Prabhdeep Singh_BLP011__Consulting_03Jan'12

Chapter 9 talks about how to deal with resistance in a consulting assignment. It emphasis that whenever a consultant comes across a resistance with the client, the basic strategy should be to help resistance blow out and not to fight against it head on. One should ask client that what he feels about the situation and ask the client to be authentic and share whatever he experiences about the situation. So getting the client to talk more about the concerns is helping the storm to pass and defending one’s own point of view keeps the storm alive.

This chapter also talks about three steps for handling resistance:

1.        The first step is to pick up the cues to see if the client is showing any resistance. It should identify the kind of resistance the client is showing.

2.       Then a consultant has to state the kind of resistance he is facing from the client side in an un-punishing way.

3.       Then consultant should remain silent and listen to the answers from the client’s side.

An important point to learn is that a consultant should never take things personally. So despite the words used, the resistance is never designed to discredit your competence.

Chapter-10 deals with from moving to discovery to the diagnosis phase of the contract. There are two primary purposes of this phase:

a)      To develop an independent and fresh way of looking at what is going on.

b)      To create a process that leads to client commitment, ownership and action.

The earlier traditional approach considered the medical diagnosis of the problem followed by prognosis and then offering the prescription/solution but the new approach known as the asset based approach or strength based approach focuses more on strengths and advantages, and focuses more on how these strengths could be enhanced to get more advantages. The third approach which is working well is the Appreciative Inquiry approach initiated by David Cooperrider. This approach focuses more on what is working well in the organization and to find out what rituals and traditions are worth sustaining.

One important aspect we get to learn from this chapter is importance of developing a relationship with the clients. No matter which approach of diagnosis and solving a problem we may apply, a great relationship with your client always helps to deliver the best results. It also teaches us that as consultants we constantly need to see beyond the problem definition given by the client. A consultant has to sometimes re-define the problem and come to the root cause of the existing problem by great probing skills and always use language which is simple and understood easily.