Totally relating to this article. Virtually every one of my senior level executive search engagements was built out of helping clients articulate problems they were facing which they had not, could not, have put into words when we first began our work with them. Fascinated by this process. You've sent me down a rabbit hole to investigate further.
Thank you for this! I was recently thinking about this and starting some notes on how to explain the ways I most help my clients. It can be quite a challenge to put into words; you've done a wonderful job here. Your descriptions feel very familiar and yet accessible to a broader audience.
In my case, I was prompted by making a connection with this type of consulting to the human brain's default mode network while reading the book Social by Matthew D. Lieberman. While as a geek I liked the term "default mode consulting," it is not very self-explanatory to 99% of others. :D
I am looking forward to going back and catching up on your earlier writing on not-knowing. I'm curious to see if you've shared your thoughts on communicating the inherent value in amorphous consulting. Most recently, I was with an organization that fundamentally could not fully get past their cultural bias for concrete consulting. As a result, the amorphous consulting was either poorly communicated as typical "discovery" work (which clients then never wanted to pay for) or was bundled up in the roles of sales account or account management, where it was ultimately then seen as an overhead cost or effort instead of the fundamentally valuable activity that it can be even as a standalone activity.
Totally relating to this article. Virtually every one of my senior level executive search engagements was built out of helping clients articulate problems they were facing which they had not, could not, have put into words when we first began our work with them. Fascinated by this process. You've sent me down a rabbit hole to investigate further.
Love this - I've described this distinction as "well defined" and "ambiguous" consulting before. The amorphous ones are always the most fun projects!
How abt those that start off certain (but wrong) and in the attempt to diagnose the root cause there’s a period of uncertainty?
That’s amorphous to me too
Thank you for this! I was recently thinking about this and starting some notes on how to explain the ways I most help my clients. It can be quite a challenge to put into words; you've done a wonderful job here. Your descriptions feel very familiar and yet accessible to a broader audience.
In my case, I was prompted by making a connection with this type of consulting to the human brain's default mode network while reading the book Social by Matthew D. Lieberman. While as a geek I liked the term "default mode consulting," it is not very self-explanatory to 99% of others. :D
I am looking forward to going back and catching up on your earlier writing on not-knowing. I'm curious to see if you've shared your thoughts on communicating the inherent value in amorphous consulting. Most recently, I was with an organization that fundamentally could not fully get past their cultural bias for concrete consulting. As a result, the amorphous consulting was either poorly communicated as typical "discovery" work (which clients then never wanted to pay for) or was bundled up in the roles of sales account or account management, where it was ultimately then seen as an overhead cost or effort instead of the fundamentally valuable activity that it can be even as a standalone activity.