My work with organizations brings together my experience of working
in organizations and my skills in working with the process of
people meeting and working together. On this page I share with
you some thoughts about the process of organizational consultancy
as I see it.
I am focusing on consultancy addressing management issues within
an organization. I am not considering here the role of technical
specialists brought in to provide specialist technical skills.
As a consultant I am independent of the organization and therefore
of the usual pressures (although there are other very real pressures
on consultants). I am free to observe the process of the
organization without becoming involved with its task. If I get
drawn into the task, then I become just one more employee (but
without any job security!). If I stay detached from the organization's
task, I am available to attend to the organization's process.
This is the unique contribution of the consultant, and this is
what I am being paid for.
When an organization engages a consultant, this is almost invariably
because the organization has a problem which has not responded
to its way of handling such problems. The usual prescription is
not working. This probably means that the seat of the problem
has not been identified - otherwise it would have been fixed.
As I become involved with the organization, so I will experience
the process of the organization. This experience gives a vital
insight into the nature of the organization and its issues. For
example, an organization may appear well ordered, but it may prove
difficult to arrange and hold to meetings between the consultant
and management. These may get cancelled or postponed. This may
indicate that the organization, while appearing well ordered,
is actually experiencing pressure and chaos.
As the consultancy proceeds it will often run into difficulties.
How these arise gives vital clues about how the organization runs
into difficulties. The problem for the consult is that these difficulties
can sabotage the consultancy process, just as they sabotage the
functioning of the organization. The consultant needs to 'hold'
the process and make this process visible to the organization's
management. As management begins to address these issues, so the
healing process within the organization begins.
In working in this way the consultant is using him or herself
as 'instrument'. The danger is that the consultant will get drawn
into the very same issues and problems that the organization is
experiencing. This is the graveyard of most consultancy assignments.
The problem is that this drawing in is frequently unconscious
and very subtle. There are two major safeguards against this.
Firstly, the consultant must know him or herself well and have
worked through their own tendency to get hooked in to such processes.
Secondly, the consultant needs to have and to make good use of
a supervisor, or consultant's consultant. This supervisor is vital
in helping the consultant 'see the wood for the trees' when the
going gets tough. A consultant who thinks he or she should manage
without this support is both asking for trouble and providing
a poor role model for the client organization.
Ultimately the consultant is providing a role model of openness
and moment to moment attention to what is happening within the
organization. The goal of the consultant should not be to fix
problems in the organization (that is management's job) but to
help the organization develop its awareness of its own process.
As the consultant and management share in this process, so these
awareness skills become internalised by the management and form
the basis for on-going self-regulating development.