Flawless Consulting (a Guide To Getting Your Expertise Used)

By (author) Block Peter
Short description/annotation
Flawless Consulting is considered the "consultant''s bible" and a landmark bestseller that explains how to deal effectively with clients, peers, and others. This third edition addresses business and new challenges since the second edition was written and also explores what''s on the minds of "next generation" consultants.
Description
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