One of the books I return to again and again is Peter
Block’s Flawless Consulting. It is
packed with good advice, and the overall message is as powerful as it is
simple: the need to behave authentically and to understand and complete each
stage of the consultancy process effectively.
The reason it has come to mind now is that I am just back
from spending a couple of days interviewing many of the members of a senior
team. I used a very simple interview structure with just four questions, and
listened to each of them for an hour.
As a result, my head is buzzing with the richness and complexity
of all that I have been told, and wondering how best to feed it back into the
system in a useful way.
And then I remember Peter Block’s words of wisdom:
frequently the most useful thing a consultant can do is to offer a clear and
simple picture of what is happening.
So I asked myself that question: if I had to offer a clear
and simple picture of what is happening, what would I say? And there, beyond the complexity, is
the clarity I need. There are just a few things to focus on, at least
initially. Complexity sits behind
them all, of course, but I am quite clear that if we address these few issues
effectively, we can make significant progress.
So if you are engaged in consultancy, or if you use
consultants come to that, I highly recommend Flawless Consulting: a true vade mecum.
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