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.

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.

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 A...