It's interesting how incidental remarks and observations about one field of activity can stimulate new ideas, fresh perspectives and useful insights in another. I was remined recently of one such incident that occurred several years ago.
The context
As I was driving to the local rail station one morning, on route to a client meeting in London, I happened to catch part of a radio 'phone-in programme. The topic centred on how best to raise children, given the concerns that had resurfaced in the previous day's news about the detrimental effects of youngsters' growing attraction to fast food, computer games and activities that offer instant gratification. At one point, it struck me that a comment made by one of the listeners neatly encapsulated a key aspect of my view on how consultants need to operate, if they are to add real value through their work.
The trigger
It was about forty minutes into the discussion when a woman named Susan Stranks rang-in to the studio. Some years previously, she had hosted a children's tv programme called Magpie. At the time, this had been ITV's answer to the BBC's long-running show, Blue Peter. When the host of the radio programme recognized her name, she explained that she had been campaigning for the previous twenty years or so on children's issues.
The essence of her argument was that the lack of playing fields, the marginalizing of in-school sport and the dearth of extra-curricular activities meant that many children had no sense of what they were missing; in effect, they had little choice but to behave in the way that they did. She advocated a much greater emphasis on re-creating opportunities such as these and opening children's eyes to what they were missing.
The insight
One of the studio guests was quick to dismiss this line of argument, on the basis that the children of today want to eat junk food, spend hours playing computer games, and get instant gratification from whatever they do. In a one-sentence response, Stranks said something that immediately struck me as profound in a wider context. Not only was it a brilliant retort to the 'that's life' comment of her challenger, but it also summed-up what effective, value-creating consultancy is all about. She said:
"It's not our job to give them what they want; it's our job to give them what they didn't know they could have."
The implications
So, what might we take from Susan Stranks’s intervention, if we apply her remarks to organizational consulting?
To begin with, the contention that "it’s not our job to give them what they want", underlines the importance of consultants helping clients to overcome their felt need for instantly gratifying (but reality-denying) ‘do this and you’ll get that solutions’. This means encouraging and enabling them to take seriously their own experience of everyday organizational life. And, in particular, to acknowledge the disconnect that exists between, on the one hand, their embodied sense of the complex reality, which they and everyone else have no option but to muddle through; and, on the other, the seductive, ‘plug-and-play’ approaches that still dominate the prescriptions that are offered in relation to organizational practice and performance.
Although we are all 'walking case studies' of these dynamics in action, this real-world "wiggliness" of organization and management practice is conspicuous by its absence from the mainstream view. As a result, what's actually going on in the multitude of small-group and one-to-one interactions, through which organization is being continuously (re-)enacted and 'outcomes' are emerging, tends to be seen as undiscussible in formal organizational arenas. This is despite the fact that it's through the self-organizing patterning of these exchanges that people are perpetually constructing the future together - with many of the most significant of these taking place outside the formally established structures, systems and procedures.
With this in mind, the call, to “give them what they didn’t know they could have”, is best seen as helping managers and others to participate with greater awareness and ability in this complex social process of everyday human interaction. In other words, it is about enabling them to shift their perspectives, practices and performance in ways that more closely reflect the complex reality in which they and everyone else are continuously immersed. Central to this is the need for them to surface and explore the various shadow themes that are organizing people's participation. Their task then becomes one of seeking to build coalitions of co-operative effort in support of those themes that they judge to be most 'in tune' with current needs, and with the desired direction of travel; as well as addressing those that are closing down the 'possibility space' within which useful action might otherwise emerge.
From a Wiggly World and Informal Coalitions perspective, the only meaningful choice that managers have is whether or not to engage with these dynamics in a deliberate and informed way. For those who choose to do so, this brings people's everyday conversations out of the shadows and places them at the forefront of managenent practice and organizational performance. And, as regards muddling through, this means their working to do so with purpose, courage and skill - as well as encouraging, assisting and enabling others to do the same.
Comments