Developing and maintaining the relationship is important in process consultation. Being clear in the exploratory meeting with the expectations and possibilities is one of the major concerns in process consultation, as the philosophy of PC is to jointly own the interventions, and not process consultation’s expertise on the subject matter, rather the problem-solving process that will lead to a sound decision (Schein, 1999). To avoid premature judgement, the consultant often just go with the flow and ask the necessary questions assuming the consultant know very little to evaluate the situation. Keeping the client in the driving seat of storytelling, the consultant follows the principle of going with the flow to get a better picture of the client’s situation.

As I try to reflect on the principle, I often go with the flow to clearly understand the perspectives and situation, until and unless I find a strong platform to express my point of view. I found it easier to express clearly and concisely later part of any meeting, rather than instant judgment. I was on a project with a faculty and few team members. I participated as a qualitative analysis expert, with subject knowledge in retail sustainability. In a different part of a discussion about economics and programming, I couldn’t agree with the interventions we have designed as a group. At the same time, I kept thinking my role is to enrich the retail and analysis part on phase three, and I should rather go with the flow for the first two-phase. My strategy helped me to keep listening, and have a better understanding from the expert from machine learning, and economics.

I often choose to go with the flow, instead of being involved in argument and misunderstanding. This part of process consulting is very challenging to me, where I see, as a process consultant we should clarify our role, and we are not going to provide any solution. The elements of an exploratory meeting to define the service is valuable, but I wonder how far the conversation goes knowing the type of service. I totally understand, from the viewpoint of Schein, or any experienced consultant, it’s easy to deal with clients who are already determined to get the service, but I wonder how the ‘power’ plays out while having a conversation with new practitioners while defining relationship.

References:

Schein, E. (1999). Process consultation revisited: Building the helping relationship. Addison-Wesley.