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Fundamental #5 – Being on your toes and alongside
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Dear friends,
Born from the foundational texts of the humble inquiry and process approach, the Ten Fundamentals of Process Consulting are designed to help us understand the theory and practice of being in the Process Consulting mindset.
Whether you are a Process Consultant helping a Client, a CEO leading a team, a department head bringing together leaders to solve an emerging challenge, embodying these fundamentals can be helpful to you in charting your course. For the sake of this series of blogs, we will be using the profession of Process Consulting as our lens. Knowing full well that these fundamentals are practiced by anyone seeking to help another human.
Expressed in the triad below, the ten fundamentals form our DNA as Process Consultants. They are a starting point in our work with others and our traits as we prepare to show up in service to them. In this way, they are distinct and set apart from the core competencies of Process Consulting.
Integrating the ten fundamentals into your leadership is a lifelong journey that will help you become exemplary in their practice.
Leading up to the Society for Process Consulting’s inaugural conference later this fall, we offer these fundamentals for your use, iteration, and adaptation, modeling our willingness to improve, learn, and grow as humans through this publication.
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Fundamental #5 – Being on your toes and alongside
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A Process Consultant’s posture is active, on their toes, and alongside the Client. This is why we write the three core competencies ending with the letters ING[1] A Process Consultant is never in front pulling the Client towards a predetermined objective. They are never pushing a Client from behind, cajoling them to do something they are not ready yet to do.
This is what we mean by WITHness[2]
I was walking with a Client in Atlanta's Piedmont Park a few years ago and he was sharing an experience he was having with the leaders in his organization. I could tell energy was building in him. The pace of the story was quickening, the pitch of his voice was rising, and the pace of our walking was getting faster. Something was happening and I was preparing myself for what was going to happen next.
This proximity is what this fundamental is all about. Centering our being alongside our Client and being prepared for whatever emerges.
If you have any comments about fundamental #5, please don’t hesitate to email me. I’d love to learn your prospective. Please watch this space for the 6th fundamental next week.
We will be reviewing all ten fundamentals at the Society’s upcoming conference on 11 November 2024 in Philadelphia. Please sign up through this link today!
As always, if you’d like to learn more about the Society for Process Consulting, please don’t hesitate to give me a call.
Best,
Interim CEO Society for Process Consulting
[1] Listening Helping Learning. Mark L. Vincent, page 11. Tenth Power Publishing, 2022.
Additional perspective from: Presence. Senge, Scharmer, Jaworski, Flowers. P 71-82, The Generative Moment, 2004.
[2] How Sherpas Show World Class With-ness. Kevin Eastway, Walking Alongside blog, 2023.
Please take a moment to learn more about the Society's upcoming conference in Philadelphia PA 10 - 12 November 2024!
If you'd like to write a blog post for the Society for Process Consulting, please send an e-mail to admin@societyforprocessconsuting.com.