Consulting Blog

Key procedures of organizational diagnosis involve the understanding of internal and external boundaries and political dynamics of a given client. It is important to gather preliminary supporting data on interdepartmental processes and ideologies in order to deliver a hypothesis that effectively engages learning within the organization. Once Identification of key stakeholders has been made available, access to records and institution of communications may begin to explore possible solution(s) and facilitate proper dialogue with stakeholders. It is important to be aware of potential issues that you might face while conducting organizational diagnosis;

Potential Isues: 

• Traditional assumptions and ignorant realities that influence the organization without objective data
• Lack of Consultant or stakeholder effectiveness upon entry due to anxiety or fear
• Separate Implied diagnosis without inclusion of the Consultant
• Client interpersonal conflicts, lack of collaboration, denial and defensiveness
• Wastage of raw/human materials that are not being used
• Leadership and strategic problem difficulties

When approaching diagnosis initial interviewing of board members, general managers, directors, and any other top senior management in the total system is imperative. These meetings will allow identification of cultural, structural and/or strategic objectives. At that time, one may provide feedback for the sponsor to evaluate the results of potential diagnosis. Unified belief systems allow for creation of a sense of awareness to reach unanimity across the organization, which is imperative in obtaining buy-in from change agents.

Important principles:

• Undo diagnosis mismanagement and provide total system diagnosis
• Discover ignorant realities/assumptions
• Involve the client to believe in collaborating to implement joint solution(s) and action(s)
• Work towards changes that will result in increased autonomy to empower individuals to be more effective across the organization

More on organizational diagnosis by DR. MANNIE SHER:

http://youtu.be/y-vn9CE2sow

 

The topic of critical thinking and group think are essential intellectual awareness skills for Process consultation; commonly group think in organizational settings can be recognized and corrected in an effort to achieve complex critical thinking. 

Group think is one of the three barriers to critical thinking. Barriers include egocentrism, socio centric and finally the topic of group think. Group think is common in business settings when a shared result, goal, or point is made and there is a relevant idea, approach or culturally accepted way of reaching a solution and or proposed action.

An occasion when I observed group think was during a conference call. The topic was relative to training topics for consideration. In this case the VP of HR inferred to the Director of Training proposed topics from steak holders proposals. The Director of training advised the trainings seemed a bit out dated and that the raw material may not align universally with the companies standardized topics. The VP of HR agreed that they should stick to the selected  topics, without ever even seeing the materials and alternatives the training topics offered to the need of the management team in question. The VP went on to explain that standardized training could only be given in one way by one person and from one topic. The director, management team and VP all agreed and the proposal was negated without inquiring on the data acquired on stakeholders skill gaps.

The management team agreed due to authority roles, the VP lacked understanding of the basis and questioning for such a proposal to implement a different approach. The director made an opinion on content and failed to think deeper into why the management team felt they needed the training and the supporting data behind it. This was a clear case where group think impeded each other from thinking beyond the realm/scope of impartial thinking within the groups ignorant bias. With the right questions and fair minded openness to others viewpoints the ability to rationalize diverse perspectives could be interpreted at a deeper level of validation.

Process consultation can be applied to the personal and professional life. In terms of the personal life the skills taught in Process Consultation include knowing how to be assertive by communicating your feelings and thoughts to better understand others and for others to better understand you. This skill requires ownership of the way you feel and how you perceive others. Process consultation can also be applied to my personal life in terms of mindfullness, being aware of others perceptions and their needs. In order to have a helping relationship, you must be sensitive to others needs, this applies to family, friends and spouses.

The act of forming a helping relationship can also service non-profits, active inquiry is a methodology that has applied to my personal life, as I have helped others own their “problem” and discover my ignorant realities to delve into solutions that meet local community needs. The fundamental principles remain a standard to follow in this aspect and assist in establishing trust, definition of the level of awareness other have of their core values and mission and the beginning of a collective dialogue, to form sound helping relationships. For applicable guidelines in our personal lives we must remember the principles of Process Consultation:

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 the solution

By remembering these principles I am able to have better communication with my family, for example when there is a disagreement, we can discuss the problem, discover ideas by brainstorming together and reach alternative solutions to collaborate, design a plan and implement action. When finances get hard, or health issues become a factor a similar process can take place. The key is mutual involvement, identifying route causes and working together within the scope of the issue and available resources towards resolution. We can keep eachother positive and work towards a common goal by accepting the responsibility to face the issue and collect necessary data that helps identify each individuals role in deployment of the agreed course.

Facework is a powerful concept that if utilized correctly can inspire gainful relationships with others. In the training and development of talent it is important to understand the term “save face”. Your stakeholder must be vested and moved in the client relationship to secure effective dialogue and fruitful communications.

Almost daily, I implemented facework during trainings, meetings, and public social interactions. A specific time where I role modeled parts of a training, I had a high sense of awareness for my interpersonal communication, as I exemplified the behaviors and lessons from the trainings. The training consisted of effective coaching and communication with subordinates. I monitored my coaching and teachings to reinforce how managers could inquire and develop others when hey found themselves tasked with coaching. Some Manager’s lacked the skill set to coach and found themselves feeling shy and unable to roleplay. To save face groups were able to name a spokesperson, and therefore allow learning from observing other managers, without making anyone feel uncomfortable.

This approach was one that was effective for the training, and one that resembled a supportive manager that taught others through coaching. The goal was to coach them into being executive coaches. Simulated coaching sessions and expertise advice also played a factor into facework with the class. Peer learning and group work assignments during training strategically gained control of the room, for others to follow me as a leader and trust the learning interventions. As a trainer, maintaining your audience trusting and engaged by serving in a leader context is one that resulted effective for this audience.

Learning more about Face Work: 

Face is the social value that an individual (the actor) implicitly claims in a given situation and role. The other person (the audience) will sustain that claim if it falls within the institutionalized limits according to the given status or role. Face work is what both the actor and the audience do when the claim cannot be sustained. Our cultural rules have taught us to sustain the claim even when the claim of social value is obviously false. If someone consistently makes claims of social status that are false, we will avoid that person rather than confronting and humiliating him or her. We tend to go to great lengths to avoid losing face as well as to keep others from losing face. Within our society we have an implicit contract to sustain social claims.

The process consultant must be aware of and sensitive to maintaining the client’s face, as any act that might humiliate the client would obviously undermine the consultant–client relationship. When a consultant grants a client face, it creates status equilibrium.

 

Intriguing Ideas of Appreciative Inquiry: Appreciative Inquiry is a methodology that supports change management transformations. Often times we approach lack of results or a desired objective that is not being met as a problem. This theory of “problem” resonates on what is being done wrong, how many defects can we point out and then how do we fix this? Appreciative inquiry introduces the approach of “positive psychology” and the thought of what is going right, what do we know works? The Discover, Dream, Design, Destiny model described in the AI commons website shows evidence that positive thinking leads to peak thinking (broaden and build theory).

What about AI resonates: When applying this approach as a training methodology to evoke feelings of positivism and optimism to change I understood stakeholders were inconclusive about how to lift morale, as it related to employee and customer interaction. Employees commensurate with guests at the time of receiving complaints, thus creating an environment that did not support a successful business model. The task at hand was, how can we educate team members to learn what they had to offer that was positive? What could they speak to that was working for them and how could we engage this thought process?

I created a training summit for over 1,000 team members that lasted almost 2 months where we were able to re-energize team members by challenging them to practice positive thinking. We asked them why it was important to respond positively, how this benefited them in their workplace. The team members learned in a sense that it was to their benefit, to the customers benefit and ultimately to the organizations benefit to exercise an appreciative state of mind in order to in turn have a more enjoyable work life. At that time the team was able to connect to the concepts that were working, the services that drove differentiating factors when it came to responding to guests. These feelings and thoughts perpetuated to customers and translated into a change in culture for the organization, but it was not without challenges.

Challenges in Appreciative Inquiry: During the appreciative inquiry process team members resisted with negative feedback, stating ” how could we be positive when we are given so much negativity from our customers daily”? After thorough explanation of ways to anticipate our responses and the thought that chosen perception translates in our given response. We were able to help team members retrain themselves with positive emotions to create a heliotrope outlook and enlightened perspective (fredrickson, losada, strivastra and cooperrider, heliotropism). The following video was utilized during the workshops:

An occasion of consulting in which I acted as an expert was in a Leadership Development need for training diagnosis. The problem scope included conducting interviews with Senior leadership in discovery of identifying what skill gaps their management team needed addressed and the applicable training’s required to close found gaps. An exploration of preconceived training content provided over ten topics that contained fundamentals of leadership, coaching, problem solving, conflict resolution, and effective communication, among other subject matters. It was discovered the first order of business, based on consensus of majority data revealed communication to be the most imperative skills to address.

Did training solve the problem and was it necessary? It is unclear if training was the correct course of action. Training was originally thought to be the correct method to implement, however there were underlying fundamental issues within Management that later transpired. Two members of leadership were deemed to have resisting and at times even hostile forms of communication. One of the said members displayed defensiveness in meetings, at times even displaying argumentative behavior when participating in focus discussions. The other leader was out of tune with the organizations business process, and passive in the human resource management function of talent allocation and managing personnel for said initiatives. Ultimately, developing management skill was not the appropriate course of action, until the Leadership themselves could serve as a model in demonstrating leadership competencies, such that communication role modeling proficiency and influencing skills reflected in their management style.

The following video gives more insight on this topic:

The power on the effect of senior leadership team is enormous

Essentially, you can not expect your team to engage in developing skills, if you yourself as a Leader do not lead by example. Furthermore, the standard deviation demonstrated a skill gap from top-level management needed to be addressed, before intervening with middle management. My role provided guidance for the sponsoring client to re-evaluate a specific lack of interpersonal communication skills. Consequentially several months later the decision was made to replace members of the leadership team. My role as a process consultant helped the client re-think the current team and chose a remedial course in the newly identified needs. Without a doubt Leading by example never grows old, and makes all the difference in your team’s motivation.