the four-leaf clover

The first week of Fall classes has come and gone, again. I have high hopes for this semester and the two classes I’m taking, one of them being Consulting Skills in Adult Learning Environments. Before our brief class discussion the other night, I had my own thoughts on the term consulting.

Consulting = coaching, mentoring, fixing problems, guiding, listening, providing solutions. Yes, these terms are associated with consulting, but the roles associated with them are so much deeper.

Expert, Pair of Hands, and Process Consultation are three roles of consulting. Depending on what the client or organization has a need for is the role the consultant should take. I’m excited to learn more about the Process Consultation role and how to help clients solve the problems themselves. This sort of self-learning is beneficial in more ways than just consulting. I believe I learn the best if I’m not given the answer, but have to work for it. As we discussed in class, when the client has to dig deeper to solve the problem, the outcomes can be shocking. I believe that more often than not, the client or organization is surprised to learn where the true problem lies. This is why being open to self-discovery is so important.

After this little teaser of what’s to come, I’m excited for the class and semester. In one night I not only learned more about consultation roles and components of problems, but I now know I should keep an onion in my backpack. Whenever I have a problem at work and need to get through it, I can sit and think, peel back the layers of my onion, and hopefully discover some new answers.