Contents
1. I Am the consultant and I Don't Know What to Do!
2. What Is New in Humble Consulting?
3. The Need for a Trusting and Open Level Two Relationship
4. Humble Consulting Begins with the First Conversation
5. Personalization: Enhancing the Level Two Relationship
6. The Humble Consulting Focus on Process
7. The New Kinds of Adaptive Moves
Concluding Comments: Some Final Thoughts on How to Be Really
Helpful
Edgar H. Schein is the Society of Sloan Fellows Professor of Management Emeritus at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is the author of numerous bestselling books including the recent Humble Inquiry.
“Humble Consulting is a fine blend of poetic writing and practical
methodology. It is an intimate conversation about how service, in
this case consulting, works in the real world. All who want a
deeper understanding of the way to create relationships that
produce outcomes will value this book. To simply recommend it is an
understatement.”
—Peter Block, author of Flawless Consulting, The Answer to How Is
Yes
“What is the most powerful force in consulting’s relational
success—where you and the client move beyond the transactional to
the deeper transformational? I used to think it was what our
amazing OD founders Ed Schein and Warren Bennis saw as the core
value of Organization Development: what they called that
special “spirit of inquiry.” Now I see that it’s something far more
foundational. In a word, its “humility” and Ed Schein, with this
book is modelling it for all of us in the way he, the master, is
yet the student, disclosing his innermost doubts and mistakes,
revealing his subtle insights and brilliant successes, and
up-ending almost all of our assumptions of what really matters
most. This is the first book I now recommend to consultants young
and old: for without humility—a stance wide-open, a state-of “not
knowing” and totally vulnerable and present-- you cannot do this
work. The message: make humility your greatest strength, and
never lose it.”
- David L. Cooperrider, author of Appreciative Inquiry and
Fairmount Minerals Professor of Social Entrepreneurship,
Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve
University
“Ed Schein takes the principles of Humble Inquiry and beautifully
extends them to the consulting process in this book. He humbly and
generously gives us a window into his own life and consulting
process by sharing real stories from his years of consulting,
including his own inner thoughts and unexpressed feelings. Every
consultant should read this for insights into how we should deal
with our doubts, questions, and anxieties. This is another major
contribution to our work and our field from Dr. Schein.”
—Matt Minahan, Chair, Board of Trustees, OD Network
"In this book Ed Schein has looked back over his long
and distinguished consulting experience and come up with
an important book. Anyone who is called upon
to give help or advice, be they boss, consultant, parent
or friend, should start by reading this. I used it
to hold up a mirror to my own experience of giving advice and
resolved to modify my behavior in future, to be more humble, in the
Schein way."
—Charles Handy, author of The Age of Unreason
“Chock-full of useful case examples, Humble Consulting is about
establishing a relationship with the client that is collaborative,
personal, and empathetic rather than prescriptive. Schein has once
again contributed significantly and creatively to our field of
organization change and development.”
—W. Warner Burke, PhD, E. L. Thorndike Professor of Psychology and
Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, and Editor,
Journal of Applied Behavioral Science
“Ed Schein’s books on consulting have always been the most
professionally useful things I read. And this book could once again
reshape the consulting industry. It shifts the place from which
effective consultants operate from the head to the heart and from
the heart to the hand. Essential reading!”
—Otto Scharmer, Senior Lecturer, MIT, cofounder of the U.Lab and
autbor of Theory U
“Ed Schein has done it again! This book is a must-read for anyone
in the helping professions who wants to make meaningful progress on
complex challenges. Drawing on his own experience as
consultant, scholar, and author, Ed brilliantly makes the case that
it is through real human connections that we have the best shot at
making a difference in an increasingly interdependent world.”
—Diane Rawlins, InsideOut Consulting
“Humble Consulting pulls the curtain back on the pretense that the
vast majority of consultants and consulting organizations put
forward—that they have ‘the answer.’ I plan on keeping a copy in my
office to hand out to consultants as they continue to show up and
ask that I tell them what keeps me up at night and they respond
with the solution that they uniquely have to address it.”
—James Hereford, Chief Operating Officer, Stanford Health Care
“Long a critic of OD’s overreliance on process, I’ve always admired
Ed Schein’s insistence that process consultation be relevant. Now,
in his new book, Humble Consulting, he shows us how. In his usual
and clear style, he calls OD practitioners to account and to help
in powerful and integrated ways.”
—Chris Worley, Professor and Strategy Director, NEOMA Business
School Center for Leadership and Effective Organizations
“As someone who always strives to be a more effective consultant, I
find Ed Schein’s reflections and insights hugely
reassuring. In Humble Consulting, with great care and
sensitivity, Ed Schein shares years of wisdom and encourages his
readers to reflect on and experiment with their own practice. I
believe anyone working in a helping role will benefit from reading
this wonderful book.”
—Philip Mix, organization development consultant and member of the
NTL Institute
“In Humble Consulting, master consultant Edgar Schein shows us how
to escape the limitations of a traditional consulting practice to
vastly improve both the impact and the meaning of our work. This
book is at once brilliant and incredibly practical.”
—Anthony L. Suchman, MD, MA, consultant, Relationship Centered
Health Care
“Humble Consulting is a book every leader and every consultant
should read. Using numerous cases from his own experience, Schein
describes the specific components of a true helping relationship
and shows the powerful impact when consulting rests on curious
questioning that honors and unlocks the knowledge held by the
other.”
—David L. Bradford, PhD, Eugene D. O’Kelly Senior Lecturer in
Leadership, Emeritus, Stanford University Graduate School of
Business, and coauthor of the bestselling books Influence without
Authority and Power Up
“Finally, a consulting process that demonstrates and emulates the
type of culture toward which organizations and their leaders
aspire.”
—Robert Cooke, author of Human Synergistics’ Organizational Culture
Inventory
“Ed Schein once again moves the needle in refining the essence of
consulting. Schein invokes a shift from considering clients as
objects to considering clients as living, dynamic beings. The
artistry of balancing formality and intimacy, dancing with the
dynamic client system, paying attention to the environment, and
engaging in endless reflective learning makes for a potent model
and process. Read the wisdom and be open to transformation.”
—Sarita Chawla, President, Metalens Consulting; Senior Faculty, New
Ventures West; and Diamond Approach teacher
“In Humble Consulting, Ed Schein weaves the cultural and
process consulting threads of his life’s work into a masterpiece of
emotional, cultural, and methodological insight. Read this book and
be prepared to change your mind, heart, and practice.”
—David E. Goldberg, author of The Design of Innovation and coauthor
of A Whole New Engineer
“This senior icon in the field continues to make meaningful and
significant contributions which could only be realized through
years of experience and reflection. I have been reading Edgar
Schein's work for almost 50 years now, and I have learned from each
of his works. But somehow, this his latest, is special.”
—Peter F. Sorensen, PhD, director,Master of Science in
Management and Organizational Behavior program, Benedictine
University
Ask a Question About this Product More... |