When I get sick, I usually go to the doctor, describe my symptoms and he/she gives me a diagnosis (based on knowledge, experience and studies) that usually comes with a prescription. The next thing I do is going to the drugstore, get my meds (that some chemist designed and some lab produced), I take them according to the instructions given and that’s it. A few days later I feel all right again. And I have a question, thanks to whom? To what? To the doctor? To the chemist? To the lab? Who made the actual “job” so I could get better?

The answer, from my point of view, my body. The doctor offered a possible diagnosis and possible cure. The chemist designed a formula that the lab placed within my reach. I did my part, increasing the availability of the substance in my bloodstream. And it was my body who did most of the work. My cells and the many systems they form took the available supply, used it and as a result I got cured. It was me, or actually the cell and bio-chemical ensemble that make me a “me”, working as a team that restored my health.

Something similar is what I believe should happen in the consultancy world. In the analogy, consultants are the doctor. Except, in real life, no matter how much experience you have, there are no two clients that are equal. Is easier for a doctor, because all human bodies have more or less the same processes. And doctors usually can trust that most of us will react the same to the same medicine.

However, as a consultant, no matter how experienced you are, how alike your clients are or that they belong to same industry or produce the same product, there none of them are the same. Companies are made of people, company processes are run by persons and of those, you will never find two that are completely alike. Therefore there are not to equal groups of people (or teams) nor two clients that behave exactly the same.

And following this idea, you don’t have the capacity as a consultant to solve their problems. You are an outsider. You can offer support, advice, guidance, “diagnosis”, even a recipe you swear is going to “heal” your clients problem. And none of this things will make you part of that social system. And none of this will make your clients solve their “deseases” or problems if they don’t want or they don’t find out how to do it.

From my point of view, we consultants offer tools. Skills, formats, metrics, habits, behaviors, anything our clients can take, make theirs and use. Anything that makes them feel more prepared so they can solve what’s happening in their business or company.

Our job is not being needed. Said in Blumenstein Theory terms, our job is give them forms that allows them to stay in their enoughness. At least long enough for them to solve (or not) their problems.

Careful, not needing you doesn’t mean not working with you. Not needing you means that from their enoughness they choose you, what you offer, and what you know as the support they want. Not needing you doesn’t mean you’re gonna end up without work. It means that your job must work, and contribute for their autonomy and enoughness.

This model of consulting is the one we believe in at Visión Sistémica. One where colaboration, mutual respect, equity between persons, and their enthusiasm to work together, is what makes teams, companies, and business change.

We invite you to learn more about us and what we do at our workshop Construyendo Juntos (Building Together): An introduction to the Blumenstein Theory. Get in touch with us for more information.

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