I wonder how many consultants are aware of a similar dynamic in their dark craft. Greg Clarke told me that there are in essence only three reasons a company hires a consultant: a. to get access to special knowledge, b. to reduce cost (outsource) and c. to shift risk. The last group are the most dangerous and you should charge more for them.
But there is something more sinister and destabilizing about this relationship between a client and their agent. In just about every conversation I had this week the same theme came up again and again; implementation support is the biggest market need right now. In so many cases the designers and innovators hired to help out are frustrated when great ideas are left in the boardroom and never see the light of day. The practical skills and ability to make actionable decisions along the way seem to be missing.
Looking at the soothsayer wisdom I would venture that the consulting model itself creates this need. By separating the client team of a company from the innovation process the employees lack the insight, interest and passion to drive the idea to fruition. All of the energy created by the discovery and creation process is left with the consultants, burnishing their polished plaques. The emotional bond between creator and its Pygmalion walks out the door as the engagement ends. Or as Susanne put it: "Sometimes you get lucky and one or two people actually 'get it.' They are the ones who put in the effort to drive the idea through."
I don't think anything important was ever invented 9 to 5. The subconscious gnawing that gets you up at 3am to noodle and shape a new concept is essential to taking a business to fresh terrain. This personal investment is essential to overcome corporate dissent and the conflict inherent in change. The stereotypical image of the entrepreneur who irrationally follows a dream to overcome all hurdles to success illustrates this. By outsourcing this effort and emotional commitment a company implicitly gives away their ability to access its energy. Perhaps consultants should pay their clients for the privilege of feeling like fresh parents all the time.
Fascinating thoughts around the locus of latent energy in an organisational context. It drives me to wonder about Jungian archetypes - or collective morphic fields created by the thought-patterns of groups within organisation. The consultant may temporality short-circuit staff attachment to these thought forms and offer a 'way-out' from sticky/repetitive behaviour by bringing fresh thinking to the business. In doing so, an enormous pool of creative energy is unlocked that paves the way for change. Perhaps the consultant directly facilitates access to different and fresh thought forms that people attune to. In the absence of the consultant, the group might be impulsed to default back to the status quo; their existing morphic field of conditioned behaviour. Or, following on Susanne's comments, perhaps some people naturally align with the new energy injected by the consultant and are simply unable to default back into ritualistic behaviour; it is closer to their true self or purpose.
ReplyDeletethanks simon. Your comments really take the thinking to the next level. I look forward to riffing with you on these implications :-)
ReplyDeleteyeah, am really looking forward to a heretic consultancy conversation also!
ReplyDeleteIn thinking about attuning to positive morphic patterns... this is pulled from a FastCo post reviewing Walter Isaacson's Jobs biography;
"He called it experiential wisdom," says Isaacson, who writes that Jobs's believed that everything from his Buddhist training to his recreational use of LSD contributed to this sixth sense. These experiences "form certain patterns and values that you have to be attuned to," Jobs believed.
Perhaps Buddhist training is more sustainable than widespread LSD consumption within organisations! Talk soon.
strange, it feels like margaret wheatly's theories from the early 90's are finally getting traction: http://www.modeweekly.com/1998/0998/LeadershipNewScience0898.htm
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