Core Competencies of
Process Consulting
The Humble Inquiry Iterative Process
A Process Consultant begins by asking WHY? WHO? WHAT? WHERE? WHEN? And HOW? kinds of questions to a Client in order to help both parties gain clarity on the process being designed. This iterative process is simply expressed by these questions, and yet it requires significant mental discipline to make sure all of them are consistently and clearly answered in a sequence.The iterative process of identifying WWWWWH enables the Process Consultant to assume a listening posture from the beginning. The iteration provides the opportunity to reflect back to the Client what the Process Consultant hears and understands before they begin assisting with anything.
Listening Helping Learning, Core Competencies of Process Consulting, Mark L. Vincent, 2022
Listening is a Process Consultant's Posture with a Client
- Actively and Comprehensively: Active listening toward comprehensive comprehension is an attribute of the Process Consultant. It is part of their character. It is their normal posture.
- Conceptually & Contextually: A Process Consultant listens for what is meant conceptually and in what context. This level of listening honors both the Client’s understanding and those around them.
- Architecturally: A Process Consultant helps the Client identify what they are willing to do, not just what they need to do. The Process Consultant is able to help design a process with the Client to move from where they are toward where they want to go.
- Adaptively: A Process Consultant moves with the Client as the Client moves through the learning process. The Client’s process not only provides a means to clarify and document adaptations, but it also fosters the client’s ability to adapt.
Helping is a Process Consultant's Partnership Alongside a Client
- Client-Centered: Consulting is popularly equated with advising – and advising equated to helping. This mistaken correlation makes the Client relationship consultant centered. Process Consulting is client-centered. It is partnership and joint participation instead of dispensing advice.
- Client-Owned and Inspired: Ownership is an expression of agency. A Client who owns their Agreement is empowered to act sustainably toward their transformation. Any Consulting Agreement developed by a Process Consultant goes beyond what the Client says they need to do to identify what the client is willing to do.
- Client Specific: The Process Consultant needs a robust definition of context in order to understand the specificities of a Client. They also help the Client pay attention to the specifics of their context. They draw on experience and appropriate tools along the way.
- Client Success: The Process Consultant is deliberate in the flow of activities that lead to Client defined success. These activities need to touch on the four pillars of Client Success.
Learning is a Process Consultant's Service to a Client
- In Partnership: Learning is a partnership between Client and Process Consultant. The Client’s transformation is the center of forming and operating this partnership. The partnership flows back and forth as Client and Process Consultant work their way through the Process. The Process Consultant brings their commitment to Client transformation to this partnership.
- Towards Wisdom: Client learning that lasts is transformational and is converted to wisdom. Client learning happens among people and systems that may not yet be committed to transformation or curating wisdom for the benefit of others. The Process Consultant is engaged in personal transformation and thereby designs process and learns alongside the Client from this vantage point.
- To Exchange: Exchange happens inward, with self; outward, among colleagues and the Client, forward, for past and future Clients, and onward, for the flourishing of the world. Bildung is the source of an exchange perspective as opposed to one that demands security of one’s intellectual property.
- Towards Posterity: Posterity enriches the field of Process Consulting. Posterity intention grows at the self-transforming layer of the person and includes whom, when and how. Finally, posterity grows from legacy. The best tool for the Process Consultant’s legacy is the rigor and artistry of WHY? WHO? WHAT? WHEN? WHERE? And HOW?
Discover More about the Core Competencies of Process Consulting
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Meet the Author:
Mark L. Vincent is an Executive Advisor and Facilitator for Maestro-level leaders and is the founder of Design Group International and the Society for Process Consulting. Walking alongside organizations and leaders for 30-plus years, he has developed successful initiatives with over 800 domestic and international clients. Mark can often be found having earnest conversations inside the coffee shops of Eastern Wisconsin and Boise, Idaho.
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What people are saying about the book:
In this important book the reader will find not only a clear account of what "Process Consulting" is as distinct from any other kinds of organizational consulting, but what the relevant skills need to be for helpers of all kinds if they are to deliver real help to their Clients. Helping is itself a complex human relationship and to deliver it competently as Process Consultants therefore requires not only the intention to help but the skills described in this book.
Edgar H. Schein
Professor Emeritus | MIT Sloan School of Management
Where there is no listening there is no learning. Where there is no learning there is no growth. Where there is no growth there is no trust. Where there is no trust there is no (meaningful) relationships.
Bill Field
President | D&G Transportation
This book is worth your deep dive into deepening your understanding of what listening, helping, learning really looks like when applied effectively in the workplace through a process consulting le. You may end up giving away some copies of this book as gifts like me.
Dawn Graber
Mark Vincent has honed the craft of Process Consulting and distilled the lessons into the ultimate guide for practitioners. This book is loaded with helpful tips and illustrative cases. It takes the reader beyond data and expertise into building a set of competencies that are dynamic, generative and developmental. The process provides a roadmap for partnering with a client to build a roadmap into the unknown. This is for you if you want to truly help clients as a thought partner and not an extra set of hands. If you want to consult with wisdom not just mere data, read this book.
Daniel Hallak
I've had the privilege of sitting shoulder to shoulder with Mark as he's successfully guided me in thinking through my firm's adaptive moves over the course of many years. I've wished more leaders could have had the same opportunity afforded to me. This book has the potential of making that happen. I'm excited that ark has captured his insights in print and is sharing it with other!
Mike Tenpas
CEO | UFS Tech
Mark L Vincent has developed the art of process consulting into a fine craft. He understands the practical nuances of listening, helping and learning in ways that transform individuals and organizations. Following decades of coming alongside organizations and their leaders in his robust consulting practice. Mark now offers his wisdom in a logical framework to coaches, practitioners, and organizational leaders, alike. Readers are sure to notice his keen teaching ability intertwined with the field study scenarios. You will find yourself referring to the insights in this book tie after time.
David Bell