PREFACE
WHEN I WAS A YOUNG CONSULTANT, a trusted, senior advisor of mine sometimes said to me: “Keith, that piece of work you just did was helpful, but not powerful.” I was adding value, he was telling me, but not truly making a difference. That feedback stuck in my craw, and many years later, there it remains. For me, “good enough” is never good enough.
This book aims to answer one fundamental question: How do I make a big difference as a consultant? Many consultants want to make a difference, yet few manage to be more than “helpful.” They solve problems and plug holes for the client, often unaware that the process they are engaging in does little to alter the very dynamics that created the problems in the first place. Moreover, most consultants cannot see the limiting features of their own approach because they follow a model of consulting that is rarely discussed, challenged, or examined. After all, most consulting firms that make a lot of money utilize the same model, so it must be successful.
A DIFFERENCE IN PERSPECTIVE
This book shifts the perspective. The shift moves the consultant from being a savior and problem-solver to being an empowering partner. Picture on the one hand a consultant who follows the conventional problem-solving model that most consultants follow and indeed solves the problem for the client. Contrast that with a consultant who engages the client organization in a process of inquiry that results in a set of insights that over time alters the culture itself—the way the organization thinks. This first consultant is “helpful.” But the second consultant is extraordinary because his work catalyzes insight, awareness, and deep change. That kind of consulting rocks the client’s world.viii
The difference between the two consultants isn’t just a difference in behavior. Nor does it involve adopting new tools and techniques. No, the difference is in the consultant’s attitude, a difference in the consultant’s mindset, a difference in the consultant’s definition of who he is as a consultant. In short, to move from being a problem solver to an empowering partner requires a fundamental shift in one’s inner stance as a consultant.
THE AUDIENCE FOR THE BOOK
This book is directly aimed for serious consultants committed to improving their craft. In particular, it’s written for those consultants whose goal is to change or enhance the growth of the client organization in some appreciable way. This includes—but is by no means limited to—consultants who help reorganize organizations, create strategic direction, craft marketing approaches that significantly reshape a company’s definition of its business, and seek to positively influence an organization’s culture. It includes external and internal consultants alike.
While aimed at consultants in general, this book is also extremely relevant for anyone engaged in a helping relationship with others. Anyone who is explicitly or implicitly helping another person, group, or organization improve in some way would benefit from the insights and perspectives this book offers. This audience includes Human Resources professionals, people who coach others, clergy members, psychologists, counselors, health caregivers, and many others.
Regardless of your orientation, this book asserts that in order to be masterful, you must attend to the dynamics of change. Mastery requires that consultants understand the forces promoting or inhibiting change, and know how to mobilize them in a positive direction. It requires them to pay attention to their own state of being and to cultivate that state as an important force in the change process. Mastery also requires consultants to enable the client to “own” the outcome of their joint efforts and to continue to receive benefits from their work long after the consultant leaves. Too many consultants are hindered by their inattention to their inner stance. They fail to see their “self” as a crucial force for change. As a result, they follow the structure and rules of consulting and fail in its art. It is artistry that differentiates the best consultants, and the artistic nature of consulting is our focus here.
Through the insights offered in this book, you are encouraged to reflect on your own inner stance and create the potential for even greater success as a consultant.ix
THE INTERVIEWS
When I began to formulate ideas for this book, I sought to deepen my understanding of those qualities of being that make the biggest difference. I conducted lengthy interviews with 14 contemporary masters of the consulting craft. They are, in alphabetical order: Linda Ackerman Anderson, Bill Belgard, Geoffrey Bellman, David Bradford, John Carter, Stephen Dichter, Brenda Jones, Jack Knight, Anthony Reilly, Charlie Seashore, Edie Seashore, Ron Tilden, Meg Wheatley, and Chris Worley. I transcribed all the interviews and then did a content analysis of their thoughts to identify shared themes in their views about consulting mastery.
Along with my own perspective on consulting, this book offers those themes, and the wisdom underlying them. Instead of focusing on skill and technique, these masters will help us learn about the importance of the inner stance of the consultant in the process of change. Examples throughout the book are drawn from my own experience and observations of others. In all cases, the examples are real or composites of real situations, unless otherwise indicated. The actual names are removed to protect confidentiality.
In addition to my discussions with the master consultants, I sought the perspective of ten executives in client organizations who have worked extensively with change consultants, and who hold extremely high standards. Their comparisons of consultants helped me better understand client expectations and see what they value most in a consulting relationship. [For more detail about the interview process, see Appendix A.]x
While influenced by the interviews, most of the thoughts and expressions contained in this book are my own, built from 25 years of experience as a consultant and shaped by many mentors and guides along the way. At the same time, while I can claim ownership for much of the expression of the ideas, I am hardly the first person to have seized upon the concepts. Instead, they are my own way of thinking about so much of what I have learned from others along the way, including Chris Argyris, Bill Torbert, Terry Deal, Lee Bolman, David Bradford, Ron Tilden, and countless others I have had the privilege of knowing and to whom I feel deep gratitude for their wisdom and guidance.
THE STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK
This book is divided into five sections. Each section guides readers through a journey of exploration into their own inner stance as they learn from the experience of master consultants. The book follows a natural flow of learning—from a conceptual understanding of consulting mastery, to a view of mastery in action, and finally to learning how to attain mastery in oneself. In laying a conceptual foundation, I offer a view of the way consultants typically practice consulting, paying particular attention to the underlying and rarely examined assumptions upon which most consulting practices are built. The remainder of the book focuses on an alternative way of looking at consulting; one that I believe has the potential for achieving far greater impact and positive outcomes than the typical approaches.xi
A NOTE TO READERS
I am acutely aware of a particular paradox in writing this book. On the one hand, I contend that masterful consulting has much more to do with inquiry than giving answers. In one of the chapters, for example, I make an important distinction between advice giving and guidance. Advice giving has to do with answers, while powerful guidance has to do with good questioning. And yet—here’s the paradox—I use an undeniably “authoritative voice” throughout this book: I am clearly presenting a perspective rather than offering a process of inquiry. Hence there is a tension between the form of the book and the very attitude it recommends. I can only resolve this paradox with the thought that this book is essentially an extended, personal perspective on consulting, and it does not constitute consulting work in itself. If we were to meet in person, and I were to coach or consult for you, my approach would be more personal, and more inquiring.
Having said this, I share my perspective boldly, not because I believe I have THE ANSWER, but because I care deeply about the questions and challenges posed in the book. In offering the principles of consulting mastery, I hope you, the reader, will treat the contents as a catalyst toward inquiring into your own practice. Toward this end, as you read about the distinctions offered in the book, I encourage you to reflect deeply about what you do and how you are as a consultant. Imagine yourself in different client situations and feel what it might be like were your inner stance aligned with some of the principles offered here. Look deep for ways in which you may unconsciously not be practicing consistent with your goals, beliefs, and strategies. Similarly, seek to find ways in which your practice is already aligned and know that there are others on a similar path.
In the end, whether you agree with everything I write or not, what matters most is that you stay in the question: How can I lift my consultant practice to a new level? How do I act as a consultant so that my actions make a bigger difference? It is the question that gave rise to the book, and it is by keeping the question alive that you will find greater mastery.
FIGURE 1: THE FLOW OF THE BOOK