CODI Intensive Program, Module 2

Consulting Phases1
In Flawless Consulting, Peter Block outlines phases and posits that flawlessness comes from attending to two dimensions at all times: Being authentic Understanding and completing the task requirements of each phase. The following notes join together the work of several authors as well as my own experience.

Scanning Phase
What can I find out about this client, the organization, the trends in the industry, and other information of a general nature that one can glean from the Web, news articles and people who know the organization. This forms the background for the entry and contracting phase. Be aware that the information may be dated, biased, sanitized and so on. Nonetheless, scanning helps provide some context for a phone call or meeting.

Entry Phase
This is the initial contact. Culture dictates the formalities and type of informalities. The conversation introduces the consultant and client to each other and sets the general ballpark for the meat of the meeting. The client and consultant scout whether there may be a fit between what the client wants and what the consultant can offer - all in pretty general terms. One fine consultant, Sherman Grinnell, believes that we have an entry phase at the beginning of each meeting with the client. The entry in these cases includes: Acknowledging the client (the social exchange of affirmation); Checking out whether or not, since the last meeting, anything has happened that may affect the work and decisions today. The Entry Phase is the initial contact. Culture dictates the formalities and type of informalities. The conversation introduces the consultant and client to each other and sets the general ballpark for the meat of the meeting. The client and consultant scout whether there may be a fit between what the client wants and what the consultant can offer - all in pretty general terms.

Phases is the word used by Peter Block in Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used. Stages is used by other authors. According to Rogers Thesaurus, both words mean essentially the same thing a sequence of activity which may be iterative. By Diane Abbey-Livingston, 2010; used by CODI with permission Website: www.odcanada.org; email: [email protected]

CODI Intensive Program, Module 2

Entry Phase in Each Meeting One fine consultant, Sherman Grinnell, believes that we have an entry phase at the beginning of each meeting with the client. The entry in these cases includes: Acknowledging the client (the social exchange of affirmation); Checking out whether or not, since the last meeting, anything has happened that may affect the work and decisions today.

Contracting
The entry phase may flow almost imperceptibly into a contracting conversation or the contracting may happen at a totally different time. In either case, contracting is the process of talking about the specifics of the clients situation: what the client wants (a) as the desired state in the organization and (b) how you can help. The dialogue explores possibilities, and ensures understanding both of the clients resources and constraints as well as about the pros and cons of alternative methods. The end point of contracting is an agreement about the purposes of the work to be done, the desired outcomes, roles and responsibilities of consultant and client, timing, fees, and other areas that will clarify and lead to shared expectations. Peter Block sets out the following four requirements of the contracting phase: 1. Negotiating Wants: Both consultants and clients have wants and minimal requirements for successful achievement of the project purposes and goals. When consultants or clients lack clarity or confidence in expressing their needs and constraints, projects are poorly defined and implementation suffers. 2. Coping with Mixed Emotions Many believe that people do not like to ask for help and yet they need to do so by dint of shortage of staff, new opportunities, or a need to make changes. This ambivalence was likely stronger when hiring consultants was not the norm. Today, even though the use of consultants is well-accepted, there are still clients who feel ambivalent or even embarrassed that they need help. Block recommends getting any mixed emotions expressed so that they do not impact the project. 3. Surfacing Concerns about Exposure and Loss of Control Most of the real concerns clients have about pursuing a consulting Project with you are expressed quite indirectly. They ask about credentials, experience, results elsewhere, cost, timing, and more. Often what they are really concerned about is: (a) are they going to be made to look or feel foolish or incompetent? and (2) will they lose control of either themselves, their organization or you the consultant?.2 These concerns can be explicitly probed with sensitivity. In discussing surveys or ways to engage staff, its my practice to do a provisional analysis. That is, I propose some questions that may be relevant and controversial, make up answers that are less than positive, and ask clients if such responses came in, how they would feel and act. This conversation sometimes surfaces concerns and
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Peter Block Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting your Expertise Used. 2 Bass/Pfeiffer, 2000 p.41 By Diane Abbey-Livingston, 2010; used by CODI with permission Website: www.odcanada.org; email: [email protected]

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edition. Jossey-

CODI Intensive Program, Module 2

changes what the client wants to do. Other times, the potential to really find out what is really going on intheir organization (even though it may be less than positive) strengthens their resolve. In both cases, we talk about how the data gathering will be done, with whom and how it will be shared. The same type of provisional analysis is useful when clients are thinking about engagement projects. 3. Triangular and Rectangular Contracting So much of our work is done in organizations where our client has someone to whom they report. To what extent should that person be explicitly involved in the contracting of the work? What will the roles, responsibilities and relationships be? Who should be involved in agreeing to the work, in making decisions regarding the who, what and how of data collection and dissemination? These questions are best addressed before the contracting phase is completed. And, if the consultant reports to someone, the contracting could involve delineation of a fourth role making it a rectangular contracting process. The length of time it takes and the number of meetings required to finalize a triangular or rectangular contract is clearly greater than when an agreement is being made between only two people.

Data Gathering Phase

During this phase, the focus is on gathering information related to the contracted focus. In addition to determining the methodology, and the sources for information, it is important to remember two things: Once data gathering begins, expectations develop. Data gathering is an intervention and has an impact. People wonder who was asked what, what the results will be and what will happen as a result of the data gathering. Any contact with people (face-to-face or written) in the organization will require building rapport, setting a tone, presenting the purposes, and creating positive atmosphere in preparation for later stages of the consultation. Peter Block identifies the following four task requirements in this phase: 1. Layers of Analysis He reminds us of the challenge that the problems identified initially by the client are usually symptoms of other underlying problems. The task for the consultant is to articulate the different layers in a coherent and simple way. The work of David Cooperrider and Appreciative Inquiry practitioners, and the work in Solution Focussed Consulting strongly recommends that consultants focus more of their efforts on helping the client articulate the desired future than on discovering and naming layers of the problems. 2. Political Climate He reminds us not to collude with the client if the client suggests that rationality and best practices alone will be required to bring about change. Every organization has politics and our task as consultants is to understand enough about the relationships to know what will affect the project. Stakeholder mapping or analysis of where people stand on the issues, options and desired outcomes is an important part of data gathering.
By Diane Abbey-Livingston, 2010; used by CODI with permission Website: www.odcanada.org; email: [email protected]

CODI Intensive Program, Module 2

3. Resistance to Sharing Information Most people want to know the why behind the questions asked. The rational, business-based response does not usually address the following which affect the quality of the conversation: confidentiality anonymity resentment that time is required to fulfill data gathering needs ambivalence or cynicism about anything positive resulting from the data gathering Clarity about confidentiality and anonymity by the consultant is essential so that staff and employees have valid information with which to make a choice about what they want to reveal. Respect and empathy can lead to a rich conversation about the pros and cons of different ways of responding to the concerns about the value of the time spent. 4. Interview as Intervention - Joint Learning Event When Block outlines this requirement, he reminds us that we are not passive, objective, neutral questions-asking and answer-recording machines. I see interviews are opportunities to ask questions worthy of the respondents ability to think and feel, to demonstrate respect, to be a listener offering full presence without judgement. To me, when an interviewee leaves an interview and can say that it was interesting or thoughtprovoking or useful, the project and the organization benefit in both the short and longer term. Some of the questions used in Solution Focussed Consulting provoke thinking and ahas. For example: How much confidence do you have that these changes can happen? What gives you this level of confidence? What would you have to see and hear to boost your level of confidence one degree?

Data Analysis and Preparation for Feedback to Client

It is Blocks position that the purpose of data collection is to solve a problem, to get some actionIn his terms funneling the data means that: (a) the data needs to be reduced to a manageable number of items, and (b) the items should be ones: i. over which the client has some control and can take action, ii. of importance to the organization, and iii. where there is some commitment, somewhere in the organization, to work on them. Block further notes that the consultant will have collected data on both organizational issues and how they are managed. He calls these personal data, the data on how problems and possibilities are managed. This is often the very data that clients, especially at the senior levels,
By Diane Abbey-Livingston, 2010; used by CODI with permission Website: www.odcanada.org; email: [email protected]

CODI Intensive Program, Module 2

do not hear from their staff and is therefore important to provide. He notes that the information provides context for issues involved in the implementation of any change. This phase is often more time-consuming than we anticipate. People do the analysis in different ways. Many use the same methods as I do in an iterative way: 1. Brainstorm my overall impressions, surprises and puzzles; 2. Sort all the information collected from different sources in relation to each question a. Find themes; b. Preserve interesting odd items; c. Group the themes to tell the story the questions were trying to discover. 3. Ask myself out of all of this interesting information, what is really important? At this point, have met research standards in organizing all of the data, I use Blocks criteria as identified above. If the contract calls for more than a findings report: 4. Develop/use a diagnostic framework to which the client can easily relate: - Identify core aspects of organization functioning to which the themes relate; - Group themes according to a desired model. If the contract calls for recommendations: 5. Develop recommendations that clearly connect the diagnosis with steps toward the desired state.

Plan the Feedback Meeting(s)3

More than one feedback meeting is usually required. First, courtesy and caution dictate a meeting to enable the client to understand, digest and discuss the information. The client may want to include others in the meeting and its our role to negotiate this with the client based on our understanding of the data and implications. Often, the first meeting with the client requires time for the client to think through and be coached on how to convey the information to others. Because clients typically underestimate the time needed for this type of meeting, it is our task to be clear and cogent about the purposes and time required to do justice to the work they have requested. This is best introduced during the contracting stage. The client is ultimately going to decide on the meaning and value of the data and recommendations regardless of who is expected to do the task. For the client to understand recommendations, they must have an opportunity to see the data and do their own interpretation. The amount of time and the iterations of meetings scoped during contracting for this phase depends on the type of project, and this is one phase that is often underestimated. In workshops with Peter Block, he makes a strong case for face-to-face feedback meetings with the consultant present.
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Please see handout Planning a Feedback Meeting for more details. By Diane Abbey-Livingston, 2010; used by CODI with permission Website: www.odcanada.org; email: [email protected]

CODI Intensive Program, Module 2

Planning the feedback meeting involves thinking about: What you want to say and how you want to say it Your proposed agenda including timing for each item. Block suggests the following three categories of data for the presentation4: Analysis of the business/ technical problem Analysis of how the problem is being managed Recommendations He offers a second model used by his colleague Harold Goldstein: Problem Statement Why the Problem Exists What will happen if the problem is not fixed (a) in the short term and (b) in the long term Recommended Solutions Expected Benefits I typically use the following structure: Contract and the reason for it Methodology Findings and Analysis Desired Future, Gaps, Resources Recommendations Risks and Benefits

Block. P. Op.Cit. Page 229 By Diane Abbey-Livingston, 2010; used by CODI with permission Website: www.odcanada.org; email: [email protected]

CODI Intensive Program, Module 2

Presentation to and Dialogue with the Client

Major 4 task requirements include: 1. Guard time for dialogue about the findings and next steps Propose an agenda that provides significant time for dialogue. Block suggests 30% of the time for the client to react to and digest the findings, and 30% to discuss next steps. Seek agreement on the agenda upfront. 2. Manage the Feedback Meeting The consultant has to play a strong facilitator role to ensure that the purposes of the meeting do not get derailed. The purposes are to understand and believe enough of the data (and/or diagnosis) to consider and decide on next steps. Since the feedback meeting may be the consultants last chance to influence action, it is important to work with sensitivity and skill on derailers such as: Resistance or ambivalence indirectly expressed by such means as excessive questioning of the methodology or the data; Challenging of the consultants credentials; Disbelief regarding the findings. 3. Recognize ambivalence or resistance and do not take it personally It is often difficult to recognize that the clients reactions to the work the consultant has done and even to the consultant is often not personal; rather, it is a response to feeling vulnerable and called on to take action that has risks. 4. Pay attention to the here and now According to Block, usually the feedback process becomes victim to the same management problems that created the need for your services in the first place You need to be conscious of how the client is handling the feedback and how this may reflect the past issues as well as create obstacles to change. If you are not meticulously aware of how your own project is being handled, (the project) will simply become the latest casualty.5 Equally important from my point of view is to affirm the way the clients response to the feedback will help future implementation. Future papers will provide information on contracting, re-contracting, evaluation and termination phases of consulting.

Block, P. Op. cit. page 44 By Diane Abbey-Livingston, 2010; used by CODI with permission Website: www.odcanada.org; email: [email protected]