Humble Consulting

Organizational Problems

The problems that confront organizations today are complex, ambiguous and confusing. They don’t yield easily to technical solutions and they often involve different cultural tropes, constituent groups, assumptions, unaligned goals and disconnected silos. These problems are generally unstable and in constant flux. Companies often try to gather the right people to coordinate their thoughts and actions to fix things quickly. Even getting these people into the same room can be difficult, if not impossible. Many times, they can’t communicate. Almost always, they won’t agree.

Complex problems don’t yield to standard consultative diagnosis and intervention. This time-wasting strategy often targets the wrong issues. Most organizational problems require a fresh approach to consulting, coaching and thinking. The approach is “Humble consulting” (HC). It’s called “humble” because it acknowledges the complexity of the problems clients face, as well as the difficulty of moving ahead productively. The goal of HC is to have the consultant – or “helper” – assist the client in achieving something the client can’t accomplish alone. It’s up to...