Review
"The first question to ask any consultants: Have you read Peter Block′s Flawless Consulting? If they say no, don′t hire them. Peter Block′s advice is flawless!" (Barry Z. Posner, dean and professor of leadership, Leavey School of Business, co–author of The Leadership Challenge and Encouraging the Heart)
"Block has distilled years of experience into a wise, down–to–earth, and eminently practical guide to excellence in consulting. If you are new to the practice, Flawless Consulting will chop years off your learning cycle. And even if you′re an old pro, Block′s insights will elevate you to new levels of effectiveness. Flawless Consulting is not simply about becoming a better consultant; it is about using consulting as a path toward becoming a better person." (Barry Oshry, president, Power & Systems, Inc., author of Seeing Systems and Leading Systems)
"For external and internal consultants alike, Peter Block provides the roadmap to travel what always seems like unchartered terrain. The power behind Peter′s work lies not only in the compass he provides but in helping us see how truly a forceful and powerfulinfluence one person can be." (Jack Lerner, vice–president of organization development & learning, The CIT Group)
"A useful guide to developing and reinforcing these [technical] kinds of skills." (SC Magazine, April 2009)
Barry Z. Posner, dean and professor of leadership, Leavey School of Business, co-author of The Leadership Challenge and Encouraging the Heart
Barry Oshry, president, Power & Systems, Inc., author of Seeing Systems and Leading Systems
Jack Lerner, vice-president of organization development & learning, The CIT Group
Product Description
For over fifteen years, consultants––both internal and external––have relied on Peter Block′s landmark bestseller, Flawless Consulting, to learn how to deal effectively with clients, peers, and others. Using illustrative examples, case studies, and exercises, the author, one of the most important and well known in his field, offers his legendary warmth and insight throughout this much–awaited second edition. Anyone who must communicate in a professional context––and who doesn′t?––will use the lessons taught in this book for years to come!
"Who would have thought the ′consultant′s bible′ could be improved upon? Count on Peter Block––the consulting profession′s very own revolutionary––to push us to confront and struggle with the paradoxes inherent in our work."
––Candace Thompson, organization development consultant, First Chicago NBD––A Bank One Company
"Block has distilled years of experience into a wise, down–to–earth, and eminently practical guide to excellence in consulting. If you are new to the practice, Flawless Consulting will chop years off your learning cycle. And even if you′re an old pro, Block′s insights will elevate you to new levels of effectiveness. Flawless Consulting is not simply about becoming a better consultant; it is about using consulting as a path toward becoming a better person."
––Barry Oshry, president, Power & Systems, Inc.; author of Seeing Systems and Leading Systems
About the Author
Excerpted from Flawless Consulting by Block. Copyright © 1999. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
...It is always amazing to me how important it is for people not to be surprised. It seems that whatever happens in the world is OK as long as they are not surprised. When you have completed a study, you can tell a manager that the building has collapsed, the workers have just walked out, the chief financial officer has just run off with the vice president of marketing, and the IRS is knocking on the door, and the manager's first response is, "I'm not surprised." It's like being surprised is the worst thing in the world that could happen. The manager's fear of surprise is really the desire to always be in control. When we run into it, it is kind of deflating. It can signal to us that what we have developed is really not that important or unique and downplay our contribution. See the client's desire not to be surprised for what it is - a form of resistance and not really a reflection on your work.
The most blatant form of resistance is when the client attacks us. With angry words, a red face, pounding his fist on the desk, pointing her finger in your face, punctuating the end of every sentence. It leaves the consultant feeling like a bumbling child who not only has done poor work, but has somehow violated a line of morality that should never be crossed. Our response to attack is often either to withdraw or to respond in kind. Both responses mean that we are beginning to take the attack personally and not seeing it as one other form the resistance is taking.
Whenever a client comes to us for help, the client is experiencing some legitimate confusion. This may not be resistance, but just a desire for clarity.After things become clear to you, however, and you explain it two or three times, and the client keeps claiming to be confused or not understand, start to think that confusion may be this client's way of resisting.
This is the toughest of all. We keep making overtures to the client and get very little response in return. The client is passive. A client may say he has no particular reaction to what you are proposing. When you ask for a reaction, he says, "Keep on going, I don't have any problems with what you are saying. If I do, I'll speak up." Don't you believe it. Silence never means consent. If you are dealing with something important to the organization, it is not natural for the client to have no reaction. Silence means that the reaction is being blocked. For some people, silence or withholding reactions is really a fight style. They are saying by their actions, "I am holding on so tightly to my position and my feelings, that I won't even give you words." Beware the silent client. If you think a meeting went smoothly because the manager didn't raise any objections, don't trust it. Ask yourself whether the client gave you any real support or showed any real enthusiasm or got personally involved in the action. If there were few signs of life, begin to wonder whether silence was the form the client's resistance was taking.
When a person shifts the discussion from deciding how to proceed and starts exploring theory after theory about why things are the way they are, you are face to face with intellectualizing as resistance. The client says, "A fascinating hypothesis is implied by these results. I wonder if there is an inverse relationship between this situation and the last three times we went under. The crisis seems to have raised a number of questions."
Spending a lot of energy spinning theories is a way of taking the pain out of a situation. It is a defense most of us use when we get into a tight spot. This is not to knock the value of a good theory or the need to understand what is happening to us. It is a caution against Corroding with the client in engaging in ceaseless wondering when the question is whether you and the client are going to be able to face up to a difficult situation. The time to suspect intellectualizing is when it begins at a high-tension moment or in a high-tension meeting. When this happens, your task is to bring the discussion back to actions, away from theories.
Moralizing resistance makes great use of certain words and phrases: "those people" and "should" and "they need to understand." When you hear them being used, you know you are about to go on a trip into a world of how things ought to be, which is simply a moralizing defense against reality. People use the phrase "those people" about anyone who's not in the room at the time. It is a phrase of superiority used in describing people who (1) are usually at a lower organizational level than the speaker, or (2) are unhappy about something the speaker has done and, therefore, "really don't understand the way things have to be."
Phrases of superiority are actually ways of putting oneself on a pedestal. Pedestal sitting is always a defense against feeling some uncomfortable feelings and taking some uncomfortable actions.
The phrase "they need to understand" means "I understand - they don't. Why don't they see things clearly and with the same broad perspective that I do? Ah, the burdens of knowing are great and unceasing!" Frequently "those people" the speaker is talking about do understand. They understand perfectly. The problem (for the speaker) is that they don't agree. So instead of confronting the conflict in views, the speaker escapes into a moralistic position.
Moralizing can be seductive to the consultant. The moralizing manager is inviting you to join him or her in a very select circle of people who know what is best for "those people" and who know what they "need to understand."
