Consulting Skills Executive Summary. Daena Lee. Pepperdine University MSOD 622. April 28, 2016

Transcription

1 Consulting Skills Executive Summary Daena Lee Pepperdine University MSOD 622 April 28, 2016

2 Part I Critical Assessment of Schein and Block Consulting Frameworks 1 This paper is an assessment of consulting frameworks as presented by Peter Block in Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used (2011) and Edgar Schein in The Corporate Culture Survival Guide: Sense and Nonsense About Culture Change (1999) and Process Consultation Revisited: Building the Helping Relationship (1998). What I have learned from both of these authors is that consulting is not merely a technical skill. Consulting requires interpersonal skills and facilitation skills to help clients discover and solve their own problems. Schein (1999) advises noticing culture on three levels: artifacts, espoused values and shared tacit assumptions. Artifacts are things easily observed in an organization. Espoused values are what the company says it values in written materials about its strategies, goals and philosophies. Share tacit assumptions are the assumptions values and beliefs about what made a company succeed. Observations about all three levels must be shared with company insiders to fully grasp the meaning of the observations. In my own company, an environmental consulting, engineering, and construction firm serving the Department of Defense, the open office environment is an artifact that indicates an open-door policy for communication and interaction between departments and across the hierarchy. The company founder s behavior is an indication of the company s culture of openness. He approaches and is approached by staff at all levels for communication about the mundane and strategic. The company espouses values of environmental sustainability and this is seen in its work to clean up unexploded ordnance and munitions and explosives of concern. A shared tacit assumption is that we get repeat customers from the high quality of our work and professionalism of our staff. In The Corporate Culture Survival Guide (1999) Schein also assesses culture by the company s stage. Consultants would do well to understand where the company is in the cultural spectrum from start-up to midlife to

3 2 transformative change to mature company to merged cultures. Start-up culture is taken from the founder s behavior and changes by evolution either guided or not. Midlife culture occurs as the company grows and the original leader is succeeded. Subcultures emerge in this stage. Transformative change creates change by laying out the ideal future, assessing the present, determining how to get from here to there, and managing the trip. Mature companies have deeply embedded culture in the company s structures and routines. When companies merge, their cultures do not automatically merge. The become subcultures of a developing new culture. In my 25-year career I have worked for companies in each of these stages and I find Schein s assessment to be true. It would have been helpful to understand the challenges of merging cultures when I was a member of the acquisitions team for a small public company. We acquired 50 companies in the 7 and a half years I worked there. Production remained high but morale in many acquired companies was low. Schein is very clear about clarifying a company s issues before trying to change its culture. The object of understanding culture is to understand if it helps or hinders addressing those issues. Block (2011) and Schein (1998) seemed similar in their approach to consulting in that they see it as a facilitative process to help the client determine their own issues and also determine best solutions. Both of these authors advise that how to be with a client is caring and helpful, to develop long-term relationships. Both advise asking a lot of questions and not making assumptions. Listen carefully and be open to being changed by the interaction. In my years of working, the only consultants who worked with staff were those who were engaged to speak at sales conferences. Their superficial assessment of the company s culture was to help them understand how to better reach and motivate the sales team and not to advise on culture. It is surprising that this has not been part of my working experience.

4 3 Schein (1998, 1999) and Block (2011) warn to expect resistance from the client, to see it as normal. The resistance Block refers to has to do with the client s loss of control over a change in the status quo (2011). Clients are uncomfortable letting a consultant in and showing their vulnerabilities to the consultant. Block (2011) advises to be aware of client resistance and speak the unspoken, embrace conflict, be quiet and listen. The resistance Schein refers to is the loss of parity the client feels when being helped and must belittle the consultant to regain parity (1998). It helps to consider that client resistance is normal and to expect it. I would deal with resistance by taking Schein and Block s advice to embrace conflict, ask questions, be curious and not take clients resistance personally. The engagement is not about me. It is about the client and their issues and needs. Regarding contracts, Block (2011) advises contracts be built on mutual consent and valid consideration. Both parties must agree to each party s expectations and agree on the value both expect to receive. The consultant must ask about the client s organization and decipher how people communicate. Open, direct dialogue in the contracting process improves success. The consultant must decide whether a moving forward with a project is in their best interest. Successful contracting is not guaranteed (Block 2011). Part II Personal Consulting Skills Assessment My personal point of view aligns well with Schein (1998, 1999) and Block s (2011) consulting models. Schein and Block both talk about caring for the client. I believe we are all connected on some level and we all move forward hand in hand towards enlightenment. The consulting relationship is a venue for interacting with each other, to show each other who we are, to be kind, to bring out the best in ourselves and others. Some of my strengths are being a good

5 4 listener, asking questions and letting people talk. I may not be strong technically and do not have all OD theories at my fingertips. I am new to OD and struggle keeping up with the reading. I am good with people, however. It is my nature to be trustworthy and non-threatening. For a couple of years, I was a financial advisor and even earned my Series 7 and Series 66 licenses. I never had trouble getting people to open up to me about very private financial and family matters. I did not go for the hard sell, which led to me changing careers. I have learned a lot about people in my varied careers. People want to feel like the professionals who serve them are committed to their issues, are trustworthy and genuinely care about outcomes. These traits come naturally to me because it is in my nature to want to please others in a way that also reflects who I am as a person. The quality of my interactions with people is important to my identity as a spiritual being having a human experience. I am also a business person and understand the very earthly, tangible pressures of succeeding in a competitive world. I have had success in business and been part of extraordinary teams. I like to think I can recognize it when I see it. Joy and engagement are useful gauges. My experience competing in extreme sports, like skydiving and open ocean outrigger canoeing, gives me confidence born of athletic prowess. Keeping calm by compartmentalizing non-essential emotions in the moment is also a strength I can call upon. Developing new personal strengths this week to help me be a skilled consultant requires that I step out of my comfort zone so that I can discover where and what those strengths might be. I am not comfortable speaking in front of a group. I have a self-limiting belief that what I have to say has no value. This is especially debilitating for a consultant! Perhaps public speaking or communicating with clients is already a strength of which I am not aware. I need practice. I need to rid myself of that self-limiting belief and value what I have to say myself. It will be

6 5 necessary for me to reflect on my experiences at this intensive to notice strengths I do not know I have. I am excited about the prospect that I have undiscovered strengths and that I am here to learn what they are. Works Cited Block, P. (2011). Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used (3rd ed.). San Francisco: Pfeiffer Publishing. Schein, E. H. (1998). Process Consultation Revisited: Building the Helping Relationship. Boston: Addison-Wesley Publising. Schein, E. H. (1999). The Corporate Culture Survival Guide: Sense and Nonsense About Culture Change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.