Flawless Consulting (3rd Edition) - PDF

babout.indd 325 30/12/10 12:00 PM  “Flawless Consulting is not just a practical, useful, and inviting book for practitioners. It’s all those things, but it’s also a book about some of the most vexing issues we face when consulting to organizations—issu...

babout.indd 325 30/12/10 12:00 PM  “Flawless Consulting is not just a practical, useful, and inviting book for practitioners. It’s all those things, but it’s also a book about some of the most vexing issues we face when consulting to organizations—issues of resistance, truth, doubt, vulnerability, and accountability. If you find your- self giving advice to people making choices, then this book is a must-have for you. Buy it today, use it tomorrow.” Jim Kouzes, award-winning coauthor of the best-selling The Leadership Challenge and The Truth About Leadership; Dean’s Executive Professor of Leadership, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University “Consulting at its best is about action and interaction, relationships and results. In a highly readable guide that is both inspirational and practical, Peter Block leads consultant and client together through a proven approach to realize their future.” Samuel R. Strickland, chief financial and administrative officer, Booz Allen Hamilton “... surpasses the high standards of relevance, clarity, and wisdom charac- teristic of previous versions.... Whether one’s consulting experience spans five years or fifty, there is a great deal in this new edition to prompt us to reflect upon our own practice and to discuss with colleagues.” Roger Harrison, independent consultant and author of Consultant’s Journey: A Dance of Work and Spirit and The Collected Papers of Roger Harrison “Peter Block has written a masterful third edition of his masterpiece, Flawless Consulting. A powerful message that emerged gradually in editions one and two comes clearly to the surface in this latest edition. Important additions to edition three are the strength-based strategies that many are beginning to use... in solving seemingly intractable problems in health care and other industries. They are featured in a new Chapter Twelve and form a common thread that runs through this entire path-breaking book.” Jon C. Lloyd, MD, FACS, senior associate, Positive Deviance Initiative; clinical advisor, Plexus Institute “... shows why the earlier versions of the book are deeply valued by those who have read them. The updates in this edition... showcase the premises of the book. Flawless Consulting is at the head of the class for those wanting to master the complexities of consultation.” Larry Browning, professor, Department of Communication Studies, University of Texas at Austin; adjunct professor of management, Bodø Graduate School of Business, Bodø, Norway ffirs.indd i 04/01/11 11:08 AM  “My company uses this book as our primary guide to consultant skills. Interestingly, our most experienced consultants value the insights from Flawless Consulting the most. It has made a big difference in how we think about and work with clients.” Tønnes Ingebrigtsen, CEO, mnemonic “Every new story and fresh insight in this third edition of Flawless Consult- ing abounds with sagely wisdom for anyone learning the art of influence without power. With the warm, gentle voice of a trusted friend, Peter guides, nudges, and inspires.” Arvinder S. Dhesi, group talent director, Aviva “This new edition of Flawless Consulting is highly germane to educators at all levels who are serious about helping bring about true educational reform. Teachers and students can drop their roles and engage one another authentically with discovery and dialogue about mutual expectations. Peter also helps us restore a sense of sanity in following what we know makes sense. I highly recommend this new edition for my colleagues in the educa- tion profession.” David W. Cox, professor of education, Arkansas State University “Peter Block did it again! With this edition of Flawless Consulting he demon- strates why he continues to inspire millions of change leaders around the world. We practice with more impact because of Peter’s teachings.” Louise van Rhyn, change activist and nation builder, South Africa “... very special as it has equipped me to be an enabler of transforma- tion by making our clients and us work like real partners that build the capacity of both to work for the well-being of all stakeholders.” Anil Sachdev, founder and CEO of Grow Talent Company and the School of Inspired Leadership, Gurgaon, India “Peter Block’s masterpiece Flawless Consulting in 1980 informed my point of view on developing organizations. This book is the capstone—you can’t afford not to read it.” Phil Harkins, CEO, Linkage Inc. “... invaluable insights to the evolution and usefulness of Flawless Con- sulting. In this practical guide, one thing that stands out for me is Peter’s emphasis on the importance of consulting from the view of possibilities over problems.” Marcia Mendes-d’Abreu, vice president, Human Resources, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan ffirs.indd ii 04/01/11 11:08 AM  FLAWLESS CONSULTING ffirs.indd iii 04/01/11 11:08 AM  The Instructor’s Manual for the third edition of Flawless Consulting is available free online. If you would like to download and print out a copy of the Manual, please visit: www.wiley.com/college/block FREE Premium Content P This book includes premium content that can be accessed from our Web site when you register at www.pfeiffer.com/go/peterblock using the password professional. ffirs.indd iv 04/01/11 11:08 AM  THIRD EDITION FLAWLESS CONSULTING A GUIDE TO GETTING YOUR EXPERTISE USED PETER BLOCK Illustrated by Janis Nowlan ffirs.indd v 04/01/11 11:08 AM  Copyright © 2011 by Peter Block. All Rights Reserved. Illustrations © 1978, 2000, 2011 by Janis Nowlan. Published by Pfeiffer An Imprint of Wiley 989 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94103-1741 www.pfeiffer.com No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior writ- ten permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax 978-646-8600, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, 201-748-6011, fax 201-748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or complete- ness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, conse- quential, or other damages. Readers should be aware that Internet websites offered as citations and/or sources for further information may have changed or disappeared between the time this was written and when it is read. For additional copies/bulk purchases of this book in the U.S. please contact 800-274-4434. Pfeiffer books and products are available through most bookstores. To contact Pfeiffer directly call our Cus- tomer Care Department within the U.S. at 800-274-4434, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3985, fax 317-572-4002, or visit www.pfeiffer.com. Pfeiffer also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Block, Peter. Flawless consulting: a guide to getting your expertise used / Peter Block; illustrated by Janis Nowlan. — 3rd ed. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 978-0-470-62074-8 (hardback) 1. Business consultants. I. Title. HD69.C6B57 2010 001—dc22 2010034719 Acquiring Editor: Matthew Davis Editor: Beverly H. Miller Marketing Manager: Brian Grimm Editorial Assistant: Lindsay Morton Director of Development: Kathleen Dolan Davies Manufacturing Supervisor: Becky Morgan Developmental Editor: Leslie Stephen Printed in the United States of America Production Editor: Michael Kay/Susan Geraghty Printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ffirs.indd vi 04/01/11 11:08 AM  To Dorothy, with love... ffirs.indd vii 04/01/11 11:08 AM  ALSO BY PETER BLOCK The Abundant Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods, coauthored with John McKnight Community: The Structure of Belonging The Answer to How Is Yes: Acting on What Matters The Flawless Consulting Fieldbook & Companion: A Guide to Understanding Your Expertise, with Andrea Markowitz and others Freedom and Accountability at Work: Applying Philosophic Insight to the Real World, coauthored with Peter Koestenbaum Stewardship: Choosing Service over Self-Interest The Empowered Manager: Positive Political Skills at Work ffirs.indd viii 04/01/11 11:08 AM  CONTENTS What’s New? xiii Acknowledgments xxi 1 A Consultant by Any Other Name... 1 Some Definitions and Distinctions 2 / Consulting Skills Preview 6 / The Promise of Flawless Consultation 9 2 Techniques Are Not Enough 13 Beyond Content 14 / The Consultant’s Assumptions 17 / The Consultant’s Goals 19 / Developing Client Commitment––A Secondary Goal of Each Consulting Act 21 / Roles Consultants Choose 22 / Collaboration and the Fear of Holding Hands 27 / Staging the Client’s Involvement, Step by Step 29 3 Flawless Consulting 37 Being Authentic 37 / Completing the Requirements of Each Phase 40 / Results 46 / Accountability 47 / The Right to Fail 49 4 Contracting Overview 51 Contracting: The Concept and the Skill 52 / Elements of a Contract 57 / Ground Rules for Contracting 65 ix TOC.indd ix 30/12/10 12:26 PM  5 The Contracting Meeting 67 Who Is the Client? 68 / Navigating the Contracting Meeting 70 / When You Get Stuck 87 / The Problem with Saying No 95 / Contracting Checkpoint 96 / Selling Your Services: Good Selling Is Good Contracting 98 / The Meeting as a Model of How You Work 102 / Closing the Contracting Meeting 103 / After the Contracting Meeting 104 6 The Agonies of Contracting 107 Dealing with Low Motivation 107 / Ceaseless Negotiation: The Shifting Tide of Your Role 109 / Some Other Specific Agonies 113 / The Virtual World 115 7 The Internal Consultant 121 Important Differences Between Internal and External Consultants 122 / Triangles and Rectangles 124 8 Understanding Resistance 129 The Faces of Resistance 130 / What Are Clients Resisting When They Are Resisting Us? 138 / Underlying Concerns 140 / Sometimes It Is Not Resistance 143 / The Fear and the Wish 143 / Ogres and Angels 147 /... And Heroics 148 9 Dealing with Resistance 149 Three Steps for Handling Resistance 151 / Don’t Take It Personally 155 / Good-Faith Responses 156 / Consulting with a Stone 157 10 From Diagnosis to Discovery 159 It Is Still the Relationship That Counts 160 / The Call to Action 163 / The Problem Is Not the Problem 167 / How the Problem Is Being Managed 170 / Flawless Discovery 172 x Contents TOC.indd x 30/12/10 12:26 PM  11 Whole-System Discovery 175 Third-Party Consulting 176 / Taking a Whole-System Approach 178 / Your Choice 179 / Putting Whole-System Discovery to Work 180 / The Payoff 182 12 Discovering Gifts, Capacities, and Possibilities 183 When All Else Fails 185 / The Power of Positive Deviance 186 / The Implications of Positive Deviance for Consulting 189 / An Example of What Is Working 190 13 Get the Picture 201 The Steps in Getting the Picture 202 / A Word About Bias 206 / Assessing How the Situation Is Being Managed 207 / The Discovery Interview 210 / Levels of Analysis 211 / Your Experience as Data 214 14 Preparing for Feedback 217 A Clear Picture May Be Enough 217 / Condensing the Data 218 / Some Do’s and Don’ts 219 / Language in Giving the Picture 221 / Presenting the Picture... As Courtroom Drama 223 / Support and Confront 225 15 Managing the Meeting for Action 229 How to Present the Picture 230 / Structuring the Meeting 231 / The Meeting for Action, Step by Step 233 / A Recap 241 / Resistance in the Meeting 242 / When Group Members Are at Odds Among Themselves 244 / Modeling the Meeting 246 16 Implementation 249 Choosing Engagement over Installation 250 / Deciding Doesn’t Get It Done 251 / The Limits of Installation 252 / Betting on Engagement 258 Contents xi TOC.indd xi 30/12/10 12:26 PM  17 The Elements of Engagement 261 The Meeting Is the Message 262 / Eight Ways to Engage 263 / The Point 275 18 Teacher as Consultant 279 The Story 280 / Assumptions About Motivating Students 281 / The Reality 282 / Taking a Consultant’s Stance 283 / The Trip to Washington, D.C. 293 / The Choice in the Matter 296 19 The Heart of the Matter 299 Choosing Learning over Teaching 300 / Learning as a Social Adventure 302 / The Struggle Is the Solution 303 / The Question Is More Important Than the Answer 304 / Beyond How 305 / Insight Resides in Moments of Tension 307 / Capacities Bear More Fruit Than Deficiencies 309 / We Are Responsible for One Another’s Learning 311 / Culture Changes in the Moment 312 / If Change Is So Wonderful, Why Don’t You Go First? 313 / The Final Question Is One of Faith 315 Online Appendix: Handy Checklists You Can Use 317 Further Reading 319 About the Author 323 xii Contents TOC.indd xii 30/12/10 12:26 PM  W H AT ’ S N E W ? The last time I revised this book was in 1999 when we were millennium-minded. On the one hand, we feared business would be shutting down because the computer world was going to abort and refuse to grow one year older. On the other side was the belief that the new millennium would mark the beginning of a new consciousness for peace and well-being. Well, neither really happened. Our dependency on computers and technology has only intensified, and a decade into the millennium, we are at war, still addicted to fossil fuels, and concerned whether the economic system we have grown used to is still relevant. This means that living with a vulnerable present and an uncertain future is going to be a permanent condition. This situation bodes well for the world of consulting. The more com- plexity, confusion, and uncertainty in our lives, the more we realize we cannot go it alone or keep doing what we have been doing. The demand for help and advice should keep growing. The profound uncertainty of our lives, both personally and at work, also results in more and more people functioning in a consultative stance. The essence of this stance is that of wanting to have influence when you do not have direct control. This challenge is true not just for consultants; it is true for people who used to be in charge: bosses, xiii flast.indd xiii 04/01/11 11:09 AM  teachers, preachers, doctors, sergeants, mayors, and, not least of all, parents. Permanent vulnerability and uncertainty demand a level of relatedness based on listening, authenticity, and not knowing. This is what makes command-and-control behavior increasingly obsolete. Not all of us get this, but sooner or later, we are going to develop our capacity for deeper relatedness and partnership or we will be looking for a new job sooner than our careful planning might have indicated. In response to the wider need for a consultative stance, I have added in this edition two examples of how consulting skills can be useful, actually transformative, in a broader context than strictly for people in a support or consulting role. I have picked two sectors of society where the call for change and reform has been shouting in our ears for decades with little to show for it: health care and education. These are also service industries, which is where most of us work these days. Both of these fields are in the throes of the language of reform. But most reform efforts are more about improvement rather than rethinking something more fundamental. The health care “reform” is xiv What's New? flast.indd xiv 04/01/11 11:09 AM  mostly about cost control, who pays, and increasing the pressure on standardization. There is no reform in that conversation, just better or different management. Real reform in health care will come from changing our relationship with our service provider and having service providers change their relationship with each other. In con- sulting terms, we need more balanced contracting, more joint discov- ery, and a new dialogue. This is starting to occur, and Chapter Twelve presents a great example from a very special surgeon, Paul Uhlig. Like health care, the current conversation about education reform is also not reform; it is just more controls and imposed standards mas- querading as reform. True reform will shift our thinking about the culture of the classroom, accountability of the learner, and the rela- tionship between teacher and student. An example of this from an amazing high school teacher, Ward Mailliard, is in Chapter Eighteen. Looking at the face of reform in these two arenas gives us clues on ways to achieve changes for leadership in other areas, such as busi- ness, government, religion, and human services. In addition to living with permanent uncertainty, we are living increasingly virtual lives. Many of our relationships are long distance. We are part of virtual teams spread too far to ever be in the same room together. We are more and more dependent on electronic inter- action. We speak to friends by writing on an electronic wall, and we substitute webinars for seminars. Soon we will be able to hold all our conversations, be entertained, find a life partner, and visually be with our family all on a handheld device. Despite the growth of the virtual world, our days are still occasionally populated with live human beings and when we are in the room with others, we need to get to the point and make the most of it. Playing roles, being vague, speaking in generalities, and getting to the point in the last five minutes waste the uniqueness of having all our senses available when we are face-to-face. We want to take advantage of real meetings to become personally connected in ways powerful enough to overcome the distancing and isolating effects inherent in an electronic connection. Thus, the need for authenticity and directness about sen- sitive issues outlined in this book increases. There is a discussion in What's New? xv flast.indd xv 04/01/11 11:09 AM  Chapter Six about ways to make virtual relationships as useful as possible. If you do not want to read that far, text me and I will com- press it and send to your drop box, assuming you give me the key. Another revision in this edition is in the chapters on the feedback phase and on implementation. Giving feedback is part of every consulting or support effort, but almost every meeting is one where ideas or anal- yses are presented with the intent of improving or shifting a person’s or organization’s strategy or operation. We still spend way too much time making our point, often our PowerPoint, without realizing that the purpose of most meetings is not to make a point, or express ideas, or to sell something but to move something forward. That is why I have broadened the idea of a feedback meeting to include any meet- ing that has the intent of producing action. The action does not move forward when one person is talking and a group of people are listen- ing. It is dialogue, interaction, doubts, and commitments that move the action forward. This sounds so simple and remains so rare that I explore it in more detail in Chapters Fifteen and Seventeen. One other addition relates to the shift occurring in the organizational world from a primary focus on needs and deficiencies to a focus on possibilities, gifts, and strengths. The belief is that more change occurs xvi What's New? flast.indd xvi 04/01/11 11:09 AM  when we focus on the future and our capacities rather than try to make sense of the past or even the present and look so much at prob- lems and what is wrong. In Chapter Twelve, I give some examples of where this is occurring and offer some thoughts on what this means for consulting work. THE DESIGN OF THE BOOK I am somewhat neurotic about meeting rooms—how they are arranged, the light, the color, the art, the movement: all the things that bring aliveness into our experience. In the same way, I believe the design of a book is as important as its content. Ideas should be accessible and written in everyday language. The pages should invite readers in with white space, large type for aging eyes, and images, in this case, drawings, to break up patterns and give the eye more places to go. Along these lines, one of my concerns about the first revision was that the book became too thick. It was heavy to hold, hard to travel with, exhausting to contemplate finishing. Worried about this, I turned to the Internet to provide the vehicle to do something about it. In this edition, I have taken all the content that did not seem right to the point and moved it to the Flawless Consulting Web site: www.flawlessconsulting.com. Icons throughout the book guide you to expanded content that is relevant to the material you are reading. It also gives me a way to update ideas as they evolve. I hope this works. If it doesn’t work for you or if you do not have access to the Internet, let me know, and I will provide more hard copy. If enough of you want more hard copy, I have got me another book, so that’s not so bad either. WHAT IS STILL TRUE What needs reaffirmation in this edition of the book is that teams and personal relationships are still critical to technical and business success. The value of teams and relationships is now more widely accepted than it was in the past, at least intellectually. We may not be What's New? xvii flast.indd xvii 04/01/11 11:09 AM  any better at working together, but at least we know it matters and want to create more cooperative workplaces, whether virtual or in person. One reason the ideas in this book have endured is not so much that specific consulting skills are presented in such overconfident specific- ity; it is more because of the attention the book gives to the emotional and personal dimensions of our workplaces. Even now, with all the rhetoric given to relationships, personal development, and even spiri- tuality, our institutions still operate as if strategy, structure, and tech- nology are what really matter. Relationships continue to be treated as a necessary inconvenience— as if they have to be endured and wherever there is an opportunity to automate a transaction or communicate electronically, we take it. In 2000 most telephone conversations involved a machine on one end; now it is text messages, e-mail, and, if I want to look personal, Facebook, LinkedIn, and their successors. These are often the media of choice. Even more, we encourage people to work at home, where human interaction is minimized in the name of serenity and a more balanced life. What is difficult about managing relationships is that something is demanded of us that technology and automated routines do not require: the need to know ourselves and be authentic. Authenticity is simply being honest with ourselves and being direct and honest with others. For whatever the reason, authenticity continues to be rare in our workplaces. Most interactions carry an element of role play, positioning, and strategy. All are reflections of our wish to control our environment and the people in it. In some ways, this book is a long and detailed description of the land- scape of authenticity. What has stood the test of time is that this rare act is not only good for the soul but also works very well. “Authentic consultant” is not an oxymoron but a compelling competitive advan- tage, if, unfortunately, a rare one. What is still difficult about authenticity is that it is a high-risk strat- egy. It swims upstream in a culture of control, which is where most xviii What's New? flast.indd xviii 04/01/11 11:09 AM  of our organizations remain. It also demands some faith in ourselves: we have to be tuned into the feeling dimension of our connection with others. Most of us have spent our days developing our brain and have left our body and its feeling parts behind, to be reclaimed after work hours. So even when we decide to risk being authentic, we might not know how. Valuing the relationship between consultant and client, or teacher and student, or service provider and customer, and defining how to man- age that relationship is where this book has found its niche. The intent of this revision is to deepen and expand that white space between strategy, structure, and technology that we label relationship. October 2010 Peter Block Cincinnati, Ohio What's New? xix flast.indd xix 04/01/11 11:09 AM flast.indd xx 04/01/11 11:09 AM  AC K N OW L E D G M E N TS It is a treat to have an opportunity to formally express appreciation to those who originally created the concepts expressed in this book. Conceptually, the role of interpersonal skills in organizations and the key role that authentic behavior plays was pioneered by Chris Argyris. What I learned as a student of his in the now-famous 1960s is still powerful and relevant. Most of us learn how to consult from watching someone who knows how to do it. I was lucky early in the game to follow around Barry Oshry, Roger Harrison, and Dick Walton. They are the best and gave support to me that was above and beyond the call of duty. Tony Petrella, my partner in crime from the beginning, and Marv Weisbord have so deeply contributed to my understanding of con- sulting skills that I can’t begin to separate my thoughts from theirs. I can only express appreciation for a valued partnership that has been enduring and priceless. Neale Clapp contributed greatly in two ways. He has given unquali- fied support and friendship, and he recognized the value in the con- sulting skills workshop and theory long before I did. In conducting many of the early workshops, Neale contributed conceptually to the early sections of the book on the staff or support role and remains a close and dear friend. xxi flast.indd xxi 04/01/11 11:09 AM  The chapters on resistance were clarified by the late Jim Maselko. Through his skill and enthusiasm, Jim helped give life to the approaches to consulting that this book represents. The first attempt at writing the original version of the book was done collaboratively with Mike Hill. Although the book eventually took a different direction, Mike was key to getting the thing started. His fin- gerprints remain in portions of the early part of the book. The basic concepts on contracting are drawn from Gestalt psychology. These were crystallized in a workshop I attended run by Claire Reiker and Mike Reiker. Their ability to present them simply and powerfully was a great gift. The drawings in the book are by Janis Nowlan. I sent her a very primi- tive form of the manuscript for the first edition to see whether she could enliven the copy with illustrations. I thought I had given her an impossible task. The drawings Janis sent back were incredible. Her light touch in visually expressing the concepts in many cases is much more perceptive than all the words I have put together. This is not surprising since she is a very experienced organizational develop- ment practitioner in her own right in addition to being an executive in higher education. Janis has continued to support this book with new illustrations and by updating some wording and creating a new wardrobe for the old ones. Thirty years later, her talent continues to grace the pages with new insights and creative talent. Thanks go to Ray Bard, who was my publisher when the book was begun. Ray believed a book was possible when I thought all I had were some notes for a workshop participants workbook. Acquiring editor Matt Davis, with Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer/Wiley, was very patient with me, and his support and encouragement directly led to this third edition. Continuing thanks go to Phil Grosnick, Bill Brewer, and the affiliates of Designed Learning. They lead and bring to life the Flawless Con- sulting Skills Workshops we conduct around the world now. The bulk of this book documents the theory we have been presenting in the workshops. Most of the concepts have emerged as answers to ques- tions from people learning about consulting. Thanks go as well to xxii Acknowledgments flast.indd xxii 04/01/11 11:09 AM  the workshop participants for their patience when the concepts were confusing and to their willingness to help us articulate the consulting process out of their own experience. As with the original edition, Leslie Stephen helped with the editing of this revision. This is the eighth book that she has helped edit with me. She supports my voice and gives structure, simple clarity, and deep understanding to whatever she touches. Thanks as always to Maggie Rogers, who makes everything happen. She is the best. Thanks also to Beverly Miller, who copyedited this edition, Paula Goldstein, who designed the interior, and Susan Geraghty, who managed the produc- tion of this edition. My thinking on the power of conversation was always influenced by my connection with the late Joel Henning. We ran many workshops together and I miss him. The chapters on implementation in this edi- tion were greatly influenced by my association with the Association for Quality and Participation’s School for Managing and Leading Change. The school was the laboratory where the new ideas were tested. The thoughts about designing group experiences have been influenced by watching Jill Janov do her work so well. I am espe- cially grateful to the late Kathie Dannemiller and her associates at Dannemiller-Tyson Associates. They understood something pro- found about the heartbeat of large assemblies. Also Dick Axelrod and Emily Axelrod have created magic in their work with The Conference Model. Dick has written his own books on engagement, and the mate- rial in this book grew out of many conversations with him that have changed my consciousness. All of us who consult today owe a debt of gratitude to the work of Ed Schein. He was one of the early beacons of light who gave direc- tion and insight to those of us who contemplated working in the field of organizational change. He made understandable and explicit the process consulting path that later became a central part of how I oper- ate, and for that I am very grateful. Finally there are two new voices in this edition, Paul Uhlig and Ward Mailliard. They are great friends and enormous innovators in health care and education, respectively. I learn so much each time we are together. Acknowledgments xxiii flast.indd xxiii 04/01/11 11:09 AM flast.indd xxiv 04/01/11 11:09 AM  FLAWLESS CONSULTING flast.indd xxv 04/01/11 11:09 AM flast.indd xxvi 04/01/11 11:09 AM  CHAPTER 1 A CONSULTANT BY ANY OTHER NAME... A NY FORM OF HUMOR or sarcasm has some truth in it. The truth in the prevailing skepticism about consultants is that the traditional consultant has tended to act solely as an agent of management: assuming the manager’s role in either performing highly technical activities that a manager cannot do or performing distasteful and boring activities that a manager does not want to do. The most dramatic examples of consultants’ taking the place of managers is when they identify people who will be let go or functions that will be eliminated. When you are asked directions and you tell someone to get off the bus two stops before you do, you are acting as a consultant. Every time you give advice to someone who is faced with a choice, you are consulting. When you don’t have direct control over people and 1 CH001.indd 1 30/12/10 12:03 PM  yet want them to listen to you and heed your advice, you are face- to-face with the consultant’s dilemma. For some of you, this may be your full-time predicament. Some of you may face it only occasion- ally, functioning part time as managers (having direct control) and part time as consultants (wanting to influence but lacking authority to control). SOME DEFINITIONS AND DISTINCTIONS A consultant is a person in a position to have some influence over an individual, a group, or an organization but has no direct power to make changes or implement programs. A manager is someone who has direct responsibility over the action. The moment you take direct responsibility, you are acting as a manager. Most people in staff or support roles in organizations are really con- sultants, even if they don’t officially call themselves consultants. Support people function in any organization by planning, recom- mending, assisting, or advising in such matters as these: Human resources or personnel Financial analysis Auditing Systems analysis Market research Product design Long-range planning Organizational effectiveness Safety Training and development And many more 2 Flawless Consulting CH001.indd 2 30/12/10 12:03 PM  The recipients of all this advice are called clients. Sometimes the client is a single individual. Other times, the client may be a work group, a department, or a whole organization. The client is the person or per- sons whom the consultant wants to influence.* In organizations, clients for the services provided by support people are called line managers. Line managers have to labor under the advice of support groups, whether they like it or not. But by definition, any support function has no direct authority over anything but its own time, its own internal staff, and the nature of the service it offers. This tension between the line manager (or client) who has direct control and the support person (or consultant) who does not have direct con- trol is one of the central themes of this book. The key to understanding the consultant role is to see the difference between a consultant and a manager. Listen to Alfred: It was a great four-month project. I headed the team from adminis- trative services that installed the new management information sys- tem. We assessed the problems, designed the system, and got Alice, the line manager, to let us install the system from top to bottom. Alfred is clearly very satisfied—but this is the line manager’s satisfac- tion. He wasn’t really acting as a consultant; he took over a piece of the line manager’s job for four months. This distinction is important. A consultant needs to function differ- ently from a line manager—for the consultant’s own sake and for the learning goals of the client. It’s okay to have direct control—and most of us want it in various forms of disguise. It is essential, though, to be aware of the difference in the roles we are assuming when we have it and when we don’t. * You will mainly see the terms consultant and client used throughout the rest of this book to reinforce this belief and—especially if you are in a staff or support role— assist your thinking of yourself as a consultant. A Consultant by Any Other Name... 3 CH001.indd 3 30/12/10 12:03 PM  Much of the disfavor associated with the term consultant comes from the actions of people who call themselves consultants but act as sur- rogate line managers. When you act on behalf of or in the place of the manager, you are acting as a surrogate manager. When the client says, “Complete this report for me,” “Hire this person for me,” “Design this system for me,” “Counsel this employee,” or “Figure out which jobs stay and which jobs go,” the manager is asking for a surrogate. The attraction of the surrogate manager role is that at least for that one moment, you assume the manager’s power—but in fact you are doing the manager’s job, not yours. Your goal or end product in any consulting activity is some kind of change. Change comes in two varieties. At one level, we consult to create change in the line organization of a structural, policy, or pro- cedural nature—for example, a new compensation package, a new reporting process, or a new safety program. The second kind of change is the end result that one person or many people in the line organization have learned something new. They may have learned what norms dominate their staff meetings, what they do to keep lower-level people in a highly dependent position in decision mak- ing, how to involve people more directly in setting goals, or how to conduct better performance evaluations. 4 Flawless Consulting CH001.indd 4 30/12/10 12:03 PM  In its most general use, consultation describes any action you take with a system of which you are not a part. An interview with someone asking for help is a consulting act. A survey of problems, a training program, an evaluation, a study—all are consultations for the sake of change. The consultant’s objective is to engage in successful actions that result in people or organizations managing themselves differently. I think of the terms staff or support work and consulting work as being interchangeable, reflecting my belief that people in a support role need consulting skills to be effective—regardless of their field of tech- nical expertise (finance, planning, engineering, personnel, systems, law). Every time you give advice to someone who is in the position to make the choice, you are consulting. For each of these moments of consultation, there are three kinds of skills you need to do a good job: technical, interpersonal, and consulting skills. Here are the distinctions. Technical Skills Above all, we need to know what the person is talking about. We need expertise about the question. Either in college or in our first job, we were trained in a specific field or function. This might be engineering, sales, accounting, counseling, or any of the thousands of other ways people make a living. This is our basic training. It is only later, after acquiring some technical expertise, that we start consulting. If we didn’t have some expertise, then people wouldn’t ask for our advice. The foundation for consulting skills is some expertise—whether it is scientific, such as coke particle sizing, or nonscientific, such as management or organizational development. This book assumes you have some area of expertise. Interpersonal Skills To function with people, we need to have some interpersonal skills, that is, some ability to put ideas into words, to listen, to give support, to disagree reasonably, to basically maintain a relationship. There are many books and seminars available to help people with these skills. A Consultant by Any Other Name... 5 CH001.indd 5 30/12/10 12:03 PM  In fact, there is a whole industry about achieving better relationships that is devoted to improving these skills. Just like technical skills, interpersonal skills are necessary to effective consultation. Consulting Skills Each consulting project, whether it lasts ten minutes or ten months, goes through five phases. The steps in each phase are sequential; if you skip one or assume it has been taken care of, you are headed for trouble. Skillful consulting is being competent in the execution of each of these steps. Successfully completing the business of each phase is the primary focus of this book. CONSULTING SKILLS PREVIEW Here is an overview of what is involved in the five phases of consulting. Phase 1: Entry and Contracting This phase has to do with the initial contact with a client about the project. It includes setting up the first meeting as well as exploring the prob- lem, whether the consultant is the right person to work on this issue, what the client’s expectations are, what the consultant’s expectations are, and how to get started. When consultants talk about their disasters, their conclusion is usually that the project was faulty in the initial contracting stage. Phase 2: Discovery and Dialogue Consultants need to come up with their own sense of both the prob- lem and the strengths the client has. This may be the most useful thing they do. They also need skill in helping the client do the same. The 6 Flawless Consulting CH001.indd 6 30/12/10 12:03 PM  questions here for the consultant are: Who is going to be involved in defining the problem or situation? What methods will be used? What kind of data should be collected? How long will it take? Should the inquiry be done by the consultant, or should it be done by the client? Phase 3: Analysis and the Decision to Act The inquiry and dialogue must be organized and reported in some fash- ion. The consultant is always in the position of reducing large amounts of data to a manageable number of issues. There are also choices for the consultant to make on how to involve the client in the process of analyzing the information. In giving feedback to an organization, there is always some resistance to the data (if it deals with important issues). The consultant must handle this resistance before an appropriate deci- sion can be made about how to proceed. This phase is really what many people call planning. It includes setting ultimate goals for the project and selecting the best action steps or changes. Phase 4: Engagement and Implementation This involves carrying out the planning of phase 3. In many cases, the implementation may fall entirely on the line organization. For larger change efforts, the consultant may be deeply involved. Some projects start implementation with an educational event. This could be a series of meetings to introduce some change, a single meeting to get different parts of the organization together to address a problem, or a training session. In these cases, the consultant is usually involved in rather com- plicated design work and in running the meeting or training session. Phase 5: Extension, Recycle, or Termination Phase 5 is about learning from the engagement. Following this is the decision whether to extend the process to a larger segment of the organization. Sometimes it is not until after some implementa- tion occurs that a clear picture of the real problem emerges. In this case, the process recycles and a new contract needs to be discussed. If the implementation was either a huge success or a moderate-to-high A Consultant by Any Other Name... 7 CH001.indd 7 30/12/10 12:03 PM  failure, termination of further involvement on this project may be in the offing. There are many options for ending the relationship, and termination should be considered a legitimate and important part of the consultation. If done well, it can provide an important learning experience for the client and the consultant and also keep the door open for future work with the organization. When you look at Figure 1, you will see a preview of some of the skills and topics covered for the preliminary events leading to engagement and implementation. Consulting skills are grouped into four phases: Figure 1. An Overview of Consulting Skills The Preliminary Events Technical Skills Interpersonal Skills Consulting Skills Specific to Your Apply to Requirements of Discipline All Situations Each Consulting Phase Contracting Engineering Assertiveness Negotiating wants Project Supportiveness Coping with mixed motivation management Confrontation Dealing with concerns about Planning Listening exposure and the loss of control Marketing Management style Doing triangular and rectangular Manufacturing Group process contracting Personnel Finance Discovery Systems analysis Surfacing layers of analysis Dealing with political climate Resisting the urge for complete data Seeing the interview as an intervention Feedback Funneling data Identifying and working with different forms of resistance Presenting personal and organizational data Decision Running group meetings Focusing on here-and-now choices Not taking it personally Engagement and Implementation 8 Flawless Consulting CH001.indd 8 30/12/10 12:03 PM  contracting, discovery, feedback, and decision. They include the initial contacts, the planning meetings, the inquiry and analy- sis, and the feedback and deci- sion-making meetings. Engagement/implementation is when you finally do some- thing with enough impact to be noticeable to many people in the organization, and they have the expectation that change, or learning, will occur because of that event. One of my beliefs is that the preliminary events are in many ways more crucial for success than the engagement. An understanding of consulting skills therefore is really an understanding of preliminary events. THE PROMISE OF FLAWLESS CONSULTATION One reason consulting can be frustrating is that you are continually managing lateral relationships. As a support person or consultant, you are working with a line manager in a context in which there is no clear boss-subordinate relationship between you. Vertical relation- ships are easier to understand. If your boss gives you an order, you know that he or she has the right to tell you what to do. But if your client makes a demand, you don’t necessarily have to obey. The power balance in lateral relationships is always open to ambiguity— and to negotiation. When we get resistance from a client, sometimes we aren’t sure whether to push harder or let go. This book is about managing this ambiguity. Taken as a whole, this book is about flawless consultation—consulting without error. It concentrates on the preliminary events because I believe competence in contracting, discovery, and feedback creates the A Consultant by Any Other Name... 9 CH001.indd 9 30/12/10 12:03 PM  foundation for successful outcomes in the implementation stage. I have deliberately avoided discussing and demonstrating consulting skills in an overall step-wise sequence of chapters because some concepts and competencies must be brought to bear in every stage of a consulting relationship. So I have included chapters treating consulting assump- tions, goals for a consulting relationship, and consultant role choices, as well as what flawless consultation means in practice, along with the chapters that specify and illustrate the skills required for each of the preliminary events. I have also interspersed chapters on such issues as client resistance and the special considerations of the internal consul- tant’s role to demonstrate the belief that successful consulting demands more than a methodical, step-by-step application of technical expertise. The promise is that if you consult in the way this book describes, your consultation can be flawless and you will Have your expertise better used Have your recommendations more frequently implemented Work in more of a partnership role with clients Avoid no-win consulting situations Develop internal commitment in your clients Receive support from your clients Increase the leverage you have with clients Establish more trusting relationships with clients My use of the term flawless consulting may sound presumptuous, but it is not accidental. A basic value underlying this book is that there is in each of us the possibility of perfection. There is a consulting professional inside each of us, and our task is to allow that flawless consultant to emerge. On its surface, this book is about methods and techniques. But each technique carries a consistent message more important than any method: that each act that expresses trust in our- selves and belief in the validity of our own experience is always the right path to follow. Each act that is manipulative or filled with pre- tense is always self-destructive. 10 Flawless Consulting CH001.indd 10 30/12/10 12:03 PM  Working in organizations means we are constantly bombarded by pressure to be clever and indirect and to ignore what we are feeling at the moment. Flawless consulting offers the possibility of letting our behavior be consistent with our beliefs and feelings and also to be successful in working with our clients. The focus in this book on tech- niques and skills in consulting is simply a way to identify the high self-trust choices we all have as we work in organizations. From the first day on our first job, each of us has struggled with the conflict between being ourselves and conforming to the expectations we think our employers or clients have of us. The desire to be successful can lead us into playing roles and adopting behaviors that are internally alien and represent some loss of ourselves. Consultants are especially vulnerable to this conflict because we are supposed to be serving our clients’ needs. Our projects also tend to be short term, and we work at the pleasure of the client. It is easier to terminate a consultant or support person than to terminate a subor- dinate. In hard times, managers end consulting projects before they reduce their own workforce. This sense of vulnerability can become a rationalization for consultants to deny their own needs and feelings and to not be authentic. This book offers an alternative. It says that trusting ourselves is the path that serves us well with clients and increases the chances that our expertise will be used again and again. A Consultant by Any Other Name... 11 CH001.indd 11 30/12/10 12:03 PM CH001.indd 12 30/12/10 12:03 PM  CHAPTER 2 TECHNIQUES ARE NOT ENOUGH T HERE ARE DIMENSIONS to the consulting role that transcend any specific methods we might employ and contribute to our effectiveness no matter what our tech- nical expertise. A unique and beguiling aspect of doing consulting is that your own self is involved in the process to a much greater extent than if you were applying your expertise in some other way. Your reactions to a client, your feelings during discussions, your ability to solicit feedback from the client—all are important dimensions to consultation. In acting as a consultant, you always operate at two levels. One level is the content—the cognitive part of a discussion between yourself and the client. The client presents a certain organizational problem. Perhaps it’s the need for training to improve workforce skills. Perhaps it’s how the organization makes decisions. Or there may be a problem of system design or financial controls. The content level is the analyti- cal, rational, or explicit part of the discussion, where you are working on what can be called the technical or business situation. At the same time and at another level, both you and the client are generating and sensing your feelings about each other—whether you feel acceptance or resistance, whether you feel high or low tension, whether you feel 13 CH002.indd 13 30/12/10 12:04 PM  support or confrontation. So your relationship to the client during each phase is a second level of data that needs attention just as the content does. BEYOND CONTENT There is much more to the client-consultant relationship than the simple content of the problem or project the consultant is working on. Feelings are the affective side of the discussion and an important source of infor- mation for the consultant—information about the client’s real concerns and what the possibilities are for establishing a good relationship. A major objective of every consultation is to encourage you to focus on and value the affective, or interpersonal, aspect of the relationship you have with the client. Most of us have a great deal of experience working at the cognitive or content level of discussion. We come to a meeting equipped with our expertise, and we feel quite comfortable talking about problems we know something about. But there should be equal balance in the attention given to the content of the problem and the feelings you are having about the interaction that is taking place as you are working with the client. Once you value the affective side of the relationship as an important area of attention, the second step is to increase your comfort level in putting into words how you are feeling about the relationship as it’s going on. The third step is to grow more skillful in putting your sense of the relationship into words so you don’t increase defensiveness on the part of the client. There are four elements to the affective side of consultant-client inter- action that are always operating: responsibility, feelings, trust, and your own needs. Responsibility To have a good contract with the client, responsibility for what is planned and takes place has to be balanced—50/50. In most cases, the 14 Flawless Consulting CH002.indd 14 30/12/10 12:04 PM  client comes to you with the expectation that once you are told what the problem is, you provide the solution. Your goal is to act out the fact that it’s a 50/50 proposition. Here is a small example. When you start a program, communication on the program is often required—when it will take place, what the arrangements are, why you’re doing it. It’s important that the client take the responsibility of communicating all of this to the organization— not because it’s a task that only the client can do (in fact, the consultant might be in a better position to do it) but because it’s a way of visibly expressing to the organization that the client is taking at least 50 percent of the responsibility for the program. If the client wants the consultant to do this communicating and take care of all the administrative details, the client is saying that he or she wants to take a limited amount of responsibility. As a consultant, it makes sense at times to resist taking on this responsibility. This is a substantively small issue, but it’s an example of what to look for in trying to decide in your own mind whether the responsibility is balanced. Feelings The second element that’s always an issue is to what extent clients are able to own their own feelings. In a way, this is working on balancing responsibility. The consultant needs to constantly keep in mind how much the client is owning feelings versus talking as if he or she is just an observer of the organization. The consultant also has to keep in mind what his or her own feelings are about the client. If the con- sultant is feeling that the client is defensive or very controlling, or doesn’t listen or doesn’t take responsibility, this is important to know. However the consultant feels working with that client, the people inside the client’s organization are going to feel the same way. It is equally important for you to pay close attention to your own feelings during the consultation, particularly during the early stages, and use these as valuable information on how the organization functions and how the client manages. Techniques Are Not Enough 15 CH002.indd 15 30/12/10 12:04 PM  Trust The third element is trust. When most people work with a consultant as a client, they bring with them not only the prevailing image of the consultant as the expert but also someone to watch out for. It is often useful to ask clients whether they trust your confidentiality, whether they trust you not to make them vulnerable or to take things over. You can ask them what doubts they have working with you. In this way, you’re working to build trust. The more that any distrust is put into words, the more likely you are to build trust. Your Own Needs The fourth element on the affective side of the consultant-client rela- tionship is that consultants have a right to their own needs from the relationship. It’s easy to fall into a service mentality, in which you see yourself charged with solving the client’s problems and serving the client’s needs—and it’s possible to act in such a way that you, as the consul- tant, appear not to have any needs. The reality is that you do have needs. You may have organizational needs to have a client, so that your own organization feels that you’re doing something worthwhile. You have needs for acceptance and inclusion by the client, and you require some validation that what you have is valuable and worth offering. On a practical level, you have needs for access to that organization— to talk to people, to ask them questions. And you also have needs for support from that manager, meeting the people in the manager’s organization, and dealing with the kind of resistance that you’re likely to get. You are entitled to have your needs met. Summing Up The beliefs outlined here are the foundation for the rest of this book: pay close attention to your own style and your own feelings as impor- tant dimensions to the consulting relationship. Skill in consulting is 16 Flawless Consulting CH002.indd 16 30/12/10 12:04 PM  not only skill in providing a program, a process, and procedures that respond to the client’s needs. It’s also your skill in being able to iden- tify and put into words the issues around trust, feelings, responsibil- ity, and your own needs. THE CONSULTANT’S ASSUMPTIONS Any view of what makes for effective consultation relies heavily on the assumptions the consultant has about what makes an effective organization. These assumptions will be implicitly or explicitly a part of any recommendation the consultant makes. Each of us doing consulting ought to be very clear about our own beliefs. Our own consulting behavior should be consistent with the style of management we advocate to our clients. If we are recommend- ing to our clients that they tighten up controls, be more decisive, and set clear goals, we will be undermining our credibility if we ourselves operate without controls, are indecisive, and aren’t quite sure where we are headed. If we think our clients should work on being more participative and collaborative, we undermine ourselves if we keep tight control of the consulting project and don’t act collaboratively with the very clients we are trying to encourage to try collaboration. Think about what your assumptions about good management might be. There are countless models to choose from. Most organizations, for example, operate from a variation of the traditional military/ church model of patriarchy. Structurally there is a great emphasis on the hierarchical pyramid and the clear separation of authority and responsibility. The cornerstone of patriarchal management is “strong” leadership. This kind of leadership is seen as an individual ability to plan work, organize people to do the work, maintain control of those people and their results, and then delegate responsibility to the right people to achieve results. The products of these leader-centered assumptions are individuals with an upward-conforming and downward-controlling orientation toward their roles. This traditional emphasis on control and leadership qualities has shifted in the past thirty years (at least in the literature) to more Techniques Are Not Enough 17 CH002.indd 17 30/12/10 12:04 PM  collaborative or participative conceptions of organizations. Participa- tive management and empowerment is a theme that runs throughout most assumptions about effective organizations today. Your own assumptions about organizations determine in subtle ways your own consulting style and the skills you should be working on. Here is the set of assumptions that underlie the consulting approach presented in this book. Problem Solving Requires Valid Data Using valid data eliminates a major cause of confusion, uncertainty, and resulting inefficiency in problem solving. Valid data encompass two things: (1) objective data about ideas, events, or situations that everyone accepts as facts and (2) personal data. Personal data are also “facts,” but they concern how individuals feel about what is happen- ing to them and around them. If people feel they will not get a fair shake, it is a “fact” that they feel that way, and it is also a “fact” that this belief will have an effect on their behavior. To ignore this kind of “fact” is to throw away data that may be crucial to any problem- solving effort. Effective Decision Making Requires Free and Open Choice Making decisions is easy. Making decisions that people will support is not so easy. Organizations seem to work better when people have an opportunity to influence decisions that have a direct impact on their work. When people feel that something is important and they have some control, they will be motivated to exert the effort to make things work. When they believe that something is important but they can exert no control, the common tendencies are to become cautious or defensive, play it safe, withhold information, protect themselves from blame. Effective Implementation Requires Internal Commitment People readily commit themselves to things they believe will further their interests. If they see no link between what they are asked to do 18 Flawless Consulting CH002.indd 18 30/12/10 12:04 PM  and what they want to do, the probability of getting an all-out effort from them is not likely. You can order people to do things, and ordi- narily they will comply—at least while you are watching. But if you want them to apply themselves, their internal commitment is required. THE CONSULTANT’S GOALS Our assumptions about what contributes to effective consultant and manager performance lead to a set of preferred goals for each consult- ing job. Achieving each of these goals may not always be possible, but we can always be clear about our preference. Goal 1: Establish a Collaborative Relationship There are two reasons for consultants to strive for collaborative rela- tionships with their clients. One is that a collaborative relationship promises maximum use of people’s resources—both the consultant’s and the client’s. It also spreads the responsibility for success or failure and for implementation, and it’s a nice way to work too. The second reason is that whether they know it or not, consultants are always functioning as models of how to solve problems. The message con- tained in the way consultants act is much more powerful than their words. To talk collaboration and behave differently is confusing and self-defeating. Goal 2: Solve Problems So They Stay Solved It is possible to act in such a way that only the immediate problem gets solved. If the problem is that employees regularly come late to work, for example, actions can be taken to prevent it: station the boss at the door in the morning with a pencil and a black book, or have room checks at starting time each morning, or issue a policy state- ment about lateness, or have meetings with employees about the need for punctuality. These actions might reduce the problem of lateness. And if internal (or external) consultants have been involved in mak- ing these kinds of recommendations, they might have contributed to Techniques Are Not Enough 19 CH002.indd 19 30/12/10 12:04 PM  an increase in the effectiveness of the organization. But this does not mean that the managers have learned anything about how to solve similar problems and thus become more competent. The consultant’s alternative is to work with line managers at another level of analysis: the way they handle lateness problems. For example, managers may not see lateness as being a symptom of discontent, or a symptom of inexperienced supervision at the first level, or any of the other possible root problems lateness could be signaling. Also, it is possible the consultant is being asked to solve problems that line managers should be confronting themselves. Teaching managers the skills for solving a problem themselves next time requires that they understand that disturbing employee behavior is a symptom of more basic problems and that they should not ask others to address prob- lems that belong to them. Goal 3: Ensure Attention Is Given to Both the Technical/ Business Problem and the Relationships Each situation has two elements: the technical/business problem that has to be resolved and the way people are interacting around that problem. In most organizations, primary attention is given to the technical/business problem. Consultants, however, are in a unique position to address the people or process issues productively. As third parties, they have no vested interest in the process issues—no power to gain or lose, no territory to expand or contract, no budget to increase or decrease. Consultants can urge attention to the process 20 Flawless Consulting CH002.indd 20 30/12/10 12:04 PM  issues, and line managers will listen to them in a way in which they would not listen to each other. DEVELOPING CLIENT COMMITMENT—A SECONDARY GOAL OF EACH CONSULTING ACT Because consultants or support people have no direct control over implementation, they become dependent on line managers for pro- ducing results. It is the line manager who ultimately will decide whether to take action, and this choice will be based on how internally committed he or she is to the concepts the consultant is suggesting. Therefore, the consultant needs to be conscious of building internal commitment throughout the consulting process. Effective consulting skills are the steps and behaviors that act to cre- ate internal commitment in managers. Each of us has seen examples of consulting projects where the study or report ends up on a shelf despite its cost and relevance. When this happens, it often means that somewhere along the line, the consulting process lost the managers who had to decide to use the results of the study. In flawless consult- ing, you move through the steps of a consulting process designed to build commitment and reduce the chance of losing the client along the way. Client commitment is the key to consultant leverage and impact. We can’t order the client to take action. (Sometimes we decide to go to the client’s boss and urge him or her to direct the client to use our recommendations, but this is a risky proposition—particularly if we want to stay in the good graces of our client.) So our impact is deter- mined by the client’s commitment to our suggestions. Building this commitment is often a process of removing obstacles that block the client from acting on our advice. We may cling to the fantasy that if our thinking is clear and logical, our wording eloquent, and our convictions solid, the strength of our arguments will carry the day. And make no mistake: clear arguments do help. But they are not enough. The client and his or her colleagues will experience doubts and dilemmas that will block commitment. Techniques Are Not Enough 21 CH002.indd 21 30/12/10 12:04 PM  ROLES CONSULTANTS CHOOSE Having leverage requires confronting the doubts at each stage of the consulting process—during contracting, discovery, analysis, and while preparing for the feedback meeting. Waiting until the imple- mentation phase to overcome resistance is too late. Ed Schein has identified three ways consultants work with line man- agers: in an expert role, a pair-of-hands role, or a collaborative role.* The choice depends on individual differences in management style, the nature of the task, and the consultant’s own personal preference. As you consult in a variety of situations, it helps to become aware of the role you typically assume and to be able to identify situations where this will help or hinder your performance. Only then can you make a conscious choice among alternatives. One discovery that people often make in such self-analysis is that they begin to identify situations where they can operate more successfully in a collabora- tive mode. However, the realities of most organizations are such that there will be times when the pair-of-hands or expert roles are more appropriate and other times when they cannot be avoided. Expert Role One way line managers typically relate to support specialists, as well as to external consultants, is client-to-expert. The support person becomes the “expert” in the performance of a given task. For example: An organization’s new corporate benefits Web site recently was com- pletely overhauled, and it has become clear that the site has not lived up to expectations. The overall design is okay; the problem is some- *These roles were first formulated by Ed Schein in the 1960s. He was one of the first to see the limitations of the expert role for consultants and defined and opened the door to the collaborative potential in the helping process. His book Process Consulting Revis- ited: Building the Helping Relationship (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley/Longman, 1998) more fully describes the power of process consultation as a vital capacity for those in a helping position. It is a book I strongly recommend. 22 Flawless Consulting CH002.indd 22 30/12/10 12:04 PM  where in the navigation and the nonintuitive way employees have to