Category: The Consultant School Podcast

Treat a book as a person. 

• What is most significant about a given book? 
• Find what resonates with you in a book and skim the rest. 

What have you learned from different books that have made an impact in your life? 

Do you keep track of the books that you have read?

What patterns do you see in your reading? 

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Themes that Ray resonated with this book.

• The power of an individual standing up against the status quo. 
• The dignity of the individual.
• The morality of self-interest.

Also mentioned:

The Road Less Traveled Scott M. Peck

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

Let Your Life Speak by Parker Palmer

Quaker belief of letting your life speak…before you tell your life what you want to be, listen to your life and see what it wants to be.

The Promise of Paradox by Parker Palmer (At the heart of everything is its own opposite.)

The Sacred Journey by Fredrick Buechner

Telling Secrets 

All truth is understood through our own stories

As we understand ourselves, we can understand life. 

Deep Change by Robert Quinn

One of two directions, deep change or slow death.

Change takes place to the extent that the leader is willing to change. 

Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert 

Serious and playful about the discipline of creativity

Fear rides in the backseat

Fear is a great source of energy, fear is part of the fuel. 

Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership by Joseph Jaworski

A sense of connection and alignment. 

The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek

Two kinds of games in life, finite games, and infinite games.

Finite games have an end. 

Infinite games have no endpoint, rather it’s how you play the game. 

How do you win a game that has no end? 

Serious Play is an infinite game.  

Learn more about Serious Play from Ray here.  

Transitions by William Bridges

Endings, neural zones, and new beginnings. 

Neutral zones and full of questions and not filled with answers. 

Structure = How things are organized, how the organization is set up. 

A common, human default is to identify the things that are not working and then reorganize.  Every time a reorganization happens, things begin to lose their value.

The automatic response to reorganize is not always the best when it comes to organizational health and development, other questions should be asked. 

• Given what our mission is, what is the best structure to carry out our mission?
• How should we organize ourselves, given what we stand for and how it relates to our values? 

3 Common Organizational Structures:

Hierarchical– direct reports and lines of responsibilities. 

Positive: the most stable form of organizational structure

Downside: most resistant to change

Decentralized Structure: authority moves to where the work is really being done (not at the top)

Positive: most adaptable to change. 

Downside: requires trust.

The Matrix:  Mix of both, Responsibility with dual reporting relationships. Centralized resources, individualized authority.

Positive: when it works, the best of both

Negative: when it doesn’t work, it’s very confusing.

How can a consultant use the frame of structure when working with a client?

Ask the questions:

• What are the reporting relationships?
• Who is responsible for what?
• How should the organization be structured?

Agreements about expectations are very important in matrix organizations.

• What support is needed?
• What are the outcomes expected?

Often organizations structure around personality and preferences rather than the mission, values of the organization. 

Key questions for consultants when looking at the structure:

• What is the organizational mission?
• What are organizational values?
• Does the organizational structure serve the mission?
• Is the structure concurrent with the values? 

Resistance= any kind of inaction.  Not wanting to do something. Not wanting to change, the opposite of movement.  The movement that does happen is a movement against. 

• Recognize the feelings (and actions of resistance) 
• Acknowledge that resistance is part of the process
• Know that resistance is normal
• Remember that resistance can be beneficial

Resistance can indicate something is really important. 

If there is a proposed change initiative that does not have resistance, it might indicate that the process, etc. isn’t actually that important. 

Resistance can be a CLUE to what is really important in an organization. 

The change will great disequilibrium and humans are not wired to be in a disequilibrium state.

80% of resistance is personal

The operative question people are asking is:  How will this change affect me?   

3 Principles to Deal With Resistance:

• Empathy 

Identify who is most likely to be affected by the change. Try to understand how they are likely to be impacted. When people or group believes their needs have been taken into consideration they are more likely to engage in the change process.  Empathy is the bridge that comes before communication

• Communication

Listen to where people are, what their concerns are.  Must be able to communicate why and what the benefits will be.

• Participation

Involve the people who are going to be affected by the change, ask them questions, incorporate as many of their suggestions as you can and address those things that you can’t use.  Some good questions to use are: 

• • What questions do you have?
  • What question do you have about the process?

Make sure to incorporate some of the ideas in the change process. 

Go two rounds of this process. People feel like they gain ownership in the change process.

Dealing with resistance is best done one on one.

Don’t exclude the people who ask hard questions. 

• Thank them for their questions
• Ask them for ideas
• Help them to find a stake in the process so they have ownership

To the extent that one believes in the change, they can afford to be patient to draw people in and give the change initiative the time it takes for people to gain buy-in. 

Resources Mentioned:

Managing Change Effectively

Why is process important?

• organizations often don’t understand how many processes are actually happening in an organization. 
• many times processes have evolved and they don’t actually serve a purpose (costing money and energy)
• often times there is no one who takes ownership over processes.  (different people may need to “own” different processes) 

Organizations (like families) do things without questioning why. 

How to assess the element of process in an organization: 

• The client identifies all the processes that happen within the organization. 
  • Processes are anything that happens in an organization that has more than three steps.
• Assess how effective these processes are (EXAMPLE: very effective, somewhat effective, effective, not effective, waste of time)
• Identify what processes need to be reevaluated.
• Identify a person to take responsibility for every process that is assessed.
• Set up a way to evaluate on a regular basis to make sure each process still is effective and serves the organization. 

QUESTIONS TO ASSESS A PROCESS:

• What steps are essential?
• What steps are problematic?
• What steps are missing?
• Who is responsible?

PROCESS OWNERSHIP

• For every process, there should be an owner. (Often times the process doesn’t have anyone taking ownership.)

• The owner of the process should look at the big picture and see the steps and the relationships that are involved.

• Each process represents relationships.

Quality comes from thoughtful engagement with the process. 

KEY PROCESS QUESTION:

• Is the end-user getting what they really need?
• Is the process serving the organization or is the organization serving the process?
• How well does the process serve the mission and core values of the organization?

First, remember that every situation is unique.

The Consultant can’t make the closure of a deal (signed contract) happen.  If a signature is forced, it often creates remorse on the part of the client. 

One of the first questions that should be asked is: Who are the key decision-makers?

It’s often not just the person who initially began the conversation with the consultant. It’s important to understand: Who is influential to your main contact?

In the beginning, as you start to develop a proposal ask: Who will be involved in making the final decision?

Asking the question helps the potential client clarify for themselves who they need to engage with as they go through the process.

A consultant must also be aware in the development of a proposal about what the client wants and what the client needs. 

KEY QUESTIONS: What is needed?  What is wanted?

Clients are very clear about what they want.  Often they are not as clear as what they need.

The job of a consultant is to be clear what the potential client also might need.

For example: 

What will a strategic plan really address?  Learn to ask questions about the outcomes and desires about what the client believes they want. 

Learn more about The Genysys Groups Strategic Planning and Team Development Processes here.

Questions for a consultant to ask when working to close a consulting engagement.

• What does the client want?

• What does the client need?

• How can I develop a relationship with the client?

• Who are the other key decision-makers that will need to be involved before making a final decision for engagement?

• What do you mean by team development (or any other process that a client is asking the consultant for?) This question helps the consultant and the potential client understand what the expectations are and if there is alignment between what the consultant can provide and what the organization/client needs and wants. 

TIP: Talk about the cost in terms of “investment.”  Both the client and the consultant are stake-holders in the outcomes when talking about an investment. 

Another important thing for consultants to keep in mind when working to finalize a contract is how to minimize surprises?

The clients don’t want surprises and the consultant doesn’t want surprise either.  This is done by being intentional about building a relationship, asking a lot of questions and being very clear in communication. 

How to close the deal? (Summary)

• Embrace time, build a relationship.
• Be clear on who the ultimate decision-makers are.
• Clarify between what is needed and what is wanted. 
• Identify the roles, responsibilities, and outcomes for both the consultant and the client. 
• Build the contract as a working document that is reviewed often. 

                                       LEARN MORE ABOUT STRATEGIC FUTURING 2020.

The Soul of A Business by Tom Chappell

Business is all about meeting a need.  (purpose)

• Why are you in business?
• What are you here to really do?

If you meet a need and meet it effectively, finance will take care of itself. 

The soul is what exists when everything else goes away. 

All other elements of an organization should serve the soul. 

Health = Alignment between what is happening and what the organization is about. 

Most organizations make decisions based on personality, rather than their mission statement.

Dysfunction happens when people make radical decisions and go in different directions.  When an organization is driven by the market, it could be in danger of losing the soul. 

KEY QUESTION:

How congruent is this opportunity with what we are in business to do? (mission and purpose)

POSSIBLE ANSWERS AND INFORMATION FOR THE ORGANIZATION:

YES: (opportunity is congruent with what we are in business to do) DO IT! Move forward.

NO: (opportunity is NOT congruent with what we are in business to do) 

1. Turn down the opportunity because we are in danger of losing our     soul (integrity/identity) with this opportunity.  If we say yes, we run the risk of taking the organization too far off course.
2. Reevaluate and change the mission and purpose.  (Mission is the strategic, guidance system of an organization.  All decisions should be rooted in the core identity ie: mission, and purpose)

Mission, Purpose, and Values should be in the room where decisions are made. 

KEY QUESTION: How is this decision aligned with who we say we are? 

Any time there is a leadership change, the mission, and purpose of an organization is at risk. 

Mission Statement

• Anyone should be able to memorize and repeat. 
• Very succinct and noticeable.
• maybe bigger and larger, but the mission statement should be a short, memorable phrase. 

When assessing the health of an organization the following are key questions to ask about the mission (purpose and values too!)

• How many people understand the mission statement?
• How is the mission statement used?
• Is it functional?
• How is the mission statement use and reinforced?

As people are becoming more personally interested in meaning and purpose the value and importance of organizations having clear mission, purpose and values is increasing. (People want to work where they understand the impact) 

Purpose is the WHY 

• Why are we in business?  
• What are the needs that we serve? 
• The purpose is foundational to the mission statement. 

Mission is the WHAT

• What do we do?

Values are the HOW 

1. How do we carry out our mission and purpose?
2. What beliefs guide the organization?

In this episode Ray (Chief Learner) and Amy (Chief Question Asker) talk about the NEW name, NEW focus and NEW direction for the podcast:

We feel the consultant school:

• More accurately reflects the conversations and tools that are shared. 
• Ray is a born educator and we heard from our listeners that the podcast felt like attending a class. (in the best way!)

Power of Questions:

• Help us know what we didn’t know that we knew. 
• The way we learn

Heart of Consulting is Learning To Ask:

•  What do I have to learn?  
• What do my clients need to learn?

What can The Consultant School listeners expect?

• Learn from Ray’s 40 plus year of work as a consultant.
• Discussions about the questions that have emerged that have yet been answered.  
• Identifying new understanding and tools.
• Become a part of a larger community of learning.

TOOLS & TIP FOR CONSULTANTS (from this episode):

• Organize meetings (board meetings, team meetings or family meetings) around questions.  When meetings are organized around questions it creates (and invites) people into thoughtful conversations and engagement that they might not have otherwise considered with a bullet point list. 

• Every conflict is an opportunity.  
• Approach conflict with the questions: 
  • What do I have to learn from this conflict? 
  • What does my client have to learn from this conflict? 

• TO/WITH Framework

• • When we approach clients with a “to” mindset we make them into objects
  • When we approach clients with a “with” mindset we build a relationship that is dynamic and humble.
  • No one has all the answers and a “with” mindset sets a tone that we are learning and exploring with our clients. 

• The Role of a Consultant

• • (with) Come alongside organizational leadership to address their challenges, seize the opportunities and navigate the change. 
  • (with) The most successful consultants view their role as helping the one in charge. 
  • The consultant gives help, insight, and knowledge to the leaders and lets them use it how they see fit. The consultant doesn’t set out to control the outcome. 

The Consultant Question:

• What questions do you need to ask yourself? 

• What do you know that you need to be aware of, and what do you need to do with that knowledge?

Resistance to change.

What is the source of the resistance?

• There is a natural resistance to change that happens. Change creates disequilibrium and we naturally don’t like to be out of balance.

Another explanation in organizational context

• Organizational dysfunction: The organization isn’t able to change because of the problems that are at the heart of how the organization function.

Organizations operate by the same principles that Humans do in their development.

The Living Company by Ari De Geus

De Geus studied companies that lasted over 100 years. He found that organizations that lasted over 100 years viewed themselves as a living organism, which embraced change.

Where organizations are effective, they are healthy.  

When organizations are not effective, there is dysfunction somewhere.

Reframing Organizations by Lee Bolman & Terrence Deal

Frames outlined in Reframing Organizations

• Structure (how an organization is organized)
• People (human Resource)
• Organizational Politics (decision making)
• Symbolic (meaning symbols, stories, rituals, activities, logos, etc.)
• Process (how things are done)
• Soul (mission, purpose, values, vision=essences of organization)

Each frame can be functional or dysfunctional.  It’s the role of a consultant to help the organization identify where health and dysfunction is in these frames. 

Built to Last Jim Collins  and Jerry Porras

Organizational Health must look at each one of these frames.  Status of health will have a direct impact on the success (or lack there off) of any consulting work.

What do we need to pay attention to?

Intuitive Questions that a consultant would ask about an organization:

• Are they clear about their identity?
• Are there issues about how they are doing things?

Organizational Decision Making (Clue to Organizational Health) 

• To what extent is the way the organization makes a decision (or anyone of the organizational health framework) congruent with organizational values?
• Most organization decision making is personality centered rather than organizational centered which results in no accountability.
• Most Organizations practice the golden rule:  who has the most gold, rules. 

Organizational Framework is an important tool for consultants to help create better results.

The guiding question for consultants:

• What is the status of their health? (However, you define that)
• If I engaged with them, to what extent can I help them to increase their health, rather than enabling their disfunction.

Intuition Questions:

• What do I know?
• What am I going to do about it?

The most dangerous thing for a consultant is to be in denial about the health of the organization.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Reframing Organizations by Lee Bolman & Terrence Deal

Built to Last Jim Collins  and Jerry Porras