at the time of applying the new model. We also, help them implement these changes so that they can impact key business indicators.  This requires professionals that understand human behaviour and who know learning strategies for improvement. For example, at Nexe we use supplementary strategies like mentoring, coaching or shadow coaching. These insure that things end up happening. As stated in the Nexe motto: we make things happen.
At these moments, this type of professional is very important, because there is more suspicion, fear, mistrust...And it is necessary to understand these types of behaviour. In the change process, the aspect that has the most impact on improvement is shown through the identification of the potential improvement in people, generally this is what managers and financial consultants do not detect. Due to this, it is necessary that another type of professional that possesses a different vision. This professional recognizes that what makes a difference for achieving the change is understanding and identifying the potential that people have for improvement and the implication that this has on the outcome”.
Finally, we would like to know, because of your experience and because you had lived another crisis similar to the present one, what advice would you give to WOP Psychologists who are facing this situation, either as an external consultant or one at an internal level in a company?
José Luís advises that the important thing is: determination and belief. The important thing is to believe in yourself, in your abilities and in what you can bring to the table, which is determination to achieve and do.
“Be aware of that when you go to organizations, you have to bring the business some type of value. Do not forget that their aim is to make money, and we have to think about what we can contribute in order for them to reach that goal.
The determination to improve is part of the orientation of achievement competency. This is a threshold that must be installed during these moments. Furthermore, we must make a difference. What is the essential difference that we can bring to an organization? This is not the moment to say that something cannot be done, it must be done.