CONSULTATION
At times everyone either feels the need for help or attempts to give help. Thus, since
consultation is essentially a helping relationship, anyone can be a consultant.
The essential condition of effective consultation is the knowledge that help is never really help
until and unless it is perceived as helpful by the recipient, regardless of the helper's good
intentions.
Help may be offered by a consultant in a number of ways.
The task of the external consultant is not to change the client, but:
1.
to help the client generate valid information;
2.
to help the client make reasonable and informed choices from a base of valid
information; and
3.
to help the client develop commitment to their choices once they are made.1
Definition
Consultation is a helping process emerging from a personal relationship established
between a person or persons who are trying to solve a problem or develop a plan (the
client) and another person or persons who are trying to help in these efforts (the
consultant).
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Consultative Relationships
An effective consultative relationship is a shared quest requiring certain kinds of
knowledge, attitudes, and skills on the part of both parties which must be recognized
and provided, and which depend upon the nature of the problem to be solved or action
to be taken and on the duration and direction of the relationship. Four common and
different consultative relationships2 include:
1.
Authority
The consultant's problem-solving process is the key, since he/she decides what must be done and how
to do it, then persuades or otherwise influences others to adopt that view. The main focus of
problem-solving is often the consultant's mind and emotions (although some attention may be paid to the
needs and ideas of the person or group they wish to change). The inadequacy of this approach is that it
underestimates the importance of, and desire for, problem-solving efforts to focus on others in the
system. It often leads to polarization and results in adversarial clashes. Others do not feel ownership or
commitment to the diagnosis or the implementation plans which emerge. Still, this is the standard
approach to teaching, administration, and much change management. The consultant tells the client
what to do.
2.
Collaborator
The assumption here is that a group of people has much to contribute in solving a problem or developing
an innovation. The group must work together sharing perspectives, goal, needs, and possible solutions.
Decisions should be made by consensus. All those involved accept equal obligation for implementation
and evaluation. Openness is a requirement in this approach. The consultant joins his/her
problem-solving efforts with those of the group.
3.
Facilitator
The key problem-solving responsibility lies with the client. The client decides what the goals and
problems are and makes decisions about solutions, actions, and evaluations. The consultant helps the
client to clarify problems, identify needs, propose solutions, set objectives, reduce resistance, arrive at
open decisions and prepare for implementation and evaluation, but the ownership rests with the client.
The consultant facilitates the clients change process as a passive reactor, a provocateur, a stimulator or
a catalyst.
4.
Linker
Resources are brought together without the consultant either developing solutions themselves of
facilitating personal or institutional problem-solving. The linker learns what the client is thinking and then
attempts to open that thinking to other ideas, contacts, or approaches. He/she brings together new ways
of thinking, interested people and funds/resources. The consultant uses his/her influence to promote
innovations by linking the problem-solvers to useful resources outside themselves.
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Consultant Qualifications
A effective consultant needs to be able to:
 help others diagnose needs and goals
 focus on both the support of the client and on the solution of the problem
 present information and knowledge clearly and persuasively
 design planned change activities or facilitate design by others
 listen and be open to information, and to the needs and opinions of others
 evaluate and enable others to do so
 use political influence and social networks to gain acceptance
proposed changes
and support for
 terminate the consulting relationship upon the enactment of an agree upon plan or the
solution of the problem
Consultative Process
An effective consultative process is essentially an information gathering exercise in which
problems are defined and plans developed on the basis of the best current appraisal of all
available information.
Basic consultative functions are:
Reflection of collected information. The consultant helps the client see the situation
surrounding the problem and identify his/her feeling about the situation.
Diagnosis of situations. The consultant helps the client analyze implications of available
infomation by examining the situation, exploring his/her feelings about it, and reassessing the
stated problem.
Suggestion of possible responses to the current situation. The consultant helps the client
develop an appropriate plan of action to deal effectively with the problem.
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Consultative Dilemmas
Certain stresses are inherent in the nature of consultation. They cannot be removed without
destroying the relationship. The ill effects of these difficulties, however, can be minimized by the
consultant who is aware of their implications.
Authority Factor
Basic to the consultative relationship is the fact that the consultant always enters a consulting
relationship as a person with authority derived either from his/her position in the organization,
his/her prior relationship with the organization or a person in the organization or from his/her
possession of specialized knowledge and skills. The emergence of this added authority and
power in the midst of a delicately balanced and intricate system of human relationships can
cause suspicion, uncertainty, resentment, and conflict.
Intrusion of an Outsider
The consultant is, by definition, an outsider. Consequently the insiders may well feel that
he/she does not understand their specific problem and its unique implications, although s/he
may be recognized as an expert on the problem in general.
Threat of an Expert
The help which a consultant in a specialized field can render is limited by the very fact
of his/her expertise. The consultant's presence implies that the resources and competencies
required to solve the problem at hand are not available among members of the client group.
Role Conflict
The roles and attendant responsibilities of both consultant and client, when unclear and
undefined, may produce differing expectations. Each may be unable to predict what the other
will do. Frustration and wasted energy can result.
Resistance
The consultant can expect either inertia or active resistance from the client whenever a change
in the status quo is contemplated. Such resistance may be caused by uncertainty of the
unknown, threat to position. or fear of failure. Counterbalancing this resistance, however, are
curiosity, interest, and the tendency to experiment.
Dependency
Some clients may want the consultant to tell them what to do rather than to think through the
problem themselves. This tendency is to be expected in the development of any mature
relationship.
Compulsive Action
The consultant may feel the need to demostrate his/her value; the client may feel the need to
arrive at a quick solution; both may forget that quick results can jeopardize long-range goals.
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Client Insecurity
The client may find it difficult to ask for help. He/she may be threatened by the suggestion that
help is needed; be unaware of his/her reluctance to admit his/her own part in the problem; be
looking for assurance and sympathy more than for help in seeing the problem clearly and
realistically; resentful of the help offered or the helper.
Consultant Objectivity
The consultant, especially under the pressure of dependency or resistance, needs to be aware
of and sensitive to, the possibilities of exploiting the consultative relationship in order to meet
his/her own needs, be they for success, reward, approval, friendship, or other things.
Client Motivation
The consultant needs to be aware of the range of possible client motivations. The need to
justify a preferred solution or course of action; the need to responsibility for final action; the
need for expressing dissatisfaction by a legitimate means.
Disengagement
One of the consultant's objectives must be to work him/herself out of a job. Both he and the
client may resist terminating the relationship: the client may find security in leaning on the
consultant; the consultant may enjoy being needed.
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Consultation Attitudes and Skills
Fundamental to the consultant's role are certain attitudes and abilities to support the
consultative relationship and implement the helping process.
Listening
Empathy
Flexibility
Confidence
Objectivity
Ability to listen diagnostically and to understand the thinking, motivations,
and biases of the client both in presenting and in working on the problem.
The consultant needs to hear the problem in terms of the client's attitudes
and understanding without pre-evaluating or pre-judging them.
Ability to identify with the client's point of view and to see the problem
through his/her eyes, without which real communication is impossible. The
consultant may be doing all the right things and fail, because of a basic lack
of interest in the client.
Ability to adjust to the client's environment, terminology, habits, traditions,
and ways of work. Adapting to a special circumstance or to the
unexpected is essential if the consultant is to assist the change process.
Ability to recognize and encourage the client's potential to grow and learn
from the experience. Part of the consultative task is to create conditions in
which the client not only solves the problem himself but learns to solve
problems in the future.
Ability to make a realistic analysis of the consultant's own attitudes,
abilities, motivations, biases, and stereotypes as they relate to the
relationship with a particular client. The consultant's own self-awareness is
essential, if he/she is to guard against: advocating change for the sake of
change; against encouraging dependence: and, against the temptation to
act outside of his/her own area of competence.
Ability to develop real communication with the client; to recognize shared
interests, experiences, values and standards as a basis for establishing the
consultative relationship on a personal level.
Mutuality
Support
Experimentation
Timing
Ability to enter the relationship as a shared quest with the client; to assess
and utilize the skills, knowledge, and experience of the client; mutual
confidence allows the contributions of all to be utilized without concern for
their source.
Ability to maintain a spirit of experimentation and exploration in the work on
the problem combined with a sense of commitment to the actions that are
planned. Fundamental to the consultative process is the standard of
constant evaluation, with information collected on the effectiveness of each
action step and further steps planned on basis of that data.
Ability to ask questions, offer information and make suggestions at the
moment that the client is ready to hear and respond. A sense of timing is
fundamental to effective consultation at every level of the relationship and
every point in the process.
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Orientation
Ability to abstract and correlate the data relevant to the situation
surrounding the problem, to the issues emerging from the problem, to the
attitudes and abilities of both client and consultant, to the need for, and
availability of resources appropriate to plan of action.
1.
Argyris, Chris and Donald Schon. Organization Learning: A Theory of Action Perspective.
Addison-Wesley, 1978.
2.
Linndguist, Jack. Strategies for Change. Berkely, CA: Pacific Soundings Press, 1978. pp. 249-250.
3.
Gibb, Jack R. The Role of the Consultant, The Journal of Social Issues, Vol. XV, No.2, 1959.
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Consultation Entry Plan
1.
Who is the client?
2.
What is the entry strategy?
3.
What is the current situation as the client sees or perceives it)?
a) What issues stand out in the client’s analysis of the current situation?
b) What issues does the consultant see in the current situation?
4.
What is the desired approach with which to manage the problem?
a) What solutions / approaches does the client identify?
b) What changes does the client think are necessary? / Possible?
c) What might be the consultant’s goal for change?
b) What is the assumed change goals of the client?
5.
What are the perceived forces for change and for /resisting change in this
situation?
6.
What resources or can be made available to support the change?
7.
Who is the appropriate person in the client system with whom to consult?
a) What information does the consultant need to know about the system or individuals
within the system before deciding with whom to meet?
b) How should the consutlant gain access to key information or individuals?
8.
What atmosphere does the consultant wish to create?
Does the climate that currently exists in the client's agency fit with that
atmosphere (e.g., degree of formality, structure, protocol, etc.)?
9.
What consultative relationship is most appropriate in this situation (authority,
collaborator, facilitator, or linker)?
10.
What are some alternative ways the consultant can manage other consultative
concerns?
a) diagnosis: examination of motives of the client and the consultant, of problem
definition, and the assessment of barriers.
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b) data collection: agreements upon kinds of data or information to be gathered and
methods for gathering them.
c) relationship: creating effective relationships, mutual acceptance of personal and
resource worth.
d) boundary definition: agreements about boundaries in the relationships and the roles to
be performed.
e) decision-making: how decisions will be made and what role the consultant plays in
this process.
f) termination: how relationships may be altered as they progress and are finally
terminated without undue trauma to the system.
11.
How will you evaluate each intervention with the client?
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