Faced with a crisis, big corporations usually respond by naming a panel of outside experts or by hiring high-priced consultants. But according to a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, such firms are much better off and could even avert the crisis in the first place by making use of "outsider-insiders" within their own organizations—and by listening to them.

"Companies tend to hire outside consultants because they just assume that they don't have their own internal people who recognize the problem and want to change it," says MIT Sloan senior lecturer Janice Klein. "These companies fail to create an environment that allows those people to raise their voices and be heard."

Klein, author of True Change: How Outsiders on the Inside Get Things Done in Organizations, spent four years interviewing MIT Sloan alumni and others who now hold executive positions. Her book is aimed at two audiences. The first are these outsider-insiders themselves—people who work for an organization and see first-hand its problems and systemic weaknesses but don't know how, or are unwilling, to bring such information forward. "These outsider-insiders are watching the day-to-day operations of their organization and saying, 'This is stupid.' But too often, if they point this out, they get blown off." Klein's second audience is executives and managers who see the value of these folks but are frustrated because they haven't been able to use them.

Instead, companies "often spend amazing amounts on high-priced consultants when the ideas are really inside their own organizations," says Klein, who admits she was struck by how often firms look outside to such consultants rather than inside to their own human resources. "People jump on the idea that only an outsider comes in with new ideas," she says. "What can be more effective are the insiders who are able to step back and look at the world in which they function with an outside perspective."

For instance, pharmaceutical maker Merck might have avoided some of its current problems if it had sought out and acted on warnings from within the corporation. Klein notes, "It appears that Merck may have had warning signs back in 2001 that Vioxx could lead to serious negative side effects but, like other proud organizational cultures, they apparently just kept plugging away on their set course. The question is whether or not the company was listening to its outsiders on the inside."

Granted, most package printers and converters aren't likely to be faced with a corporate crisis as serious as Merck's. But if you want to initiate true change within your company that might just lead to some real advancements from the people who know you best, try using the experience and perspective of your own outside-insiders.

On a personnel note: This month, we welcome Jori Fontelera to Converting as associate editor. In addition to being a writer with the Germantown (WI) Reporter, she was an editorial intern with the Milwaukee edition of the Business Journal. Jori graduated from Marquette University with a degree in Writing Intensive English, so now we'll have to watch our subject-verb agreement even more closely.