4. INTRODUCTIONINTRODUCTION
• Edgar H. Schein developed the concept of
process consultation and wrote a book
about its in various client relationships
after 15 years of experience in
organization and management
development consulting.
• He combines a research and teaching
interests in adult socialization and career
development with his applied interests in
helping organizations to be more effective
in accomplishing their tasks with and
through people.
• He a former Professor at the MIT Sloan
School of Management.
5. MODELS OF CONSULTATIONMODELS OF CONSULTATION
THE EXPERT MODEL
THE DOCTOR-PATIENT MODEL
PROCESS CONSULTATION
6.
7. THE EXPERT MODELTHE EXPERT MODEL
The expert (or telling and selling) model of consultation assumes that the
client purchases from the consultant some information or expert service
that she is unable to provide for herself.
The buyer, usually an individual manager or representative of some group
in the organization, defines a need and concludes that the organization
has neither the resources nor the time to fulfill that need. She will then
look to a consultant to provide the information or the service.
The client expects expert help and expects to pay for it but do not get
involved in the process of consultation itself.
8. THE EXPERT MODELTHE EXPERT MODEL
The extreme pure model is the television repairman or auto mechanic. Other examples:
Purchase of a market research;
The hiring of a consultant to develop a computer program for a given problem;
The hiring of a lawyer to determine whether a given course of action will run into difficulty or
not.
The essence of the message from the client to the consultant is “here is the problem, bring
me back an answer and tell me how much it will cost.”
Psychologically, the essence of this relationship is that the client gives away the problem
temporarily to the helper, which permits the client to relax, secure in the knowledge that an
expert has taken it on and will come up with a solution.
This model is, almost by definition, totally content oriented.
9. THE EXPERT MODEL-THE EXPERT MODEL-
ASSUMPTIONSASSUMPTIONS
Whether or not the manager has correctly diagnosed his own needs
Whether or not he has correctly communicated those needs to the consultant
Whether or not he has accurately assessed the capabilities of the consultant to
provide the information or the service
Whether or not he has thought through the consequences of having the
consultant gather such information or the consequences of implementing the
changes that the information implies or that may be recommended by the
consultant
Whether or not there is an external reality than can be objectively studied and
reduced to knowledge that will be of use to the client
10. THE EXPERT MODELTHE EXPERT MODEL
The frequent dissatisfaction with consultants and the low rate of implementation
of their recommendations can easily be explained when one considers how many
of the above assumptions have to be met for the purchase model to work
effectively.
It should also be noted that in this model the client gives away power.
The consultant is commissioned or empowered to seek out and provide relevant
information or expertise on behalf of the client; but once the assignment has been
given, the client becomes dependent on what the consultant comes up with.
Much of the resistance to the consultant at the later stages may result from this
initial dependency and the discomfort it may arouse consciously in the client.
11. THE EXPERT MODEL-NOTICETHE EXPERT MODEL-NOTICE
This model of consultation is appropriate when clients have;
I. Diagnosed their needs correctly;
II. Correctly identified consultant capabilities;
III. Done a good job of communicating what the problem they are actually trying to
solve;
IV. Thought through the consequences of the help they have sought.
This model is “client intensive” in that it puts a tremendous load on the client to
do things correctly if the problem is to be solved.
If the problems are complex and difficult to diagnose, it is highly likely that this
model will not prove helpful.
12.
13. THE DOCTOR-PATIENT MODELTHE DOCTOR-PATIENT MODEL
The core of this model is that the client experiences some symptoms that
something is wrong but does not have a clue as to how to go about figuring out
what is wrong or how to fix it.
The diagnostic process itself is delegated completely to the consultant along with
obligation to come up with a remedy.
The client becomes totally dependent upon the consultant until such a time as the
consultant makes a prescription, unless the consultant engages the client in
becoming more active on his or her own behalf.
A manager may detect symptoms of ill health, such as dropping sales, high
numbers of customer complaints, or quality problems, but may not know how to
make a diagnosis of what is causing the problems.
14. THE DOCTOR-PATIENT MODEL:THE DOCTOR-PATIENT MODEL:
ASSUMPTIONSASSUMPTIONS
That the client has correctly interpreted the symptoms and the sick “area.”
That the client can trust the diagnostic information that is provided by the
consultant.
That the “sick” person or group will reveal the correct information necessary to
arrive at a diagnosis and cure, i.e., will trust the doctor enough to “level” with him
or her.
That the client has thought the consequences, i.e., is willing to accept and
implement whatever prescription is given.
The patient/client will be able to remain healthy after he doctor/ consultant
leaves.
15. THE DOCTOR-PATIENT MODEL:THE DOCTOR-PATIENT MODEL:
NOTICENOTICE
This model puts even more power into the hands of the consultant in that
she diagnoses, prescribes, and administers the cure.
The client not only abdicates responsibility for making his own diagnosis
and thereby makes himself even more dependent on the consultant, but
assumes, in addition, that an outside consultant can come into the
situation, identify problems, and remedy them.
This model is of obvious appeal to consultants because it empowers them
and endows them with X-ray vision.
16. THE DOCTOR-PATIENT MODEL:THE DOCTOR-PATIENT MODEL:
NOTICENOTICE
Providing expert diagnoses and prescribing remedial courses of action
justify the high fees that consultants can command and make very visible
and concrete the nature of the help that they claim to provide.
In this model the report, the presentation of findings, and the
recommendations take on special importance in identifying what the
consultant does.
For many consultants this is the essence of what they do, and they feel
that they have not done their job until they have made a thorough
analysis and diagnosis leading to a specific written recommendation.
17.
18. PROCESS CONSULTATIONPROCESS CONSULTATION
Process Consultation (PC) is the creation of a relationship with the client that
permits the client to perceive, understand and act on the process events
that occur in the client’s internal and external environment in order to
improve the situation as defined by the client.
*Edgar H. Schien. Process Consultation Revisited – Building the Helping Relationship.
1999, Addison-Wesley Publishing, Inc.
19. PROCESS CONSULTATION- FOCUSPROCESS CONSULTATION- FOCUS
• The focus of PC is to build a relationship with your client and help them figure out what
to do:
1. Build a Relationship
Permit the consultant and client to deal with reality
Remove the consultants areas of ignorance
Acknowledge the consultant’s behavior as being always an intervention
All of the above in the service of giving the client(s) insight into what is going on
around them.
2. Help the client figure out what they should do about the situation
Clients must be helped to remain proactive
Clients must own the problems (“monkey always remains on the client’s back,” )
Clients know the true complexity of their situation and they know what will work in the
culture where they live
20. PROCESS CONSULTATION- KEYPROCESS CONSULTATION- KEY
ASSUMPTIOSASSUMPTIOS
1. That the nature of the problem is such that the client not only needs help
in making an initial diagnosis but would benefit from participation in the
process of making that diagnosis.
2. That the client has the constructive intent and some problem solving
ability.
3. That the client is ultimately the only one who knows what form of
solution or interpretation will work in his or he own situation.
4. That if the client selects and implements his or her own solution, the
client’s problem- solving skills for future problems will increase.
21. PROCESS CONSULTATION-PROCESS CONSULTATION-
PRINCIPLESPRINCIPLES
1. Always try to be helpful
2. Always stay in touch with the current reality
3. Access your ignorance
4. Everything you do is an intervention
5. It is the client who owns the problem and solution
6. Go with the flow
7. Timing is crucial
8. Be constructively opportunistic with confrontive interventions
9. Everything is data: errors are inevitable – learn from them
10.When in doubt, share the problem
22.
23. PROCESS CONSULTATION-PROCESS CONSULTATION-
INTERVENTIONINTERVENTION
The above assumptions may not always hold; but when they do, it is essential to
approach the helping situation in the PC mode.
Clients often do not know what is really wrong and need help in diagnosing what
their problems actually are. But only they “own” the problem.
Clients often do not know what kinds of help consultants can give to them; they
need to be helped to know what kinds of help to seek. Clients are not experts on
helping theory and practice.
Most clients have a constructive intent to improve things, but they often need
help in identifying what to improve and how to improve it.
24. PROCESS CONSULTATION-PROCESS CONSULTATION-
INTERVENTIONINTERVENTION
Most organizations can be more effective than they are if their managers
and employees learn to diagnose and manage their own strengths and
weaknesses. No organizational form is perfect; hence every form of
organization will have some weaknesses for which compensatory
mechanisms must be found.
Only clients know what will ultimately work in their organizations.
Consultants cannot, without exhaustive and time consuming study or
actual participation in the client organization, learn enough about the
culture of an organization to suggest reliable new courses of action.
Therefore, unless remedies are worked out jointly with members of the
organization who do know what will and will not work in their culture,
such remedies are likely either to be wrong or to be resisted because they
come from an outsider.
25. PROCESS CONSULTATION-PROCESS CONSULTATION-
INTERVENTIONINTERVENTION
Unless clients learn to see problems for themselves and think through their own
remedies, they will be less likely to implement the solution and less likely to learn
how to fix such problems should they recur. The process consultation mode can
provide alternatives, but decision making about such alternatives must remain in
the hands of the client because it is the client, not the consultant, who owns the
problem.
The ultimate function of PC is to pass on the skills of how to diagnose and
constructively intervene so that clients are more able to continue on their own to
improve the organization. In a sense both the expert and doctor-patient (doctor)
models are remedial models whereas the PC model is both a remedial and a
preventive model. The saying “instead of giving people fish, teach them how to
fish” fits this model well.
26. SUMMARYSUMMARY
Each model has its own specific assumptions that need to be comprehended by the clients
before any consultation.
The relevance of the process consultation that in all situations that involve personal, group,
or organizational components, feelings, values, and cultural elements must be indentified.
Any given consultant inevitably ends up using all three models at different times and with
different clients.
It is upon the consultant, therefore, to obtain enough insight into his or her own behavior to
know which model he or she is using at any given time and to assess the appropriateness of
that model to the situation.
The ideal consultant would be flexible enough to move across the three models.
27. REFERENCEREFERENCE
Edgar H. Schien. Process Consultation Revisited – Building the Helping Relationship.
1999, Addison-Wesley Publishing, Inc.
Schein, E. H. Process Consultation, Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley, 1969.
