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Description
2025 ASEM 620 Capstone Project
Publication Date
4-25-2025
Publisher
University of Alabama at Birmingham
City
Birmingham, AL
Keywords
safety engineering
Disciplines
Engineering
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Snyder, Bracken, "Margin in the Consulting Industry: A Consultant's Perspective" (2025). ASEM Capstones. 1.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/asem/1
Comments
Terracon Consultants is consulting firm that utilizes consultants in the geotechnical, environmental, and engineering fields to service clients across the United States. When the phone rings, a client is already experiencing a surprise in their system, which means that Terracon employees are stepping into a system that is already experiencing vulnerabilities from these surprises. This highlights the need for Terracon to focus developing margin into their system to provide a buffer between their consultants and the negative consequences of these vulnerabilities. Margin is defined as “the collective state of the environment and our position in it” (WildlandFireLLC, 2014). Margin is a necessary component of system safety inside a Complex Adaptive System, due to their complex nature that breeds surprise and uncertainty. Margin is not stationary, it constantly trends inwards or outwards, depending on current conditions. System design, organizational structure, phycological safety, and leadership all play a role in influencing margin. By utilizing risk management decision making, and margin of maneuver principles, organizations can place their own influence on margin. While many studies have been done on these principles, there have not been many studies specific to the consulting industry. While consulting parallels with other industries, it does contain unique challenges. Further studies, specifically case studies, can provide valuable and relatable data to the consulting industry. Given the context of Terracon’s current operating system, Terracon can build margin into pre-work, during-work, and post-work activities. While there are challenges and setbacks that Terracon will face, Terracon should focus on developing psychological safety, opening channels of communication, revise pre-task planning, decentralize safety decision making, and shifting to Page 4 track leading indicators. These actions can help Terracon develop margin into their system on both the management side of the operation, and the worker side of the operation.