Running Head: CONSULTING SKILLS - INTEGRATION OF THEORY AND PRACTICE

Consulting Skills – Integration of Theory and Practice

Jonathan West

ADLT 610, Fall 2009

Consulting Skills

Virginia Commonwealth University

Dr. Terry Carter

Due: 3 Dec 2009

Running Head: CONSULTING SKILLS - INTEGRATION OF THEORY AND PRACTICE

CONSULTING SKILLS – INTEGRATION OF LEARNING 3

Introduction

Process consulting is a complex approach that uses interpersonal and technical skills. An

important aspect of process consulting is the consultant’s awareness of herself and everything

she brings into a situation. The ability to value and attend to the affective side of the relationship

and to express these feelings in a way that maintains respect of the client and does not overly

increase defensiveness is crucial for effective consulting. Block (2000) emphasizes the

importance of attending to the affective side equally as much as attending to the more substantive

side of the business problem the client is facing. While the five phases of the collaborative

consulting process that Block lays out are invaluable and will be an important source of guidance

and reference as I continue with my consulting in the future, I think the most valuable learning

for me during my ALDT 610 consulting skills experience has been to understand the importance

attending to the affective side of the consultant-client relationship. Schein (1999) provides

insight into the psychological and social process as he describes the helping relationship. Block

presents the practical illustrations of many of these situations as he explains his phases of

collaborative consulting. When I combine the theoretical knowledge of Schein and Block with

the experiences I have had in class and through the consulting project that Tim Arnette and I

worked on together, I feel I have gained greater insight and the ability to put into practice the

principles and skills of process consulting. This paper will illustrate selected principles and steps

that I have found important in my experiences with process consulting this semester.

The importance of relationship

One of the first key aspects of process consulting that strikes me is the importance of the

relationship with the client. Schein (1999) says that our first interactions or interventions set the

tone of the relationship. The process of inquiry is an important first step in developing the

relationship with the client. In pure inquiry the consultant simply encourages the client to tell his

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story. Schein suggests that one of the main functions of the inquiry process is to “create a set of

conditions in which the client will feel safe and will be able to reveal anxiety-provoking data” (p.

60). When we met with the clients at the contracting meeting, there was a fair bit of time in

which the clients told their story. This seemed important to get a picture of their organization and

the situations they faced as well as to begin establish a relationship. Schein proposes since there

is often a feeling of one-downness when someone asks for help, active inquiry helps to rebuild

the client’s self-esteem and equilibrate his status. In addition, active inquiry helps the consultant

gain information about the situation as well as involves the client in the process of diagnosis and

action planning. Block (2000) says the first goal of the consultant is to establish a collaborative

relationship. Active inquiry is a first step towards reaching this goal.

Being authentic

According to Block an essential aspect of consulting is the ability to be authentic in any

moment when working with a client while carrying out the business of the consulting phase that

we are in. To this degree it is important to be aware of observations, feelings, and intuition that

come from interaction with the client system as well as the values, beliefs, biases, and

assumptions that we bring with us into the relationship. Being authentic includes the ability to

express what I am experiencing but also in a way that does not make the client too defensive.

Block (2000) suggests that being authentic “has the advantage of being incredibly simple. It is to

literally put into words what you are experiencing” (p. 38). Although the examples that Block

gives in his text do make it seem simple and clear, I still find this quite a challenge. I think the

challenging part is to become aware of and suspend any biases or judgments that I might have

when responding to a client’s behavior or ideas.

For instance, when Tim and I had the discovery meeting with the program director and

were planning the data collection the program directors said she wanted to be at the focus group

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since she knew everyone. We acknowledged her interest in seeing that the mentors were taken

care of and asked if it would be OK if she were not present during the focus group. We shared

that we would like the mentors to be able to express themselves freely. She did acknowledge that

she could see that the mentors might feel uncomfortable about telling her some things for fear of

burdening her. It seemed like she understood and was OK that she would not be a part of the

focus group. However, on further reflection we could see that we did not actually confront her

possible fear of losing control. This was a missed opportunity for us to be fully authentic and

actually seems to have impacted the implementation of a possible recommendation later in the

project.

During the discovery meeting we also learned that the program director was the only

person who served as mentor for the mentors (there are approximately 100 mentors in the

organization). When we first met with the board at what ended up being the second contracting

meeting, we asked the board if they had considered how they might use the experienced mentors

to support new mentors. It was clear they had not really considered this and saw some potential

in the idea. However, when we met for the data analysis and feedback meeting with the president

and one board member, the president said, “WWGG (the program director) is the mentor for the

mentors” in a rather matter of fact way and it did not seem like she was open for dialogue on this

topic. This seemed like it was the issue of losing control coming up again. And, once again, we

did not confront the president on this issue. I recall both times recognizing that something was

off in the way both the program director and the president spoke of this issue, but I could not

catch that it was a fear of losing control and I did not name the resistance. Therefore, the

resistance did not go away at the time and still remains. Now that I am clearer about what might

have been going on in both of these situations, I plan to address this issue when we give our final

feedback to the board when we meet with them in December.

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An additional aspect of being authentic is clearly stating the consultant’s wants or needs –

what the consultant wants from the client to make the project successful. Block (2000) considers

this one of the most critical skills in flawless consulting. While Block stresses that stating your

wants should happen in the contracting meeting, it seems equally important to be able to

continue to do this throughout a consulting project. The ability to recognize what my wants are

and state them clearly, whether they are affective or part of the business of consulting, is

connected with my being authentic.

Accessing my ignorance

Schein’s (1999) third principle of process consulting, “access your ignorance” is one

which I find very subtle. The challenge here is that I often notice things, but am not able to

respond to them in the present moment. It often takes some time away from a meeting with a

client and some reflection on the course of the intervention that I recognize what was going on.

For instance, in our feedback meeting, when considering a recommendation where experienced

mentors would serve as mentors for newer mentors, the president responded by saying, “CCTT

(the program director) is the mentor of the mentors.” Neither Tim nor I responded to this

statement, but on reflection I see that it was an expression of resistance and quite likely could

have come back from the program director (since this had been brought up earlier). It seems the

president (or the program director, through the president) likely had anxiety about losing control.

However, neither Tim nor I confronted the president with this possibility. I feel both parties lost

opportunities for learning in that moment. Hopefully we will have another opportunity at the

board meeting which we will attend in December. There were other instances where I noticed on

reflection that I had a question about something the client said, but did not actually confront the

client and gain further insight and possible contribute to the client’s learning. A couple of times

the opportunity to confront the client came at another meeting, so it was still possible apply this

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principle. However, I do see that this can be a difficult principle to put into practice at all times.

It seems to require an awareness and attunement, in a sense, to those little signals or flags that I

often raise in a conversation, but do not raise a question due to my own biases or assumptions, or

perhaps my anxieties too. The process of accessing my ignorance, suspending, and being

authentic are what I consider my greatest challenges of consulting.

The different roles of a consultant

According to Schein (1999), the first principle of process consultation is to always try to

be helpful. Schein and Block distinguish process consulting from two other forms of consulting:

the Purchase of Information or Selling or Telling model that Schein describes and Block (2004)

calls the “pair of hands” model; and the second model other than process consulting is what

Schein calls the “doctor-patient” model and Block calls the “expert” model. In these approaches

the consultant may not always be trying to help the client. Schein says that often during

consulting one is moving between these roles. However, he suggests that it is important to realize

the underlying assumptions of each and how these impact the client in ultimately implementing

any recommended actions.

I found that twice during the feedback meeting with our client, I unconsciously slipped

into the role of the expert. In this role I found myself feeling like I knew the best solution for the

client and was even making some attempts to convince the client of how my idea or solution ws

the way to go. This occurred while we were exploring recommendations and action plans. It’s

interesting to note that I slipped into an expert role when we were talking about areas in which I

had quite a lot of experience. I also noticed that when I was giving this expert advice without

being asked by the client, the client seemed to withdraw and shut down as if to say, “here’s one

of are those know it all consultants again who only wants to do what they want and not consider

our situation…” I think there could be a time when the client may be interested in my experience

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if I could offer it in the spirit of service and as a possible option they could consider, rather than

thinking that I knew what was best for them. I do not think I really was overly aggressive

because I noticed that the client was losing interest and not receptive to my ideas, so I backed

off. But it was enough to change the dynamic and receptivity to the recommendation we were

discussing. I do plan to talk with the client before we meet with the board and tell her I noticed

her backing off and ask if she would share what was going on for her. I would then like to

apologize if I was too pushy but share the enthusiasm and reasoning behind my thinking and

leave it at that.

The client owns the problem and the solution

The client ‘who owns the problem and solution’ is Schein’s (1999) fifth principle of

process consulting. This connected again with many aspects of our consulting project. We really

tried in this regard to involve the client in a joint approach to both defining the problem,

discovery and data collection, data analysis, and recommendations. Several times during the

course of the project one of our clients would express that we should just do our thing and then

let them know. However, we would come back and explain that we wanted to do this project in a

collaborative way and would seek their input and suggestions. We could see that if we did not

include the client in the project, they would be less likely to own the problem and also less likely

to take action on any recommendations. This most often worked very well and we had several of

the clients who worked closely with us along the way. When the different members of the client

organization were working together with us to design the survey and conduct the focus group, it

gave us an opportunity to gain a much deeper insight into the organization and see how different

factors impacted the problem. I think I can say that we really received the most significant

portion of our data through the different times that we collaborated with the client on carrying

out aspects of the data collection – the discovery meeting, data collection as well as analysis.

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Go with the flow

One of the Schein’s (1999) ten principles of process consulting is “to go with the flow”

(p. 60). I found this to be necessary almost every time we met with or had some interaction with

the client. The changing situation was frustrating at times, but we did not really take it negatively

because it did not appear that the client was intentionally trying to put us off or delay things.

Rather it was just a sign of the nature of life in a complex world in which we live. We just needed

to figure out how to adapt to the situation and continue on. For instance, after having our

contracting meeting with the president and program director the president asked that we draft a

contract memo and send it to her. We felt we had a go ahead and expected to be informed of

when we could schedule the next meeting for discover and to plan the data collection. Instead the

president came back and said that she had sent the memo to the board and one of the board

members had some concerns so we could not go forward until we met with the board. At this

meeting we ended up renegotiating the contract and finally received approval. It was interesting

in that the meeting with the board really seemed to give authority and energy to move forward on

the project. This was the highest level of power in the organization and when we received their

support, things started happening. Block says, “Renegotiating the agreement is a ceaseless

process” (Block, p. 114).

Resistance

While I am beginning to recognize resistance the biggest issue for me is confronting it. It

is interesting the two faced aspect of the helping relationship and how we want help on one side

and we resist it on the other. “When we ask for help, we want both a solution to the problem and

confirmation that everything we have done has been perfect.” (Block, p. 156) Resistance is not

rational or intellectual. It’s an emotional process. So, clients want a solution as well as support

that they have been doing a good job. Two opposite feelings can co-exist at the same time in the

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world of emotions and be genuine. “Clients want to solve problems and at the same time they

want support and appreciation. Resistance is the avoidance. Block says that behind the avoidance

is the approach” (p. 156). When resistance gets expressed, it goes down and then client is willing

and ready to be influenced and learn. A key to flawlessly handling resistance is understanding

and accepting the two-toned nature of the position of the client.

According to Block dealing with resistance is the most significant part of consulting.

Some forms of resistance are subtle and it is not always easy to detect it, at least for me at this

point. Although Block (2000) has described in detail the main forms of resistance, it will take

some study, practice, and reflection to be able to recognize and name its forms on the spot. I’ve

shared earlier some of the different experiences of dealing with resistance I had during the

consulting project. I also learned very much about recognizing resistance during the class when

the various project teams shared the experiences they were having. While am learning how to

recognize resistance, I would say I am not yet adept at confronting it.

Valid information

One of the assumptions Block bases his idea of collaborative consulting is valid data. In

our project very few members of the organization said anything negative about any person or

thing that the organization does. There was very little constructive criticism in the survey’s and

the interviews we conducted by phone. It may be that this was because we did not have an

opportunity to really make a connection and build enough trust that people felt they could share

openly. For me this shows some of the limitations of surveys and confirms the recommendations

of Block and Schein to have as much personal contact as possible with people in the client

organization. This can be in the form of personal interviews or group discussion. Schein stresses

the importance of group discussion. Most of our data came from the meetings we had with the

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clients regarding the contracting, discover and data collection, and data analysis and feedback

where we had much more extensive interaction with the clients.

Conclusion

For me, it was very helpful to have a partner throughout the consulting project. I think

this accelerated my learning because if one of us was speaking, then the other had a chance to

observe and take in valuable data. It was also quite valuable to be able to debrief following a

meeting with the client, share our observations, and analyze what happened and how we did.

Similarly, it was also very valuable to listen to the experiences of other teams in class and relate

what was going on to Schein and Block. It was usually through the exchanges Tim and I had

following a meeting or the sharing or dialogue/discussion we had in class that I received deeper

insight into the principles and practice of process/collaborative consulting.

There are many concepts, ideas, practical knowledge that the combined study of the texts

of Schein and Block and hands on experience of the consulting project have given to me to help

me have further insight into process consulting. When I began this class I really wondered just

what consulting was. I too had a sense that often consultants might just be making up work for

financial gain. However, I also had an idea that consulting could be something else, where one

could really possibly help a person or an organization in need. Now, through the study and

practice of Schein and Block’s works on process consulting I have a foundation on which to

build my consulting knowledge and skills.

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References

Block, P. 2000. Flawless Consulting – A guide to getting your expertise used. San Francisco, CA:

John Wiley and Sons.

Schein, E. 1999. Process Consulting Revisited – Building the helping relationship. Reading, MA:

Addison-Wesley.