Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used

This Third Edition to Peter Block's Flawless Consulting addresses business changes and new challenges since the second edition was written ten years ago. It tackles the challenges next-generation consultants face, including more guidance on how to ask better questions, dealing with difficult clients, working in an increasingly virtual world, how to cope with complexities in international consulting, case studies, and guidelines on implementation. Also included are illustrative examples and exercises to help you cement the guides offered.

Table of Contents:
What’s New? xiii Acknowledgments xxi 1 A Consultant by Any Other Name . . . 1 Some Definitions and Distinctions 2 Consulting Skills Preview 6 The Promise of Flawless Consultation 9 2 Techniques are Not Enough 13 Beyond Content 14 The Consultant’s Assumptions 17 The Consultant’s Goals 19 Developing Client Commitment––A Secondary Goal of Each Consulting Act 21 Roles Consultants Choose 22 Collaboration and the Fear of Holding Hands 27 Staging the Client’s Involvement, Step by Step 29 3 Flawless Consulting 37 Being Authentic 37 Completing the Requirements of Each Phase 40 Results 46 Accountability 47 The Right to Fail 49 4 Contracting Overview 51 Contracting: The Concept and the Skill 52 Elements of a Contract 57 Ground Rules for Contracting 65 5 The Contracting Meeting 67 Who is the Client? 68 Navigating the Contracting Meeting 70 When You Get Stuck 87 The Problem with Saying No 95 Contracting Checkpoint 96 Selling Your Services: Good Selling is Good Contracting 98 The Meeting as a Model of How You Work 102 Closing the Contracting Meeting 103 After the Contracting Meeting 104 6 The Agonies of Contracting 107 Dealing with Low Motivation 107 Ceaseless Negotiation: The Shifting Tide of Your Role 109 Some Other Specific Agonies 113 The Virtual World 115 7 The Internal Consultant 121 Important Differences Between Internal and External Consultants 122 Triangles and Rectangles 124 8 Understanding Resistance 129 The Faces of Resistance 130 What are Clients Resisting When They are Resisting Us? 138 Underlying Concerns 140 Sometimes it is Not Resistance 143 The Fear and the Wish 143 Ogres and Angels 147  . . . and Heroics 148 9 Dealing with Resistance 149 Three Steps for Handling Resistance 151 Don’t Take it Personally 155 Good-Faith Responses 156 Consulting with a Stone 157 10 From Diagnosis to Discovery 159 It is Still the Relationship That Counts 160 The Call to Action 163 The Problem is Not the Problem 167 How the Problem is Being Managed 170 Flawless Discovery 172 11 Whole-System Discovery 175 Third-Party Consulting 176 Taking a Whole-System Approach 178 Your Choice 179 Putting Whole-System Discovery to Work 180 The Payoff 182 12 Discovering Gifts, Capacities, and Possibilities 183 When All Else Fails 185 The Power of Positive Deviance 186 The Implications of Positive Deviance for Consulting 189 An Example of What is Working 190 13 Get the Picture 201 The Steps in Getting the Picture 202 A Word About Bias 206 Assessing How the Situation is Being Managed 207 The Discovery Interview 210 Levels of Analysis 211 Your Experience as Data 214 14 Preparing for Feedback 217 A Clear Picture May Be Enough 217 Condensing the Data 218 Some Do’s and Don’ts 219 Language in Giving the Picture 221 Presenting the Picture . . . As Courtroom Drama 223 Support and Confront 225 15 Managing the Meeting for Action 229 How to Present the Picture 230 Structuring the Meeting 231 The Meeting for Action, Step by Step 233 A Recap 241 Resistance in the Meeting 242 When Group Members are at Odds Among Themselves 244 Modeling the Meeting 246 16 Implementation 249 Choosing Engagement over Installation 250 Deciding Doesn’t Get it Done 251 The Limits of Installation 252 Betting on Engagement 258 17 The Elements of Engagement 261 The Meeting is the Message 262 Eight Ways to Engage 263 The Point 275 18 Teacher as Consultant 279 The Story 280 Assumptions About Motivating Students 281 The Reality 282 Taking a Consultant’s Stance 283 The Trip to Washington, D.C. 293 The Choice in the Matter 296 19 The Heart of the Matter 299 Choosing Learning over Teaching 300 Learning as a Social Adventure 302 The Struggle is the Solution 303 The Question is More Important Than the Answer 304 Beyond How 305 Insight Resides in Moments of Tension 307 Capacities Bear More Fruit Than Deficiencies 309 We are Responsible for One Another’s Learning 311 Culture Changes in the Moment 312 If Change is So Wonderful, Why Don’t You Go First? 313 The Final Question is One of Faith 315 Online Appendix: Handy Checklists You Can Use 317 Further Reading 319 About the Author 323

About the Author :
PETER BLOCK is an author and consultant whose work is about empowerment, stewardship, chosen accountability, and the reconciliation of community. He is the author of several best-selling books, including the first two editions of Flawless Consulting, Stewardship, Community, and The Empowered Manager. He is a partner in Designed Learning, a training company that offers his personally designed workshops that help to build the skills outlined in his books.