Although not pointed at the experience that I reflected about on 9/24, I found reassurance in the additional discussion about Active Inquiry in Monday's class. I was definitely approaching that conversation in too formulaic a way. I was also trying to hurry the process and so I find Schein's reminders about timing on pp. 48-49 to be very helpful. Principal #7 which reminds us to wait until the client is accessible must apply to the emotional availability of the client as well. There is data in the emotion that the consultant can use but the client needs to process that same data or the goal to let them solve their own problem will be difficult to attain.
This leads back to Principle #6 and one of the other topics we debated on Monday - Go With the Flow. I heard Dr. Carter pose the question to us whether we felt that Block's approach was too linear to support a "go with the flow" principle. Most of us agreed but there was also discussion about how the linear, step by step guide was very helpful for us novice and not yet flawless consultants.
I also found plenty of opportunity for "flow" in the first several of Block's ground rules for consulting on pp. 67-68. Granted, this flow is couched in a list of RULES! I see suggestions and reminders for improving the dynamic (def: relating to energy or objects in motion) interaction between consultant and client:
Enter freely.
Ensure consideration from/for both sides - "skin in the game".
Don't ask for something that the other doesn't have to give.
You can't contract for a change in feelings, only for a change in behaviors.
and the best of all, cue the Rolling Stones...
You can't always get what you want!
As I prepare to meet our client for the first time, I'll be more than tempted to use multiple checklists and cheat sheets. I must also remember to go with the flow and to be authentic about my goals: to help, to practice and to learn.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
Active Inquiry - Does it always work?
The day following our last class I sat with my Dad in my kitchen and interviewed him for a project that I am working on for MGMT 682 - Staffing. For this job analysis, I needed to review with him a list of tasks, knowledges, skills and abilities that are required by an organization (for which he is Board Chairman), Open Arms Institute, for the role of Child Care Center Director. Knowing that there had been a recent high profile failure of a director in one of the centers, I was a bit nervous about the conversation and the project to say the least. Besides my anxiety, I could tell right away that my dad was struggling and pretty anxious. So, even putting the job analysis aside, it was hard not to go into the Exploratory Inquiry right way. This was also somewhat natural because we had dialogued about the issue several times in the past two weeks so I already knew a bit about the situation.
What do you do when a client is already emotional?
How do you engage in a pure inquiry first?
How do you move him or her off of the feelings and into the the exploration of reasons and actions?
If you are aware of the situation (as I was), how do you reframe the conversation into a new examination?
I think Schein gives us great and practical suggestions about these 3 phases of inquiry. I hope that at some point in my career, these questions will come more naturally and that I feel more practiced in the process.
What do you do when a client is already emotional?
How do you engage in a pure inquiry first?
How do you move him or her off of the feelings and into the the exploration of reasons and actions?
If you are aware of the situation (as I was), how do you reframe the conversation into a new examination?
I think Schein gives us great and practical suggestions about these 3 phases of inquiry. I hope that at some point in my career, these questions will come more naturally and that I feel more practiced in the process.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Leader as Process Consultant
I really appreciated the class discussion last night about the Preface to the Second Edition (p. xvii) in which Peter Block talks about the authentic consultant. He describes authenticity in consulting not as the oxymoron that some of us who have been jaded by interactions with the "Expert" consultant recognize, but as a competitive advantage if not also a high risk strategy. There was also discussion about Block's assertion that many of us do not even know how to be authentic anymore, and whether that is true for us as a professional culture.
This reminded me about one of the many favorite topics that I've studied so far in graduate school. For MGMT 641: Organizational Management, I researched Authentic Leadership and spent some time in Bill George's book True North which I highly recommend as a lighter, practitioner-oriented reading related to this topic of authenticity. Looking back over my notes from the presentation made in class that semester, I found our definition of authentic leadership. "An Authentic Leader is a person that lives a life of integrity, and who is hopeful, optimistic, resilient, transparent, moral and ethical. An Authentic Leader is future-oriented and makes the development of others a priority. She is honest in relationship with others and most importantly, honest and true to self." I think that these last two points dovetail nicely with Schein's expression of what successful process consultation looks like.
First, about making the development of others a priority, Schein's "PC Model" practices double-loop, or generative, learning, to ensure that the client learns to learn. From page 19 of Process Consultation Revisited, "The expert and doctor models fix the problem; the goal of PC is to increase the client system's capacity for learning so that it can in the future fix its own problems."
I see that the second point of our definition, about honesty in relationship and with self, reflects Schein's Principle #3: Access Your Ignorance. A consultant who feigns omniscience does a huge disservice to themselves and the client. Every one in every consulting relationship always knows that it is not possible to know every thing, right? But, unless that fact is admitted to evidence and acknowledged by both parties, a consultant cannot practice authenticity and cannot inspire the clients to place trust in them.
The footnote on page 19 about Heifetz's adaptive leadership theory, encouraged me to continue thinking about using the process consultation model as a model for leadership. Adapting Schein's first five principles with help from Block, I'd suggest the following as an additional map for authentic leaders:
#1 Leadership requires flexibility in relationships from one minute to the next but it must also always be about helping and loving.
#2 Leadership is about being present with your team, understanding their realities and looking for data in each interaction.
#3 Leaders must seek to understand "more" than what is presented or asked. They must be wise enough to ask for more information.
#4 Leaders should not be the only ones providing answers and innovations. They must motivate and influence their team to participate in the review and the change and the growth.
#5 For leaders to be most effective, they must hold the team accountable for their issues, processes and systems.
Besides adapting it as a tool for leadership behavior, I think this process consultation model provides great guidance for me in future employee relations work. I can work all day long, every day to solve technical issues but the only enduring assistance I can provide is to help the employee to fix the problem for herself.
This reminded me about one of the many favorite topics that I've studied so far in graduate school. For MGMT 641: Organizational Management, I researched Authentic Leadership and spent some time in Bill George's book True North which I highly recommend as a lighter, practitioner-oriented reading related to this topic of authenticity. Looking back over my notes from the presentation made in class that semester, I found our definition of authentic leadership. "An Authentic Leader is a person that lives a life of integrity, and who is hopeful, optimistic, resilient, transparent, moral and ethical. An Authentic Leader is future-oriented and makes the development of others a priority. She is honest in relationship with others and most importantly, honest and true to self." I think that these last two points dovetail nicely with Schein's expression of what successful process consultation looks like.
First, about making the development of others a priority, Schein's "PC Model" practices double-loop, or generative, learning, to ensure that the client learns to learn. From page 19 of Process Consultation Revisited, "The expert and doctor models fix the problem; the goal of PC is to increase the client system's capacity for learning so that it can in the future fix its own problems."
I see that the second point of our definition, about honesty in relationship and with self, reflects Schein's Principle #3: Access Your Ignorance. A consultant who feigns omniscience does a huge disservice to themselves and the client. Every one in every consulting relationship always knows that it is not possible to know every thing, right? But, unless that fact is admitted to evidence and acknowledged by both parties, a consultant cannot practice authenticity and cannot inspire the clients to place trust in them.
The footnote on page 19 about Heifetz's adaptive leadership theory, encouraged me to continue thinking about using the process consultation model as a model for leadership. Adapting Schein's first five principles with help from Block, I'd suggest the following as an additional map for authentic leaders:
#1 Leadership requires flexibility in relationships from one minute to the next but it must also always be about helping and loving.
#2 Leadership is about being present with your team, understanding their realities and looking for data in each interaction.
#3 Leaders must seek to understand "more" than what is presented or asked. They must be wise enough to ask for more information.
#4 Leaders should not be the only ones providing answers and innovations. They must motivate and influence their team to participate in the review and the change and the growth.
#5 For leaders to be most effective, they must hold the team accountable for their issues, processes and systems.
Besides adapting it as a tool for leadership behavior, I think this process consultation model provides great guidance for me in future employee relations work. I can work all day long, every day to solve technical issues but the only enduring assistance I can provide is to help the employee to fix the problem for herself.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Dusting off the Blog
Before diving into a reflective post on our readings, I must memorialize the summer of 2010. It has been fabulous! Anticipating the coming year of full-time graduate coursework and full-time employment following graduation in May 2011 (God willing), I aimed to take full advantage of our family's summer schedule after I studied for and passed the SPHR exam in June. Since my children are of elementary age and my husband teaches in high school, we were ALL OFF ALL SUMMER!
Even before school let out in June, my girls were practicing daily with our neighborhood swim league. The weekly meets were so fun and probably as much for us parents who like to socialize as for the kids who love to swim.
Our big vacation was a 2 1/2 week trip to Bali, Indonesia and Singapore. We survived the 23 hours worth of flying time each way by watching lots of in-flight movies (the girls watched How To Train Your Dragon no less than 5 times) and reveling at the cool Asian food that was served for airline meals. The landscape is beautifully tropical (as are the bugs) and seeing our 5th and 2nd graders experiencing such different cultures was priceless. The occasion for gathering were milestone birthdays being celebrated by my sister and husband who live in Singapore so we also had some neat time with family and friends who traveled there as well!
We ended the summer with a new addition to the family. Copper, a 9 week old beagle puppy, came to live with us, in honor of my daughter's 10th birthday. Ever since, we've been exhausted and reminded of just how tough and rewarding it is to raise an infant!
Although I tried and mostly succeeded in letting go of school and professional cares this summer, I did have some fateful interactions with "HR" over the summer. Highlights included a morning-long conversation with my sister's friend who is a Regional HR Director for Arnott's in AsiaPac . We shared strikingly similar tales of people process improvement projects and leadership struggles which underscored for me that the need for good strategic HR management is a global concern.
Poolside in Bali (tough life I know!), my Dad and I conferenced for part of another morning about his role as President of the Board of Directors for Open Arms Institute Inc. which is struggling with how to best fulfill its mission to plant Lutheran congregation by developing child care center. It was neat to be able to challenge my own father to step back from an intense and consuming process problem and to look at how the organization's mission and vision could re-focus and lead them to the right answers.
While in Singapore, I organized a lunch meeting with a former co-worker from the Houston office of IHS who now works in Singapore. While dining at the Raffles Hotel, she and I reminisced about some great and not so great times working together to provide HR support to the Energy segment. It was most fun though just to hear about her new challenges working as a an ex-pat for the company. This visit in particular made me really excited to go back into corporate HR work, if for no other reason but to be able to continue making great connections with HR colleagues worldwide. I hope that excitement burns until May when I have to go job hunting!
To top off the summer, a personal and professional highlight coincided in the form of a 2-day Appreciative Inquiry Summit at our newest elementary school, J. Blaine Blayton. My 5th grade daughter and I were among a handful of student and parent representatives invited to help the Principal and new staff create a vision for the school. It was so exciting to experience "live and in person" the large group intervention strategy that we spent time reading and practicing in ADLT 625 last Spring. All of the participants were energized by the positive change approach and as a parent, it was refreshing to see the staff "gel" through the inquiry process and adapt so well to the idea of dreaming and designing the "Blayton Bumblebees" future. I also had a big "a-ha" moment watching the leaders of the event (the facilitator and the Principal) try to stay on the positive track even as the ache to go "stressed and worried" took over when the sessions ended 6 days before the school was supposed to open its doors for the first time ever.
The summer of 2010 will be easy to remember via our travel photos and the growth of our new puppy. What I will also strive to recall is the true excitement I feel when thinking about using what I have learned during this academic and personal hiatus when I go back to work in Human Resources.
Cheers to a great 2010-2011 academic year!
Even before school let out in June, my girls were practicing daily with our neighborhood swim league. The weekly meets were so fun and probably as much for us parents who like to socialize as for the kids who love to swim.
Our big vacation was a 2 1/2 week trip to Bali, Indonesia and Singapore. We survived the 23 hours worth of flying time each way by watching lots of in-flight movies (the girls watched How To Train Your Dragon no less than 5 times) and reveling at the cool Asian food that was served for airline meals. The landscape is beautifully tropical (as are the bugs) and seeing our 5th and 2nd graders experiencing such different cultures was priceless. The occasion for gathering were milestone birthdays being celebrated by my sister and husband who live in Singapore so we also had some neat time with family and friends who traveled there as well!
We ended the summer with a new addition to the family. Copper, a 9 week old beagle puppy, came to live with us, in honor of my daughter's 10th birthday. Ever since, we've been exhausted and reminded of just how tough and rewarding it is to raise an infant!
Although I tried and mostly succeeded in letting go of school and professional cares this summer, I did have some fateful interactions with "HR" over the summer. Highlights included a morning-long conversation with my sister's friend who is a Regional HR Director for Arnott's in AsiaPac . We shared strikingly similar tales of people process improvement projects and leadership struggles which underscored for me that the need for good strategic HR management is a global concern.
Poolside in Bali (tough life I know!), my Dad and I conferenced for part of another morning about his role as President of the Board of Directors for Open Arms Institute Inc. which is struggling with how to best fulfill its mission to plant Lutheran congregation by developing child care center. It was neat to be able to challenge my own father to step back from an intense and consuming process problem and to look at how the organization's mission and vision could re-focus and lead them to the right answers.
While in Singapore, I organized a lunch meeting with a former co-worker from the Houston office of IHS who now works in Singapore. While dining at the Raffles Hotel, she and I reminisced about some great and not so great times working together to provide HR support to the Energy segment. It was most fun though just to hear about her new challenges working as a an ex-pat for the company. This visit in particular made me really excited to go back into corporate HR work, if for no other reason but to be able to continue making great connections with HR colleagues worldwide. I hope that excitement burns until May when I have to go job hunting!
To top off the summer, a personal and professional highlight coincided in the form of a 2-day Appreciative Inquiry Summit at our newest elementary school, J. Blaine Blayton. My 5th grade daughter and I were among a handful of student and parent representatives invited to help the Principal and new staff create a vision for the school. It was so exciting to experience "live and in person" the large group intervention strategy that we spent time reading and practicing in ADLT 625 last Spring. All of the participants were energized by the positive change approach and as a parent, it was refreshing to see the staff "gel" through the inquiry process and adapt so well to the idea of dreaming and designing the "Blayton Bumblebees" future. I also had a big "a-ha" moment watching the leaders of the event (the facilitator and the Principal) try to stay on the positive track even as the ache to go "stressed and worried" took over when the sessions ended 6 days before the school was supposed to open its doors for the first time ever.
The summer of 2010 will be easy to remember via our travel photos and the growth of our new puppy. What I will also strive to recall is the true excitement I feel when thinking about using what I have learned during this academic and personal hiatus when I go back to work in Human Resources.
Cheers to a great 2010-2011 academic year!
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