Ten Fundamentals of Process Consulting: Fundamental #8

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 in a few short weeks, we offer these fundamentals for your use, iteration, and adaptation, modeling our willingness to improve, learn, and grow as humans through this publication.

The only way I can discover my own inner reality is to learn to distinguish what I know from what I assume I know, from what I truly do not know. I cannot determine the current reality if I do not get in touch with what I do not know about the situation and do not have the wisdom to ask about it. [1]

When both the Client and the Process Consultant are able to access their own ignorance and accept the reality that neither of them knows where the conversation is going or what kinds of adaptive moves are necessary, conversations can turn into transformational dialogues. [2]

A dialogue allows for a back-and-forth nature and free exchange of ideas that holds in front of both parties the unknowing and emerging nature of a process. When this environment is present true whole person to whole person (personization [3]) of relationship can happen, further deepening the relationship and create space for iteration, adaptivity, and transformation.

This fundamental was very present for me just the other day. I was working with a Client and she shared with me a new experience that she recently had, but never had in her 30+ years in leadership positions. As I listened, I recognized that I had never had that situation happen to me either. It was a very interesting moment. We both just sat there looking at each other and wondering what would happen next. 

She said, "well looks like we are both going to learn something new!" I smiled and said "how cool is that!"

If you have any comments about fundamental #8, please don’t hesitate to email me. I’d love to learn your prospective. Please watch this space for the 9^th fundamental next week.

We will be reviewing all ten fundamentals at the Society’s upcoming conference on 11 -12 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,

Lon Swartzentruber

Interim CEO Society for Process Consulting

[1] Process Consultation Revisited. Edgar H. Schein, page 11. Addison-Wesley, 1999.

[2] Humble Consulting, Edgar H. Schein, page 21, Berrett-Koehler, 2016.

[3] Humble Leadership, Edgar H. Schein and Peter A. Schein, page 21, Berrett-Koehler, 2021.

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