In the chapter ‘Dealing with Resistance’, Peter Block explain
how crucial it is for the consultant to deal with resistance in a consulting
assignment. Resistance is an emotional reaction and is a natural and
predictable response while dealing with a complex problem. There are ways to deal
with resistance and solve a problem. The motive is not to fight head on with it
but to get the resistance blow out itself. Picking up the cues is a very important
task in a consulting assignment and the consultant has to trust what he see more
than what he hear. He has to pay attention to the nonverbal message from the
client like
a.
If the client is constantly moving away from
you?
b.
Shaking his head each time you speak?
So, as a consultant your duty is to identify these cues and
handle the resistance by the following ways
1.
Identify in your mind the form of resistance.
2.
Name the resistance and use neutral language.
3.
Be quiet and let the line manager respond to the
statement about the resistance.
The effort of the client in all these steps is to be
authentic and that will result in more authentic responses from the client and
the consultant should not take the client responses personally.
Chapter 10 deals with moving from diagnosis to discovery.
After the contract is clear and you are ready to deal with resistance, the
attention of the consultant turns to the discovery phase. There are two primary
objective of this phase.
1. To
develop an independent and fresh way of looking at what is going on.
2. To
create a process that leads to client commitment, ownership and action.
The main objective is not to be right but to be effective and powerful. When
the line manger feels that there is something wrong in the organization, they
want someone else to come in and look afresh at the problem and provide a
cheap, easy to implement solution. The solution should be told to client in
such a way that will help in solving the problem in a best possible way and
also building best relationship with the client because it is the relationship
that matters.
So the steps in this process are
1.
Redefine the problem or the cause of the
problem.
2. To
develop a clear and simple picture of the situation.
3. Include
the description of the technical or business problem the client has asked for
help on.
4. Also
include How the problem is being managed and possibilties that surround the
technical or business issue
5.
Finally, it leads to recommendations on handling
the business situation and how group manage itself.
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