Consulting for Change PDF

**Consulting for Change** Why would you want to be a consultant? Particularly with civil society organisations? It sounds a lot less glamourous than saying you work in humanitarian relief or as a human rights activist. To me, consultancy sounds a bit corporate and dull -- and even self-serving. We...

**Consulting for Change** Why would you want to be a consultant? Particularly with civil society organisations? It sounds a lot less glamourous than saying you work in humanitarian relief or as a human rights activist. To me, consultancy sounds a bit corporate and dull -- and even self-serving. We've probably all heard the joke about a consultant being someone who borrows your watch to tell you the time, and then charges you high fees for the privilege. There may be an element of truth in this. Sadly too many of us have been on the receiving end of poor consultancy that wastes precious time and money and often leaves the client the same, or even worse off than before. My colleague Rod Macleod describes one such experience: Consultancy is a challenging profession. It often involves considerable time away from home, simultaneously juggling a variety of demanding clients. It is so hard to do well -- in a way that leaves a lasting positive change. After all, change is outside of a consultant's hands. It is ultimately up to the client what they do with your work. So why on earth would anyone choose to be a consultant? We're all different obviously, but for me 1. I'm passionate about charities fulfilling their missions. So often I've seen great intentions end up in tears, frustration and conflict. I'd love to do what I can to turn that around 2. I'm fascinated by people in organisations, how they behave, how they misbehave and what you can do from outside to provoke and inspire them to perform more effectively 3. I suppose consultancy plays to some of my natural strengths in facilitation and writing. And maybe just as importantly helps me avoid some of my natural weaknesses -- I think I'd be a pretty poor NGO manager myself! Ultimately it's about where I feel most alive. I remember one time I was on the way to Zimbabwe, to work with the Council of Churches. They were in deep crisis in a national context of hyper-inflation and political conflict. I remember sitting on the plane feeling like I was being asked to play in a World Cup final! For me it comes to a sense of calling or vocation - where our own deep passions and the world's deep needs meet. Certainly the world is full of deep needs. And civil society organisations in every country are trying to address those needs. Non-profit, civil society organisations are incredibly hard to manage well. They need all the support they can get. In my experience they are way more complex and challenging than running a business. After all you're trying to do much more than create a surplus of income over expenditure or sell more credit cards. You are trying to change people's deep-rooted attitudes, relationships and behaviours -- in some of the most remote and fragile parts of the world. And how do you measure such changes in attitudes? Profit and loss is so much simpler! Faced by a bottomless pit of human need, how do you make strategic choices to focus and therefore refuse to deal with other important concerns? Quality consultancy can help civil society organisations in a number of ways. Consultants are outsiders, who come in for a limited period to facilitate processes, offer insights and reflections. - Effective consultants can help CSOs understand how well they are performing and the extent to which they are achieving their missions. - They can help CSOs prioritise, plan and improve their performance. - They can help CSOs develop the appropriate systems for accountability and to manage their people and resources most effectively. - Consultants can help CSOs become more financially sustainable. - They can help strengthen relationships and teamwork among staff and improve the quality of leadership. Over the years at INTRAC, we've seen plenty of examples of wonderful, transformative consultancies that change people, their organisations and communities for ever. We can use our experience, interest and skills to provide support in so many different ways in which we can ills to provide support. CSOs need consultants of all shapes and sizes! Consultancy can make a really useful contribution, but only if done well. That's why at INTRAC we're focusing our efforts on improving the quality of consulting services available to civil society around the world. We believe it's much more than just increased the number of skilled consultants to help civil society organisations. To inspire change consultants have to prove themselves trust-worthy. This means having, not just competence, but also the commitment and character to make a difference. We believe it's about 'consulting with soul'. We've teamed up with Nama Foundation to put together a programme we've called the Consulting for Change (C4C) programme. We focus on what it means to consult with soul. What is means to be trustworthy and authentic? As the consultancy for change name suggests, this course focuses on how consultancy can inspire genuine learning and change. As consultants we meddle in another organisation's life. If we dare to interfere, we need to school ourselves thoroughly in the process of change. As the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius advised, almost 2,000 years ago: 'Make a habit of regularly observing the universal process of change: be assiduous in your attention to it and school yourself thoroughly in this branch of study: there is nothing more elevating to the mind'. *Stop for a moment now and pick up a pen or a pencil with your 'other' hand. Your left hand if you are right handed and vice versa. I'd like you now to write your full name with your other hand...* *How did that feel? For most of us, writing with our wrong hand (a relatively straightforward skill to learn) feels uncomfortable. It makes us feel incompetent, even like a child. We write more slowly than usual. It does not turn out as well as our usual standard writing.* It's the same with any organisational change. It's completely normal for people to feel uncomfortable, even incompetent, slow and performing below standard. This course draws on many theories of change. We have been influenced by the thinking and writing of people like William Bridges with his Managing Transitions; John Kotter's work on the Heart of Change; CDRA and the Barefoot Collective and the recent works by Otto Scharmer Theory U. But the bulk of our learning has been distilled from INTRAC's own 25 years' practical experience of consulting with thousands of civil society organisations in every part of the world. We have learnt that organisational change is about people changing. Change is a human process, not a mechanical one. This course focuses on change and how consultancy can contribute to that. Not the other way round. We use a simple metaphor - a model that sees change, as if it were like a journey up and down the other side of a mountain. The consultant is a mountain guide, walking alongside, motivating, encouraging, and helping clients move from the comfort of the foothills, up to the difficult summit of change, before descending to a new place on the other side of the mountain. For simple technical changes this 'mountain' will be little more than a molehill, but for more substantive behavioural changes (what groups and organisations do), it will be more like a proper mountain and for changes in values and attitudes it will be like a Himalayan peak. The principles and processes we look at apply to all different types of consultancy. Whether we do programme evaluations, strategic planning, project planning, systems design, resource mobilisation or leadership development, we all want our clients to learn and change. It applies across different sectors too, whether environment, advocacy, livelihoods, health or child rights. Of course, any model simplifies what really happens. The reality is much more complex. Change may be more like a series of mountain ranges. Perhaps you never completely arrive at the end point. As consultants, we are rarely there for the whole journey. Reality is a lot less neat and tidy with stages merging or jumping between stages. But provided we don't use the model as a restrictive blueprint, it sheds some light on key elements of the process of change. This course takes you through these different stages of the Consulting for Change Mountain Illust. You will complete the following seven modules: 1. Being a consultant 2. Engaging the client 3. Understanding the client's situation 4. Inspiring change 5. Planning for implementation 6. Accompanying implementing 7. Sustaining your soul **Being a consultant** Consulting for change is not about the latest tool or technique. A consultant is her or his own best tool. To inspire change we need to be trusted. We earn trust by demonstrating that we have the necessary commitment, competence and character to inspire change. We look at what consulting with soul really means. To us, it's about: 1. Focusing on the change in the client, not the contract 2. Ensuring that the client owns and drives the process 3. Getting to the heart of the matter 4. Bringing the very best of yourself **Engaging the client** The first stage of a consultancy involves identifying who is the real client. It is also about finding out who really wants change, how much and why. The leadership in particular, have to have enough willingness to change. As well as examining motive, this first stage also requires clarifying the task, methods and expectations to ensure a clear contract. It's an important opportunity to develop trust between us and the client -- This trust is a vital fuel for inspiring change later in the process. **Understanding the client situation** The next stage is about gaining understanding of the wider system -- the network of relationships - within which the client operates. It is also about looking deeper, looking below the waterline, to discover why the client currently operates as it does. This requires the consultant to listen extremely well. But for a client to change, they have to see it and feel it for themselves. We will look at how to help the client maintain and develop ownership by facilitating collaborative self-diagnosis. **Inspiring change** We are sometimes tempted to take a short-cut from diagnosis straight to planning. If we do this, we'll treat change too superficially and miss out the all-important summit of change. The summit of change is where we engage with the human element of change -- the inherent emotional and even spiritual aspects. Catalysing change will often involve helping the client face some difficult truths; feel the pain of failure; address deep-rooted fears about change; and let go of past ways of behaving. But the summit also needs to provide a vision for the future. To inspire change a consultancy needs to leave the client energised and hopeful that they can change. Engaging with the faith context of the client may prove essential. **Planning for implementation** The energy for change released by reaching the summit now needs to be channelled productively. This next stage involves the nuts and bolts planning of how to make the change happen. A consultant may need to facilitate a collaborative planning process that helps the CSO staff identify clear goals and prioritise activities in a feasible timeframe. The management and staff will need to take collaborative responsibility for implementation. **Accompanying implementation** Planning to change is only the beginning. The real work is in actually implementing the change. The client often benefits from outside support in the form of mentoring key staff and monitoring the change process. As the aim is that CSOs do not need the consultant's services in the future, we also explore how to exit gracefully, the other side of the mountain. **Sustaining your soul and your services** Intervening in another organisation's life is a responsibility we should not take lightly. We have a duty to bring the best of ourselves to our consultancy work. If we know ourselves, and how we tend to approach our work, this helps us play to our strengths. To be as good as we can be, we should create habits for continuous learning, systematically reflecting on our experiences and finding ways to learn from others. To bring the best of ourselves, we have to managing boundaries really carefully so that we do not get over-stretched. We have to keep ourselves mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually fit for consulting. **The Learning process** Each module in this online course will use a wide variety of learning methods. Different people learn in different ways. We will have a mixture of: (slide) - individual reflection, - videos, - animations, - group forum discussions, - individual assignments, - pairs exercises, and - webinars. In each module there is a learning carousel with further reading and useful videos. As well as this online course, INTRAC offers more in-depth, blended learning experiences. This includes face-to-face workshops and action learning sets. This gives much richer opportunities for learning from peers. We also offer one-to-one mentoring support, webinars, practical and written assignments. We can tailor the scope to fit your own context. We already have the core materials in English, Arabic and Russian. For further information about opportunities see. Also please contact Nicole Titera photo. Come and join us on this exciting and challenging journey... **[Consulting with Soul]** Rick: In the first video we introduced the concept of consulting with soul. But you may well ask, what does consulting with soul really mean? Have a look at this three-minute animation and see what you think: We'll now look at each of these elements in a bit more detail 1. **Focus on the client's change** Consulting with soul is not simply about fulfilling the terms of reference, making an accurate analysis with sensible recommendations, writing an excellent report on time, nor even leaving a client satisfied. All of these may be necessary, but they are not sufficient to catalyse change. Most consultants probably put too much emphasis on the written report (and so do many clients for that matter). Reports are a tangible output, proving the work has been done, but too many of these reports simply gather dust on office shelves or get forgotten in some remote part of the organisation's computer system. *Think for a moment, when was the last time you changed your behaviour at work after reading a report? What would you do if you wanted a friend to change their attitude or behaviour?* I'm guessing it would not be to write them a report. Reports are a pretty blunt and often brutal tool for catalysing change. It's a bit like trying to do intricate surgery with only a hammer. Reports are not the end goal of the assignment. At best are only a means to an end. The end is about **change**. Our focus as consultants must be on how to provoke positive change in the client. We need to think through how best to give feedback, how much to say (and what not to say). We need to think about who we need to feedback to, where and when. It's all about considering what will make someone think and behave differently as a result of our work. Consulting with soul focuses on inspiring the client to change. 2. **Ensure the client owns and drives the process** Bill cartoon from animation Whether it's the World Bank evaluating the impact of all their work or a small CSO working with a remote community -- change is all about ownership. Ownership is arguably the single most important ingredient in provoking change. Genuine, lasting change comes from within, even if it's triggered by external events. So for any consultancy to be successful, the assignment has to be owned and driven by the client. The attitude of the leadership is particularly important. So we may have to wait until there is genuine openness and willingness to change before we get involved: It's so easy to pay lip service to client ownership. Yet the aid system, with its contracts and deadlines, often serves to undermine client ownership. To consult with soul, we have to say 'no' to assignments that the clients do not really own -- however lucrative they may be. And even if the client does own the need for change at the beginning, this ownership is not guaranteed for life. Ownership is fragile and can be easily lost. Therefore, the methods and approaches we use throughout the consulting process have to cultivate shared understanding and strengthen their commitment to change. Consulting with soul is about enabling a collaborative process of self-discovery. It builds collective responsibility for implementing change. Such an approach usually requires a more facilitative approach to consulting as compared with the more usual expert approach, where the consultant simply tells, or recommends, "this is what you should do" (sarcasm) Bill cartoon page 26 C4C *or PP Cartoon 1?* In situations where there are multiple opinions and 'no one right answer', a more **facilitative approach** is usually necessary. *PP Cartoon 3.* In this approach, the client owns the problem, the diagnosis and the solution. It strengthens the capacity of the client to diagnose and solve their own problems. A truly facilitative approach ensures that the recommendations for change come from the client themselves. 3. **Dare to get to the heart of the matter** Bill cartoon from animation To catalyse genuine change we need to look below the waterline. We may need to identify and then work on the underlying beliefs and attitudes that cause people in an organisation to behave as they do. Change is personal. Too many consultancies content themselves with simply treating superficial symptoms. Consulting with soul goes as deep as the client allows, to get to root causes. Consulting with soul **creates safe spaces** for people to hear constructive, challenging feedback. Change is an emotional process that touches people's hearts. It often involves the pain of identifying areas that need to change. It is not a **fault-finding** process which leaves the client feeling judged and criticised. Instead it intentionally **engages positive emotions**. Excitement and hope for the future are essential elements in catalysing change. An appreciative approach, playing to strengths, building on assets encourage hope in the client that they can change. So consultants need to be competent to identify what is really going on below the surface and to be able to manage the strong emotions. This requires what people call 'emotional intelligence'. Emotional intelligence is at least, if not more important for consultants, than the supposedly 'hard' skills of contracting, analysis and writing. But you may ask, what does emotional intelligence mean? Two researchers Salovey and Mayer first coined the term in 1990. It was popularised by by Daniel Golemen in "EI: why it can matter more than IQ". Since then considerable research. Nearly 3,000 scientific articles have been published on EI in last 25 years. While they obviously have different perspectives, they all agree on three things, that: 1. EI exists 2. EI is a factor in personal and professional success. Research studies indicate that 66% of the performance difference amongst middle management can be attributed to emotional intelligence. This rises to 80% for top leader. 3. We can improve our emotional intelligence. This is good news. Unlike our IQ (our natural intellectual ability) we can learn EI any time in life EI is often thought of in a framework combining four key elements: Embed *Animation -- Bill 1.07* **Self-awareness** (pause) 5 seconds (0.22 -- 0.27) Is understanding how you feel and being able to accurately assess your own emotional state. **Self-Management** (pause) 9 seconds (0.28 - 0.37) EI is not just about knowing how we feel, but it's about controlling our emotions and impulses so that they do not control us. Self-regulation enables us to think before we act. **Social awareness** (pause) **(**11 seconds 0.37 -- 0.49) EI also has a social dimension. It's also about understanding the emotions of others. Being able to identify with and understand the wants, needs, and viewpoints of those around you. **Relationship management** (pause) (9 seconds 0.49 -- 0.58) The final element is about how we then relate to others. Having the social skills to develop strong relationships is a key characteristic of effective consultants Emotional Intelligence all starts with self-awareness (0.57-1.01) These four area of competence form a matrix along two dimensions - awareness-action and self-other: (1.01 -- 1.09) 4. **Bring the best of yourself** Bill cartoon from animation Inspiring another organisation to change is incredibly complex and sensitive. Change can touch people's values, identity and sense of purpose. It's like walking on sacred ground. We need deep respect for where people are at. We cannot be effective in sensitive areas if we let our ego and self-interests dominate. If we dump our own baggage on them. We saw before we are our own best tool in consultancy. Like all tools, we need regular maintenance and care. It's like Parker Palmer said: Being a consultant is not an easy profession. It can be lonely, as it often involves time away from home and family. It requires a degree of 'stress hardiness'. We have to live with the paradox of us not being in control yet feeling accountable for the results. When things do not go as planned, we can lose enthusiasm and self-confidence. If unchecked, it can lead to burn-out. So we need to keep ourselves fit for consulting -- physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. If we are not physically well, we will underperform. We have a duty to our clients to look after ourselves to make sure we are as healthy as possible. It is about watching what we eat and drink, ensuring we get enough exercise, sleep and rest. Emotionally, it's about investing in and spending quality time with family and friends. Doing things we enjoy, that help us switch off. For many people, their faith is an important way to keep motivated and connected to a sense of higher purpose and the meaning of life. Spiritual practices like prayer, meditation, retreats, meetings, or pilgrimages can help bring perspective, and keep us humble. They may remind us of the privilege of a consultants calling. So to bring the best of ourselves, we need to look after ourselves, to create habits for life-long learning, set appropriate boundaries and undertake consultancies that play to our strengths. It's about creating a healthy work-life balance. It's about consulting from a place of rest, not stress. So to conclude, the global challenges of poverty, disease, conflict, migration, climate change are far too urgent, far too important and far too complex to address with ego-centric, soulless consulting. To make a long-term difference on the ground we have to consult with soul. This means: 5. Focusing on the change in the client, not the contract 6. Ensuring that the client owns and drives the process 7. Getting to the heart of the matter 8. Bringing the very best of yourself As we finish this section, take five minutes now to stop and consider: 1. *In which of these four areas do you feel strongest?* 2. *Which need to improve? How will you go about do that?* Note down your responses in your learning journals **ENGAGING THE CLIENT** Some consultancies can fail before they even start. Early on in my consulting career I was asked to evaluate a strategic alliance between two NGOs. The project had come to an end and the project manager was about to leave his post. I liked the vague terms of reference asking me to comment on strategic issues for them. I worked really hard and submitted what I thought was a really excellent report. But when the client read it, they were furious. It turned out they were not remotely interested in changing their approach. In my excitement of getting the job, I'd failed to contract carefully. I'd have done well to listen to Phillips and Shaw who said that 'probably all consultants would agree that problems arising in later stages of an assignment can be traced back to poor initial contracting or failure to renegotiate the contract as circumstances change' If we don't get it right at the beginning, if we start off in the wrong direction, it may be impossible to get back on track later. Time spent on reconnaissance at the outset of any consultancy is never wasted. In this module we will look at the first stage of the mountain model of change -- Engaging the client. You will learn about: 1. **Investigating the motive for change.** As we saw in Consulting with Soul. it's vital to ensure that there is genuine client ownership from the start 2. **Contracting with Care** - We will also look at how to clarify the task, methods and expectations to ensure a helpful, strong contract 3. **Earning trust.** Finally we will also discuss how to build trust at this initial stage **Investigating the Motive for Change** To examine carefully the motive for change the question is: 'Who is the client?' It seems a simple enough question. But the reality is often a lot more complicated. It may not be the person who contracted us. Even within one organisation there may be lots of other people with varying degrees of interest, influence and opinion. In the disastrous example I mentioned at the start, I was contracted by the out-going project manager, only to find later on that the real client was the International Director. She had very different views about what I should and shouldn't be doing. What makes things more difficult with many civil society consultancies is that we are expected to serve at least two 'client' organisations one the local CSO who is the focus of the work and the other the funder (often an INGO) who may have commissioned and ultimately will pay for the work. They have a different stake in the outcome of the exercise. My INTRAC colleague Alison Napier describes a common experience: We can't serve two different clients well. Alison's story emphasises the need to negotiate openly 'who is the primary client?' and establish healthy boundaries with others. Once we are clear who our client is, we need to investigate carefully their motives for change. Who really wants change? Why? How much? Even before we accept an assignment, we have to try and discern whether the client is really open to change or not. - Too often a consultancy arises because the donor suggested it or even insisted on it. Some consultancies become little more than a funding hoop to jump through. Acquiescence to a funder's wishes is not the same as genuine ownership. - Sometimes client asks for a consultancy simply because it was in the plans and budgets, but they do not really want it. The reality is that most organisations change as little as they have to. It can be more comfortable to live with the status quo. So the client's motive for change must be stronger than the natural resistance to change. Leadership attitude, including senior management and board members, is especially important. Staff have to own the need for change, as well as the proposed solutions, if they are to implement any changes further down the line. Change is personal. Any change, whether it's improving program work or strengthening monitoring systems or learning from evaluation, involves people changing. Organisations are not machines, they are human systems. People sometimes want the organisation to change, but are not prepared to change themselves. In my PhD research *with NGO leaders in Africa I found that l*eadership commitment to organisational change was synonymous with their commitment to their own personal change. As Larry Bossidy, Jack Welch's deputy at General Motors, wisely realised: 'I can only change this company as quickly as I can change myself' In exploring motive for change, I've found some of these questions useful - - - - So before getting involved in any consultancy the big question is Obviously we don't know this fully before we start. Motive is easier to see with hindsight. It's like looking in the rear view mirror of a car. But even before we start, it helps to find out as much as we can. Even if we don't know everything, it's possible to at least avoid predictable disasters. **Contracting with care** Contracting is all about making expectations more explicit and ensuring that it is possible to satisfy them. Before we start, we need to clarify and negotiate the task and expected outcomes. At face value, the task may look relatively clear in the terms of reference. But usually they are a bit vague. There will probably be unwritten expectations 'between the lines'. Frequently the clients are not actually 100% sure themselves what they want. As we saw earlier, different people in the CSO have different views of what success would look like. Furthermore, external stakeholders, such as funders, may have different views again. It's so important to clarify with the client what exactly they hope for, how they imagine it might be achieved and who will be responsible for the different elements. It may be worth pushing the client a bit to explore whether this is what they really need, or just what they **think** they need. Before we accept any assignment, we must negotiate what we think is achievable. Too many consultants simply accept whatever the client wants them to do, in order to secure the work, even though they know in their heart of hearts it's not possible to do well. This merely postpones disappointment. In clarifying the task, I've found a couple of questions really useful: 1. Looking back on this consultancy in 12 months' time, what would make you say it had been successful and worth the investment? 2. If this consultancy could only answer one question, what would it be? Negotiating Terms of Reference with potential clients is not always be appreciated. *A few years back we were discussing some potential capacity building work across Africa with a Canadian research organisation. They wanted to change partner attitudes and behaviour by means of, what we saw as, a pretty superficial training event. We had lots of probing discussions with them, but in the end they got fed up and went ahead with a consultant who would just do what they asked. While we lost the contract, it probably saved us lots of future hassle. It saved us from getting involved in something that would wouldn't have worked, would have taken up lots of extra time, and left everyone frustrated.* Once the task is clear, it will be easier to identify different roles and responsibilities. The terms of reference should point out who will do what. This includes who takes responsibility for any travel, logistical and administrative support. It should also identify a named contact person or better still a reference group. As well as - Expected outcomes - Roles and responsibilities Any terms of reference should also clarify: - Deliverables, such as reports, presentations or workshops, and their deadlines - The time needed to achieve the assignment, including travel and preparation time. - The fees and expenses of the consultant and any scheduling of payments. - How the consultant and client will review progress - How and when the consultancy will be signed off as satisfactory - Intellectual property - ownership of any materials produced during the consultancy - Confidentiality - most consultancies provide access to potentially sensitive information. At this first stage of Engaging the Client, it's important to be able to answer: Is the task clear and achievable? - Do I have the time and skills to do it well? I've always found it better to under-promise and over-deliver rather than the other way round. We have to be upfront about what we think is possible to achieve in the particular situation as well as the time and budget available. Text on screen - Find more information about Terms of Reference on the eLearning Carousel. It's also worth remembering that contracting may not be completely finished at this initial stage. A signed contract should not be set in stone. As we start gathering data, we will find out a lot more about the real needs as well as what's possible to address. As circumstances change, the client may want us to do more or do things differently. So to get the best out of a consultancy, the contract and terms of reference may need to evolve. **Earning trust** Even before accepting the assignment and starting work, it is also essential to build as much trust as possible. First impressions matter, as we all know well. I remember one time I was particularly inept. I was running an event for 70 Chief Executives. I started off by apologising for having just flown in (I was trying to give the impression how in demand I was). I also modestly admitted that I may have little to teach them having never been a CEO myself (after all the topic of the event was humility in leadership). I heard in the official feedback that the CEOs interpreted my introduction as 'he is too busy to manage his time properly and doesn't even know what he is talking about". No wonder the event did not go as well as I hoped. I learned that even at the start I need to fill prospective clients with confidence, not concern. A client will be entrusting their organisation into our hands to some extent. So they have to trust us. This confidence in us can lead to a long term working relationship. Part of this trust is about our perceived competence. They want to know we have been there before and we have a track record. I remember one time I was bidding for work with a collaboration of foundations. Their relationship with each other had really tricky and tense. Just as I was standing up to leave the interview, I told them a story about a consultancy I'd done with a civil society network in Africa. Conflict amongst the members of this network was so intense that they had literally set fire to each other's buildings the weekend before I arrived. When the foundations later gave me the contract they said that it was this story that convinced them to hire me - I'd seen worse dirty laundry than theirs. At an early stage we may also need to build trust among the staff. They may be suspicious of us. They may have many fears about what will happen and what will come out. In most consultancies, staff have a number of questions, which they are unlikely to vocalise, but will affect how much or how little trust they give the consultant. Think of a consultant coming into your own organisation. What questions would you have, but may not be able to ask? They might be things like: To build trust we have to respond to such questions, probably without them ever being asked openly. So to summarise. This first stage of change -- engaging the client -- is about: - Investigating the motive for change - Contracting carefully to clarify realistic expectations in the Terms of Reference - Earning trust right from the start. As we saw in Consulting with Soul, the extent of our impact will depend on how much they trust us. If these key elements are not yet there, it may be better not to move from these foothills. The client may not be ready to climb a mountain of change. As we finish this section, take five minutes now to stop and consider: - *What gives you the impression that a client is genuinely committed to change?* - *What makes people trust you?* Note down your responses in your learning journals **UNDERSTANDING THE CLIENT'S SITUATION** "Prescription without diagnosis is malpractice, whether in medicine or management'. Accurate and owned diagnosis of the issue or opportunity is vital to set off up the mountain in the right direction. If from Engaging the Client, we believe there is a strong enough motive for change; realistic expectations; and developing trust, then we are ready to move into the second stage -- Understanding the Client's Situation. This is the data gathering and analysis process which is a core part of almost all consultancies. In consulting for change, data gathering is about getting to the heart of the matter, resisting the temptation to be satisfied with simply treating symptoms. The way we gather data has a big impact on whether or not it encourages change. Our data gathering and analysis processes have to cultivate ownership. To inspire a client to change, it's really about facilitating collaborative diagnosis, not simply coming as an outsider and giving an external judgement. In this module we will look at: (slide) Ways of seeing 1. Looking wide - analysing the wider system within which the CSO operates; 2. Looking deep - 'Looking below the waterline' to read the organisational culture. 3. Looking appreciatively Methods to use - Gathering information from a variety of sources using different methods and tools. We will see the value of using participatory methods for ownership and choosing methods that are fit for purpose. Analysing together - Using simple frameworks to make sense of the situation - Facilitating collaborative self-diagnosis by the client so that they continue to own the change. **Ways of seeing** First, we need to look wide and see the CSO or the community as part of a wider system, a wider network of relationships that profoundly influences how it behaves. No organisation or community is an island. Events in international funding organisations, in politics, in the global environment, in oil prices, in weather patterns may all have an influence. Organisations are products of their local environments. Just as plants will grow differently in different climates, so organisations will be different in different contexts. They cannot help but incorporate the values and norms of their local environment. For example, when I've worked in countries with deep-rooted conflicts, I've usually seen them play out within the organisation too. So to understand any entity, whether a CSO or community, we need to situate it within the web of its inter-connected relationships. This is an 'Open Systems' approach. On screen: Find out more about open systems thinking with the readings and videos on the Learning Carousel. Second, as well as looking wide, we also need to **look deep**. So much of what happens in any organisation goes on under the surface. Just as a CV only tells us only a very small part about who a person really is, it's the same with organisations. What we can see - websites, reports, charts, mission statements, strategic plans - are only a fraction of what is really going on. To appreciate what makes an organisation tick, where the life force is, what values are lived out in practice, we have to look below the surface. Yet as consultants we are often initially brought in to look what is on the surface - the presenting problem. As we delve and find out more, we may discover that this is just a symptom of something deeper. Unless we engage below the waterline, we may limit ourselves to superficial and cosmetic efforts at change. But it's worth remembering that just as the water pressure increases the deeper a diver goes, so it is with consulting. Tension and pressure increase the deeper we go! And as with diving there are some safety limits. We should only go as deep as the client allows. Third, if we want to catalyse change, we should look appreciatively. It's so tempting as a consultant to only look critically, to only look for the problems, the gaps, the failings. After all pointing out another's faults, makes us look good. But experience tells us that change often takes place by building on things that are already going well. We know from our own lives we are more open to change when we feel valued and appreciated. On screen - Find out more about an appreciative approach to change with the resources on the learning carousel. **Methods to use** The key thing in data gathering is to use a variety of methods that are fit for purpose. When at least three methods say roughly the same thing we are likely to be on the right track. It's called the principle of triangulation. We can learn something from public documents*, such as reports and accounts.* At the very least they can give us good questions to ask and probe more deeply. I remember one time I was working with an NGO umbrella body. At the start of the data gathering I looked at the audited accounts and underlined a few things. I then promptly forgot about them! Some weeks later it turned out that one of the core issues in the organisation was that the Chief Executive was having an affair with the gender officer. Looking back at the audited accounts I saw I had highlighted a huge staff loan to the individual in question. It should have rung alarm bells. Semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions are a common forms of data gathering in consulting. These require good open-ended questions and active listening on many levels. On Screen? "We shall explore what makes for good listening later in the module". More formal, *written questionnaires, online surveys, and organisation assessment tools* can be very useful for involving lots of people and enabling them to feel they have contributed. By generating numbers, surveys can be a powerful trigger for change. Hearing a wide variety of perspectives through surveys also enables us to analyse how different groups perceive things. However, the quality of information from surveys is often poor. We do not have the chance to explain the question -- a particular issue if the respondent is working in their 2^nd^ or 3^rd^ or 4^th^ language. Surveys do not give the opportunity to probe further. And if we use open questions in surveys, this creates huge amounts data to analyse. I personally find that participatory exercises are a particularly useful set of tools to both help people get to the heart of the matter and also cultivate ownership. Some exercises I often use include: **[An organisational timeline]** **where people note key dates in the organisation's life along a line in the middle of a flipchart (or a series of flip charts together). In a relatively short period, people identify the critical moments in an organisation's history. These events say a lot about how the organisation still behaves today.** **[A river of life] --** **similar to the timeline, but here participants draw their organisation's history as if it were a river. They illustrate key moments (both good and bad) with twists and turns, rocks and obstacles, waterfalls, rapids, new tributaries and some even draw crocodiles! Pictures can elicit sensitive information in a non-threatening way.** [Relationship mapping] involves mapping out the key relationships in the situation. I sometimes get people to trace all the relationships that need to work well for the initiative to succeed and then get them to identify the most critical relationships to focus on where trust is most needed. [Matrix or bean ranking] involves participants identifying options and then assessing them against a set of criteria that they themselves establish. Scoring using local objects like beans, bottle-tops or stones can reveal important differences in the group. **[Draw their organisation].** **I often ask** people use an image to characterise their organisation. Sometimes I give a bit more direction by suggesting they draw it as a mode of transport, a music group or an animal. Participatory methods get people using different parts of their brains to explore what their organisation is really like. People quite naturally reveal what's below the waterline **Making sense together** Now we have a load of information. I often feel like I'm drowning in data at this stage. It's important now to make sense of it ourselves. But then even more importantly withholding our own diagnosis to analyse the information together with the client. A few frameworks can help bring some order. There is a myriad of models of organisation, ranging from the well-known McKinsey's 7-S Model to more esoteric versions such as Morgan's Psychic Prisons. Personally in making sense of an organisation I often find the simple onion model quite useful. An onion, like an organisation, is something living and organic that grows underground and is profoundly influenced by the soil in which it grows. The onion model shows that any organisation comprises a number of interrelated elements or layers The outermost layer of the 'onion' represents the physical and financial resources. In the next layer, we find human capital, including the staff's knowledge and skills. The next layer has the systems and structures needed to carry out the work. Moving to a deeper layer, we have the organisation's vision, aims, objectives and strategy. Finally, in the core of the onion is the organisation's 'soul' -- its identity, lived values, and culture. Leadership and relationships are at this core. All the layers are important and each is essential for the organisation's existence: they are inter-related and mutually dependent. They need to fit with each other. If we work on one component has ramifications for the rest of the organisation. The membranes between the layers of an onion are incredibly thin. For example if we introduce new monitoring and evaluation systems this may require new staff skills, some investment in technology, a different way of operating and even relating to each other. It is also clear that it's easier to bring change at the outside levels than in the heart. Yet as with an onion, an organisation's vitality and creative energy come from its heart. Its life force is at its core. People and organisations, like onions, grow from the inside out. And as with onions, cutting an organisation and getting to the core is sensitive. It can make people cry! *Pause this video for a moment, go back to your initial exercise in this module, where you thought about a CSO you know well, where in the organisational onion would the two strengths and challenges fit?* While the onion is a static, snap shot model of an organisation, another good way of understanding an organisation is through analysing its phase of growth. Again there are lots of different models. On screen: the learning carousel you will find a really insightful three phase model as well as the classic Manitoba life cycle. You will also find a number of other tools that people find useful for analysing information. **Collaborative diagnosis** More important than any model or tool is how we get the client to own the findings themselves. This is the key to success in consulting. In the end, our wonderful, accurate analysis matters little. As change consultant and author, John Kotter says: "Good analysis rarely motivates people in a big way". If people see the findings as our external opinion, they are more likely to react defensively and avoid change. While I know this, I'm still tempted to take an expert approach in analysis and decide for myself what the key issues are. It is so much easier and quicker to judge a situation from outside than facilitate a group to come to their own understanding. And I'm sometimes arrogant enough to imagine I know more than they do. While clients often expect external recommendations, I've found it so much more effective to withhold my analysis and enable the client to self-diagnose first. After all I can always add anything vital that I think they have missed. They have to see and feel the need for change themselves. Facilitating shared diagnosis is like holding up a mirror, reflecting back what people are saying, so that the organisation can see itself as others do. My role is usually to get the right people in the room, pose the right questions and create a safe environment for them to open up and talk honestly about the situation. If we do this well, we will have almost reached the summit of change. Now stop and reflect for a moment: - *Which data gathering methods have you found particularly illuminating in your experience?* - *When have you seen genuinely collaborative diagnosis? What helped it happen?* Note down your responses in your learning journals **Inspiring Change** **Video script** We are now approaching the summit of change. In the last module we looked at Understanding the Client system. We saw how important it was to look wide at the broader system; to look deep, below the waterline; and to look appreciatively. We also highlighted a variety of data gathering methods, choosing methods that fit the core purpose of the consultancy. Finally we saw how we need to make sense of the data ourselves, but perhaps more importantly to facilitate the client to diagnose for themselves - THEY have to see and feel the need for change themselves. If we do this collaborative diagnosis well, we will already be approaching the summit of the mountain model. The summit is the turning point, where deep change starts. It is where we engage with the all-important human dimension of change. Organisations are not machines, they are human systems. It's people who have to change for organisations to change. Nearing the summit is often the steepest and potentially the most dangerous part of the journey. It may be cold and foggy, hard to see the way ahead. My colleague Bill Crooks calls this the groan zone, where people feel stuck, frustrated and may want to give up. Emotions can run high. Conflicts may erupt. A period of struggle often precedes significant breakthroughs. Getting to the summit is an uncertain and uncomfortable stage. But it's where we engage with the human element of change. It is emotional commitment that will provide the vital fuel to implement change in the future. It's emotion, not brute logic that drives change. Sadly all too often many consultancies miss out this emotional summit. We try to go directly from diagnosis to action planning, keeping things at a safe cerebral level. We leave the client with a report and recommendations. We hope optimistically that the client will accept and internalise the findings, and then they will decide that they want to change and then plan and implement those changes. Sometimes, we even leave the client feeling judged and discouraged, rather than with hope and energy to change. In this video you will learn about the three key elements in scaling this summit to inspire change. 1. Facing the truth 2. Letting go - the 'breathing out' 3. Energising hope - the 'breathing in' 1. **Helping the client face the 'truth'** To be an effective consultant, to inspire change, we need to think through - What does the CSO, this leader, this community need to hear in order to trigger change? - Who can they hear feedback from? Who do they listen to? - HOW, WHEN, and WHERE would it be best to give feedback? Truth is the trigger for change. The psychologist John White points out: 'No-one ever really changes for the better without somehow facing the truth'. So honest feedback is essential in helping CSOs become aware of their blind spots. Constructive feedback is so much more complex than simply telling another person what to do. How we give feedback, where, when and in what tone are just as important as the content of what we say. For people to respond constructively we have to create a safe space where people feel valued and affirmed, rather than attacked. Too often as consultants we assume that our written reports or presentations are the only ways to give feedback. Reports may be the standard way, but written reports are a crude tool for catalysing change. We should also consider other ways to give feedback: - Feedback from conscience - Feedback between peers - Feedback from the consultant Feedback from conscience The most powerful source of feedback is people's own consciences. People are most likely to change when they realise that their behaviour is not consistent with their own values -- when they realise there is a gap between who they are and who they want to be. We change when we realise we have failed to live up to our own standards; when we acknowledge our failures and take personal responsibility. As long as organisations or individuals externalise blame, they won't change. A number of years ago I was faced with the sickest organisation I have ever come across. The Chair and Vice-chair were being bribed by the State President, members of this network were burning down each other's buildings; I was threatened with deportation if things didn't go well, they had no funding. It was on the brink of death. The turning point in the workshop was when board, staff and other network members were forced to ask themselves: *'How have I contributed to this situation?'* We sent them away on their own to walk or sit, to listen to themselves, their conscience, their God. After almost an hour we put them into carefully selected groups to share with each other what they felt they heard. It all came out. They said things like: "We've prostituted ourselves before the President". And as a consultant I did not have to point fingers at anyone. I was lead observer of a remarkable transformation. Feedback between peers Another way of enabling the client to hear feedback is simply to facilitate honest conversations among the staff themselves. They are in the best position to know what is really going on and to work out among themselves how best to change. If the collaborative diagnosis element has gone well in the previous stage, then such conversations are the natural consequence. Hearing feedback from colleagues you work with on a daily basis, who know first-hand what goes on, whom you trust, can be much more powerful than feedback from an external consultant. Where there are relationship issues and a lack of trust, the only people who can really resolve these things are the people involved themselves. Feedback from the consultant A consultant can give the client feedback in different ways: - in one-to-one conversations - through verbal presentation to a group - and yes also through written reports Unless it's done really well, feedback can easily provoke defensiveness, denial and resistance -- a retreat down the mountain. We sometimes underestimate the value of **one-to-one verbal feedback** to the client's leadership. The benefit of one-to-one is that we can say things to people in private which would not be appropriate in a group setting or in a public document. As one consultant colleague said to me: 'In all my interventions, I find I have to give leadership feedback that they have stopped getting from staff. This often entails us going for walks in the forest together.' Consultants also often give formal **presentations** of findings to an invited group. The benefit is that this gives the group the opportunity to ask questions and discuss issues. But it's not just about reading out the main findings. Making a good presentation demands particular skills in public speaking and creating visual materials. Yet we tend to rely almost exclusively on **written reports** as the main way to give feedback. They advantage of reports is that they do leave a written record, which people who are not present can read and all can refer back to later. But reports need careful handling. Once something is in writing, it takes on a life and interpretation of its own. People often read into it what they want. They are naturally on the defensive as no one likes to have his or her work criticised, especially by someone who has spent such a short-time looking at the situation. Remember the image of using a hammer to do delicate surgery. In a recent consultancy, I knew that simply by pointing out in the report that there were two sides to the story, I risked a defensive response from the director. So I was really, really careful. I submitted a gentle and accurate report to the board. They liked it. They felt it was balanced, fair and helpful. But the director's response was more explosive than I had ever imagined. In two of the angriest emails I have ever received, she questioned my competence, my professionalism and my whole integrity. 2. **Letting go** Change is a human process. Emotion is at its heart. It's emotion, more than logic, that will determine whether or not good ideas are implemented. As consultant and author Roger Harrison said: 'I have never in all my years as a consultant seen anyone change an organisation in any fundamental way through rational planning'. We have to go deeper than rational planning to get to the heart of change. We have to grapple with the emotions, both negative and positive that we find there. Fear is one of the most powerful emotions. It often holds us back from change. Fear has been part of every change process I have ever been involved in. To inspire change, consultants may have to surface these fears in a safe and sensitive way. This can help convert fear from a blockage into positive energy for change. Letting go is an essential and yet painful part of any change -- even the most positive change. Identifying what you will have to end and let go of is the starting point for change. As consultant and author William Bridges says: 'the failure to identify and be ready for endings and losses that change produces is the largest single problem that organisations in transition encounter' Letting go of unhelpful past ways of doing things hurts. I wonder if I sometimes fail to allow clients enough time to sit with their pain. I want to help them turn a negative situation around quickly. But maybe I need to let them feel how what they have done or not done has adversely affected other people. Feeling the pain now gives people the determination to avoid such pain in the future. Public apology is a good way of marking the endings. Without this, it's very difficult to let go of past attitudes and behaviours. Saying sorry out loud for past behaviour provides a vital accountability to prevent us doing it again in the future. It also opens up the way for restoring trust. A South African colleague told me about an amazing experience he had had. As he was wrapping up what he thought had been a very successful workshop, his inexperienced co-facilitator surprised everyone by standing up and saying "There is still stuff left to do. I believe there are people with unfinished business with each other'. He went on: 'Go to that person over this weekend, talk through the issues and forgive each other.' It was not quite the upbeat, celebratory end to the workshop my friend had in mind! But on Monday at lunchtime, he received an email from the director of the organisation, saying what a remarkable transformation had taken place. People had risen to the challenge, got together over the weekend and sorted through issues -- issues that had been festering for a very long time. 3. **Energising hope** Apologising is an essential way to restoring relationships. When we put relationships right, this energises hope for change. Research shows that without improved relationships, there can be no fundamental change. So far I've emphasised the more difficult, negative elements of change. We do have to breathe out. But we know that change is also exciting and exhilarating. This is the breathing in. Going back to the mountain analogy, while the summit may frequently be shrouded in mist, when the fog lifts we get amazing far-sighted views into the future, into where we want to go. We begin to see possible paths down the mountain. HOPE and EXCITEMENT are massive drivers for change. We need to connect clients to these essential and powerful emotions to drive change. If our consultancy does not leave a client excited and hopeful about the future, we will have failed to inspire change. As we saw in the previous module, taking a more appreciative approach in the data gathering stage and in particular the methods used for collective 'self-diagnosis' can inspire energy and hope to change. At this point of re-energising the organisation, I often find it useful to (re)connect people with their initial motivations and inspirations. At times, I have encouraged people to start telling stories about how the organisation started. It can be amazingly powerful to connect again with the original dream and reason for creation -- the life force of the organisation. At other times, I get people to tell their own stories about what made them join, or highlight the most meaningful moment in their time at work. Some describe this source of energy as coming from a sense of calling. For many people mountain-top experiences of change have a spiritual dimension. Hope and faith are inextricably linked. Research shows that the majority of people in the world would assert that their faith influences how they behave. Religion can at times be the biggest blockage to change. But at other times faith is the most powerful lever for change. We ignore it at our peril. So if as consultants we are seeking to influence behaviour change, it makes sense professionally to engage with people's faith. This may not be an easy thing to do. In some contexts it may feel less like sacred ground and more like a minefield. But in all my consultancies with both Christian and Muslim faith-based organisations, I have found that engaging with their faith is an essential way to address cultural and behavioural constraints, as well as reinforce the motivation to change. My colleague, Bill Crooks relates one of many examples: *We were working with 25 Mothers' Union community development coordinators from across South Africa. As part of our training process, we used a dramatic presentation of a story from their faith literature -- the Bible. My co-facilitator performed a monologue of how it must have felt to be the woman, ostracised and rejected by her community, who encountered Jesus at the well. At the end of the drama, there was a long silence before one huge woman (called 'Tiny') started weeping for the marginalised, abused women in her community. My colleague also told her own story of a poor choice of husband, which led to divorce. The example from the Bible and the vulnerability of the facilitator helped people become real. It unleashed a powerful time of participants sharing their own emotional experiences, thinking about their own pain, hurt and sense of rejection. They connected in a new way by strongly empathising with the women in their communities. They realised their role as development coordinators was not about managing projects, but acting as 'wounded healers'. I've never been in a workshop so profound.* **Conclusion** Taking an organisation or an individual or a community up to the summit of change is not easy. It is often foggy and difficult. But it is at the core of consulting with soul because at the summit We get to the heart of the matter We find the turning point for change Now stop and reflect for a moment: *To what extent do you try to help clients reach the summit of change? How intentionally do you engage with the emotional or even spiritual element to change at the summit?* *To be more effective as a mountain guide at this stage of change, what do you need to do better or differently?* Note down your responses in your learning journals **Planning for implementation** **Video script** Finally we're on our way down the mountain! We have reached the stage of planning for change. Until now, the modules have all been uphill, leading us up to the emotional summit. We saw in the last module the importance of helping a client face the truth. We saw how all change involves some element of letting go, facing fears and sitting with the pain. We also saw here is hope and excitement at the turning point. There is an energy that's released. We may fall into the trap of feeling we have arrived once we have reached the summit. This isn't the case. The group may be on an emotional high. We now need to channel this energy productively. We now have to bring people safely down the other side of the mountain. We do this by planning collaboratively for change. Working out the practicalities of change: what needs to be done, by whom and when. This is about moving from the strategic to the operational, from shared vision to collectively owned actions. We need to plan in a way that builds commitment and ownership and also deals with some of the inevitable fall-out when people realise what exactly the changes might mean for them. In this module we will look at: 1. Why collaborative planning is essential 2. Some useful planning tools 3. How we can plan to deal with the on-going emotional aspects of implementing change WHY Collaborative planning IS essential There is a real temptation in this planning stage to delegate responsibility for change to one or two people and let the rest of us go back to our normal jobs. BUT if only a few people are involved, then little change will actually take place. A critical mass of people have to be pulling in the same direction. We need to get people to take collective responsibility for change. Walter Wright goes as far as to say 'We do not have a plan until each objective has been owned by someone who accepts responsibility to see that it is initiated and completed' An internal guiding team (sometimes called task force, change action team or steering group) helps oversee the change process. They bring local knowledge. They can keep the energy for change alive. They empower others to act on the vision, reminding people of their responsibilities and deadlines. They provide on-going follow-through. It helps if this guiding team is: - representative; - has relevant knowledge about what is happening outside as well as internally; - has credibility, connections and stature within the organisation; - has the management skills to plan, organise and control; - the leadership skills to inspire and motivate. - and has formal authority and political power; This may mean having leaders on the task force, or at least their full and visible support. If people get the sense that this is not a priority for the leaders or that they are preoccupied elsewhere, then the change initiative is likely to fail. Useful planning tools There are a wide variety of tools we can use for planning a change process. Many of us may be familiar with these through previous experience with project planning. There is a lot to be said for keeping the planning simple and inclusive. It can help to clarify together: 1. What do we really want to achieve in this change process? What outcomes are we looking for? 2. What exactly will we do to make this happen? 3. Who will do what? 4. By when? 5. What resources will they need to make this happen? What will it cost? 6. How will we know how we are doing? What are the milestones along the way? How will we know when we have arrived? We can convert these answers into a simple work plan, divided into years, months and weeks, showing the various tasks, responsibilities and budgets. Any plan like this needs to be adapted as we go along. For significant change processes we need a system for regular reviews and updates. A good plan brings both structure and flexibility. A colleague, Bruce Britton, finds conducting 'premortems' both useful and creative in planning for a change process: *"'Premortems' are a useful planning tool. People may be reluctant to speak about their reservations in the important planning phase. They do not want to dampen people's enthusiasm by posing difficult questions. A premortem asks people to 'imagine that the change project has failed'. They brainstorm, individually and then in the group, as many plausible reasons as possible for the failure. In this way, they might mention issues they would not otherwise dare bring up. Team members feel valued for their contributions. Once everyone has contributed their ideas, the change leader can look for ways to strengthen the plan and the team is already sensitised to spotting the first signs of potential problems."* It's usually worth breaking down the plan's objectives into a series of small clear steps, not one massive leap. It is also helpful to ensure that the activities involve a mixture of visible 'quick wins' as well as ones that build the foundations for longer-term change. An African colleague describes it as having a mixture of 'baby chickens' with their three-week gestation period as well as 'baby elephants' with their 21-month gestation. People need to feel they are making progress, that things are happening. This builds momentum and further commitment. People want to be involved with something that is successful. So focus on key tasks that can quickly achieve unambiguous, visible and meaningful results -- or as the jargon puts it, 'the low-hanging fruit' A couple of my current clients are using the 'Wildly Important Goals' approach to planning for change. In this planning process, each team identifies just one or two goals which they believe will make all the difference. Rather than giving mediocre effort to dozens of goals, they commit disproportionate energy to these few. They create lead measures that tell you how likely you are to achieve those goals. They keep score of progress and regular review where they are up to. On a weekly basis each team member answers: 'What are the one or two most important things that I can do this week to impact the change?' Planning for the on-going emotions No organisation changes without individuals changing. To be good consultants we may also need to help people adjust to change in a healthy way. It can be emotional at the summit of change, but we don't leave emotions there. When people actually have to make those changes, it may feel even worse. If you remember back to the first module and how you felt writing your name with your wrong hand, we see that even the simplest changes, affect how we feel about ourselves. People feel incompetent, cut off from past relationships, forced into different ways of working. Organisations aren't machines. So we have to carefully plan for the necessary human adjustments to change. Staff may need encouragement and support to get used to the new reality more quickly. It can be useful to assess who is likely to have to change the most. Who is likely to lose out most? What sort of support will they need in order to adjust? One NGO I work with uses the following table to assess who has to change and by how much. It measures the change from one to ten and then explains why that score was chosen. There is always an element of loss in change. We can learn a lot about dealing with loss from the work on bereavement by people like Elisabeth Kübler Ross. Her classic transition curve model describes the journey taken by an individual coming to terms with change. How we move from denial to anger to bargaining to depression, before finally reaching acceptance. The important thing is to be able to help people move gradually through the process of adjustment, rather than getting stuck in denial or depression (which can lead to dysfunctional organisational behaviour). In planning any major change, we may need to plan for how to help people move through this curve as swiftly and healthily as possible. So now at least we are on the way down the mountain. We have a plan. Hopefully one that staff feel is theirs. They are ready to take responsibility for making it happen. Now stop and reflect for a moment: *In your own experience, which planning tools have you found most useful?* *How do you ensure that people own the plans as theirs?* Ownership is so important Note down your responses in your learning journals **Accompanying implementation** Implementation is where it all happens. Where change becomes embedded in the organisation. Up until now we have looked at inspiring the vision for change, and in the last module we saw the importance of collaborative planning; identified a number of useful planning tools and discussed how to PLAN for the emotional adjustments to change. But this is still only at the planning stage. If the client does not put it into practice, all the effort so far may be in vain. Without implementation all our planning is little more than New Years' resolutions -- which apparently only 10% of us keep! It's at this stage that the real work of change starts. This is the nitty gritty reality of change -- where inspiration gives way to perspiration. Going down the mountain may be even harder on the knees than climbing! We need to pay much, much closer attention to this vital stage of change. Sometimes as consultants, we leave even before this most important stage even begins. Sometimes our contract only takes us up to the planning stage. We may have fully played our part. It may be time for others to carry on the process. CSO leaders and staff, the internal change agents, take centre-stage in making it happen. Yet consultants still often have a key role to play in accompanying implementation. They may coach or mentor key staff. They may monitor the change process itself. It's worthwhile discussing this Implementation stage right at the outset of Engaging the Client. It may be worth opening up in principle at least the possibility of consultant support in accompanying implementation. Of course this also needs commitment from the consultant to continue to walk alongside the client in these more mundane moments. We have to be prepared to go the extra mile. Personally, I find this really challenging. I know that once the excitement of the turning point has passed, my passion naturally wanes. As they finish planning, I'm keen to invoice and move to the next consultancy contract. I have to discipline myself to see the assignment through. And even if this follow through has not been built into the initial contract, up to a point, I need the integrity to invest some voluntary time to keep in touch and find out how things are going. Accompanying change needs a different set of consultant competencies. In this module we'll look at: - Monitoring progress - Mentoring - Exiting gracefully - Evaluating and learning Monitoring progress Change is much easier said than done. We often need outside help to break bad habits, even if we desire to change. Monitoring the implementation is a great way for consultants to do this. The basic monitoring question is simply 'How are things going?' But how and when we ask this question is not one-size-fits-all. It can be as informal as a phone call or it can be more structured with periodic meetings with the task force. We can use a variety of methods to find out how things are going including: individual interviews, focus group discussions, workshops, observation, question-and-answer sessions, staff surveys, staff representatives, comment boxes and confidential hotlines. Monitoring will be much easier if the plan developed already has named people with responsibility for doing things by a certain date. If done well, this monitoring can maintain energy and build commitment to the process as people realise they are making progress. People want to join in with something that is moving in the right direction. So it's important to monitor what has changed already and celebrate those successes along the way. It is also necessary to identify what has NOT yet shifted, what difficulties are being encountered, and then to adapt and work out the next step. Consultants can play a key role in monitoring. We can provide an accountability mechanism as well as peer pressure for busy people to fulfil their commitments. Unless change activities are an explicit part of the work schedule, they may be lost amid the whirlwind of other more 'urgent' work. And because the consultant is outside traditional power structures, we may be able to get a better quality responses from people who may be more open and honest with us. Mentoring As we've said before, if organisations are to change, people have to change. Sometimes individuals may need support to make those changes. Some may need training to develop new skills and competencies. Others may need counselling to help them adjust psychologically (moving through the transition curve we mentioned in the last module). Leading change is an essential role and skill today for any leader, senior management team or change task force. But few have been trained to manage change. Having a coach, mentor or peer to come alongside and ask them the right questions about the change process may help them manage the process better. It may also provide vital encouragement. Leading change is an incredibly difficult process. It can be isolating. Leaders often have few safe places where they can offload their concerns or seek advice about the way forward. Coaches and mentors can provide a place of sanctuary. We can create and hold a space for leaders to step away and reflect on what is going on. We've seen from the start of this course, that leaders may be the ones who have to change the most. Leaders are the ones who most influence an organisation's culture. As the saying goes, 'Culture eats strategy for breakfast'. I'd probably add "and structure for lunch and systems for supper"! The extent to which an organisation is able to change is inextricably linked to the extent to which individual leaders are able to change themselves. So leaders need people around them who will ask them the right questions and not be afraid to point out issues that need addressing. In Activity 1 you identified key people who had been mentors in your life. Look back and analyse their key qualities. Which of these qualities do you need to work on? Exit gracefully The acid test of whether our consultancy has been effective is whether and how we are able to disengage. Exit can take place at different times throughout the consultancy process. In exceptional cases, we may have decided to exit before we even started. At other times we may only be asked as far as the collaborative diagnosis stage or the planning stage. But whenever we exit, it is worth asking: 'Am I avoiding anything by terminating at this point?' It could be our own self-interest, rather than client-interest, that is encouraging our exit. We may want to leave a client because we have another more interesting assignment on offer or maybe the work is more difficult than we thought. Conversely, if a consultancy has gone well, trust has developed and we are walking alongside in a helpful way, it may also be hard to know when is the right time to leave. There is probably always more we can do: new initiatives, new requests. The working relationship may have become very comfortable, possibly too comfortable. We like being needed. The client may even have become dependent on us. But the longer we work with a client, the more we may lose our objectivity, our external perspective, our sharp edge. We may have become part of the furniture and perhaps even part of the problem. I believe, it's a professional responsibility of consultants to become progressively unnecessary and exit gracefully. We have to let go and move on. Exiting can be a bittersweet experience. In some cases, we have worked with people quite intensively at some momentous and meaningful moments of their lives. We may have become good friends. So we shouldn't be surprised by feelings of sadness when the contracted relationship ends. Evaluate and learn Meaningful consultancy has to provoke positive change. After a consultancy ends, it is important for us to have a good idea about whether the assignment was worth our effort and the client's money. There is a myriad of different evaluation techniques, but any consultancy evaluation should be relatively simple and easy, proportionate to the amount of work involved. Many consultants use 'repeat business' as a useful proxy-indicator of impact. If the client is satisfied with our work and has come back for more, this indicates that they see it as value for money. But we may need to push ourselves a bit further. I remember some years back, a client came back to us for repeat training. When I asked them why, they said it was so bad the first time, but that they still trusted us. They thought we could not do it as badly again and they still wanted to know about the subject! At the most basic level, we can get a client to fill in evaluation forms at the end of an event, or increasingly use online reaction sheets. But these do not tell us much about what difference has taken place. It may be more useful to go back to the client some 6-12 months' later and ask what has changed as a result of the consultancy. It can be better if someone other than the consultant does this follow up as they might get more honest answer. It's useful to have a few standard questions like: 1. What changes have occurred since the job was completed 2. How did our work contribute to that change? 3. Is there anything more we can do for you? We can have this conversation by Skype or phone; by visiting or even by running a review workshop with staff. **Learning** However, more than simply assessing value for money, evaluation can and should contribute to our learning. As we will see in the next module, it's vital for us to learn continuously. We are our own best tool and learning is one way to sharpen that tool. Learning does not happen by accident. We have to be really quite intentional about it. It takes a bit of effort to convert raw experience into long-term learning and behaviour change. Later in this module you will undertake a journaling exercise, which is an excellent learning tool for consultants to get in the habit of using. Making time to reflect systematically on and document personal learning after every assignment can be one of the greatest assets for a consultant's self-development. Now stop and reflect for a moment: - *How can you build in more follow-up to your consultancy work?* - *How do you judge when it's the right time to leave?* - *How do you know if the consultancy has been worth the time and money?* Note down your responses in your learning journals **Sustaining your soul** So we've now been all the way up and down the mountain. Throughout the change process, the consultant has been like a mountain guide. We are there to walk alongside, motivate, encourage, and help clients move from the comfort of the foothills, up to the difficult and demanding summit of change, before descending to a new place on the other side of the mountain. Some consultancies may only aspire to small and simple changes, in which case this 'mountain' may be quick and perhaps easy to step over -- more like a molehill. In other cases, with fundamental organisation change processes, it may feel like a Himalayan peak. Whether we are external consultants or leaders or internal change agents we still act as a mountain guide. Whether we working on change in technical programmes or in the organisation we are still helping the client go through similar stages of change. Whatever the nature of the change consultancy and whatever our role, what matters most is how much people trust us. Right at the start, in Module One, Being a Consultant, we saw how important it is to be worthy of trust. Someone who the client feels is committed to them; who has the competence to deliver on the task and whose character resounds with integrity, humility and courage. Throughout the journey we have emphasised the importance of consulting with soul. We've said this means 1. Focussing on the client's change, not the contract 2. Ensuring the client genuinely owns and drives the process 3. Getting to the heart of the matter, beyond just symptoms 4. Bring the best of ourselves, our integrity and humility Consulting with soul is not easy. A consultant's life can be tough. An external consultant does not normally have the security of a regular monthly income. Our work often involves very intense engagement for a few weeks before suddenly moving onto something completely different. It often requires travel and significant periods away from home. We need a degree of 'stress hardiness' to live with a lack of control while still feeling accountable for the results. Tensions can run high due to time, budget or differences of opinion. When things do not go as planned, we can lose enthusiasm and confidence. If unchecked, it can lead to burn-out. To be effective, bringing encouragement and hope to others, we have to sustain our souls. That's what we are going to be looking at in this module. It's about: - Learning continuously - Playing to our strengths by saying 'No' - Managing our boundaries - Keeping fit -- physically, emotionally and spiritually - Cultivating character **\ ** Learn continuously In the previous module we highlighted the importance of systematically reviewing and learning from our experience. We can use every assignment we do to develop our competencies. It's our best learning asset. Every consultancy, especially the ones that do not go as planned, is an opportunity for growth. My two most 'disastrous' assignments have provided me with my richest learning. They were a crash course in consulting. Learning is a question of integrity. Consultant and writer Peter Block puts it in stark terms: (slide) We need to develop our own habits for continuous learning. It seems obvious that to improve our future practice, we must reflect on our past work. Yet, so often we're caught up with the next assignment. Our learnings remain vague and undigested. The biggest way to improve our ability is simply to make time to learn from our consultancy experiences. Different people do this in different ways. Some have a colleague or friend (or supervisor) with whom they discuss learning after each intervention. Others people have found it helpful to start a journal or a folder where for every consultancy they jot down what they have learnt. Personally I find that writing down my reflections helps me. Sometimes they are raw thoughts, random jottings in a journal. At other times, I write thought pieces or blogs. I find the discipline of trying to communicate my learning to an outside audience **forces me to order my thoughts and clarify what I really think.** We also have plenty of opportunities to learn from others. We obviously can't be naturally brilliant at everything. If we are weak in a certain area, we may want to invest time and even money in developing our skills. It could be presentation and public speaking skills, or writing, or our creative facilitations or coaching skills. The list is endless. However, our learning shouldn't focus on our weaknesses. Often the best investments are in our strengths. Taking something we are already good at and making it even better. A good consultant is continually improving. Play to your strengths by saying 'no' We are all different in who we are and therefore in how we consult. It can really help us (and our clients too) if we work out who we are as a consultant. This means knowing what sort of consulting we are likely to do well, and what sort of work will give us energy and enjoyment. This will help us better play to our strengths. For example, funders sometimes ask me to undertake an impact evaluation to provide them with evidence for accountability purposes. I know this is not my skill set, not indeed my particular interest. So I try and signpost them to other consultants I know who are more skilled in this field. Playing to strengths means saying 'no' regularly. A lot of consultants feel they have no choice and just have to accept any jobs offered. But if we never really say no, we will never develop any specialism nor reputation in a particular field. Without a niche, having to accept everything then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. While it's good to stretch ourselves, we should also ensure that we only to take on work that we think we can do reasonably well. If we are not good at something or if we know we do not have enough time to do justice to something, we should turn it down. Because, if we accept it and do it poorly, this may damage our credibility and more importantly the client CSO in the process. Saying 'no' may cause short-term disappointment, but it leads to a stronger reputation in the long term - not least because clients will think we are in demand and hard to get. Saying 'no' enables you to keep the space to say 'Yes' to jobs where you feel you can make a difference, where there is scope for change, a willingness to learn. Manage your boundaries Setting appropriate boundaries is a challenge for many of us. We resist the idea of boundaries. We view limits as something to overcome. However, these limits can be a gift - if we have self-control and good time management. They can enable us to focus on the most meaningful work that really makes a difference and suits our personalities and strengths. It is worth taking stock on a regular basis and responding to questions about our: Each of us will have different responses to these questions. And our responses may vary at different times of our lives. Sometimes we can be more proactive, at other times we may have to take what comes. But unless we do take such strategic decisions for our own lives, how can we help civil society organisations do the same for theirs? Good consultants are adept at setting and managing personal priorities and boundaries. Keep fit for consulting If we are to bring our best to our work, we have to look after ourselves -- physically, emotionally, and spiritually. We all need regular maintenance and care. As Parker Palmer wrote: 'Self-care is never a selfish act -- it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have... to offer others'. **Physically** If we are not physically well, we will underperform as consultants. We therefore have a duty to our clients to look after ourselves to make sure we are as healthy as possible when we are consulting. This may mean ensuring we are disciplined about what we eat and drink and take enough regular exercise. To be at our best we need enough time to rest with appropriate sleep patterns and taking regular breaks from work. Rest days are essential. Research shows holidays improve performance. **Emotionally** Consulting can be a lonely profession, particularly because of the travelling and time away from home that it often involves. Such absences can be very dislocating for family life. We have to ensure that despite the separations, we make quality time for family when we are at home. It can also be a challenge for travelling consultants to maintain and develop friendships. But we need friends to relax, laugh and have fun with. Friendships need effort. We have to invest time in them. We will serve our clients no better than we live as a friend. **Spiritually** Some people find that spirituality is an important way to keep themselves motivated and energised: connected to a sense of higher purpose and the deeper questions about the meaning of life. Because our beliefs profoundly influence our values, connecting with spirituality can be an important way to help us live up to those values. People use different activities to recalibrate, reflect and orientate themselves: prayer, meditation, retreats or group meetings, conferences, and pilgrimages. These practices can connect us to a deeper sense of belonging and interconnectedness with others, with the environment and, for some, with God. It helps bring perspective. Apparently people who pray have lower levels of stress. Connecting with the spiritual can help us become more authentic, compassionate and accepting of ourselves and others. We can feel more loved and accepted, rather than driven to achieve. Spirituality can help keep us humble, and also inspired with hope. Cultivate your character Becoming a trustworthy consultant is ultimately about developing your character. It is about dealing with our shadows, our fears, areas in which we are tempted. As a consultant, we have the privilege of being invited into the guts of an organisation. We get special access. We get to ask questions no-one else can. We are given time that no-one else is. Yet, with such privilege comes responsibility. Decisions we influence affect people's jobs, their lives and their own sense of identity. We have to tread softly on people's lives. It is not a place to dump our own baggage. We cultivate character by wrestling with our imperfections -- often with the help of others. It is about daring to look inside and take an inward journey. In the course of this confrontation with ourselves, we build character. As Alexander Solzhenitsyn wisely observed 'The line separating good and evil passes, not through states, not between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart.' I'm sometimes disturbed to realise how much my pride, greed, impatience, laziness and even self-interest still influences my work. I suppose none of us is immune from these. The antidote is to cultivate the best in who we are -- I would call these spiritual virtues. I have found it helpful in my consultancy to regularly stop and ask myself about my: Most of us need outside help to do this. It may be a spouse, a friend, or a work colleague. We need to seek support from others to cultivate character. By doing this we will ensure that we do bring the best of who we are to the work we do. We can do no more than this. Now stop and reflect for a moment: Note down your responses in your learning journals