The Flawless Consulting Fieldbook & Companion

A Friend Indeed!

In this time of free agency, outsourcing, and cross-functional work teams, consulting has become part of everyone's job. Plus, we live in an era in which we are forced to hire professionals to provide the help we used to seek from friends. Some of this need for instant expertise is for reassurance; some is just that we do not have the time to learn it ourselves. So, despite all the ambivalence surrounding consulting, it has grown into big business and generally infiltrated our lives.

The intent of this book is:

• To support the integrity of the your expertise
• To change your mind about how you interpret your own consulting experience
• To broaden your way of thinking
• To bring a manageable dose of therapy and art, philosophy, and literature into you thoughts about consulting; and
• To do it in a comforting and simple way

Enjoy this book, let it accompany you into the field, and use it as encouragement for writing your own story — which may be the point of it all.

1. No Fast and Easy Way
1. Flawless
   M. J. Wheatley
2. A Sensible Oxymoron
   Andrea Markowitz
3. Risk Is Where You Find It
   Peter Block
4. The Journey
   Idries Shah
5. Consultant, Flawed: A Story of External Triangles
   Ken Murphy
6. The Power of Conversations at Work
   Joel Henning
2. The Complexity of Advice
7. What Should I do?
   Peter Block
8. Four Communities
   Idries Shah
9. Changing Focus: Consulting in the New Economy
   Patrick Dolan
10. Be Careful Who You Ask: Perils of Wisdom
    Andrea Markowitz
11. Dealing with Resistance: Having the Right Conversation in Difficult Situations
    Phil Grosnick
12. The Case of Priscilla and the Red Pen
    Andrea Markowitz
3. The Power of the Question
13. Making the System Fully Known to Itself: Discovery As a Collaboration Process
    Jill Janov
14. Two Sides
    Idries Shah
15. Resolving a New Paradox with Old Wisdom
    Marvin Weisbord
16. Changes in the Details
    Peter Block
17. Talk Is Walk: Language and Courage in Action
    Peter Koestenbaum
18. So, What's Working Here?
    A Conversation with Elizabeth McGrath
4. Emotions and the Personal
19. Balancing Competence with Consciousness: One Woman's Wisdom
    Rosemarie Barbeau
20. Nobody's Fool: Unconventional Guides for the Emotional Path
    Andrea Markowitz
21. In the Land of Fools
    Idries Shah
22. Up Front and Personal
    A Conversation with Charlotte Roberts
23. Women's Leadership Collaborative: Investing in Our Humanity
    Nancy Voss
24. Sneaking the Spirit In
    A Conversation with John Schuster
5. Valuing Capacities
25. Leading from Behind: Talking with Sled Dogs
    Sam Magill
26. Homeopathic Consulting: Learning Is Free, Teaching Is Not
    Cliff Bolster
27. Milk and Buttermilk
    Idries Shah
28. Consulting As Capability Building
    Lou Ann Daly
29. Getting Real
    John O'Connell
6. Integrating Strategy and Experience
30. The Engagement Paradigm: Changing the Way We Change Organizations
    Dick and Emily Axelrod
31. Caring about Place
    Peter Block
32. Unleashing the Spirit
    Kathie Dannemiller, Sylvia James, and Paul Tolchinsky
33. Nancy's Checklist
    Nancy Sanchez
34. Anonymous Data Collection? Definitely Yes and No
    Neale Clapp
35. Toward a More Participative, Productive Workplace
    Marie McCormick
36. Co-Creating a Community's Future: Once upon a Time in a Place Called Home
    David and Carole Schwinn
37. How Am I Doing? How Am I Doing? You Like Me! You Really Like Me!
    Peter Block
7. No Masks No Bargains
38. My Worst Consulting Nightmare
    Amy J. Katz
39. Three Nightmares
    A conversation with Henry Johnson
40. Twelve Questions to the Most Frequently Asked Answers
    Peter Block